NOTE: This blog post appeared earlier this year, but is reposted with additional reflections for the Christmas season. Enjoy!
During the time of Jesus’s birth, all subjects and citizens of the Empire had to submit to census by decree of Caesar Augustus, who was the nephew of Julius Caesar and was considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire. He was referred to as Princeps Civitatis (First Citizen).
The census showed off Augustus’s greatness: the number of people in his Empire and under his rule quantified his power.
