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In pre-Roman Judaism,...?

did Jews expect other peoples to "believe" in their God? Was there a special punishment reserved for "others?" Did Jews living outside of Israel expect Egyptians, Moabites, Assyrians, etc. to accept, or to "believe in," the God of Israel?

Non-Jews living inside of Israel were expected to adhere to the seven Noahide laws and no more. During the time of Jewish Kings ruling, open idol worship would have been forbidden- but aside from that anything was allowed. There was no forced conversion- on the contrary, during the time of David and Solomon converts were NOT accepted since it was suspected that they were converting to be part of what was the biggest power of the time, rather than out of any desire to be Jewish.

There are no special taxes mandated for non-Jews living in the country, in fact, they would only have to pay taxes to the secular authority since Terumah, Maaser rishon, maaser sheni and maaser ani are only mandated for Jews and not non-Jews. Where they would have been disadvantaged (as was anyone not from the 12 tribes), was in the area of land ownership since the land was divided between the 12 tribes and could not be permanently sold. In essence- land sold to someone outside the tribe was only on a 49 year lease as every Jubilee year the land would return to its original owners. In the Talmud is discusses how the land is costed out and how the value of the land differs (reducing in value) as the Jubilee year approaches.

Cherem is only applied against Jews- and then only for very specific offenses or for ignoring the decrees of the Beis Din. Exile is NOT part of cherem, the closest to exile was the seven cities of refugees to which accidental murderers fled until a Beis Din confirmed that the murder was accidental (they were encouraged to go there, they did not have to, but inside those cities they were safe, outside- there was the possibility of a relative hunting them down for revenge).

As for the Romans- they were not that tolerant religiously. So much so that they forbade three main things hoping thereby to destroy Judaism: Study of Torah, bris milah and shabbat. This is where the custom of going on a picnic and having a bonfire on Lag B'Omer comes from- the students would pretend to be going hunting and would go into the wild areas in which their teachers were hiding in order to learn Torah. If you read in in the Yom Kippur Machzor (at least in an Orthodox One, I don't know if Conservative and Reform have this section in them), you will find the tale of the 12 Martyrs- amongst them such greats as Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria and Rabbi Akivah, who were tortured and killed by the omans. The Roman's excuse- these 12 greats were the reincarnations of the sons of Jacob, and had to be put to death for the selling of Joseph into slavery (don;t ask how he gets to twelve needed for that- since only 11 brothers were guilty of the crime- Joseph could hardly be held responsible for his own sale into slavery!) On this excuse- 12 of the greatest scholars in Judaism were killed- most likely because the Romans were trying to destroy all Torah learning.

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