Judaea

Judaea was the Roman name for the southern portion of Palestine centered on Jerusalem, corresponding roughly to the old territory of Judah and, in a broader New Testament usage, sometimes standing for the whole of Jewish Palestine. It was governed for much of the New Testament period by client kings of the Herodian dynasty and then directly by Roman procurators such as Pontius Pilate. John the Baptist preached in its wilderness, and it was the setting for the Passion narratives and much of Acts. After the Jewish revolt of AD 66 to 70, Rome commemorated its conquest of the province with coins stamped “Judaea Capta.”