A Little History of the World

Gombrich uses the reign of Augustus to introduce the life of Jesus Christ, as Augustus was emperor when Christ was born in the Roman province of Palestine. He addresses the well-known teachings of Jesus, a Jewish man who proclaimed himself the Son of God: “That all men are God’s children. And that the love of this father is infinite. That before him no man is without sin, but that God has pity on sinners. That what matters is not judgment but mercy” (93). A Roman official named Pontius Pilate had Jesus put to death by crucifixion, transforming him into a martyr and a symbol of his teachings.

Through Christ’s disciples and followers, his teachings of his merciful God spread through the Roman Empire. Though the Romans had previously not concerned themselves with matters of religion, they were threatened by the Christians. They refused to worship the emperor as a god. In the year 60 A.D., 30 years after the death of Jesus Christ, Rome was ruled by a notoriously cruel emperor named Nero. He was decadent, lazy, cowardly, and violent. Disliked by his subjects, Nero used the Christians as a scapegoat, warping their message of eternal life in heaven into one of hatred for mankind.