Daffodils and Rome

Typical Saturday, nothing happening, too much football and not enough enjoyment.  Rushed dinners, bread like concrete (last sourdough I buy), and umpteen cups of tea sum up the day.  The sun shines, the sky is blue, the chill from the north wind has found me, and the electric people wish to install a 'smart meter' they have already been told will not work, but they have asked me for the meter reading also.  This apparently is to avoid me being overcharged!  Pah!

However, I did waste a good 30 minutes on this...

Rome's Original Tituli

I obtained this book on the cheap via Amazon's Kindle, as early church history intrigues me.  However, I have only managed to make my way half way through and I have to say I am disappointed.  I hoped for a book that could offer guaranteed evidence that these are indeed the houses once used as gatherings for the Roman Christians in the 1st century.  Sad to say this is not quite what I have found.  

The author takes us round a variety of Roman churches, many dating back centuries, but there is little real evidence to be found that this church actually stands on a home once used by the early Christians.  It is certainly possible that the churches were, some 300 or so years later, built on houses said to have been used this way, folk memory can indeed be strong.  However, I am dubious about many of the claims made for the origins.  I am certain Peter did not 'say mass' in one of the houses, he may have 'broken bread' or taken part in an 'agape' meal, but here was no 'mass,' taking place, the author is limited on scripture, trusting only to the RC church teachings.  

The impression given is many tales may have had some origin in the past, however, these have been developed by many 'old wives tales,' and these are difficult to accept for those who read the scriptures.  Indeed, when you remember that for many years Rome refused to allow individuals to read the bible for themselves, and some Popes burnt bibles to stop this happening, you can begin to understand where many of the tales came from in past times.  Bible ignorance leaves room for fairy stories.  

Too much of the book is an adoration of RC architecture, detailing altars, statues and chapels.  The US author appears in awe of the RC surroundings, the very surroundings that leave me dead inside.  

It is possible some of the information in this guide book is correct, however, I would need to look at a better more historical tome to discover if it is possible to know for sure whether individual houses were indeed made use of by early Christians.  For some this book may be worth a look, for me it is too limited in approach and with too little historical evidence on offer.

Lazy Friday: Rome:

The Roman Forum in the Age of Augustus:

Caesar: The Conquest of Gaul

Having bought myself a (cheap) Kindle for those occasions when I will travel again I needed some reading material for my delight.  Caesar was obviously one of those books we need, indeed must, read,

if only because all the clever people claim to have read this long ago at school, at the same time as I was perusing 'The Beano,' 'The Beezer,' and 'The Victor!'  

The idea of the book is simple, Julius Caesar, a man going places, had wangled his way into a very important position in the Roman heirarchy, and was given control of much of Gaul, now known as France, and also what we now refer to as Albania as Governor.  His ambition ensured he would seek to control and dominate all of Gaul, which he did eventually, and on the way he made attempts at curbing Germanic intrusion, and even an attempt or two at taking that strange offshore island Britannia.  He went too far beyond his authority in German territory and returned with little to say about this, therefore offering a description of the locals instead.  He also failed to conquer the Brits, though most of them were probably Belgique, but don't tell the Brexiteers that as it will upset them.  Clearly the Romans impressed the people of the island, we can tell this by the manner in which they moved away from him, and had he thought it through properly Julius may well have succeeded in a victory long before Claudius's forces managed to bring their elephants over some considerable time later.

Of course he never conquered Scotland.

He did however, conquer and gain complete control over Gaul.  While renown as a merciful victor, occasionally this went against him as some pacified elements would once again return to the fight when called upon, only at one rebellion did he slaughter somewhat ruthlessly in an attempt to prevent another uprising and that near the end of the wars.  

There is one flaw in the book, it was written, for the most part, by Julius himself!

He would settle down in the winter and write the report for the folks back in Rome, thus ensuring he was remembered and also making clear he had been successful.  It appears no alternative story was on offer.  The last chapter was written by friends after his untimely demise but is clearly influenced by his outlook.

