QUIRINIUS (Lk. 2:2, RV, RSV, NEB; AV ‘Cyrenius’, corresponds closely to Gk. Kyrēnios). Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was consul at Rome in 12 BC, and not long afterwards conducted a campaign against the unruly Homanadensians of central Asia Minor. In 3 BC he became proconsul of Asia; in AD 3–4 he was adviser to the imperial heir-apparent, Gaius Caesar, during the latter’s Armenian expedition; from AD 6 to 9 he was imperial legate (legatus pro praetore) of Syria-Cilicia. This appears to have concluded his public career; thereafter he lived at Rome, where he died in AD 21. At the beginning of his governorship of Syria-Cilicia he organized the census in Judaea when that territory became a Roman province on the deposition of Archelaus (*HEROD, 2).
