ROME
(a) History. According to tradition, Rome was founded in 753 BC. by Romulus, who became its first king. The first phase of its existence was that of a monarchy. There were seven successive kings until the proclamation of the republic in 510 BC, caused by the tyranny of Tarquin the proud.
However, until the establishment of the republic, the history of Rome moves within a framework of legend mixed with a historical background in which it is difficult to disentangle fiction from reality. The history of the first two centuries of the republic is also dark. The government was led by the patricians.
By then, the population of Rome was made up of a mixture of Latins, Sabines and Etruscans. The patrician class, which held power, was ranchers and landowners, while the plebs were made up of farmers, artisans and merchants.
Tensions were created, in which commoners demanded legal equality; These tensions led to a series of reforms, in which the plebeians had their own tribune. Later, around 450-420 BC, the codification of Roman laws was achieved with the promulgation of the Twelve Tables.
From then on, a social stratification was created not based on lineage, but on the possession of economic means. Thus, slowly, the situation was reached in which every citizen (a minority of the population, made up mostly of slaves) had the right to vote.
It was under the republic that Rome extended its dominion throughout Italy (between the years 496 to 270 BC). Subsequently, the republic found itself in conflict with Carthage, which had previously been a faithful ally in the defense of their common interests. The confrontation against Carthage is called the (three) Punic Wars.
In the interval corresponding to the first two Punic Wars, Rome experienced a period of gradual expansion, marked by some setbacks (the victories of Hannibal, the scene of the war in Italy itself, Rome itself threatened). However, the end of the Second Punic War saw Rome in control of very large territories, which included, by the year 201, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and all of Mediterranean Spain.
From the year 200 B.C. She began to intervene intensely in eastern affairs. In the year 190 B.C. Antiochus the Great, king of Syria and father of the infamous Antiochus Epiphanes, was defeated by the Romans at Magnesia. From this, Rome assumed the protectorate of several cities in Asia Minor (cf. 1 Mac. 8:1-10).
Around the year 100 B.C. They already owned almost all of Spain, the south of France, the entire peninsula of Italy including the Alpine part, Dalmatia, Greece, the western area of Asia Minor, and Crete. In 63 BC, Pompey seized Judea, after having eliminated the power of the Seleucids, reducing Syria to the status of a Roman province. Judea, although made tributary, retained autonomous government for a certain time. (See JUDEA, BIBLICAL HISTORY, c, d(I) and HEROD.)
In Rome, political rivalries led to a series of internal struggles that, however, did not stop their foreign campaigns. The confrontation between Marius and Sulla did not stop the victorious campaigns against Mithridates IV, king of Pontus Euxine, nor the beginning of the occupation of Gaul, the Balearic archipelago, and many other campaigns.
After the defeat of Marius, Sulla was named dictator (82 BC), but was forced to abandon power due to the ineptitude of the system of government he advocated (79 BC). After several years of disturbances and internal struggles that not even provinces as remote as Spain were spared, in the year 60 B.C. The triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus was formed.
Undone by mutual suspicions, Caesar destroyed Pompey’s army in Lérida, in Spain. Crassus having died in his fight against the Parthians, Caesar gained uncontested power. However, he was murdered in 44 BC. in the Senate. A new civil war broke out. Antony, Octavian and Lepidus formed a new triumvirate, which ended with the imposition of Octavian’s supremacy in the year 31 BC.
The new master of the situation had himself proclaimed emperor and assumed the title of Augustus. The Lord Jesus Christ was born during his reign, and was crucified under Tiberius (see JESUS CHRIST). The martyrdom of James, brother of John, took place under Claudius (Acts 11:28; 12:1, 2). As for Paul, he appealed to Nero (Acts 25:11).
The destruction of Jerusalem prophesied by the Lord (Mt. 24; Mr. 13; Luke 19:41-44; 21:5-36) took place in the year 70 AD. under the reign of Vespasian and under the command of General Titus, who would be the next emperor (see CAESAR). The limits of the empire in the time of Augustus were the Rhine, the Danube, the Euphrates, the African desert, the Atlantic, and the North Sea.
Under Claudius a part of Great Britain was conquered. Trajan took Roman power beyond the Euphrates; The Roman Empire came to encompass practically the entire known civilized world. Later, as the centuries passed, the Roman Empire began to show signs of decline. The excesses and internal corruption, as well as the constant attacks from external enemies, were forging its ruin.
The last sovereign of the empire in its entirety was Theodosius (379-395 AD). His two sons each reigned over a part of the empire, which was divided into the Western Empire and the Eastern Empire, and they were never reunited. The Western Empire disintegrated, and Rome fell to the onslaught of the Germanic barbarians in the year 476. One of its leaders, Odoacer, proclaimed himself king of Italy.
The Eastern Empire, or Byzantium, resisted for a long time, until the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in the year 1453. (b) The religion of Rome. In the era of the republic, a distinction was already made between the religion of the peasants in rural areas and the religion of the State.