Julius Caesar did eventually reach his goal of King in 49 BC, and was a successful dictator until 44 BC when the Republican sympathisers bumped him off undemocratically.  

The question that kept running through my mind was "Why?"  What was the point of taking over Gaul? The only reason was Roman pride and self importance, plus Julius's ambition.  Rome could have survived without this war.  Empires rise and fall often because of ambition, sometimes to prevent attacks on themselves and occasionally for wealth and resources.  All this raises pride, cries for 'freedom' and ends in mass slaughter, not always to the victors advantage.

Of course I was reading this late at night as I drowsily slipped into the nightly coma, so maybe I ought to have read it during the day?  I think the results would be the same.  

As well as an insight into the ways of the Gauls and Brits of the day it can also be seen as an insight into the Putin's and Johnson's of this world mind. 

I recommend it, for leisure reading... 

Ancient Rome in 20 minutes

 

 

Too much football to watch to waste time on here, so instead have a History lesson.  One which you will probably know already...

I found this on YouTube and many more besides...

 

 

Roaming in Rome

I found this delightful short film very helpful in understanding Rome. 

You might like it also.

 

A Mixed Bag

With the arrival of temporary sunshine I took the opportunity to visit the cemetery and upgrade the fotos on the war memorials.  The newly cut grass gave off a sweet fragrance as I walked across the wide expanse looking for my friends who have lain here so long.  I had permission to do this from the various bodies concerned.  I am happy that I managed to find most but not so happy that the one perfect picture of a colourful robin sitting atop a stone was missed! Typical!
My knees now ache as the exercise, which I need, is much harder than when I was a boy.  It appears almost impossible to get rid of the aches from the muscles after exercise, no wonder folks don't do it. Anyway I walked there and back and stuffed my face afterwards with fattening stuff.  This may have been the wrong option.
  
Nothing else happened.  The election fills the papers, interrupted only by gunmen in various places, and with no football till the weekend I have had to fill the spare time reading Tacitus.  His history may not be quite as we would write today but gives an interesting insight into Rome in the first century.  A while back I looked at the emperors for the first 300 years and only about seven or eight actually died normally in their beds, the rest died by poison, sword or pillows over the head.  The Emperor had amazing powers and few considered changing his role into a more democratic one, it appeared he could kill anyone just because he said so.  This certainly was Caligula and Nero's way and the rest made use of their position to remove troublemakers.  Hmmm maybe this is worth returning to, if I am emperor of course.   
Life in Roman times were very rough.  It is difficult to understand how such life could be endured yet we see similar around us much of the time.  ISIS appear keen on a similar style, without the pretend civilisation and empire, and occasionally it rears its head elsewhere, North Korea perhaps. A strong ruler could dictate a decent society, better than ours perhaps but in the end he dies and who knows what kind of man will take over.  In the end a free society means people have to be free to choose, that as the Ashers bakery in Northern Ireland and the Evangelical Preacher in the south coast have discovered does not exist.  They have both been browbeaten for party gain and by the courts at that!  
We need to use our freedom such as it is as it may not last much longer.  Who knows what mess lies ahead and the after effect of the next election will be structurally changing for this nation.  Other events will soon occur to make us worry.  Life is never what we wish it to be.  I would be perfectly happy with a small cottage with a sea view spending my days watching the sun go down as I feed the birdies and with constant sunshine on tap.  I am easily pleased.


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Byzantium

This book offers a 'short' history of Byzantium, one of the most famous and in my experience most unknown ancient cities of the world.  We know a lot about Egypt, Greece and Rome but almost nothing about Byzantium and the Greek influenced Mediterranean area after the first couple of centuries A.D. The later Muslim takeover, the influence of the Roman church and self absorption within Europe probably accounts for this.  We have all heard of this city, we roughly know where it lies, how the name changed to first Constantinople and then Istanbul, but apart from sunning ourselves in Bodrum and a passing visit heading for the airport very few bother much about Turkey or this major city.  

