July 14, 2013 – 1 Maccabees 8

I was curious as to when this was occurring.  From the chapter, Rome has conquered Spain and Greece when this letter is written.  It is also in the stage where a Senate in ruling with one head executive.  According to Wikipedia, the Roman Republic was from 509-27 BC.  The conquering was from 264- 146 BC and conquering of Greece was 215 – 148 BC.  That puts this sometime after 146 BC and before 27 BC.  That can give you a sense of when Rome became an ally of Jews.  When we see Christ, Rome and the Jews are not really at war, just more being ruled over by the Romans.  There must be something that we haven’t seen yet to have this occur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Republic