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SINES IV-The Eternal Wait
Setting-Made by Strategos,
The Eternal Wait
Setting-Made by Strategos,
The Eternal Wait
Spoiler :
~5 BCE-375 CE
It was an old joke, one whispered in forgotten corners where there was no danger of being overheard. Id rather be his pig (hus) than his son (huios). It was humorous in the unfunny way that truth often is. For in his realm, pigs were safe, as no one ate them, but his sons were not, as he showed no compulsion in mercilessly killing his own blood in order to keep his throne secure. It should be no surprise then, to discover that when he heard the rumors that a king was born who would one day wrest his kingdom from his hands, he acted with characteristic ruthles
sness, ordering the slaughter of the handful of infants in the small, sleepy village that boasted to be the birthplace of a king. But the rumors, as rumors often are, were wrong. No royalty had been born, those who were waiting for God to act continued to wait. And so there remained in Israel no king but Herod.
And so people continued to live their lives as they had before. Unaware of how close they came to the curse of significance, they continued fishing, continued collecting taxes, continued teaching in synagogues, continued plotting against Rome. And so things remained as they were, which in this cursed land meant people continued to plot, assassinate, denounce, steal, lie, and swindle in the name of kings, emperors, nationalism, and religion. But this state of affairs, like all things, could not last. These particular affairs ended in quite the spectacular way as the entire land known as Judea revolted against the might of Rome. They were defeated, of course, as all but the most fanatical could have predicted. And as the Roman army marched towards Jerusalem, the Jewish rebels fractured into a multitude of groups, seemingly determined to kill each other and so deprive the Romans of that pleasure.
Rome, of course, politely waited, their armies camped outside of Jerusalem, determined that if their enemy was going to be as nice as to kill themselves, they wouldnt interfere. Eventually, however, one of the groups, the Pharisees, who had never really been enthusiastic about the revolt, seized the Temple Mount and offered the Romans a deal that they couldnt refuse: the Pharisees would deliver the city into the Roman hands in exchange for the Temple not being harmed. And thus it was, Rome leveled the city, killing and pillaging, but kept their promises. And so the Temple stood, its golden roof shining like a second sun, surrounded by nothing but ashes and rubble.
The Temple, and the city, however, were really never the same afterwards. The Romans had been thorough in their destruction of the city, enslaving much of its populous and taking everything of value in order to pay for the expensive campaign. As a result, the few people who were left were poor, unable to fund the sacrifices that had previously ascended to heaven. But no worries, the Pharisees proclaimed, for did not Adonai say through his prophets that what he desired was mercy not sacrifice? And so the Temple gradually phased out sacrifices, becoming rather a giant school with library, the main training center for the now religiously dominant Pharisees. Eventually, as people and wealth started trickling back to Jerusalem, attracted by the Temple, one of the wonders of the world, Jerusalem started to rival Athens and Alexandria as cities of learning.
In the rest of the Empire, things went on as it seemed they always had. Good emperors alternated with bad emperors, victories alternated with defeats, advances chased retreats like the sun chases the moon. Soon, despite the best efforts of several individuals, one got the distinct impression that the Empire was beginning to stagnate. In the cities, nobility lounged, their only movements the ones that lifted up their wine to their lips, even hiring others to carry their noble selves from party to party. The commoners were no better, living their lives from circus to circus, eating bread they did not earn, denouncing or acclaiming based on the state of their stomachs.
The state of the military was scarcely better. Many of the auxiliaries lounged around, spending their time gambling and whoring. Only on the border, hardened by constant raids of the bearded-ones did Marius spirit live on, though even there only dimly, mere fading stars to the burning sun which had shone before. It is here that many of the emperors arose, their claims backed by iron forged from the heat of many battles. Once in Rome, however, these generals turned Caesars were seduced by its splendors. Others were entrapped by its intrigues, like a fly caught in a spiders web, destroyed by an enemy they never saw. Only a few managed to rise above, small sparks that flew upward, burning brightly for a time before eternally vanishing.
It was one of these brief sparks that decided to divide the Empire, recognizing that one man could no longer protect or rule so vast a land. So he took the title Augustus of the East, making one of the sycophants that Rome acclaimed so loudly as the Augustus of the West. Under these Augusti, were four Caesars, each charged with defending the Empire. In the east, the new Augustus built a city where the small Greek town of Byzantium stood, laying out a capital that was as much fort as city, an austere camp compared to the glitter of Rome. It was from this city, renamed Caesaropolis, the city of Caesars, that a line of warrior-emperors ruled who managed to stabilize the border in the east, checking the barbarian hordes, dedicating their many victories to Mithras, their martial protector.
Thus, like a flowing river, the invading tribes followed the path of least resistance, turning away from the well fortified east to the west. There they found Rome, the city of conquerors, waiting for them. But the Rome who once caused even the starts to tremble was no more. When the last of her great warrior-generals left to establish his eastern capital, he took the best legions with him, leaving behind only disciplineless mobs that defamed the name Roman legion.
It was not surprising, then, that the so-called legions crumbled before the onslaught, like a wooden shack before a flooding river. In desperation the Augustus of the West sent a message to one of his Caesars who was then in Britannia, demanding that he abandon it to the northern Picts in order to defend Mother Rome. Unfortunately for the Augustus, the Caesar did not see Rome as his mother, and, having married a native Briton, could not bear to see his adopted country burn in order to save a city he had only seen once. Thus the legions of Britannia, which might have saved Rome, did not move, sitting with dry eyes while Rome burned.
Judea
Unarguably one of the watershed moments in the history of Judaism was the Jewish Revolt. In hindsight, the revolt seems inevitable. Since the first occupation, Rome had never understood the Jewish mind, their cultural of tolerance and plurality never could grasp the Jewish fanatical monotheism. To these religious differences were added all kinds of other traditional ingredients for rebellion, ethnic pride, overbearing taxes, inept rule. Thus, the province of Judea seemed to be a lake of lamp oil, waiting only for a small spark to be entirely engulfed in flames.
