I Caesar
the rise and fall of the roman empire
Rome Empire played an important role in the history. the commentators (the professors) in this documentary said the main legacy of Rome is its law and religion. From biblical perspective, it is the period when two kingdoms (the kingdom of God and kingdom of the world) collide.
Augustus was mentioned in the bible directly. and we know from history, Emperor Nero oppressed Christians and Constantine promoted Christians. by the time Rome Empire finished, Christianity became the main religion in Europe and the Rome law the foundation of the law system in Europe.
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- Julius Caesar
- Augustus
- Nero
- Hadrian
- Constantine
- Justinian
Julias Caesar
Julius Caesar,
- Pride comes before a fall. Proverbs
Early years.
In 100 BC, he was born to a senate in Rome. he was anticipated by his parents to restore the family name. However, his father died when he was only 15 years old, and he had to work hard. When a civil war started, he became an officer in the army.
Rise to power.
Rome’s political system at that time was run by aristocrats (the upper class people), where the power is balanced. When he was young, he saw the status of Alexander the Great, he broke down and wept by comparing himself with Alexander. From that day on, he started to take Alexander as his role model and he wanted to achieve fame and victory. In 59 BC, Caesar, Crassus and Pompey formed the First Triumvirate, and later he became one of the 2 consuls who ruled the republic, but he did it for his self-advancement. He resorted to violence when faced conflicts with his opponents, and Rome became lawless.
The Gallic wars.
From 58 BC to 55 B.C, he invaded lots of tribes around Rome. many people were killed, captives became slaves and he did all these to promote his own fame.
Civil wars.
Coming back from the battlefield, He was welcomed by some tribes, but people in Rome thought he was lawless for he started those wars without senate approval. In a battle, His army defeated Pompey’s army, He chased Pompey who fled to Egypt. king of Egypt gave Caesar the head of Pompey. When he returned to Rome, he also brought back a egyptian queen as his wife.
Dictator.
He rode in triumph through Rome, rewarding his soldiers with land. His birthday became a public holiday. He also favored his egyptian wife and gave her the high honor, which is not tolerated by Rome people. After he became a dictator, he basically suspended the republic. His arrogance went too far and people, even his allies thought he was out of control. He was assassinated (stabbed by 23 times) by a group of rebellious senators. .
Insights
People can not tolerate dictators, for if you have a dictator, you lose your freedom.
Is it better to be loved or to be feared? The answer is “to be loved”
Augustus
Immortality is a state which is not in our power to posses, but by living nobly and dying nobly, we do in a certain measure achieve this condition.
The will.
In 44 BC, Caesar died and he gave his inheritance to Octavian, his nephew.
The warlords
Octavian became the senate and consul, and he also had an army. In his time, those senators who disagreed with him were either killed or forced to exile. At the end, Octavian took the west part of Rome and Anthony took the east.
Actium
Octavian divorced his wife and married Livia. In the meantime, the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, who seduced Caesar, seduced Anthony for she saw Anthony as a new emperor. But people in Rome see that Anthony was bewitched by a foreign woman, and he was not considered a Rome citizen, but an Egyptian. Then Octavian launched a war against Anthony, and defeated him in Actium. Egyptian queen Cleopatra died and Egypt became a province of Rome.
New order
After the battle, Octavian returned to Rome in 27 BC. When he became the chief of the army, he also rewarded soldiers with land and wealth as promised. In addition, because he also restored temples and cities, people felt peace, senates liked him, and he became the emperor of Rome, taking the name Augustus meaning “lofty” and “severe”
Pax Romana ( 200 year of peace)
In the next 200 years, Rome enjoyed 200 years of prosperity. In 18 BC, when he was 45 years old, he initiated a moral crusade to restore the traditional value of Rome where financial incentives were given for people to marry and have children; divorce became difficult; and fines were imposed for adultery. But behind the mask of morality lay hypocrisy, for he himself committed adultery.
Dynasty
In 5 AD, Augustus adopted his step son Tiberius as his own son, and successor. As a result, a dynasty was established. In 14 AD, he died peacefully at age of 76. Soon after his death, he was declared as a god.
Summary,
Augustus brought an end to the political strife in Rome, and he turned Rome from a republic which was torn with civil wars into a stable monarchy.
Augustus in Bible,
In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire roman world. (Luke 2:1 NIV)
NERO
Nero, the power and madness
Preface: Nero was born in the imperial family of Rome, but he was torn by passion and corrupted by power.
