SCHOLAR ISLAND
Rome
"What is Rome’s origin? The conjugation of a greedy oligarchy in the name of brute force; the oppression of human intellect, of religion, science and art through deified political power; in other words, the opposite of the truth, according to which a government draws it power only from the supreme principles of science, justice and economy. All Roman history is but the outgrowth of this pact of iniquity by which the Roman senators declared war first on Italy, then on the human race. They chose their symbol well! The brass She-Wolf, raising her wild hair and moving her hyena-head on the Capitoline, is the reflection of this government, the demon which will possess the Roman soul to the very last.
Edouard Schure
The Great Initiates
"Remember, Roman:
To rule the people under law, to establish
The way of peace, to protect the meek,
To battle down the haughty.
These our fine arts, forever."
-Virgil, The Aeneid
"We have excelled neither Spain in population, nor Gaul in vigor...not Greece in art....but in piety, in devotion to religion....we have excelled every race and every nation."
-Cicero (1st century B.C.E.
"The Rome we see, which tears from from us.....a cry of admiration, is in no way comparable to the Rome we do not see."
Jules Michelet (French Historian
"We Romans owe our supremacy over all other peoples to our piety and religious observances and to our wisdom in believing that the spirit of the gods rules and directs everything."
-Cicero (first century B.C.)
"Roman civilization eventually appeared everywhere, as one single thing, so far as it was ever achieved. The degree of achievement, however imperfect, remains a thing of wonder, familiar to everyone.....Never, however, was there greater progress made toward one single way of life, a thing to be fairly called "Roman civilization of the Empire," than in the lifetime of Augustus.....The natives would be taught, if it was not plain enough on its face, that they could better rise into the ranks of the master race by reforming themselves-by talking, dressing, looking, and in every way resembling Romans. They would and did respond as ambition directed. They pulled Roman civilization to them-to their homes, their families, their world."
Ramsay MacMullen
Romanization in the Time of Augustus
"If a man were called upon to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus."
-Edward Gibbon
"After a diligent inquiry, I can discern four principal causes for the ruin of Rome, which continued to operate in a period of more than a thousand years. I. The injuries of time and nature. II. The hostile attacks of the barbarians and Christians. III. The use and abuse of the materials. And IV. The domestic quarrels of the Romans."
-Edward Gibbon
"Rome is the central lake in which all the streams of ancient history lose themselves, and out of which all dreams of modern history flow. Rome is the bridge between the past and the present.....The decline and fall of the Roman empire-the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene in the history of mankind.....A revolution which will ever be remembered and is still felt by the nations of the earth."
-Edward Gibbon
"If we were to take a stroll through a Roman town two thousand years ago-and ancient Pompeii provides a good example of a city frozen in a moment of everyday life- we would find a city containing factories (including one for fish sauce), public baths, athletic stadiums, theaters, plastered roads, proper sidewalks, pubs, homes with under-floor heating systems, and (inevitably) brothels-facilities for people who were, for the most part, in better physical shape that we are. The Roman dominion over the Western world lasted for about a thousand years, and we might still be living in the Roman era had there not been what I consider the biggest conceptualization of the past two thousand years; Jesus Christ......"
Eberhard Zanger
The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2,000 Years
"One day the blow that thou hast deserved, O proud-necked Rome, shall fall on thee from Heaven."
Sibylline Oracles VIII-37
"The long era of Roman decline begins with the words of Pliny, "Latifundia perdidere Italiam" "(The great landholdings have destroyed Italy)." Nor has any historian who has examined the fall of Rome evaded Pliny's addendum: "jam vero et provincias (and later the whole empire)"-neither the Englishman, Gibbon, nor the German, Mommsen, nor the Italian, Ferrero, the Frenchman, Glotz, nor the Russian, Rostovtzev. Barbarian invasions on the pattern of Alaric's would not alone have destroyed the empire, now would the federalism of Emperor Diocletian have done so, had not the masters of the Roman Empire pursued the worst agrarian policy in all history. The empire would have survived if Rome had not made a political football of bread!"
H.E. Jacob
Six Thousand Years of Bread
"One day Tiberius Gracchus arose at a public meeting and spoke words that no Latin ear had heard before. "The wild beasts of Italy have their caves or nests. But the men who fought for Italy, who were ready to die for her as soldiers, have at most a share in her air and light, but neither house nor roof to shelter them. They must wander about from place to place with their wives and children. Kyrioi tes oikoumenes einai legomenoi (These warriors are called the masters of the world), but not a square foot of earth in this world belongs to them!"