The spark erupted when a group of Greeks sacrificed some pigeons before a Jewish synagogue in Caesarea. This act of defilement was used by the zealots to fan the flames of rebellion, so much so that even such a notable figure as the High Priest led an attack against the Romans. However, after winning early victories against the surprised Romans, the rebels were pushed from northern Judea by fresh Roman reinforcements, eventually being reduced to several strongholds, the most important being Jerusalem.
As the Romans besieged the city, several factions within it started fighting with each other, the most important of which were the Sicarii led by Simon Bar Giora, the zealots led by Eleazar ben Simon, the Giscalans led by John of Giscala, and the Pharisee party led by Yohanan ben Zakkai. Early on in the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, the first three groups attempted to expel the Pharisee party, whose enthusiasm about the revolt had always been lukewarm at best. However, these three groups had underestimated the popular support of the Pharisees, and their attempted expulsion backfired as instead, the Pharisees barricaded themselves near the Temple Mount. As the other three groups continued to fight amongst themselves, the Pharisaical party continued to grow from those fleeing the brutal civil war waged between the other groups. In fact, there numbers swelled to such an extent, that they were able to launch a successful attack against the Temple Mount, completely occupying a significant portion of it. It was at this time, that Yohanan ben Zakkai was approached by Josephus, a Pharisee who was with the Romans, with a peace proposal. In this proposal, the area the Pharisees controlled, including the entirety of the Temple, would be spared if the Pharisees would let the Romans into the city. Tired of the war, the Pharisees agreed, and so, with Jewish support from inside Jerusalem, the Romans attacked and took the city, leaving the Temple and the Pharisees intact, but destroying and enslaving virtually everything else.
In the aftermath, the religious landscape of Judaism drastically changed. Previously, the three dominant religious parties of Judaism had been the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Pharisees. The hardest hit by the revolt were the Sadducees who drew their support mainly from the aristocracy and priesthood. The wealthy aristocracy saw their wealth disappear, like water before the thirsty beast which was the Roman army, while the priesthood was reshuffled by the Romans after many of the priests, including Eleazar ben Simon, the rogue high priest, were killed for their part in the rebellion. With the Sadducees neutralized, the Essenes, who had defined themselves as fanatical opposition to the Sadducees, started to unradicalize, many merging back into the more mainstream Pharisees, with whom they held much in common, while others continued to practice their unique piousness, though this number increasingly dwindled.
The Pharisees, unlike the other two groups, flourished post-revolt, as a result of being looked upon favorably with Rome, who recognized their support in quelling the rebellion, as well as the people, who saw them as delivering them from the sectarian violence that the zealots brought. In addition, with much of the Sadducean priesthood dead or scattered, the Pharisees were the ones who took over the management of the Temple. However, unlike the Sadducees, who literally interpreted the written Mosaic Law, the Pharisees were more concerned with the oral law and the prophets. Thus, when the people were initially unable to fund the sacrifices as they had before the war, the Pharisees, drawing their support from the prophets, downplayed the need for sacrifice and promoted instead values such as mercy and repentance. It was not long before only national sacrifices, such as the Day of Atonement, were held in the Temple, and eventually, even these ceased in favor of a spirit of sacrifice.
As the Temple began moving away from primarily the center of cultic sacrifices, it became instead a center of religious instruction. Soon, in Judaism a man was not considered a reputable religious authority unless he studied at the Pharisaic school in the Temple. Eventually, people outside of Judea started to come to Jerusalem, attracted by the lure of the school, at first only Hellenistic Jews, but eventually even some Gentiles. The Hellenistic thought that these visitors brought to the academy at the Temple challenged the Pharisaical assumptions of most of the academy members, provoke two distinct responses. The first response, which was the popular response in Jerusalem and among the Jews of the Diaspora, was one of synthesis. Exploiting Philos dual distinction of the literal and allegorical meaning to its fullest, these Jews sought to integrate Greek science and philosophy while remaining steadfast monotheists committed to the law and the prophets. The second response, which was the dominant response of the countryside of Judea, was one of reaction, an attempt to completely purify Judaism from all outside influences.
As the horrors of the last revolt started to fade, this reactionary group started to have fringe elements that were even too reactionary for the reactionaries. These groups agitated, and plotted, and terrorized, or at least attempted to terrorize. Eventually, they attempted an actual revolt, attacking the Temple, believing that if they held that, then the rest of the country would join with them. Unfortunately for them, this plan was leaked, and so instead of unarmed pilgrims and scholars, they ran right into a Roman ambush which killed most of them, scattering the rest. With the mouthpieces of the ultra-radicals permanently quieted (at least until the next generation of ultra-radicals) Judaism, and Judea on the whole reached a peaceful equilibrium.
The Empire
With the creation of the Eastern Empire, a new religious force invaded the East, following the new Augustus, Mithras. Of course, it was not really a new religious force, for it had early on sprung up in the Eastern reaches of the Empire, perhaps even having been birthed in the lands of the Parthians. But while it might have been birthed in the East, it had metamorphosed in the West, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Thus, when it returned to the East, it was like someone who had traveled on a journey far from home, only to return the same person as the one who left, yet different.
But despite having the favor of the Imperial court, Mithras was not really the dominant god of the East. In fact, outside of the capital only in the army and among the settled veteran colonies was the worship extensive. Despite this, many wealthy citizens, eager to curry favor with the court and in gratitude of the protection Mithras gave, built temples to Mithras, giving him some honor in virtually every city of the realm. Meanwhile in the West, with the exodus of the best troops to the East, Mithras became almost completely extinct, virtually its only presence in Britannia, where, combining with other Britannic/Roman religious strains, it enjoyed something of a renaissance.