Becoming an emperor
In AD37, Nero was born. Agrippina, his mother convinced her uncle Claudius to marry her in order to help his son to succeed. To strengthen the bond between her family and Caludius’s family, he further arranged Nero to marry his Uncle’s daughter. Finally, she persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero as his own son, and Nero was then called Nero Claudius Caesar. At the age of 16, he became the emperor of Rome.
Seneca, a famous philosopher was his mentor, and he taught Nero justice, clemency, and sanctity of human life. Nero’s life was pretty good at that time, and he was surrounded by trusted advisors.
At the same time, he began to explore his love for theatre because of his artistic talent, and he wanted to become an artist and performer.
Matricide
When he grew up, he began to think he could do whatever he wanted to do. Because his mother wanted to share the imperial power with him and he did not like it, he killed his mother. After his mother died, he pursued to become a performer and singer. In AD 62, he also dispensed his good advisors. Later on, he banished Octavia (his wife) to an island, he murdered her and then he married poppaea, who had everything but goodness.
The big fire
In AD 64, A big fire happened and almost ¾ of Rome got burned. This enabled him to rebuild the city which is very luxurious. He blamed Christians for this fire and put them to the cross and burned them.
Final act
Because of his interest in art, he started to perform in public and even forced people to stay in theatre and watch him perform. Because all that he had done, people started to hate him and try to murder him as one soldier said to him that “I hated you when you murdered your mother, wife and became a charioteer, actor, and singer, instead of being a king.” Nero did not want others to criticize him, and he sent those people to exile or he killed them. After all these, rebellion broke out in Gaul and Spain, and he fled. In AD 68, he died and his last word was “what an artist I died”. Because he was the last descendant of Caesar, the dynasty basically ended, but the name of Caesar continued.
Insight
Nero, who was born to manage a country, thought himself as an artist. It is an identity issue. The mother certainly had a bad influence on him. This reminded me that in the book of chronicles in the bible, the author will say these kings are bad and those kings are good in the eyes of God, and when the kings were introduced, their mothers were often introduced too. Nero also cast away those good advisors, which finally destroyed himself.
Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. Proverbs 13: 20.
Hadrian
Becoming the emperor
In AD 76, Hadrian was born in Italica. When he was 9 years old, his father died and his father’s cousin Trajan raised him up. Rome was the greatest empire in the western world and Hadrian spent 5 years learning in Rome. When he was 18 years old, he got a career in imperial administration. He also joined the army and he showed his talent. When the emperor died, a senator, Nerva took the position and sought military support and he found Trajan, who became the co-emperor. 2 years later, Nerva died and Trajan became the emperor and Hadrian became a senator afterwards.
In AD 108, Trajan invaded Parthia, besides the Persian gulf and Hadrian contributed to the success. Therefore, he was given the governorship of the whole east Europe, with his power base in Antioch (where the first church is built). After the sudden death of Trajan, Hadrian became the emperor.
The new emperor
While the senators saw conquest as the root of wealth and glory, Hadrian believed that he should expand no further for the expense of conquest was too costly. On the frontiers, he made sure the army were trained well so that no outsiders could bother Rome. In AD 122, he crossed to Britain, and he built a 37-mile wall called Hadrian’s wall (which made me think of The Great Wall in China) to keep out Britons who he thought were barbarians. Actually, little by little, Britons were seduced to the life style of Rome.
The passion of Hadrian
Hadrian loved Greece culture and architecture and he was given a nickname of Greekling. He regarded the literary and artistic culture far superior than Rome’s. In Greece, he fell in love with a young man, called Antinous, and they had a homo-sexual relationship, which was not quite widely accepted those days. But he showed his love for Antinous publicly.
A grand tour and exaltation of his name
At that time, Rome had around 4000 cities and he toured many cities more than any other emperor. When he entered the cities, there were huge celebrations. New temples, statues, and inscriptions proclaimed Hadrian as restorer, benefactor, liberator, and redeemer of the universe, and the divine savior of the world. It was a peaceful time when he ruled, which made it possible for him to spend lots of time traveling to those provinces and cities.
Hadrian at Judea
In AD 130, he travelled to Egypt, and on the way back, he passed by Judea where Jews resisted the Rome culture due to religious beliefs. On the site of the main jewish temple, he began to build a temple of Jupitor and emperors, and he wanted to rename the city of Jerusalem to his honor, but jews refused. In AD132, Jews rose to revolt, and the uprising was crushed with extreme violence. As a result, Jews were expelled from Jerusalem and the province of Judea was renamed Syria-palaestina. Though Hadrian portrayed himself as a peaceful emperor, in this conflict, he sent a message to all that the revolt would be dealt with by the sword. In AD134, he returned to Rome. in AD138, he died of sickness.
