In Mark 5 Jesus cast out a crud load of demons who called themselves "Legion." When they were cast out he cast them into a troup of pigs that ran over a cliff drowing themselves in the lake below. The first thing I notice about this story is that demons, pigs and Gentiles (as most soldiers were) had one thing in common: Religiously speaking they were all unclean.
These are the reasons I think this story was passed down as anti-Rome:
1. A large group of Roman soldiers (around 6,000 in number) is called a Legion. The demons were called "Legion."
2. According to Richard Horsley, the 10th Fretensis Legion stationed in Syria used the pig as a mascot. This was a leading legion in taking Jerusalem in A.D. 70. When the demons were cast out, they entered into pigs.
To give you an indication of how the story sounded to the people of Jesus day consider the political party that you don't like. Let's say its the Republican party...Jesus asked the evil demons what their name was, and they answered, "The Repulican Party because we are so many." So Jesus cast them into a circus filled with elephants and the elephants all jumped off a local cliff and died.
Or vise versa..."Our name is called the Democratic Party because we are so many." And Jesus cast them into a group of donkeys.
The story that circulated about Jesus casting out demons was a diss on the Roman Legion stationed near the listeners. It implied that they were demonic and unclean. It also predicted that Jesus would cast them out of the area by the word of his mouth.
The only question I have is this - the early church era may have seen this as an anti-Roman story, but did Jesus intend this to be anti-Roman? For this question I have no answer because nothing else around the passage supports such a conclusion.
If Jesus meant his action to be anti-Roman or if the early church saw it as such, it seems that the Gospel writers did not view it as such, for there is nothing in the context of the passage to suggest that Jesus was acting out some anti-Roman demonstration.
