a patient observer

Thanks for the thoughts. The religious aspect of for the culture would definitely be somewhere to go with them. It seems one could argue against a religious emphasis for the culture, since all ancient civilizations were religiously minded. That is a good point to keep in mind. Conversely, however, it seems that there are few ancient civilizations whose religious influence has paralleled that of the Hebrews and their posterity (in an obvious and conscious way, at least), considering over half of the global population is affiliated with one of the Abrahamic faiths. As for Solomon, I tried to crafted my first comment above with the intent to highlight the post 500BC world of Judah. While the historical ethnogenesis and the (very) ancient history of Israel is interesting, it may be too distant for 0AD. And the Israel after 500BC is not the same Israel that flourished under the united monarchy of 1000BC. The First Jewish-Roman war would be an epic campaign. Ah, but so would a campaign of the wars between the Jews and the Seleucids. It’s just all so interesting. I definitely would like to see 0AD Judeans in future expansion packs.

Hey. New here. Just thought I'd throw out an idea for an additional civilization for consideration: Judea (Yehudah). Although the Judean kingdom had been conquered before the 500BC mark by the Babylonians (and transferred to the Persians and then Greeks, subsequently), they were influential enough to establish independence from Hellenistic rule with the Hasmonean Kingdom (2nd and 1st centuries BC). Although their sovereignty failed to stand up against Roman prowess, they did struggle against Roman rule for centuries thereafter in the Jewish-Roman Wars (1st and 2nd centuries AD, more or less). A very fascinating struggle, I think. Sad, to a certain degree, but fascinating. Any thoughts?