COPONIUS

Coponius, Roman Procurator or Prefect under Augustus, 6 - 9 A.D.

In 6 AD., Herod Archelaus, son of Herod the Great, was deposed and banished to Gaul by Augustus. Archelaus' part of his father's kingdom (including Judea, Samaria, Idumea and Archelais) was (except for Archelais) organized as a Roman Procuratorial Province.

Josephus, 'Antiquities of the Jews' 18.1.1 "Coponius, a man of the equestrian order, was to have the supreme power over the Jews."

Josephus, 'Antiquities of the Jews' 18.2.2 "As Coponius, who we told you was sent along with Cyrenius, was exercising his office of procurator, and governing Judea, the following accidents happened. As the Jews were celebrating the feast of unleavened bread, which we call the Passover, it was customary for the priests to open the temple-gates just after midnight. When, therefore, those gates were first opened, some of the Samaritans came privately into Jerusalem, and threw about dead men's bodies, in the cloisters; on which account the Jews afterward excluded them out of the temple, which they had not used to do at such festivals; and on other accounts also they watched the temple more carefully than they had formerly done. A little after which accident Coponius returned to Rome, and Marcus Ambibulus came to be his successor in that government.

Josephus, 'War of the Jews' 2.8.1 "Now Archelaus's part of Judea was reduced into a province, and Coponius, one of the equestrian order among the Romans, was sent as a procurator, having the power of [life and] death put into his hands by Caesar. Under his administration it was that a certain Galilean, whose name was Judas, prevailed with his countrymen to revolt, and said they were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans and would after God submit to mortal men as their lords."