This religion, if such incoherent mass of beliefs could be called such, was a mixture of various eastern mystery religions, local cults, and pseudo-science, especially astronomy, all with a vaguely defined attempt at a philosophical base. These cults tended to be localized, sometimes to a particular city, sometimes to a particular people group. As a byproduct of this localization, the religions tended to be synchronistic. Once a practitioner left the local area of worship to visit another land he was allowed, if not outright expected, to worship whatever god happened to be in the new location. Though some religions, following Platonic and Neo-Platonic thought, believed there to be one ultimate god or force, this god was seen as distant, unable to be reached, and so humanity had to content itself with the hosts of lesser deities.
Another popular religious expression was the mystery religions. In these religions, the initiated, and only the initiated held the keys to understanding the cosmos and worshiping the divine. Because this knowledge was usually conceived of in universal tones, these religions tended to have a more widespread appeal than the more localized folk religions.
The last main religious strand in the Empire was the Imperial cult. Whether in order to legitimize their rule, or bind the Empire together, whether because it was tradition, or because they actually believed it, many Emperors proclaimed their divinity, building temples so that their august personage might be freely worshiped throughout the realm. However, while many dutifully carried out their civil service of worship, few, if any actually believed the Emperor to be divine. After the division of the Empire, in fact, the Eastern Augusti abandoned the claim to divinity all together, preferring instead the religious title Pontifex Maximus. In the West, however, the Emperor still demanded all honors due to gods, though the actual acclaim they received, other than from their sycophants, was almost non-existent.
Thus, on the whole, the Empire at this time period was marked by a plurality of minor religions, none of which managed to gain dominance in the realm. As a result, syncretism and tolerance were the chief religious values cherished. In the end, with few exceptions, it did not really matter what religion one belonged to, as few would demand commitment or change in lifestyle. And so it was, that the citizens of Rome and the Empire, those pigs of Epicurus sty, sat around, eating and drinking until the ending of their world.
It was an old joke, one whispered in forgotten corners where there was no danger of being overheard. Id rather be his pig (hus) than his son (huios). It was humorous in the unfunny way that truth often is. For in his realm, pigs were safe, as no one ate them, but his sons were not, as he showed no compulsion in mercilessly killing his own blood in order to keep his throne secure. It should be no surprise then, to discover that when he heard the rumors that a king was born who would one day wrest his kingdom from his hands, he acted with characteristic ruthles
sness, ordering the slaughter of the handful of infants in the small, sleepy village that boasted to be the birthplace of a king. But the rumors, as rumors often are, were wrong. No royalty had been born, those who were waiting for God to act continued to wait. And so there remained in Israel no king but Herod.
And so people continued to live their lives as they had before. Unaware of how close they came to the curse of significance, they continued fishing, continued collecting taxes, continued teaching in synagogues, continued plotting against Rome. And so things remained as they were, which in this cursed land meant people continued to plot, assassinate, denounce, steal, lie, and swindle in the name of kings, emperors, nationalism, and religion. But this state of affairs, like all things, could not last. These particular affairs ended in quite the spectacular way as the entire land known as Judea revolted against the might of Rome. They were defeated, of course, as all but the most fanatical could have predicted. And as the Roman army marched towards Jerusalem, the Jewish rebels fractured into a multitude of groups, seemingly determined to kill each other and so deprive the Romans of that pleasure.
Rome, of course, politely waited, their armies camped outside of Jerusalem, determined that if their enemy was going to be as nice as to kill themselves, they wouldnt interfere. Eventually, however, one of the groups, the Pharisees, who had never really been enthusiastic about the revolt, seized the Temple Mount and offered the Romans a deal that they couldnt refuse: the Pharisees would deliver the city into the Roman hands in exchange for the Temple not being harmed. And thus it was, Rome leveled the city, killing and pillaging, but kept their promises. And so the Temple stood, its golden roof shining like a second sun, surrounded by nothing but ashes and rubble.
The Temple, and the city, however, were really never the same afterwards. The Romans had been thorough in their destruction of the city, enslaving much of its populous and taking everything of value in order to pay for the expensive campaign. As a result, the few people who were left were poor, unable to fund the sacrifices that had previously ascended to heaven. But no worries, the Pharisees proclaimed, for did not Adonai say through his prophets that what he desired was mercy not sacrifice? And so the Temple gradually phased out sacrifices, becoming rather a giant school with library, the main training center for the now religiously dominant Pharisees. Eventually, as people and wealth started trickling back to Jerusalem, attracted by the Temple, one of the wonders of the world, Jerusalem started to rival Athens and Alexandria as cities of learning.
In the rest of the Empire, things went on as it seemed they always had. Good emperors alternated with bad emperors, victories alternated with defeats, advances chased retreats like the sun chases the moon. Soon, despite the best efforts of several individuals, one got the distinct impression that the Empire was beginning to stagnate. In the cities, nobility lounged, their only movements the ones that lifted up their wine to their lips, even hiring others to carry their noble selves from party to party. The commoners were no better, living their lives from circus to circus, eating bread they did not earn, denouncing or acclaiming based on the state of their stomachs.
The state of the military was scarcely better. Many of the auxiliaries lounged around, spending their time gambling and whoring. Only on the border, hardened by constant raids of the bearded-ones did Marius spirit live on, though even there only dimly, mere fading stars to the burning sun which had shone before. It is here that many of the emperors arose, their claims backed by iron forged from the heat of many battles. Once in Rome, however, these generals turned Caesars were seduced by its splendors. Others were entrapped by its intrigues, like a fly caught in a spiders web, destroyed by an enemy they never saw. Only a few managed to rise above, small sparks that flew upward, burning brightly for a time before eternally vanishing.
