6. =The Roman Supremacy=, B.C. 40-A.D. 70. Perhaps this period should begin with B.C. 63, when the Roman general Pompey entered Jerusalem, and the Romans began to exercise a controlling influence. But the representatives of the Maccabean line were allowed to reign until B.C. 40, when they were set aside, and Herod the Great, an Idumean (Edomite), was made king by the Romans. It was in the closing portion of his reign that JESUS CHRIST was born. The last 70 years of the Roman period belong to New Testament history, and will be considered in connection with the maps of that period. THE ROMAN EMPIRE. THE last of the Old World empires was that having its capital on the seven hills of ROME. Like most of the others, it was the dominion of a single city; but, unlike others, it represented the conquests, not of a single conquering king, as Nebuchadnezzar or Cyrus, but of a self-governing and conquering people; and, unlike its predecessors, it was not a loose aggregation of states, ready to fall apart as soon as the hand that fettered them was removed, but an empire, carefully welded together, building up in every land its own civilization, and developing a national unity which held its possessions together for a thousand years. [Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM AT ROME.] At the close of the Old Testament period, the Persian empire stood in all its power. Four hundred years later, at the opening of the New Testament epoch, the Persian empire had given place to that of Alexander; that had broken up into many fragments; and most of these in turn had been united under the eagles of Rome. The world's capital had moved westward, and the Mediterranean was now a Roman lake. The principal provinces of this empire, omitting minor subdivisions, were: I. =European Provinces.= 1. Italy. 2. Hispania, now known as Spain, subdivided into three provinces. 3. Gallia, now France, including also parts of Germany and the Netherlands, embracing five provinces. 4. The Danubian provinces of Rhætia, Noricum, Pannonia, and Moesia, to which Dacia was afterward added by the emperor Trajan. 5. The Grecian provinces of Thracia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Illyricum. II. =The Insular Provinces= were: 1. Britannia. 2. Sicilia. 3. Sardinia and Corsica, united. 4. Cyprus. The other islands were attached, either to these, or to governments upon the mainland. III. =The Asiatic Provinces= were: 1. Asia, a term referring only to the western end of Asia Minor. 2. Pontus and Bithynia, united. 3. Galatia. 4. Pamphylia and Lycia. 5. Cilicia. 6. Syria, of which Palestine was a part. To these were added, after the New Testament period, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia Petræa; but they were soon lost to the empire. IV. =The African Provinces= were: 1. Ægyptus, or Egypt. 2. Cyrenaica, called, in Acts 2:10, "parts of Libya about Cyrene." 3. Africa, the district around Carthage. 4. Mauritania, now Morocco.