AUGUSTUS Arranged Rome’s Provincial Regions & Inflicted HEROD as JERUSALEM Boss (31–27 BCE)

AUGUSTUS ARRANGED ROME’S PROVINCIAL REGIONS & INFLICTED HEROD AS JERUSALEM’S BOSS (31–27 BCE)

By Dr. Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles) Contributing Editor: Janet Kira Lessin

 BACKSTORY: FROM ACTIUM TO AUGUSTUS

Octavian crushed Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, seized Alexandria in 30 BCE, and absorbed Egypt as his personal domain under an equestrian prefect. He sealed Rome’s grain supply, blocked senators from entering Egypt, and stationed his own prefect (initially Cornelius Gallus) to guard the Nile.

Rome eats because I hold the Nile, he said — half to Marcus Agrippa, half to the gods.

On 27 January BCE, Octavian staged the First Settlement, claimed he had “restored” the Republic, and accepted the honorific title Augustus while retaining complete control of Rome’s armies and provinces.

In 23 BCE, during the Second Settlement, Augustus relinquished the annual consulship, took tribunician power for life, and exercised superior proconsular command (maius imperium) — quiet, absolute power that outlived any one office.

🌟 AUGUSTUS AND THE ANUNNAKI

In 28 BCE, Augustus dedicated the Temple of APOLLO beside his Palatine house, casting Apollo (syncretized as Utu/Shamash) as Actium’s divine patron.

In 13 BCE, the Senate voted to build the Ara Pacis Augustae, which opened in 9 BCE with processions, sacrifices, and marble friezes of the imperial family.

In the province of Asia (Roman province), cities coordinated the cult of Roma et Augustus. The Priene Calendar Inscription declared Augustus’ birthday the start of the New Year — “the beginning of good news.”

In 8 BCE, the Senate renamed the month Sextilis to August in his honor (as Julius Caesar had renamed Quintilis to July in 44 BCE).

PARTHIA, ARMENIA, AND THE VELVET GLOVE (20s–teens BCE)

In 20 BCE, Augustus negotiated a delicate balance between Armenia and Parthia, recovering Roman standards without bloodshed.

Rome can beat Parthia without a battle and make Rome’s face the face of peace, he told his friends.

JUDEA UNDER AUGUSTUS: HEROD’S TIGHTROPE (37–4 BCE)

Pompey had earlier sacked the Second Temple in Jerusalem, triggering Jewish migration to Greece, Italy, and Alexandria.

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POMPEY

Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, 106–48 BCE) was one of Rome’s most celebrated generals and statesmen. He expanded Roman control across the Eastern Mediterranean, including Syria and Judea. In 63 BCE, he intervened in a Jewish civil conflict and captured Jerusalem, entering and desecrating the Second Temple—a shock that spurred Jewish migration to Greece, Italy, and Alexandria. Once allied with Julius Caesar, Pompey later became his rival and was ultimately defeated and killed.

In 44 BCE, the Hasmoneans appointed Herod the Great—a Jew from Idumea—as governor of Judea. Though his family had been forcibly converted to Judaism in the 2nd century BCE, many saw him as “half-Jewish” and an outsider.

Herod rebuilt the Jerusalem Temple (20/19 BCE), built ports, theaters, and fortresses, and honored Augustus with imperial shrines at Caesarea Maritima, Sebaste, and an Augusteum near Paneas.

Though the new Temple was magnificent, zealots rebelled when Herod placed a golden eagle over its gate. He had the rebels arrested and executed.

Herod the Great (c. 73 – 4 BCE) was King of Judea under Augustus and Mark Antony. Of Idumea descent, he rose to power through Roman support, married into the Hasmonean dynasty, and consolidated Judea as a Roman client kingdom. Known for both his architectural grandeur and his ruthless elimination of rivals, he initiated the expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem starting in 20/19 BCE, alongside fortresses, ports, and entire cities.

Herod himself ordered and oversaw the reconstruction of the Second Temple beginning in 20/19 BCE. He appointed trained priests as builders to avoid ritual impurity. Major construction on the main sanctuary (Holy of Holies and surrounding structures) was finished within a few years. Still, the surrounding Temple Mount complex continued to be expanded long after his death, with final touches completed around 63 CE under Herod Agrippa II.