It was one of these brief sparks that decided to divide the Empire, recognizing that one man could no longer protect or rule so vast a land. So he took the title Augustus of the East, making one of the sycophants that Rome acclaimed so loudly as the Augustus of the West. Under these Augusti, were four Caesars, each charged with defending the Empire. In the east, the new Augustus built a city where the small Greek town of Byzantium stood, laying out a capital that was as much fort as city, an austere camp compared to the glitter of Rome. It was from this city, renamed Caesaropolis, the city of Caesars, that a line of warrior-emperors ruled who managed to stabilize the border in the east, checking the barbarian hordes, dedicating their many victories to Mithras, their martial protector.
Thus, like a flowing river, the invading tribes followed the path of least resistance, turning away from the well fortified east to the west. There they found Rome, the city of conquerors, waiting for them. But the Rome who once caused even the starts to tremble was no more. When the last of her great warrior-generals left to establish his eastern capital, he took the best legions with him, leaving behind only disciplineless mobs that defamed the name Roman legion.
It was not surprising, then, that the so-called legions crumbled before the onslaught, like a wooden shack before a flooding river. In desperation the Augustus of the West sent a message to one of his Caesars who was then in Britannia, demanding that he abandon it to the northern Picts in order to defend Mother Rome. Unfortunately for the Augustus, the Caesar did not see Rome as his mother, and, having married a native Briton, could not bear to see his adopted country burn in order to save a city he had only seen once. Thus the legions of Britannia, which might have saved Rome, did not move, sitting with dry eyes while Rome burned.
Judea
Unarguably one of the watershed moments in the history of Judaism was the Jewish Revolt. In hindsight, the revolt seems inevitable. Since the first occupation, Rome had never understood the Jewish mind, their cultural of tolerance and plurality never could grasp the Jewish fanatical monotheism. To these religious differences were added all kinds of other traditional ingredients for rebellion, ethnic pride, overbearing taxes, inept rule. Thus, the province of Judea seemed to be a lake of lamp oil, waiting only for a small spark to be entirely engulfed in flames.
The spark erupted when a group of Greeks sacrificed some pigeons before a Jewish synagogue in Caesarea. This act of defilement was used by the zealots to fan the flames of rebellion, so much so that even such a notable figure as the High Priest led an attack against the Romans. However, after winning early victories against the surprised Romans, the rebels were pushed from northern Judea by fresh Roman reinforcements, eventually being reduced to several strongholds, the most important being Jerusalem.
As the Romans besieged the city, several factions within it started fighting with each other, the most important of which were the Sicarii led by Simon Bar Giora, the zealots led by Eleazar ben Simon, the Giscalans led by John of Giscala, and the Pharisee party led by Yohanan ben Zakkai. Early on in the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, the first three groups attempted to expel the Pharisee party, whose enthusiasm about the revolt had always been lukewarm at best. However, these three groups had underestimated the popular support of the Pharisees, and their attempted expulsion backfired as instead, the Pharisees barricaded themselves near the Temple Mount. As the other three groups continued to fight amongst themselves, the Pharisaical party continued to grow from those fleeing the brutal civil war waged between the other groups. In fact, there numbers swelled to such an extent, that they were able to launch a successful attack against the Temple Mount, completely occupying a significant portion of it. It was at this time, that Yohanan ben Zakkai was approached by Josephus, a Pharisee who was with the Romans, with a peace proposal. In this proposal, the area the Pharisees controlled, including the entirety of the Temple, would be spared if the Pharisees would let the Romans into the city. Tired of the war, the Pharisees agreed, and so, with Jewish support from inside Jerusalem, the Romans attacked and took the city, leaving the Temple and the Pharisees intact, but destroying and enslaving virtually everything else.
In the aftermath, the religious landscape of Judaism drastically changed. Previously, the three dominant religious parties of Judaism had been the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Pharisees. The hardest hit by the revolt were the Sadducees who drew their support mainly from the aristocracy and priesthood. The wealthy aristocracy saw their wealth disappear, like water before the thirsty beast which was the Roman army, while the priesthood was reshuffled by the Romans after many of the priests, including Eleazar ben Simon, the rogue high priest, were killed for their part in the rebellion. With the Sadducees neutralized, the Essenes, who had defined themselves as fanatical opposition to the Sadducees, started to unradicalize, many merging back into the more mainstream Pharisees, with whom they held much in common, while others continued to practice their unique piousness, though this number increasingly dwindled.
The Pharisees, unlike the other two groups, flourished post-revolt, as a result of being looked upon favorably with Rome, who recognized their support in quelling the rebellion, as well as the people, who saw them as delivering them from the sectarian violence that the zealots brought. In addition, with much of the Sadducean priesthood dead or scattered, the Pharisees were the ones who took over the management of the Temple. However, unlike the Sadducees, who literally interpreted the written Mosaic Law, the Pharisees were more concerned with the oral law and the prophets. Thus, when the people were initially unable to fund the sacrifices as they had before the war, the Pharisees, drawing their support from the prophets, downplayed the need for sacrifice and promoted instead values such as mercy and repentance. It was not long before only national sacrifices, such as the Day of Atonement, were held in the Temple, and eventually, even these ceased in favor of a spirit of sacrifice.
As the Temple began moving away from primarily the center of cultic sacrifices, it became instead a center of religious instruction. Soon, in Judaism a man was not considered a reputable religious authority unless he studied at the Pharisaic school in the Temple. Eventually, people outside of Judea started to come to Jerusalem, attracted by the lure of the school, at first only Hellenistic Jews, but eventually even some Gentiles. The Hellenistic thought that these visitors brought to the academy at the Temple challenged the Pharisaical assumptions of most of the academy members, provoke two distinct responses. The first response, which was the popular response in Jerusalem and among the Jews of the Diaspora, was one of synthesis. Exploiting Philos dual distinction of the literal and allegorical meaning to its fullest, these Jews sought to integrate Greek science and philosophy while remaining steadfast monotheists committed to the law and the prophets. The second response, which was the dominant response of the countryside of Judea, was one of reaction, an attempt to completely purify Judaism from all outside influences.
