Rome - Pre Christian, Christian Times - to Today

[Mike047]

The remnants of many world powers of bible times still exist, and are large tourist attractions. But one that still figures prominently is Rome. It remains central to the Catholic religion, with the Bishop of Rome, whose role as Pontifex Maximus (Chief Bridgemaker) still exists. A king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, is said to have founded the College of Pontiffs during the regal period of Roman history. Numa was credited with establishing many of Rome's social and religious institutions, including the College of Pontiffs, from which the Pope is appointed.

 

Some of the Rome of today has retained glimpses of the Rome of the first century CE, but it is worth considering how that Rome may have looked to first century Christians.

 

At that time, many of the wealthy and influential men and women lived in palatial homes on the seven hills. Their homes were maintained by large households of servants, who lived fairly comfortable lives, and slaves. Sometimes these households numbered into the hundreds. Down in the valleys the common people lived, and they were generally crowded into enormous insulae, or tenement houses, several stories high. In the time of Augustus the height of these tenement blocks was limited to 21m (70ft). These tenement blocks were separated by narrow, crooked, dirty streets filled with the customary traffic and corruption prevalent in big city areas. In some of the entrance-ways there were arches, in which women stood, plying their trade. These arches were called, in Latin, fornix, or fornicari, and the women were called fornicators.

 

The way of life for most of these city dwellers, was akin to being paupers.  Most lived off some form of government subsidy. From 58 BCE, onward, grain was generally distributed free as well as water, which was brought many miles into the city by aqueducts.  They were ripe for the Good News, but there were many challenges.

 

When taking the Christian faith to Rome, as many who had visited Jerusalem at Pentecost 33CE, may have done when also perhaps establishing the first congregation, they encountered other religious factions:

 

Cynics - who believed selfishness a prime motivator. They derided and belittled the efforts of others seeking truth.

                           [Originator - Antisthenes, taught at the gymnasium of Cynosarges]

Stoics - Who believed all vices and virtues are prime aspects of material life. They believed that the soul survives death of the body. They said there is no personal God.

                          [Originator - Zeno of Athens, taught in a local Porch, known as a Stoa, hence Stoics] 

Epicureans - believed that 'good living is all that we seek'. They sought carnal pleasures

                          [Originator - Epicurius, a Greek philosopher who founded the Epicurian school]

Academics - They said that 'all matter is eternal, without form or order'

                         [Originator - Plato, who taught in an attractive garden area planted by Academos]

 

With such widely differing views, held by those considered to be more educated, and appalling living conditions for many, How would Christianity hold up?

 

This is just part of a view of a point in time. Maybe others can add to this, or take things further with all things Rome.

[Katty]

Interesting topic. 
It makes sense, also, that the Bible portrays the Anglo-American world power as being offshoots of Rome as well. To an extent, both have modelled their democracies on Roman governmental practices particularly regarding checks and balances. When the founding fathers of the US developed the US constituted, they purposely modelled it, at least partly, on the Roman Republic. To an extent, the British system with a PM, Parliament, and a similar system of checks and balances was also modelled on such, as it was built on top of a monarchy. 
 

[Percy]

Here's an interesting video inside a Catholic Church some years ago. It displays the meaning of Catholic (Universal) to the parishioners:

 

[Brandon]

I don’t know if it’s objectively true, but I listened to a podcast a few weeks ago where they were analyzing this Internet trend about men today and Rome. It goes like this:

 

Quote

What is the Roman Empire trend?

It sees women across the globe asking the men in their lives a seemingly innocent question: “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” 

The general consensus is that men think about it a lot – sometimes daily. And this has left women baffled. Apparently, women don’t think about the Roman Empire often at all, but men do.

https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/how-often-think-about-roman-empire/

[Percy]

On 12/21/2023 at 4:38 AM, Mike047 said:

This is just part of a view of a point in time. Maybe others can add to this, or take things further with all things Rome.

Whenever I think of the 2 legs of Nebuchadnezzar's statue then the feet and toes I think of the expanding roman empire throughout Europe, the countries of which derive some history from Rome. Britain still finds Roman coins in the dirt.

I recall the expression all roads lead to Rome and here is a map of its roads from early times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Peutingeriana

It is squashed to fit on a folded road map and thus not to scale. The 'boot' of Italy is in the middle with Africa to the south, Europe to the north, Greece to the east and further east is the Nile Delta (attached) then Jerusalem just above the Dead Seas and south of Rhodes (RHODOS) with its new name of Aelia Capitolina named after Hadrian the Caesar of the time.

[Pjdriver]

On 12/21/2023 at 7:38 AM, Mike047 said:

The remnants of many world powers of bible times still exist, and are large tourist attractions. But one that still figures prominently is Rome. It remains central to the Catholic religion, with the Bishop of Rome, whose role as Pontifex Maximus (Chief Bridgemaker) still exists. A king of Rome, N uma Pompilius, is said to have founded the College of Pontiffs during the regal period of Roman history. Numa was credited with establishing many of Rome's social and religious institutions, including the College of Pontiffs, from which the Pope is appointed.

 

 

Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome after Romulus is traditionally credited with founding the College of Pontiffs, but it's important to understand that much of what we know about Numa is a blend of legend and historical record. The College of Pontiffs played a crucial role in Roman religion, and its adaptation from a Pagan structure into Christian structures is an interesting topic. However, the extent to which Numa himself established these institutions is subject to scholarly debate, as Roman historical accounts from that era often intertwined factual and mythological elements. 

 

But the college of Pontiffs was a group of high ranking Priest that cared for the spiritual needs of the people before christianity came along. Once Constantine ended persecution of Christians, when his mother became a Christian, then after that many more were becoming christians,  

 

By the end of the 4th century, Empiror Theodosius made it the State religion. Catholic priests/Bishops were stepping into this same positions the former high ranking Pagan Priest occupied. The title "Pontifex Maximus” was for the highest ranking Pagan Priest and is now for the Pope as the highest Ranking Bishop.