This volume brings together studies from diverse academic disciplines around a central, unifying question: how was the future of Rome, both near and distant in time, imagined by different populations living under the Roman Empire? The volume originates in a conference in Tel Aviv (2013), titled “The Future of Rome: Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian Perspectives.” Scholars of Greek and Roman history and literature, Jewish history and thought, and early Christian history and thought, were asked the question about the future of Rome in relation to the people and texts they study; thus it was refracted through contemporary but disparate (and not perforce mutually informative or interactive) literary and religious traditions. One of the remarkable results of the conference was the realization that practically no one living under Rome’s rule, including the Romans themselves, did not think about the question in one form or another.

Reflections on empires among ancient writers can take different directions. Some focus on the succession of specific empires and speculate about the number of empires destined to rule the world, as does the author of the Book of Daniel, for example.1 Such writers are in various ways concerned with history and how it continues from the past, through the present, and into the future. In some cases, this leads them to speculate about the end of time.2 Other authors are interested in comparing the empires of the past to the one(s) of their own day. In the Roman period, for example, many orators praise the Romans for establishing an empire that has surpassed all others. This type of comparison is not restricted to orations and can be found in various literary genres. Finally, there are writers who are prone to more philosophical reflections on empires and what causes their rise or decline, their intrinsic instability, or the political factors that help certain ones endure.