We need not see our modern-day Julius or Jesus dead to fight for him as if he were. Today’s authoritarian leaders project the strength of Caesar while employing Antony’s enflaming martyrology.

The Gospel accounts of the “two kingdoms” represented in Jesus and Caesar seem strikingly contemporary here and now.

Jews had lived in Rome since the second century BC. Julius Caesar and Augustus supported laws that allowed Jews protection to worship as they chose. Synagogues were classified as colleges to get ...