H.E. Jacob
Six Thousand Years of Bread
"The greatest error of historians, is the idea that the Roman Empire ‘fell’. It never fell. It still runs the Western World, through the Vatican and the Mafia."
Alan Watts
..."From the sky, the city lay within its seven hills in a great circle of flat-roofed sameness. Since there was no industry as we know it, only trading, an urban sprawl of warehouses stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see. Streets in the center of town were such a hopeless, narrow tangle that all cart traffic was prohibited in daylight hours. In addition to fifteen hundred private homes, there were perhaps thirty-five thousand apartment houses, limited by law to a height of 65.5 ft-above which, as wisdom had shown, they collapsed. The typical flat had no fireplace, no running water, no toilet facilities, and was connected to no furnace. Most of these needs were met by public facilities. Just as in New York City, however, you put the garbage out on the curb. By the year 58C.E., the town that dated itself from the eighth century B.C.E. had nearly 1.5 million citizens, two-thirds of whom were in some way subsidized by the government, with 150,000 completely dependent on welfare. People who had jobs worked a six-hour day, but often at nominal and unproductive tasks. One hundred and sixty days of the year were given over to the games; for since the "mob" was the major internal threat to peace, it was constantly bought off by "bread and circuses."....
Paul Q. Beeching
Awkward Reverence
"Aelius Aristides, a famous Greek orator who visited Rome during the reign of the pious Antoninus, declared that the Roman Empire was utopia itself. Peace and prosperity without precedent had been established through the agency of the Romans who had brought the art of government to its highest point. Under a monarchy without tyranny the subjects of the emperor enjoyed social and judicial equality, the major benefits of democracy, yet they were spared the disadvantages and inconvenience of political participation. Consequently, the whole world was in holiday in this golden age. Civilization had been brought to remote places; the whole traverse of the sun was Roman property. people everywhere clung to Rome, and the very thought of secession was abhorrent to them. As he looked about the city of Rome, Aristides concluded that those who lived in the imperial capital were the most fortunate of all. Rome was huge; its size and even its name symbolized the strength of the empire. Everything in the world could be seen in this great metropolis, and thus its inhabitants (like the later Bostonians) had no need to travel."
Tom B. Jones
The Silver-Plated Age
HOW To BE A ROMAN
Romans are Foster-Brothers of Wolves, and should show the same fierce courage.
If even your twin brother turns against Rome, it is your duty to kill him.
Rome will gladly make a friend and ally of an honourable enemy.
A Roman prefers death to dishonour. The Romans are free people, and therefore will not serve a king.
A Roman loves justice and the freedom of Rome even more dearly than his own sons.
Romans despise pain, and will suffer anything for Rome. A Roman will deal honourably with an honourable enemy. Bravery and Resolution may win even when everything seems lost.
A Roman will face any odds of the sake of Rome, and he will never surrender.
(taken from THE ROMANS AND THEIR EMPIRE
Cambridge Univ Press (Gen Editor Trevor Cairns)
WHY THE COLLAPSE OF ROME?
"One explanation is certainly biological and statistical: since before the reign of Augustus, the birthrate had fallen catastrophically in Italy. The lack of manpower was unconsciously symbolized when the famous Roman Legions, the XVIIth, XVIIIth and XIXth, slaughtered in the Teutoburger Wald disaster, were never replaced. There remained a permanent gap in the army list---until the Roman army itself ceased to exist. The erosion of family spirit, the widespread use of all available contraceptives as well as infanticide, and the desire for social emancipation on the part of Roman women death a death blow to Roman biological fertility. Arguments familiar to us today were already used to justify a Malthusian attitude—the unwisdom of bearing children in times of political troubles, imperialistic wars, urban congestion, and widespread immorality. As early as the second century B.C., both Cato and Polybius remarked on the declining birthrate and on the inability of the authorities to raise such armies as had defeated Hannibal only a few generations ago."
Amaury de Riencourt
"The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things-bread and circuses!
-Juvenal
"One of the most intense and unusual healing stories in Mark's Gospel is located at the beginning of the fifth chapter where Jesus exorcises and welcomes into God's reign the most unlikely of candidates, a tormented demoniac. Trained in Western educational institutions, most of us are bound to find this passage a bit jarring, perhaps even embarrassing. We quickly equate the demoniacs behavior with some variety of psychosis. This is not a totally invalid reaction, but it misses the point. By relying on psychological categories we fail to see the deeper symbolism behind the story that is far more important than an empirical explanation. Mark wants us to appreciate the destructive power of Rome manifest in a polymorphous demon called Legion. Rome's power is more than political. The empire is actually a destructive psychosocial reality, a distorted way of being, predicated on the brutal oppression of innocent people. This is the malevolence that has taken over the demoniacs self-consciousness, just as a virus takes over and destroys its host."
