Publius Petronius

Publius Petronius was a Roman senator, who was active during the reigns of Caligula and Claudius. He was suffect consul in the second half of the year 19, replacing Lucius Norbanus Balbus. The sortition also awarded him the proconsulate of Asia; however, Petronius is best known as having appointed legatus or governor of Syria in 39, probably arriving in the country late in the year. A.A. Barrett lists him as an example of the "excellent appointments" made by an emperor often dismissed as mentally unbalanced. Governor of Syria As Governor of all Syria Petronius was assisted by lesser officials in charge of various areas. The Prefect of Judea at this time was Marcellus who had arrived only a year earlier, and at about the same time as Petronius' appointment (Herod) Agrippa I (grandson of Herod the Great) had Galilee and Peraea added to his domains, but he was not then in the country. Sometime in the winter of 39/40 the Greek population of Jamnia in Judea erected an altar to the imperial cult (worship of the emperor) and the resident Jews promptly tore it down, resulting in serious communal rioting. The destruction of an altar for his own worship was apparently taken as a personal insult by Caligula who was already beset by strife between Jews and Greeks in Alexandria, both of whom had delegations in Rome seeking his adjudication. The emperor struck a counter-blow by instructing Petronius that the temple at Jerusalem should be converted into an imperial shrine with an enormous statue of the emperor in the guise of the Romans' supreme god Jupiter. The Governor was to use two of his available four legions to enforce this decree.