Under the domination of the Roman Empire, the province of Judea, as the nation of Israel was called in New Testament times, the Jews paid the Romans a heavy tax burden. That is, to keep up with the cost of the large numbers of soldiers scattered throughout the ancient world, Rome made the dominated nations pay heavy taxes. For these taxes to be collected, people were appointed, or even volunteers, to exercise the function of tax collectors, or tax collectors. These people in the pages of the New Testament are called publicans. Although they exercised a public function, the publicans were victims of deep contempt on the part of the Jews. Being often associated with sinners (publicans and sinners).