Originally Posted by mauserand9mm
Only in the minds of those wanting it to be there.


Much like the narrative of Paul's death.

Christians tell us he died as a martyr,
but scripture does not detail the death
of Paul, people merely speculate that
he became victim of emperor Neros
persecution of christians after the fire
of Rome, they further speculate his
manner of death was by beheading.

They assume beheading because they assume
Paul was a Roman citizen, and it was extremely
rare for such to be crucified.

Paul was born in Tarsus 5 AD, a "free city"
under Roman imperial rule... But simply being
born in a free city did not automatically make
Paul a Roman citizen..Such non-Roman cities
were permitted A certain level of autonmous/self-
governing powers, thus deemed free.

When Paul says he was "born free", it could
mean he was born in a free city durastiction.

Under the Roman system, there was a range of
categories that sat between a full Roman citizen
will full Roman rights and the mere slave with none.
and one's rights and privileges varied accordingly.
Same goes for urban settlement areas,.. there were
Roman colony cities established and settled by
Rome with Roman citizens with everything Roman.
Then you had places granted 'Latin Rights' ~ius latii ~
which allowed limited Roman rights and privileges.

Even then, Latin Rights might only be granted to the
officials of the town/city, or to all the occupants, or
even to a whole population... It was all up to the
personal discretion of the Emperor... Typically
it was granted like a gift from the emperor.

###########

Paul was put to trial by the Jews in Jerusalem,
and there was a lynch mob that wanted to kill him.
Some claim the Romans thus took custody of Paul,
because he was a Roman citizen.. but if he wasn't an
actual Roman citizen, the Romans would have grabbed
him to prevent the Lynch mob killing him, since
[ like in the case of Jesus], the Jews had no authority
to implement capitol punishment to anyone, either
through their Rabbi council or by lynch mob.

The Roman commander who took custody of Paul,
heard he was a Roman citizen, (how he could be sure
I dont know),.. but logic says that If he allowed a mob
of angry Jews to kill someone who turns out to be a
Roman citizen, it wouldn't work wonders for his
military career... so the commander protected
his own ass by giving Paul benefit of the doubt.

... passing it to the hands of Antonius Felix,
Roman Procurator.

-Bulletproof and Waterproof don't mean Idiotproof.