Artifact
Augustus Caesar — AE As
5–4 BC · Bronze · RPC I 4248
Authentic ancient coin
LUKE 2:1
“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.”
Augustus ruled the Roman Empire from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD. His reign consolidated Roman power across the Mediterranean and the Near East, including the client kingdom of Judaea under Herod the Great. This coin was minted during the precise years when his census decree sent Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Augustus never knew what his bureaucratic order had set in motion.