After Herod died in 4 BCE, Publius Quinctilius Varus crushed the ensuing revolt.

MARK ANTONY

Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius, 83–30 BCE) was a Roman general, statesman, and loyal supporter of Julius Caesar. After Caesar’s assassination, Antony ruled the eastern provinces as part of the Second Triumvirate. From Alexandria, he allied with Cleopatra VII and declared Herod the Great “King of the Jews” in 40 BCE to secure Judea as a Roman client state. His power collapsed after defeat by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, and he died by suicide in Alexandria.

In 40 BCE, Mark Antony proclaimed Herod King of the Jews. Herod crushed Hasmonean resistance, married the Hasmonean princess Mariamne I to secure legitimacy, and then executed her, her family, and 45 Sanhedrin scholars to eliminate rivals.

🕍 AUGUSTUS LET JEWS IN GREEK CITIES SEND MONEY TO THE TEMPLE

AUGUSTUS — PRINCEPS OF ROME

Augustus (born Gaius Octavius, 63 BCE – 14 CE) was the adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar and the first emperor of Rome. Claiming descent from the Anunnaki goddess Inanna (Venus) through Aeneas and the Julii line, he wielded tribunician and proconsular powers for life while appearing to restore the republic. Under his rule, Rome transformed into an empire, launching the Pax Romana — two centuries of relative peace, monumental building projects, and a new imperial cult that deified the emperor.

Diaspora Jewish communities petitioned Roman governors to protect their rights. Augustus issued letters affirming synagogues’ authority and their right to remit funds to the Temple in Jerusalem, which civic officials like those in Sardis relayed and enforced.

 JUDEA’S SECTS

Flavius Josephus described three Jewish “philosophies”: Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. Philo praised Essene discipline, and Pliny the Elder placed them on the cliffs above the Dead Sea:

“Keep the water pure, keep the table clean,” Essene elders said as they set bread before their brothers.

 ALEXANDRIA IN AUGUSTUS’ EMPIRE

Augustus kept Alexandria under a prefect and out of senatorial hands. It thrived as a hub of commerce and scholarship, with a large Jewish population.

Philo wrote: “The Prefects guard the granaries and the city of books.”

MESOPOTAMIAN CULTS IN PARTHIA

Rome stopped at the Euphrates under Augustus. East of it, Babylon and Uruk in Parthian Mesopotamia preserved ancient priestly cults well into the late Hellenistic/Parthian era despite Babylon’s decline.

 CHRONOLOGY

• • 31–30 BCE — Actium, Alexandria, Egypt, becomes a prefecture

• • 27 BCE — First Settlement; Octavian becomes Augustus

• • 23 BCE — Second Settlement; tribunician power, maius imperium

• • 20 BCE — Parthian standards returned

• • 20/19 BCE — Herod begins Temple rebuild

• • 13–9 BCE — Ara Pacis decreed and dedicated; Asia calendar reform

• • 10/9 BCE — Caesarea/Sebastos dedicated

• • 2 BCE — Augustus was named Pater Patriae; the Forum of Augustus was dedicated

• • 4 BCE — Herod dies; Varus suppresses revolt

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📚 REFERENCES

• • Cassius Dio, Roman History 51–54

• • Flavius Josephus, Jewish War 2.119–161; Antiquities 15–17

• • Philo, Hypothetica, In Flaccum

• • Pliny the Elder, Natural History 5.73; 6.121–126

• • Ovid, Fasti 5.551–598

• • Encyclopaedia Britannica (2024): entries “Augustus,” “Ara Pacis,” “Caesarea Maritima,” “Essenes,” “Imperial cult,” “Egypt—Roman”

• • Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (1939)

• • Paul-Alain Beaulieu, A History of Babylon, 2200 BC–AD 75 (2018)

RELATED ARTICLES

• • Julius Caesar: From Dictator to Divine

• • Octavian Consolidates Rome’s Empire

• • Pompey and the Fall of the Hasmoneans

• • Alexandria: Rome’s Jewel of the East

• • Babylon and the Surviving Mesopotamian Cults

AUTHOR BIOS

Dr. Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles) is a pioneering researcher on ancient civilizations, extraterrestrial contact, and the Anunnaki legacy on Earth.

