From the Jewish leaders’ fear of the crowd to their own use of the crowd to intimidate Pilate, the specter of mob violence lurks in the background of Matthew. Unfortunately, very little scholarly work has been done on the role of mob violence in Matthew. This paper seeks to fill this gap in scholarship by examining Matthew in light of the ancient Roman practice of utilizing crowd violence as a political tool. It draws on the context of mob utilization in Roman origin stories, Late Republican History, and the Early Roman Empire to illuminate the Gospel of Matthew. This study argues that an important contrast exists, in which the movements of John the Baptist and Jesus are shown to resist the broader Roman practice of mob utilization, while their religious opponents embrace the use of mob violence for their political goals.