Curt Cadorette
The Church as Counterculture edited by Michael L. Budde & Robert W. Brinlow
************************
Book: The Foundation of Rome: Myth and History" by Alexandre Grandazzi
Book: "History of Ancient Rome" by Nathaniel Harris
Book: "Caesar: Life Of A Colossus" by Adrian Goldsworthy
Book: "Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor" by Anthony Everitt
Book: "Handbook to Life In Ancient Rome" by Lesley Adkins and Roy A. Adkins
Book: "The Romans: From Village to Empire" by Mary T. Boatwright, Daniel J. Gargola, and Richard J.A. Talbert
Book: "The Classical Roman Reader: New Encounters With Ancient Rome" ed by Kenneth J. atchity
Book: "Ancient Rome: The Republic" by H.L. Havell
Book: "The Rise Of The Roman Empire: Turning Points in World History" Ed. by Don Nardo
Book: "Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic" by Tom Holland
Book: "Chronicle of the Roman Emperors "by Chris Scarre
Book: "Chronicle of the Roman Republic: The Rulers of Ancient Rome from Romulus to Augustus" by Philip Matyszak
Book: "Ancient Rome: History of a Civilization That Ruled the World" by A.M. Liberati & F. Bourbon
Book: "A Scandalous History of the Roman Emperors" by Anthony Blond
Book: "In The Name Of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire" by Adrian Goldsworthy
Book: The Later Roman Empire ..by A.H. M. Jones
Book: "Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome" by J.P.V.D. Balsdon
Book: "The History and Conquests of Ancient Rome" by Nigel Rodgers
Book: "The Roads of the Romans" by Romolo Augusto Stacciolli
Book: "Storming the Heavens: Soldiers, Emperors, and Civilians in the Roman Empire" by Antonio Santosuosso
Book: "Roman Sex" by John R. Clarke
Book: "Roman Warfare" by Adrian Goldsworthy
Book: "The Augustan Succession: An Historical Commentary on Cassius Dio's Roman History Books 55-56 by Peter Michael Swan
Book: "The Enemies of Rome: From Hannibal to Attila the Hun" by Phillip Matysak
Book: "The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome" by Michael Parenti
Book: "A Scandalous History of the Roman Emperors" by Anthony Bond
Book: "Roman Sex: 100 B.C. to A.D. 250" by John R. Clarke
Book: "Roman Women: Their History and Habits" by J.P. Balsdon
Book: "The Secrets of Rome: Love & Death in the Eternal City" by Corrado Augias
Book: Rome and Her Enemies: An Empire Created and Destroyed by War" Ed. by Jane Penrose
Book: "The Fall Of The Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians" by Peter Heather
Book: "The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest" by Peter S. Wells
Book: "The Complete Roman Army" by Adrian Goldsworthy
Book: "The Game of Death in Ancient Rome: Arena Sport and Political Suicide" by Paul Plass
Book:" Archaic Roman Religion Vol I & Vol II" by Georges Dumezil
Book: "Swords Against the Senate: The Rise of the Roman Army and the Fall of the Republic." by Erik Hildinger
Book: "Roman Warfare" by Adrian Goldsworthy
Book: "Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Greek and Roman Women: Notable Women from Sappho to Helena." by Marjorie & Benjamin Lightman
Book: "Around the Roman Table" by Patrick Faas
Book: "A Walk in Ancient Rome: A Vivid Journey Back in Time" by John T. Cullen
Book: "Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome" by Richard A. Bauman
Book: "The Roads of the Romans" by Romolo Augusto Staccoli
Book: "Ancient Rome: History of a Civilization That Ruled the World" by A.M. Liberati & F. Bourbon
Book: "Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families" by Friedrich Munzer
Book: "Crime and Punishment In Ancient Rome: by Richard A. Bauman
Book: "Roman Sex: 100 B.C. to A.D. 250" by John R. Clarke
Book: "The Roman World: The Cultural Atlas of the World" by T. Cornell & J. Matthews
Book: "Enemies of Rome: Barbarians Through Roman Eyes" by I.M. Ferris
Book: "Roman Medicine" by Audrey Cruse
Book: "The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Totenberg Forest" by Peter S. Wells
Book: "Caesar Against The Celts" by Ramon L. Jimenez
Book: "The Sack of Rome: How A Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken over by a man named Silvio Berlusconi" by Alexander Stille