Janet Kira Lessin is an experiencer, author, and educator, co-founder of the School of Tantra and curator of the website Dragon at the End of Time, integrating history, myth, and multidimensional awareness.

📍 DragonAtTheEndOfTime.com 📍 EnkiSpeaks.com 📍 AquarianMedia.com

THE ESSENE BROTHERHOOD

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MAP OF AUGUSTUS’ EMPIRE

• • Description: Roman Empire circa 20 BCE, highlighting Judea, Egypt, and the Parthian border

• • Prompt: Artistic historical map — Roman Empire 20 BCE, labeled provinces, Judea, Egypt, Parthia border, parchment texture, colored regions

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AUGUSTUS Arranged Rome’s Provincial Regions & Appointed HEROD as JERUSALEM Boss (31–27 BCE) By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D., (Anthropology, U.C.L.A.)

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Backstory: Octavian crushed Antony at Actium in 31 BCE, took Alexandria in 30, and folded Egypt into his personal domain under an equestrian prefect. He sealed the grain lifeline, locked senators out of Egypt, and placed a gatekeeper at the Nile in the person of his prefect (first, Cornelius Gallus). “Rome eats because I hold the Nile,” he says, half to Agrippa, half to the gods. On January 27 BCE, he staged the First Settlement, took the honorific Augustus, and claimed he had “restored” the state while retaining control of the provinces through his armies.

In 23 BCE, Augustus promulgated the Second Settlement. HE DROPPED THE ANNUAL CONSULSHIP, TOOK TRIBUNICIAN POWER FOR LIFE, AND EXERCISED SUPERIOR PROCONSULAR COMMAND—quiet power that outlived any one office. [Res Gestae 34; Cassius Dio 53.2–17; 53.32; 54.10; Suetonius, Aug. 26–28; Britannica, 2024: “Augustus; Syme, The Roman Revolution, 313–356].

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AUGUSTUS AND THE ANUNNAKI

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28 BCE: Augustus dedicated the Temple of Apollo beside his house on the Palatine, casting Apollo [Utu/Shamah] as Actium’s patron and guarantor of harmony. The Senate voted on the Ara Pacis in 13 BCE and opened it in 9 BCE with processions, sacrifice, and family frescos carved in stone. In the province of Asia, cities coordinated the civic cult of Roma et Augustus; the Priene/Asia Calendar Inscription set the New Year on Augustus’ birthday and referred to it as the beginning of “good news.”

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In 8 BCE, the Senate changed the name of the 6th month Sextilis to Augustus because that’s when he took Egypt. (Caesar had renamed Quintilis renamed Julius (July) in 44 BCE) [Res Gestae 12] [OGIS 458 (a.k.a. Priene Calendar Inscription)] [SEG 4.490] [Cassius Dio 54.25] [Britannica, 2024: “Ara Pacis”] [Britannica, 2024: “Imperial cult”] [Price, Rituals and Power, 1984: 49–73]

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⚡ Augustus — DIVINE BLOODLINE AND ANUNNAKI HERITAGE

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🏛️ Royal Bloodline from the Gods

Augustus (born Gaius Octavius) was born into the Octavii line and, through his mother, Atia Balba Caesonia, was the direct great-nephew and later adopted son of Julius Caesar.

Julius Caesar’s family descended from Venus — the Roman name for Inanna, granddaughter of Enlil and niece of Enki of the Anunnaki.

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DIVINE BLOODLINE OF AUGUSTUS

The sacred lineage flows from Enlil through Nannar and Inanna (Venus), through Aeneas of Troy, the royal house of Latium, Julius Caesar, and finally Augustus — Rome’s first Emperor and heir of the gods. A golden ancestral tableau shows each figure in sequence:

• • Enlil, the bearded patriarch in a golden crown

• • His son Nannar (Sin), in silver robes with a crescent-moon diadem

• • Inanna/Venus, radiant and youthful, with flowing golden hair and a shining star-disk behind her head

• • Aeneas, an armored Trojan prince, holding a sword and a round shield

• • A Latin king in crimson robes and laurel

• • Julius Caesar, stern and laurel-crowned

• • Augustus, youthful and serene, in white toga and golden wreath

All are framed in glowing medallions connected by luminous golden threads over a backdrop of marble temples and a Roman skyline bathed in warm sunset light.