So when I discovered this book selling for 50 pence in a Colchester charity shop I decided it was time to take advantage and learn something.  Honestly the price was not the biggest mover here though it helped.  I,.. er, must add that as they had a book sale on I only paid 20 pence and with almost 400 pages that sounds OK to me!  

There are good things and bad things about this book. The author John Julius Norwich has been a renown voice on radio and television, and he has indeed an excellent voice for radio, a voice which can be heard as you plough through the book, and this is a good thing.  The knowledge he imparts fills the empry space in my mind, covering an area unknown to many of us.  The bad thing is that the need to cover the history stretching from the days of Diocletian in the year A.D. 284 all the way to Constantine XI Palaeologus in A.D.1453 by necessity leaves only room for the arrivals and departures of each Emperor.  After a few hundred years this becomes a little wearing.  The emperor is ageing, fading, useless, too powerful, so a son, cousin, general, rebel, distant claimant, arrives and disposes of the incumbent by deceit, knife, sword, poison, helped by wife, daughter, son, general or whatever and takes his place.  He reigns successfully, badly, for a long or short time when he in turn is replaced in one way or another.  The man in charge may or may not be a man of integrity, some indeed put the needs of the empire before their own, but this shortened version of the history can only pass quickly over the adventures which may have covered a term of many years. Not only can we only hear about the top people we cannot have much idea of the life of the man in the street.  What we do learn is that the peasants, and many were just that, could make their voice heard, especially where their preferred religion was concerned.  Riots could occur easily and if the bread and circuses which entertained them in between famine, war and plague ceased they could happily burn down the town.  Happy days.

When Constantine decided to make use of the Christian religion he not only enabled Christians to walk freely in the land he also turned it from a loose collection of churches seeking God to a religious organisation, an ecclesiastical hierarchy in which power and ambition replaced worship. Theological argument ceased to be based on the Messiah's teaching and belonged to theologians spread across the Mediterranean.  'Elders,' were replaced by 'priests,' and celibacy for no good reason became standard practice, possibly influenced by pagan beliefs ensuring the 'priests' were seen as important and above the ordinary.  Dress and ceremony became less about worship and more about presentation.  Candles, widely used in Byzantine royal pomp appeared in the church, fashions changed but church leaders dress did not, all to emphasise their superiority and importance, not God.  The great divide between Rome and the Greek based Orthodox churches arose more from ambition than God and has lasted until this day, yet the reformation is even yet ignored and indeed opposed by such!  Other heresies brought division and danger, the Arian heresy bringing much conflict also, again from church theology and not scripture truth. Wars were fought, tortures aplenty applied, cities devastated and thousands perished all because such religion was used as a power base by various men. The people supporting whatever side they were born on at the time.  How many ever read the scriptures, how many could read?

The Crusades come along also.  Vast armies travel overland seeking to escape purgatory by fighting the Muslim.  Forty thousand began the first and this motley collection of vagabonds, thieves, chancers and escapees raped and pillaged their way across Europe and Turkey, fighting with the Byzantine forces 'escorting' them.  These ended their days in Cilicia, slaughtered by the first enemy army that they met.  Byzantium suffered more from Crusaders than Mohammed ever did!  Indeed many leaders of Muslim forces behaved in a more civil manner than any 'Christian' Knight ever did.  The Knights were more intent for selfish glory and a parcel of land to rule over rather than removing the infidel from Jerusalem.  Most just liked killing people, who they killed didn't really matter.

I avoid referring to any specific emperor bar Constantine, who was at York when he was declared emperor by the way, as there are hundreds of them, covering both the east and west sides of the empire, various patriarchs of the Greek church, popes aplenty, and far too many names to indulge any here.  That in itself tells us something.  The city of Byzantium stood for well over a thousand years and was not overthrown until Sultan Mehmet, then aged just 21, took the city in 1453.  The walls were so strong, the position so strong that defence was comparitively easy, as long as food and water held out.  