As the horrors of the last revolt started to fade, this reactionary group started to have fringe elements that were even too reactionary for the reactionaries. These groups agitated, and plotted, and terrorized, or at least attempted to terrorize. Eventually, they attempted an actual revolt, attacking the Temple, believing that if they held that, then the rest of the country would join with them. Unfortunately for them, this plan was leaked, and so instead of unarmed pilgrims and scholars, they ran right into a Roman ambush which killed most of them, scattering the rest. With the mouthpieces of the ultra-radicals permanently quieted (at least until the next generation of ultra-radicals) Judaism, and Judea on the whole reached a peaceful equilibrium.
The Empire
With the creation of the Eastern Empire, a new religious force invaded the East, following the new Augustus, Mithras. Of course, it was not really a new religious force, for it had early on sprung up in the Eastern reaches of the Empire, perhaps even having been birthed in the lands of the Parthians. But while it might have been birthed in the East, it had metamorphosed in the West, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Thus, when it returned to the East, it was like someone who had traveled on a journey far from home, only to return the same person as the one who left, yet different.
But despite having the favor of the Imperial court, Mithras was not really the dominant god of the East. In fact, outside of the capital only in the army and among the settled veteran colonies was the worship extensive. Despite this, many wealthy citizens, eager to curry favor with the court and in gratitude of the protection Mithras gave, built temples to Mithras, giving him some honor in virtually every city of the realm. Meanwhile in the West, with the exodus of the best troops to the East, Mithras became almost completely extinct, virtually its only presence in Britannia, where, combining with other Britannic/Roman religious strains, it enjoyed something of a renaissance.
This religion, if such incoherent mass of beliefs could be called such, was a mixture of various eastern mystery religions, local cults, and pseudo-science, especially astronomy, all with a vaguely defined attempt at a philosophical base. These cults tended to be localized, sometimes to a particular city, sometimes to a particular people group. As a byproduct of this localization, the religions tended to be synchronistic. Once a practitioner left the local area of worship to visit another land he was allowed, if not outright expected, to worship whatever god happened to be in the new location. Though some religions, following Platonic and Neo-Platonic thought, believed there to be one ultimate god or force, this god was seen as distant, unable to be reached, and so humanity had to content itself with the hosts of lesser deities.
Another popular religious expression was the mystery religions. In these religions, the initiated, and only the initiated held the keys to understanding the cosmos and worshiping the divine. Because this knowledge was usually conceived of in universal tones, these religions tended to have a more widespread appeal than the more localized folk religions.
The last main religious strand in the Empire was the Imperial cult. Whether in order to legitimize their rule, or bind the Empire together, whether because it was tradition, or because they actually believed it, many Emperors proclaimed their divinity, building temples so that their august personage might be freely worshiped throughout the realm. However, while many dutifully carried out their civil service of worship, few, if any actually believed the Emperor to be divine. After the division of the Empire, in fact, the Eastern Augusti abandoned the claim to divinity all together, preferring instead the religious title Pontifex Maximus. In the West, however, the Emperor still demanded all honors due to gods, though the actual acclaim they received, other than from their sycophants, was almost non-existent.
Thus, on the whole, the Empire at this time period was marked by a plurality of minor religions, none of which managed to gain dominance in the realm. As a result, syncretism and tolerance were the chief religious values cherished. In the end, with few exceptions, it did not really matter what religion one belonged to, as few would demand commitment or change in lifestyle. And so it was, that the citizens of Rome and the Empire, those pigs of Epicurus sty, sat around, eating and drinking until the ending of their world.
Spoiler :
The Eternal Wait: Part 2
375 CE-440 CE
It was late spring, the ferocious heat of the summer not quite making the city a bakers oven. The Augustus, surrounded by various nobles and bodyguards lounged under a purple awning, alternating between sipping chilled wine, lazily talking, and groping the nearest female servant. Around them, separated by a cordon of space as well as influence, stood the citizenry of Rome, their eyes riveted to the scene below them. Suddenly a roar from the crowd went up, like a sudden clap of thunder. Looking up from a pretty little slave he had just bought, the Augustus saw that one of the gladiators was down, the triumphant victor holding his sword aloft; its point aimed downward, waiting for permission before delivering the final blow. All around the coliseum thumbs pointed down. Seeing this, the uncaring Augustus held his own thumb down, an action that caused the crowd to go into a frenzy as a small river of blood stained the sandy ground.
That very night, if ancient historians are to be believed, it was the Augustus blood that stained the ground, mingling with the growing red ocean of blood from those, who, only a few hours earlier, had been cheering at the sight of death. Rome, the city of conquerors now laid conquered, for one violent night her streets echoing with the unfamiliar screams of her inhabitants. Wraithlike, Romans flirted around the city, their feet slipping on pools of blood, occasionally tripping over a body. This had to be a dream right? But it wasnt a dream, the citizens, many of whom slept the eternal sleep, did not wake up.
In the provinces, it seemed as if no one noticed that the Queen of all Cities lay raped and bruised, sprawled in the gutter. For as long as anyone could remember, the various Augusti of the West made no effort to oversee the provinces, preferring reports about the size of womens breasts to reports on the size of border legions. Thus as long as tribute to fund their extravagant lifestyles and grain to feed the masses continued to flow into Rome, the Augusti left the provinces to their own devices. In addition, there were no ties of paternal loyalties binding the various western Caesars to Rome. Many Caesars, including all of the border ones, were themselves lately classified as barbarians by Rome, trading the power of their tribal armies for land and political power within the west. Already, the cords which bound the west together were becoming undone, as the legions of Britannia, refused to obey the orders of the Augustus to abandon the island, proclaiming their independence by their inaction.