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Venus bore Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and became the progenitor of the royal line of Latium. From Aeneas came the Trojan-Latin kings, whose descendants became the patrician houses of Rome — including the Julian clan from which Julius Caesar and, through adoption, Augustus arose.

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🪬 Divine Mandate to Rule

By right of blood, Augustus carried the sacred genetic legacy of the Anunnaki royal family. As the heir of Julius Caesar (who was deified by the Senate as Divus Iulius), Augustus bore the title “Divi Filius” — Son of the God.

The people of Rome honored him as the living representative of the gods on Earth, chosen to unify the nations and guide humanity into a new era: the Roman Empire.

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🌟 Apotheosis and Legacy

Augustus embodied both the mortal and the divine. Through his Trojan and Julian ancestry, he carried the blood of Inanna and the line of Enki. Through his achievements on Earth, he fulfilled their mandate — bringing order, civilization, and the Pax Romana to the known world.

This Anunnaki lineage legitimized his power and ensured that Rome’s destiny aligned with the will of the gods.

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⚜️ DIVINE BLOODLINE OF AUGUSTUS — ANUNNAKI HERITAGE

Title: DIVINE BLOODLINE OF AUGUSTUS Lineage Caption: The sacred royal line of Rome descends from the Anunnaki goddess Inanna through Aeneas of Troy and the Julian family, culminating in Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome.

ENKI ───────┐ │ ENLIL │ NINLIL ───────┐ │ INANNA (Venus) │ AENEAS of TROY │ ROYAL HOUSE OF LATIUM │ JULIAN CLAN of ROME │ JULIUS CAESAR (deified) │ adopted heir AUGUSTUS (Divi Filius)

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PARTHIA, ARMENIA, AND THE VELVET GLOVE (20s–teens BCE)

In 20 BCE, Augustus balanced Armenia between Rome and Parthia. He told his friends, Rome can beat Parthia without a battle and make Rome’s face the face of peace.”

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JUDEA UNDER AUGUSTUS: HEROD’S TIGHTROPE (37–4 BCE)

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Pompey, whom the Hasmonian Jews asked to intervene in their internal political struggles, merely sacked the Temple at Jerusalem. Pompey’s desecration of their Temple prompted a great migration of Jews to Greece, Italy, and beyond.

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Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, 106–48 BCE) was one of Rome’s most brilliant generals and statesmen. He expanded Roman dominion across the Eastern Mediterranean, conquering Syria and Judea. In 63 BCE, he intervened in a Jewish civil war, captured Jerusalem, and desecrated the Second Temple—an act that drove waves of Jewish migration to Greece, Italy, and Alexandria. Once allied with Julius Caesar, he later became his rival and was ultimately defeated and killed in Egypt in 48 BCE.

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In 44 BCE, the Hasmonians appointed Herod, a Jew from Idumea, as Governor of Judea, the mountainous region of what is now southern Israel.

Herod came from Idumea [a region south of Judea that the Bible calls Edom.] His grandfather was among the Idumaeans who were forcibly converted to Judaism by the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus in the 2nd century BCE. Though his family practiced Judaism, Herod’s Idumaean subjects in Jerusalem viewed him as only “half-Jewish” and an outsider. When Augustus took rule of Rome, he retained Herod the Great as ruler of Judea.

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However, after Pompey had sacked the Temple in Judea, a majority of Jews dispersed to Greece, Italy, and, especially, Alexandria in Egypt. (Some accounts of Jesus relate that he lived part of his youth in Alexandria, where he learned carpentry from his father, Joseph.) 40 per cent of Alexandria’s population in the First Century BCE were Jews.

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In 40 BCE, embattled Roman Triumvirate co-ruler Mark Antony, ruling from Alexandria, declared Herod King of the Jews. Herod spent the next three years attacking the Hasmonaeans, pacifying Judea, and establishing Judea as a Roman Province under his Roman-backed rule.