Visiting crusader armies, peasants living in stone built huts with turfed roofs, knights in grander houses and castles, gazed in wonder at the mighty buildings in this city.  The splendour was to overpower many of them, indeed the Crusaders occupied the city and ruled, against the peoples wishes, for some time.  The richly dressed leading citizens, the pomp of the Emperor, the bejeweled populace made Europe appear dingy and covetousness arose among the Crusaders.  The majority of citizens in any empire live bleak lives, the wars that destroy their towns or farmlands, famine, the need to fight someones wars, the recurring plagues all tend to keep the people in need of leadership.  Hmm sounds a bit like the UK today I hear you say!  However when it came to pomp, art, and splendid architecture Byzantium possibly led the world.  Tribute from all around filled the city, art flourished, Santa Sophia still stands as a tribute to this, and yet in the UK we know so little about this past.   

I appear to have wandered around.  My mind has done that a lot recently. However I found this book well worth a read simply because I knew nothing about this great city and while the somewhat crushed royal history can be wearing it does reveal why the Balkans turned out as they did, that life is a constant war and we ought to be thankful for the years of peace we have enjoyed, and now I have a slightly better understanding of this ancient and almost ignored empire that affected our civilisation so much without our noticing. 

  

Constantine the Great

Suetonius and Tacitus

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Amazon

Recently I have been indulging my liking of history by reading both Suetonius and Tacitus. Roman history was something I knew about without  having studied properly. So I thought have a read of these two books, which someone else paid for, and I am now more aware of the first twelve emperors from Augustus onwards. At least I now have some idea of the authors opinions of these men and their doings, and as always there is a bias to dig through.

  

Suetonius was one of the high ranking members of Roman society. While Hadrian was Emperor he attained the height of being Secretary of the Imperial Correspondence. Unfortunately in the year 122 Hadrian got the impression Suetonius was being 'over familiar' with Sabina, the Empress, while Hadrian was in Britain, and so dismissed him. Having been Director of the Imperial Libraries we was well able to find his way around the records of past deeds, accurate and mythologised, and from these and other sources he produced his 'Lives of the Twelve Caesars.'    

I really enjoyed this book! Whether it was the vast quantities of cash available to the Emperor, the freedom to invade any nation desired, the ability to make instant decisions with no comeback, and removal of those who upset the rulers will by throwing them to the lions I don't know, but I enjoyed this book! Having all power, not counting the women bitching around you and the fawning courtiers making themselves useful and rich, can be a useful trick. However amongst those willing to flatter you rises a desire to put an end to you also. Reading a list of Roman Emperors from the first three hundred years it is the minority who die in their beds, the vast majority were assassinated  I suspect that the real reason I liked this book was the glimpse into the lives of those who ran Rome. A basic insight certainly, not a history similar to those produced today, but insights into the everyday are seen, and they are not always pleasant for the man in charge. 

Both books start with Augustus and end with Domitian, at least they would had much of Tacitus manuscript not been lost. Sadly his book ends just before Nero gets his comeuppance. We are treated to all the worst, and much of the best, of these rulers. The squabbles between them and their women are shown, although the women ought not to be in powerful positions of course. Tacitus especially indicates how disgraceful it is that a mere woman should attempt to run the Empire! Both men, may well have known one another. Tacitus was a friend of Pliny, Pliny a patron of Suetonius and it is likely one influenced the other as they both came from high class backgrounds. Both wished to indicate how much better life was under their leaders by showing how bad things were in the past. Thus debauchery is often mentioned, much detail by Suetonius, less so by Tacitus. Claudius liked to stay at a distance from Rome and enjoy his sexual pleasures it appears. At times the tales sound like the 'News of the World,' not history. 