It was only the Augustus of the East that showed any interest in the fate of Rome. Fearing that if the barbarians continued to wander about they would eventually turn back to attack the east, or almost as bad, interrupt the trade route between the wealthy western north Africa and the east, the Augustus named a new Western Augustus from one of the patrician families of Rome, making preparations that made it seem as if he was planning on backing up his appointment with military force if necessary. But whether this was his actual intentions or just a ruse, the world never found out because, the barbarian king, who remembered all to well the defeats the Eastern army had given him before he had turned west, accepted an offer which made him Caesar of northern Italy, as well as giving his tribes plenty of land to settle in exchange to his loyalty to the Western Empire.
Thus in the West, things continued in the pre-established pattern. Various tribes or alliance of tribes from outside of the Empires borders would periodically sweep in a migrating invasion. Occasionally these tribes would be turned aside, held back by the armies at the disposal of the local Caesar. More often than not, however, the tribes would break through, or in some cases be let through, passing through the Empire to settle in some spot where they would force the local authorities to name their leader Caesar of the Empire. Once this process had started, the Western Augustus proved powerless to stop it, even if he desired to. The armies had long since turned from Roman armies into local armies raised and equipped by the various Caesars from their local tribes. At the most, all the Augustus could do was play the various Caesars against one another, though even this, as time passed, they increasingly seemed disinclined to do.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Empire also continued its trend of decentralization, though for entirely different reasons from the west. Because of the almost constant pressure created by the Parthians and their successors in the east and the various tribes to the north meant that most Augusti spent virtually their entire lives with their armies on the field. Because of this, as well as because very little of the bureaucratic mechanizations transferred over to the capital of Caesaropolis, most of the governing of the realm was taken over by local rulers who were given the title of Caesar. Unlike in the west, however, while having significant local political power, these eastern Caesars had no military power, as the armies were concentrated almost solely on the border under the authority of the Augusti.
However, because the Augusti and their heirs spent so much of their lives protecting the borders of the realm, there was the continuous threat of a succession crisis as the Augusti and their heirs were in perpetual risk of dying in battle. The fear was that in such a crisis, the various border generals would all strive against one another for the title of Augustus, leaving the border defenseless and the heartlands of the Empire vulnerable. Meanwhile, the Caesars themselves stood little chance of attaining the title in such a scenario as any significant faction of the standing army could easily brush past any levies that the Caesars attempted to raise.
It was one of the many reforms of Augustus Julius, himself heirless, that a solution to a possible succession crisis was reached. At the death of an Augustus, it would be the Caesars who would meet to appoint the successor. This successor, however, must be one of the border generals. In this way, both spheres of power in the East, the Caesars and the generals, remained satisfied. The Caesars not only gained the power of appointment of the next Augustus, but they also ensured that the border would remain stable, its armies not wasted in dynastic struggles. In addition, by electing only generals, they ensured that no Augustus would attempt to combine military with political power, threatening their own local political power. The generals ensured that the throne of Augustus would always be held by a military man, that the defense of the borders would always remain a priority. In addition, all generals had, in theory at least, the possibility of ascending to the throne without the risk that warfare brought. In warfare, if one sought the throne but failed, death was the only possible outcome. In this system, however, one could seek the throne and if failed, would still be able to keep their generalship, losing nothing. Lastly, the future Augusti benefited from this arrangement. With their own army combined with the wealth of the united provinces, they were virtually unassailable from civil war. Because of this, the wealth of the East wouldnt be drained by constant succession crises and so each Augustus would inherit a stronger Empire than they would without this system. Thus, while there were occasional civil wars, they never reached a significant magnitude, each one being easily crushed by the elected Augustus in a relatively short time.
While the East managed to keep semi-unified, even the illusion of unity in the West was soon to evaporate like dew before the flaming sun. After the sack of Rome, the eternal city had never recovered. The patrician Justus, who the East had made Augustus after the fall of Rome, had attempted to revitalize it, but had been thwarted by lack of funds and hostility towards the plan by the Caesars, who feared that a stronger Rome would attempt to encroach on their by now traditional powers. Eventually, Justus was forced to abandon his project, even eventually leaving the city in order to live in one of his vast estates outside of it. Before the sack, the Augusti could at least count on some of the wealth, if not the power, from the provinces to trickle in to the capital in order to finance their extravagant lifestyle. After the sack, even these funds were diverted, some going East through trade networks, more going into the pockets of the local Caesars.
Despite this, the title of Augustus still held some value and thus the Augustus were still kept around. Coins were minted, taxes were raised, troops were trained, all in the name of the Augustus. In reality, however, the Augustus had as much power as the Caesars of northern Italy, descendants of those who had sacked Rome, gave them. But they still had their title, and the oversight, at least in name, of a still vast empire. Still, all it took was one ambitious man
As fate would decree, that ambitious man was Augustus Marius. As a rule, the Italian Caesars refused to put an ambitious man on the throne, preferring a weak mouthpiece to someone who might be a real emperor. Nevertheless, Marius managed to gain the title when the northern Caesars were threatened by internal strife, and one of the younger sons by the name of Aetius sought the support of Marius own legions to secure the Caesarship. However, Aetius found that Marius was less pliable than an Augustus should be, ignoring his advice and daring to pursue an independent policy. This caused the Caesar to raise his own army and appoint a new Augustus, marching on Rome to enforce this regime change.