To secure his right to rule Judea, Herod married Hasmonean Princess Mariamne and to ensure that the Hasmoneans would never again challenge him, killed Mariamne after 13 years of marriage, as well as his mother-in-law, two sons, his wife’s brother, Aristobulus (heir to the Hasmonean throne), Hasmonean King, Hyrcanus II (who had intervened to save Herod earlier in his career), 45 members of the Sanhedrin (the leading Torah scholars the generation.)

Herod rebuilt the Jerusalem Temple beginning in 20/19 BCE, built Greek-style ports, theaters, and fortresses, and honored Augustus with shrines in Caesarea Maritima, Sebaste (Samaria), and an Augusteum near Paneas, outside Jewish sacred space.

Although Herod built a magnificent new Temple in Jerusalem, he provoked fury with a golden eagle above the Jerusalem Temple gate; zealots cut it down. Herod arrested those he thought responsible.

After Herod died in 4 BCE, VARUS suppressed open revolt.

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AUGUSTUS LET JEWS IN GREEK CITIES SEND MONEY TO JERUSALEM’S TEMPLE

Diaspora Jewish communities petitioned governors and cities; Augustus’ letters reaffirmed the authority of synagogue assemblies and the right to remit money to the Temple. Civic officials relayed the orders (e.g., Sardis): Do not block their gatherings; do not seize their sacred funds.

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JUDEA’S SECTS

Josephus revealed three distinct “philosophies”: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. Philo praised Essene discipline; Pliny placed them above the Dead Sea, apart from the world. Keep the water pure, keep the table clean,” the Essene elders say as they set bread before the brothers. References: Josephus, War 2.119–161; Antiquities 18.11–23; Philo, Hypothetica 11.1–18; Quod omnis probus liber 75–91; Pliny, Natural History 5.73; Britannica, 2024: “Essenes”]

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ALEXANDRIA IN THE AUGUSTUS’ EMPIRE

Augustus kept Alexandria under a Prefect and out of senatorial hands; the city thrived with scholarship and commerce, and it was home to a significant Jewish community. Philo wrote, The Prefects guard the granaries and the town of books. [Strabo 17.1.12–14; Philo, In Flaccum 45–48].

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MARK ANTONY

From Alexandria, Mark Antony ruled the East and proclaimed Herod the Great King of the Jews, reshaping Judea as a Roman client kingdom.

Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius, 83–30 BCE) was a Roman general, statesman, and one of the most powerful men of his age. A loyal ally of Julius Caesar, he rose to co-rule the empire as part of the Second Triumvirate. Stationed in Alexandria, he forged an alliance with Cleopatra VII and, in 40 BCE, proclaimed Herod the Great “King of the Jews” to stabilize Judea as a Roman client state. His power collapsed after his defeat by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, and he died by suicide in Alexandria the following year.

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MESOPOTAMIAN CULTS IN PARTHIA

Rome stopped at the Euphrates under Augustus; Parthian Mesopotamia preserved older priestly infrastructures at Babylon and Uruk, even into the late Hellenistic/Parthian eras, despite the decline of Babylon’s population.

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References: Strabo 16.1.5–7; Pliny, Natural History 6.121–126; Beaulieu, A History of Babylon, 2200 BC–AD 75, 2018: 226–260; Brill’s New Pauly, 2006: Babylon (Hellenistic and Parthian); Uruk (Seleucid/Parthian).

• 31–30 BCE: Actium; Alexandria; Egypt a prefecture. [Cassius Dio 51; Britannica, 2024: “Actium”; “Egypt—Roman”]. • 27: First Settlement; title Augustus. [Res Gestae 34; Cassius Dio 53.2–17; Britannica, 2024: “Augustus”]. • 23: Second Settlement; tribunician power; maius imperium. [Cassius Dio 53.32; 54.10; OCD, 2012: “Augustus (settlements)”]. • 20: Parthian standards returned. [Res Gestae 29; Vell. Pat. 2.94–97]. • 20/19: Herod begins Temple rebuild. [Josephus, Ant. 15.380–425]. • 13–9: Ara Pacis voted & dedicated; Asia calendar decree. [Res Gestae 12] [OGIS 458; Britannica, 2024: “Ara Pacis”]. • 10/9: Caesarea/Sebastos dedicated. [Josephus, Ant. 15.331–341; Britannica, 2024: “Caesarea Maritima”]. • 2: Pater Patriae; Forum of Augustus/Mars Ultor dedicated. [Res Gestae 35; Ovid, Fasti 5.551–598]. • 4: Herod dies; Varus suppresses unrest. [Josephus, War 2.5.1–3; Ant. 17.221–264].

