The best estimate of the date of the birth of Jesus, based on the dates given in the birth narratives found in Matthew and Luke, is 6 bce. Rome was at the height of its existence, ruled by the first Caesar, Caesar Augustus, who ruled from 27 bce to 14 ce. Caesar Augustus was followed by Caesar Tiberius, who ruled from 14-37 ce, the period of the adulthood of Jesus. He was not a strong Caesar and was in semi-retirement for the adult years of Jesus.

Augustus became the first Caesar by overthrowing the power of the Roman Senate, an oligarchy of "nobles," mostly owners of great plantations, who nonetheless provided a weak semblance of representative government by deliberation. The season of the Senate and of Augustus was a period when the great Greek and Roman philosophers had important influence. Collectively they had diverse philosophies in general and diverse political philosophies in particular. The concepts of democracy and citizenship were important references for the educated people of that time.. The general idea was that Rome would be a great empire because it would be governed according to the great philosophies revered by the senators and other leaders. For example, Seneca was alive during the same time as Jesus.

Augustus put a stop to any grand development of democracy, but the notion of citizenship remained. We have the story of Paul who, when arrested, claimed his rights as a Roman citizen, which meant that he could not be tried according to local laws. That earned him a long trip to Rome.

Judea was one of the places in the Roman Empire where local law was important. The rights of Jews to be governed by Jewish law was won several times by bloody wars. Sticking to just the Roman phase of that long story, the Maccabees fought a series of battles beginning in 167 bce against the Hasmonean king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. (The Hasmonean kings were rulers of one-third of the then divided Roman Empire.)

Antiochus III had granted significant tax relief and local self governance to Judea. Antiochus IV took it back, plundered the temple, profaned the temple, then declared it the temple of Zeus and let everyone in. He did all this because he needed the plunder to fund his wars, but he did it in the name of Hellenization: which included reference to the great Greek philosophers and a forced equalization of religions with preference for the Roman religions. Mattathias and his three sons took advantage of the popular outrage in Judea and launched the Maccabean revolt.

Mattathias captured Jerusalem in 164 bce, purged the temple, and set about regathering Judea as a faithful Jewish political entity. Wars, diplomatic missions, intrigues and murders, and numerous switching of alliances continued until 142 bce when Simon, the last surviving son of Mattathias, claimed semi-independence for Judea, got himself recognized as High Priest of the temple in Jerusalem, and started ruling Judea free from Roman taxes and according to Jewish law. This semi-independence lasted until 63 bce, when Pompey (General during the period of the Roman Senate) recaptured Judea for Rome.

Rome continues to allow Judea to be governed according to Jewish law but under the supervision of Roman prefects (governors) such as Pilate. Herod the Great ran Judea plus Samaria and Galilee as King from 37 bce to 4 ce. Then Herod's kingdom was broken into three parts with Herod Antipas (4 bce to 39 ce) running Galilee. Another Herod ran Jerusalem (Judea) in close collaboration with the temple authorities. Taxation is unclear to me but a lot of taxes went to Jerusalem for the building up f Jerusalem in general and the temple in particular. This was a gigantic public works project, with 10,000 employed workers, and one part of the temple was the largest building in the world.

The key point for understanding citizenship is that, in the time of Jesus, both Jewish citizenship and Roman citizenship were important concepts. Rome's recognition of Judea (and Galilee and Samaria) as governed according to Jewish law meant that Jews could practice their religion, live by the Torah, travel back and forth to Jerusalem, etc. (Samaria practiced a Judaism based on the Torah but without allegiance to the temple in Jerusalem.) This arrangement made for complex politics and a lot of dissatisfactions. At the same time that Jews had a homeland and spiritual center in Jerusalem, Hellenization was spreading rapidly. For example, Sepphoris, a major Roman oriented town was just a few miles from Nazareth. There was a major battle and genocide against Jews in Sepphoris recently before the birth of Jesus. The Pax Romana allowed a huge development of trading around the Roman empire, marked for example by a salt tax that helped pay for that precious commodity that was imported into Judea and other places.

In short, citizenship was alive, important, and confused in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee in the time of Jesus. There were many more Jews, like Paul, in the diaspora of Judaism around the Mediterranean, than there were Jews in Judea. How did this affect the understanding of Jesus as to the immediate presence of the Realm of God? I wish I knew the answer to that.