While this had been going on, Marius had not been idle, sending out messengers to other Caesars for their support. A coalition was formed, its members fearing the actual power of Aetius more than the potential power of Marius. Thus, while Aetius was besieging Marius in Rome, another army moved behind Aetius, encircling the besieging army. Unfortunately for Aetius, the Roman army had deteriorated since the namesake of his title, Julius Caesar, won in a similar situation at Alesia. Facing a combination of attacks from both the inside and outside of his encirclement, Aetius army broke, abandoning the siege. Aetius himself disappeared in the rout, most likely killed by a soldier who didnt recognize him, though his body was never found.
Had Marius been content with this, history might have turned out much different. However, Marius ambition showed itself again. Using the same tactics of dividing the Caesars that had worked so successfully in his war against Aetius, Marius marched northward, accepting the homage of some Caesars and defeating others. However, Marius had made the crucial mistake of overestimating his oppositions disunity and well as the unity of his own allies. Seeing an Augustus act, well like an Augustus, a second coalition of Caesars was formed, this time against Marius. Marius again sent out messengers to allies and potential allies to augment his own personal army. However, the bonds of homage which Marius had just received proved their own worth, as he was ignored by many of the same Caesars who had just promised undying loyalty. Thus, when Marius went out to meet the coalition, he found himself outnumbered, deserted by those whose support he had counted on. Predictably, when the two armies met like crashing waves, those allies of Marius, seeing that their cause would not be victorious, abandoned Marius, offering Marius up as a sacrifice in order to gain a more favorable peace for themselves. Marius own army, however, proved their loyalty with their blood, surrounding him like chicks surround the mother hen, paving the ground with their corpses.
After the battle, Marius fled to the East, hoping to find an army there willing to support his bid for the West. Unfortunately for him, however, the East he fled to was not the East which had saved Rome after its sack by the threat of its arms. For the East was itself facing a challenge that would irrevocably change the history of the region forever. For from the north came, as their Jewish citizens would proclaim, as if from the very gates of Sheol came the Riders of Abaddon.[1]
[1] Hebrew for The Destroyer having no connection to the NESer by that name or do they???
375 CE-440 CE
It was late spring, the ferocious heat of the summer not quite making the city a bakers oven. The Augustus, surrounded by various nobles and bodyguards lounged under a purple awning, alternating between sipping chilled wine, lazily talking, and groping the nearest female servant. Around them, separated by a cordon of space as well as influence, stood the citizenry of Rome, their eyes riveted to the scene below them. Suddenly a roar from the crowd went up, like a sudden clap of thunder. Looking up from a pretty little slave he had just bought, the Augustus saw that one of the gladiators was down, the triumphant victor holding his sword aloft; its point aimed downward, waiting for permission before delivering the final blow. All around the coliseum thumbs pointed down. Seeing this, the uncaring Augustus held his own thumb down, an action that caused the crowd to go into a frenzy as a small river of blood stained the sandy ground.
That very night, if ancient historians are to be believed, it was the Augustus blood that stained the ground, mingling with the growing red ocean of blood from those, who, only a few hours earlier, had been cheering at the sight of death. Rome, the city of conquerors now laid conquered, for one violent night her streets echoing with the unfamiliar screams of her inhabitants. Wraithlike, Romans flirted around the city, their feet slipping on pools of blood, occasionally tripping over a body. This had to be a dream right? But it wasnt a dream, the citizens, many of whom slept the eternal sleep, did not wake up.
In the provinces, it seemed as if no one noticed that the Queen of all Cities lay raped and bruised, sprawled in the gutter. For as long as anyone could remember, the various Augusti of the West made no effort to oversee the provinces, preferring reports about the size of womens breasts to reports on the size of border legions. Thus as long as tribute to fund their extravagant lifestyles and grain to feed the masses continued to flow into Rome, the Augusti left the provinces to their own devices. In addition, there were no ties of paternal loyalties binding the various western Caesars to Rome. Many Caesars, including all of the border ones, were themselves lately classified as barbarians by Rome, trading the power of their tribal armies for land and political power within the west. Already, the cords which bound the west together were becoming undone, as the legions of Britannia, refused to obey the orders of the Augustus to abandon the island, proclaiming their independence by their inaction.
It was only the Augustus of the East that showed any interest in the fate of Rome. Fearing that if the barbarians continued to wander about they would eventually turn back to attack the east, or almost as bad, interrupt the trade route between the wealthy western north Africa and the east, the Augustus named a new Western Augustus from one of the patrician families of Rome, making preparations that made it seem as if he was planning on backing up his appointment with military force if necessary. But whether this was his actual intentions or just a ruse, the world never found out because, the barbarian king, who remembered all to well the defeats the Eastern army had given him before he had turned west, accepted an offer which made him Caesar of northern Italy, as well as giving his tribes plenty of land to settle in exchange to his loyalty to the Western Empire.
Thus in the West, things continued in the pre-established pattern. Various tribes or alliance of tribes from outside of the Empires borders would periodically sweep in a migrating invasion. Occasionally these tribes would be turned aside, held back by the armies at the disposal of the local Caesar. More often than not, however, the tribes would break through, or in some cases be let through, passing through the Empire to settle in some spot where they would force the local authorities to name their leader Caesar of the Empire. Once this process had started, the Western Augustus proved powerless to stop it, even if he desired to. The armies had long since turned from Roman armies into local armies raised and equipped by the various Caesars from their local tribes. At the most, all the Augustus could do was play the various Caesars against one another, though even this, as time passed, they increasingly seemed disinclined to do.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Empire also continued its trend of decentralization, though for entirely different reasons from the west. Because of the almost constant pressure created by the Parthians and their successors in the east and the various tribes to the north meant that most Augusti spent virtually their entire lives with their armies on the field. Because of this, as well as because very little of the bureaucratic mechanizations transferred over to the capital of Caesaropolis, most of the governing of the realm was taken over by local rulers who were given the title of Caesar. Unlike in the west, however, while having significant local political power, these eastern Caesars had no military power, as the armies were concentrated almost solely on the border under the authority of the Augusti.