One or two major points arise from these books about Rome. One is the deep belief Romans had in their gods. Each day a victim, usually a bird, was killed and the liver examined for indications of how things would be for the Emperor that day. Personally I think killing that bird for that is offal. Rome depended on their gods, Suetonius in particular begins each ruler with a long description of the omens and signs that occurred on the day he was born. Eagles are seen perched on the houses, an earthquake would occur, lightning would strike a major building and so on. There must have been vast numbers of eagles and a dangerous amount of lightening in that part of the world in those days! It also explains why they did not understand the Jews who refused to burn incense to any emperor and did not accept their gods. This was made worse when Christians arrived and the belief was they were cannibals.Did they not eat the body and blood of their God? Both were considered superstitions by those who sought the oracles!

The other major thought was just how viscous a society reigned in Rome. Pax Romanus may well has allowed trade to continue but any crime (and no matter what class you were you could end up as a criminal) could take you to death, and that on a cross or in front of beasts in the arena! Gladiatorial contests were often to the death, and Claudius we read, enjoyed watching the loser die. Criminals could be scourged to death, and Roman citizens lost their heads publicly, an advantage of being a citizen! How thoughtful! People squabbled over seating arrangements, as the better classes wished to have the front seats to show their importance. Emperors and Senate discussed this often as self important men fought for position. Cruelty was part of their make up and if the situation required it an attack on a  fellow senator was used to have an enemy banished or forced to commit suicide. A great many ended this way as lies and deceit filled the rulers household. Rewards for those who informed were often great, although later their sin would find them out. A cruel society, quite happy to slaughter a whole town if they opposed Rome, and if feeling merciful the men would die and women and children sold into slavery! Touching really. 

Both books aid us to understand Roman attitudes, but it is important to also read the younger Pliny as he gives a senators view of life in Rome and incidentally tells us more of everyday life than these books reveal.

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The Letters of the Younger Pliny

Pliny the Younger (61-113 AD) came from the aristocratic class of Roman society. He developed a career as a lawyer and a taste for Literature pursuits. Later his diligence and ability saw him sent to Bythnia and Pontus as Governor. The letters found here give an interesting insight into the workings of Roman society. Allowing for his editing of the letters before publication, the attitudes and concerns of Rome are revealed. There we see little difference between their preoccupations and ours. Marriage, families, advancement for friends, occasional news worthy stories, the deaths of friends and servants arise again and again. People, in spite of the culture in which they dwell are at heart, the same worldwide and at all times. While not writing history as such his letters betray the inner workings of the Roman mind and the society around him.

One much read letter describes the eruption of Vesuvius as it buried Pompeii and Herculaneum. From the other side of the bay the young Pliny watched as his uncle attempted to rescue those engulfed by the volcano. His uncle dying in the attempt. His description is so good those who study such things use it today to help understand eruptions of this kind. One of course is expected any day soon. Good luck Napoli!

Pliny comes over as caring, for friends, for honest endeavour, for his country and indeed for his servants, his slaves. While some treated slaves badly Pliny appears to have looked after his well, suffering when they were sick and depressed when they died. His refusal to allow 'Chained slaves' to work his land shows his humanity towards even the lowest strand of society. This does not mean he opposed the concept of slavery, and possibly never thought much about it, slavery was there and it was a punishment for crime against the state so was acceptable. Cruelty he appears not to have enjoyed, although he appears willing to allow the death penalty whenever it was required.

He did however use torture on slave women, the normal method of the time, to enquire about Christianity when governor. This he decided was '..a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths.' Those who refused to renounce their belief he had executed as '..their stubbornness and unshakable obstinacy should not go unpunished.' He was remember, a decent Roman! The cruel ones leave little room for imagination.

This is an excellent book well worth reading. It says much about Roman society and indeed about ourselves. For in history we see ourselves as we really are!