The first maintained the cult of the spirits of the ancient farmers, worshiping the gods of nature, the fields and the forests, protectors of their livestock and also of family life and guardians of the house and its occupants. (Lares and Penates).
It was a type of animism that conceived the presence of a spirit for each thing or activity, but that did not give them any anthropomorphic appearance (numina). The festivals were closely related to the different milestones of the agricultural year.
Nothing conducive to a poetic exaltation, quite contrary to Greece, the native religion of the Romans was that of a give and take with the spirits, who in exchange for being satisfied by the recognition of their powers in each specific field, protected the family, their activities and possessions.
On the other hand, the state religion revolved around tutelary and protective deities, such as Jupiter, Mars and many other gods and goddesses. Gradually the state religion was established. At first the cults were led by the head of the family; the State took over the cult, using it for its own purposes.
The temple erected on the Capitoline Hill, in the very center of Rome, became the official center of the worship of a divine triad that symbolized the religious majesty of the State. The priesthood, elective rather than hereditary as in Greece, was composed of a hierarchy of “flamines” for the most important gods; On the other hand, the college of “pontiffs”, which was presided over by the “pontifex maximus”, became the guardian of the sacred law, maintaining the secret of the festival calendar.
This was notified to the people from month to month. The order of pontiff comes from the bridge built over the Tiber by Ancus Martius, and which was given to the care of the priests.
Almost all Roman festivals were dedicated to their history. The “Lemurias” were solemn expiations for the murder committed by the first king; The “Quirinales” eternalized his enthronement. The Sabine dances were celebrated in honor of the shield that the gods had thrown to the Romans from the sky.
Thus, each act and function of the State came to be clothed with religious meaning. The generals ascended the Capitol Hill to consecrate the loot they had obtained in the temple of Jupiter. The same assemblies for elections or for the discussion of legislation could not be called until the omens were favorable, in the same way that the general on the battlefield should not begin combat until he had received the blessings of the auspices.
In this way, the “Augurs” became an official institution in Rome. The conquest of Greece led the admired Rome to imitate the defeated adversary. The art, literature, philosophy and religion of Greece assumed a charter in Rome; In religion, Rome went from the ancient “numina”, who in the hands of the State had been acquiring a more and more anthropomorphic conception, to the identification of them, one by one, with the gods of the hierarchy of Olympus.
However, the intellectual class, even assuming the forms of polytheism, largely began to favor different schools of Greek philosophical thought, with all their conceptions of the “new academy” that, with Carneade, taught Rome contempt for the sacred, and that began, with a corrosive cynicism, to undermine the moral foundations of that society in its ruling classes.
Religion, in Rome, came to focus more and more on the cult of the State, later incarnated in the person of the emperor. Once the Empire was established under Augustus, Virgil, in his work Aeneid, connects the Julia family, to which the emperor belongs, with Aeneas of Troy. According to myth, Aeneas was the son of Aphrodite/Venus, who was in turn the daughter of Zeus/Jupiter.
Thus, in this work the Julia family, and therefore Augustus and the other Julian emperors, are glorified as direct descendants of Jupiter and, therefore, divine. (c) Rome and Christianity. Rome made its appearance late in the biblical East. In the OT it is prophetically interviewed in the book of Daniel (the fourth empire in chapters 2 and 7 of the book of Daniel; see DANIEL).
Instead, his power is continually seen throughout the NT. The Jews reluctantly endured the Roman occupation, with all the indignities it entailed, the heavy taxes, the desecration of the Temple. The nationalism of the Jews, exacerbated by the ruthlessness of the Roman administration, manifested itself in occasional mutinies and revolts. Yes
However, the Jewish religion had been officially recognized by Rome as “religio licita” (legal religion). Josephus (Ant. 14:10, 8, 17) includes the decree that explicitly allowed the Jews to exercise their religion as having demonstrable origin. Thus, Judaism as such could not be persecuted in Rome.
This fact was of great importance at the beginning of the spread of Christianity, which was officially considered a current of Judaism (cf. Acts 18:15). On the other hand, the complete submission of the Jews to Rome was evident in the fact that the death sentence against the Lord Jesus Christ had to be confirmed by a Roman judge, and executed by Romans following their methods for those who were not Roman citizens. (that is, the crucifixion).
Naturally, there were cases of lynchings outside the established legality, as was the martyrdom of Stephen by the Jewish mob (see STEPHEN), and as was attempted with Paul, something that the Roman authority prevented in time (cf. Acts. 21:30-32 ff.). (A) Spread of the Gospel.
At first, the existence of the Roman Empire was very favorable for the spread of the Gospel. For more than two centuries, the stable and energetic order established by Rome ensured peace and prosperity.