However, because the Augusti and their heirs spent so much of their lives protecting the borders of the realm, there was the continuous threat of a succession crisis as the Augusti and their heirs were in perpetual risk of dying in battle. The fear was that in such a crisis, the various border generals would all strive against one another for the title of Augustus, leaving the border defenseless and the heartlands of the Empire vulnerable. Meanwhile, the Caesars themselves stood little chance of attaining the title in such a scenario as any significant faction of the standing army could easily brush past any levies that the Caesars attempted to raise.
It was one of the many reforms of Augustus Julius, himself heirless, that a solution to a possible succession crisis was reached. At the death of an Augustus, it would be the Caesars who would meet to appoint the successor. This successor, however, must be one of the border generals. In this way, both spheres of power in the East, the Caesars and the generals, remained satisfied. The Caesars not only gained the power of appointment of the next Augustus, but they also ensured that the border would remain stable, its armies not wasted in dynastic struggles. In addition, by electing only generals, they ensured that no Augustus would attempt to combine military with political power, threatening their own local political power. The generals ensured that the throne of Augustus would always be held by a military man, that the defense of the borders would always remain a priority. In addition, all generals had, in theory at least, the possibility of ascending to the throne without the risk that warfare brought. In warfare, if one sought the throne but failed, death was the only possible outcome. In this system, however, one could seek the throne and if failed, would still be able to keep their generalship, losing nothing. Lastly, the future Augusti benefited from this arrangement. With their own army combined with the wealth of the united provinces, they were virtually unassailable from civil war. Because of this, the wealth of the East wouldnt be drained by constant succession crises and so each Augustus would inherit a stronger Empire than they would without this system. Thus, while there were occasional civil wars, they never reached a significant magnitude, each one being easily crushed by the elected Augustus in a relatively short time.
While the East managed to keep semi-unified, even the illusion of unity in the West was soon to evaporate like dew before the flaming sun. After the sack of Rome, the eternal city had never recovered. The patrician Justus, who the East had made Augustus after the fall of Rome, had attempted to revitalize it, but had been thwarted by lack of funds and hostility towards the plan by the Caesars, who feared that a stronger Rome would attempt to encroach on their by now traditional powers. Eventually, Justus was forced to abandon his project, even eventually leaving the city in order to live in one of his vast estates outside of it. Before the sack, the Augusti could at least count on some of the wealth, if not the power, from the provinces to trickle in to the capital in order to finance their extravagant lifestyle. After the sack, even these funds were diverted, some going East through trade networks, more going into the pockets of the local Caesars.
Despite this, the title of Augustus still held some value and thus the Augustus were still kept around. Coins were minted, taxes were raised, troops were trained, all in the name of the Augustus. In reality, however, the Augustus had as much power as the Caesars of northern Italy, descendants of those who had sacked Rome, gave them. But they still had their title, and the oversight, at least in name, of a still vast empire. Still, all it took was one ambitious man
As fate would decree, that ambitious man was Augustus Marius. As a rule, the Italian Caesars refused to put an ambitious man on the throne, preferring a weak mouthpiece to someone who might be a real emperor. Nevertheless, Marius managed to gain the title when the northern Caesars were threatened by internal strife, and one of the younger sons by the name of Aetius sought the support of Marius own legions to secure the Caesarship. However, Aetius found that Marius was less pliable than an Augustus should be, ignoring his advice and daring to pursue an independent policy. This caused the Caesar to raise his own army and appoint a new Augustus, marching on Rome to enforce this regime change.
While this had been going on, Marius had not been idle, sending out messengers to other Caesars for their support. A coalition was formed, its members fearing the actual power of Aetius more than the potential power of Marius. Thus, while Aetius was besieging Marius in Rome, another army moved behind Aetius, encircling the besieging army. Unfortunately for Aetius, the Roman army had deteriorated since the namesake of his title, Julius Caesar, won in a similar situation at Alesia. Facing a combination of attacks from both the inside and outside of his encirclement, Aetius army broke, abandoning the siege. Aetius himself disappeared in the rout, most likely killed by a soldier who didnt recognize him, though his body was never found.
Had Marius been content with this, history might have turned out much different. However, Marius ambition showed itself again. Using the same tactics of dividing the Caesars that had worked so successfully in his war against Aetius, Marius marched northward, accepting the homage of some Caesars and defeating others. However, Marius had made the crucial mistake of overestimating his oppositions disunity and well as the unity of his own allies. Seeing an Augustus act, well like an Augustus, a second coalition of Caesars was formed, this time against Marius. Marius again sent out messengers to allies and potential allies to augment his own personal army. However, the bonds of homage which Marius had just received proved their own worth, as he was ignored by many of the same Caesars who had just promised undying loyalty. Thus, when Marius went out to meet the coalition, he found himself outnumbered, deserted by those whose support he had counted on. Predictably, when the two armies met like crashing waves, those allies of Marius, seeing that their cause would not be victorious, abandoned Marius, offering Marius up as a sacrifice in order to gain a more favorable peace for themselves. Marius own army, however, proved their loyalty with their blood, surrounding him like chicks surround the mother hen, paving the ground with their corpses.
After the battle, Marius fled to the East, hoping to find an army there willing to support his bid for the West. Unfortunately for him, however, the East he fled to was not the East which had saved Rome after its sack by the threat of its arms. For the East was itself facing a challenge that would irrevocably change the history of the region forever. For from the north came, as their Jewish citizens would proclaim, as if from the very gates of Sheol came the Riders of Abaddon.[1]
[1] Hebrew for The Destroyer having no connection to the NESer by that name or do they???