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⚡ DIVINE BLOODLINE: THE ANUNNAKI HERITAGE OF AUGUSTUS

Augustus claimed descent from Inanna (Venus), granddaughter of Enlil and daughter of Nannar (Sin). Through Inanna’s mortal son Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and founded the royal line of Latium, this divine blood passed to the Julii clan of Rome.

Julius Caesar, deified after his death, declared descent from Venus/Inanna — and adopted Augustus as his heir, making Augustus both the legal and spiritual inheritor of this celestial bloodline.

Thus, Augustus presented himself not merely as a political ruler but as the earthly representative of the Anunnaki bloodline, destined to restore cosmic harmony (Ma’at) on Earth through the Pax Romana.

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⚡ IMPERIAL MISSION: RESTORING COSMIC ORDER

By reshaping Rome into an empire, Augustus fulfilled what the Anunnaki called the Mandate of Heaven — to bring order from chaos (Enlil’s mission) and unite nations under divine law.

• • He dedicated the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill, aligning himself with Apollo (Utu/Shamash), the Anunnaki solar deity who embodied truth and cosmic order.

• • He consecrated the Ara Pacis Augustae as a monument to divine peace.

• • He introduced the imperial cult, merging mortal governance with divine ancestry, echoing the ancient practice of the Anunnaki appointing hybrid kings to rule humanity.

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⚡ SUBJUGATING JUDEA: CLEARING THE PATH

Figures like Pompey, Mark Antony, and Herod the Great acted as instruments of this Anunnaki-directed imperial program.

• • Pompey desecrated the Second Temple, shattering Jewish independence and scattering their elite to Greece, Italy, and Alexandria.

• • Antony installed Herod as Rome’s client king, ensuring Judea would not rise against the imperial system.

• • Herod rebuilt the Temple with Roman grandeur, embedding Augustus’s cult and symbols of empire within Jewish sacred space — placing Anunnaki-imperial architecture upon Hebrew holy ground.

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⚡ THE SECRET LEGACY

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This thread illustrates how the Anunnaki bloodline was passed down from the gods to Augustus, and how their ancient agenda — centered on centralization, divine kingship, and empire-building — reshaped the world through Rome.

The events in this article are not isolated history — they are the culmination of an Anunnaki dynastic project: to seed a hybrid bloodline, consolidate the world under one order, and enthrone a ruler who claimed descent from the gods.

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✨ EPILOGUE — THE ANUNNAKI LEGACY OF AUGUSTUS

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As you look back over this tapestry of history — Pompey storming Jerusalem, Mark Antony enthroning Herod the Great, and Augustus claiming the world as Rome’s first emperor — remember that these were not random events.

They were the unfolding of a sacred dynastic project seeded long before Rome was born: the bloodline of the Inanna (Venus), granddaughter of Enlil and daughter of Nannar, who gave birth to Aeneas, survivor of Troy and progenitor of the kings of Latium.

Through this line came the Julii clan and Julius Caesar, who adopted Augustus, fusing mortal ambition with celestial ancestry. Augustus stood as the mortal embodiment of the Anunnaki mandate: to bring order from chaos, to unite the nations, and to begin a new age of peace — the Pax Romana.

This is why Augustus placed the solar god Apollo (Utu/Shamash) at the center of his cult, rebuilt the world in marble, and ruled as princeps — first among mortals, yet crowned in the memory of the gods.

What you have studied is not merely the rise of an empire — It is the flowering of a celestial bloodline. The Anunnaki did not simply visit this world… they shaped it.

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