Achievement
Hadrian brought a new stability and peace by stopping expanding the territory, building a strong frontier, and a well-trained army.
CONSTATINE
Becoming an Emperor
In the 3rd century, Rome was no longer peaceful, and was in crisis with the enemies of Persians in the east and barbarians in the west. In AD 272, Constantine was born to Flavius Constanius, who was an army officer. Growing up, he joined the army. In a couple of battles, he distinguished himself as a courageous general.
The emperor Diocletian decided to share power and Constantine’s father, Falvius, became one of the 4 emperors, with each emperor based in different cities throughout the Rome empire.
Constantine’s first contact with Christians
At that time, churches were well organized by bishops and priests. However, Diocletian ordered Christians to be punished because Christianity thought there was only one God, which was offensive to many Romans including Diocletian, for he worshiped his gods who he thought brought him victories in his battles. In AD 303, persecution started – bibles and churches were burned and Christians were sent to prisons, tortured, or killed. Constantine, who served Diocletian at that time in the east, witnessed the persecution and he was very impressed by the courage and commitment of Christians.
In this sign, conquer
Feeling unsafe staying in the east, he went to the west to join his father and they together won the battle against Northern Britain. After his father died, the troops declared Constantine the new emperor of Britain and Goul. At age 34, Constantine declared himself against persecution of Christians and he ordered all Christians to be released. After he controlled the west Rome, he went to fight another emperor, Maxentius by the Milvian Bridge, where he claimed to witness a divine vision “in this sign, conquer”. People believed that Constantine’s God would bring them victory and he did win. Consequently, he entered Rome with triumph and became the emperor of the entire western empire.
A new Rome united
At Rome, he became the head of Christian church and he was determined to unite the Roman world. With that belief, he fought with the east emperor, Licinius and he won. He then built a new capital called Constantinople (nowadays Istanbul). In AD 325, he summoned 300 bishops to a council at the city of Nicaea to force a standard doctrine of Christianity (in Christians’ view, it was the work of the Holy Spirit) and Nicene creed was born and had been spread across the world.
Constantine said “I am absolutely persuaded that I owe my whole life, my every breath, and my very being to the supreme God”. with that strong belief, he built churches all over the Rome Empire, filling them with gold and silver artifacts, mosaics, and marbles, although he was criticized by later Christians for being rich in possessions but poor in virtues.
The death of Constantine
In AD 337, when he was 65 years old, he decided that his time had come and he ordered bishops to baptize him, believing that sins were all washed away and forgiven. Weekly later, he died.
The impact of Constantine, the first Christian emperor.
His conversion to Christianity and favor to Christians made christian almost the sole religion in Rome. This moved Rome to one unity, one God, and one empire, which had a tremendous impact on ancient Rome, Europe and even the whole world.
justinian
Becoming an emperor
Petrus, the original name of Justinian, was born to a peasant family in AD 480. Rome at that time was divided and also faced many challenges from outside. Petrus made his long journey to the capital by the call of his uncle, Justin, who later became the head of the palace guard in Constantinople, the economy and power center of Rome. in AD 518, the old emperor died and Justin became the emperor.
Being childless, Justin adopted Petrus as his son and heir, and Petrus was renamed as Justinian. When Justin died, Justinian became the emperor.
The court of Justinian
One of Justinian’s major projects is the codification of Roman law for he believed in controlling society by the rule of law and he enforced strict moral code on people. Under the law, homosexuals would be arrested and the hands of gamblers would be cut off. But he pushed this too far and in the 5th year of his rule, rioting broke out and most of the cities were looted and burned down. In this crisis, Justinian summoned his general, Belisarius, to crush the riots. From this event, he learned that Roman Emperor’s position still depended on the sword.
The reconquest of Rome
To regain power, he called Belisarius to conquer the lost Rome province of North Africa where Belisarius defeated the vandal king. Gaining confidence, he then sent his army to conquer the rest of the western Empire. In AD 537, Belisarius took Rome back from Goths.
In AD 543, Bubonic plague hit the city, 40% of the people died. He himself was ill, but then recovered from it. Less tax payers caused less government income, therefore, he strengthened the law that heirs had to pay if parents died and if a farmer died, his neighbor was expected to pay for him.
Last of Caesars,
In his old age, he devoted most of his time to the doctrines of the Christianity. He grieved a lot after his wife died. Saddened and disillusioned, he isolated himself in the palace. In AD 565, he died when he was 83 years old.
1 century later, Arab, with its new religion, Islam, conquered North Africa. 800 years later, in AD 1453, Constantinople finally fell to the Ottoman Turks.
Commentators said that the main legacy of the Rome empire is the law and the religion
