Judea (in Latin, Iudæa, in inscriptions, IVDÆA), was a Roman province in the Roman region of Oriens, that is to say East (today part of the Middle East), on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The Roman Empire changed the name from Judea to Palestine or Province Syria-Palæstina in the year 135, as a way to erase all Jewish memory of the region, after crushing the rebellion of Bar Kochba. The geographers Strabo and Ptolemy describe the Province of Judea as encompassing the Galilee, the Samaria, the Golan Heights (Gaulanitis), the eastern bank of the Jordan River, in addition to the territory of the ancient kingdom of Judah, etc. The New Testament uses the name Judea in two senses: first, only the territory of the ancient kingdom of Judah; and second, the entire territory of the Roman province of Judea. The notion of Judea in its broadest sense roughly agrees with the Jewish notion of the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel).
The end of the fifth century and the entire fourth century were filled with events for both Greeks and Jews. Despite the constant wars, there was also a golden age for classical Greek culture: the birth of democracy, the era of Aristotle, Socrates and Plato.
For Jews, human beings were created in the image of God. For the Greeks, the gods were created in the image of man. For the Jews, the material world was something that had to be perfected and elevated spiritually. For the Greeks, the material world was perfect. In short: for the Greeks, what was beautiful was sacred; for the Jews, what was sacred was beautiful.
During the invasion Alexander the Great forgave Jerusalem and peacefully absorbed the Land of Israel in its growing empire. As a tribute to their peaceful conquest, the rabbis decreed that the first-born born at that time be called Alexander (which is a Jewish name to this day) and the date of the meeting (25th of tevet) was declared a minor holiday.