The excellent Roman roads, the suppression of piracy and banditry, and the consequent development of maritime and land traffic, the widespread knowledge of Greek in the East and Latin in the West, the external unity of the empire, all this offered possibilities that until then had never been possible. They had been given for the universal proclamation of the Word of God.
On the other hand, Roman rule, which had broken down the barriers between particular races and religions, managed, on the one hand, to familiarize people of different origins with each other; At the same time, however, there was such moral corruption and such abandonment of ancient pagan beliefs that souls were eager for a new life and a liberating truth.
The great diffusion of mystery religions from the East is proof of this. When the Gospel emerged, it also evoked a response in many hearts. At the time of Acts and the Epistles, Roman officials generally showed a lenient attitude toward Christians, and Paul’s status as a Roman citizen served him well on more than one occasion.
But the persecutions began under Nero, who accused the Christians of the burning of Rome. They began to be considered traitors and dangerous to the stability of the State, because they refused to participate in the pagan religion, which constituted a true support of the plebs’ loyalty to the established order.
The authorities being aware of the fact that large masses of the population who were not Jews had assumed the new faith, they sharply separated their treatment of Christians from that of the Jews. Thus, great persecutions were launched against non-Jews who refused to participate in the worship of the emperor.
At the end of the 1st century AD, Emperor Domitian had multitudes of Christians imprisoned and killed. The persecutions continued, with some periods of calm, for two and a half centuries (see PERSECUTIONS).
Religion, in Rome, came to focus more and more on the cult of the State, later incarnated in the person of the emperor. Once the Empire was established under Augustus, Virgil, in his work Aeneid, connects the Julia family, to which the emperor belongs, with Aeneas of Troy. According to myth, Aeneas was the son of Aphrodite/Venus, who was in turn the daughter of Zeus/Jupiter.
Thus, in this work the Julia family, and therefore Augustus and the other Julian emperors, are glorified as direct descendants of Jupiter and, therefore, divine. (c) Rome and Christianity. Rome made its appearance late in the biblical East. In the OT it is prophetically interviewed in the book of Daniel (the fourth empire in chapters 2 and 7 of the book of Daniel; see DANIEL).
Instead, his power is continually seen throughout the NT. The Jews reluctantly endured the Roman occupation, with all the indignities it entailed, the heavy taxes, the desecration of the Temple. The nationalism of the Jews, exacerbated by the ruthlessness of the Roman administration, manifested itself in occasional mutinies and revolts. Yes
However, the Jewish religion had been officially recognized by Rome as “religio licita” (legal religion). Josephus (Ant. 14:10, 8, 17) includes the decree that explicitly allowed the Jews to exercise their religion as having demonstrable origin. Thus, Judaism as such could not be persecuted in Rome.
This fact was of great importance at the beginning of the spread of Christianity, which was officially considered a current of Judaism (cf. Acts 18:15). On the other hand, the complete submission of the Jews to Rome was evident in the fact that the death sentence against the Lord Jesus Christ had to be confirmed by a Roman judge, and executed by Romans following their methods for those who were not Roman citizens. (that is, the crucifixion).
Naturally, there were cases of lynchings outside the established legality, as was the martyrdom of Stephen by the Jewish mob (see STEPHEN), and as was attempted with Paul, something that the Roman authority prevented in time (cf. Acts. 21:30-32 ff.). (A) Spread of the Gospel.
At first, the existence of the Roman Empire was very favorable for the spread of the Gospel. For more than two centuries, the stable and energetic order established by Rome ensured peace and prosperity.
The excellent Roman roads, the suppression of piracy and banditry, and the consequent development of maritime and land traffic, the widespread knowledge of Greek in the East and Latin in the West, the external unity of the empire, all this offered possibilities that until then had never been possible. They had been given for the universal proclamation of the Word of God.
On the other hand, Roman rule, which had broken down the barriers between particular races and religions, managed, on the one hand, to familiarize people of different origins with each other; At the same time, however, there was such moral corruption and such abandonment of ancient pagan beliefs that souls were eager for a new life and a liberating truth.
The great diffusion of mystery religions from the East is proof of this. When the Gospel emerged, it also evoked a response in many hearts. At the time of Acts and the Epistles, Roman officials generally showed a lenient attitude toward Christians, and Paul’s status as a Roman citizen served him well on more than one occasion.
But the persecutions began under Nero, who accused the Christians of the burning of Rome. They began to be considered traitors and dangerous to the stability of the State, because they refused to participate in the pagan religion, which constituted a true support of the plebs’ loyalty to the established order.
The authorities being aware of the fact that large masses of the population who were not Jews had assumed the new faith, they sharply separated their treatment of Christians from that of the Jews. Thus, great persecutions were launched against non-Jews who refused to participate in the worship of the emperor.
At the end of the 1st century AD, Emperor Domitian had multitudes of Christians imprisoned and killed. The persecutions continued, with some periods of calm, for two and a half centuries (see PERSECUTIONS).