81Babel
Chywah
…Beast
2
Dachal | Oppressive
Worst of All…
As we approach the 3rd century, in 198 BCE, the Romans turned their Legions loose on the Greeks after having clipped the wings of their favorite sparring partner, the Carthaginians. They engaged and defeated the Macedonians under Philip V, pummeling him again in Thessaly the following year. Turning north, they defeated the Gauls, and then turning south, they attacked the Spartans, defeating them with the help of the Achaean League.
In 191 BCE, the Romans under Manius Glabrio devastated Antiochus III the Great at Thermopylae, forcing him to evacuate Greece. The following year, Roman forces sank most of the Seleucid fleet commanded by their old nemesis, Hannibal. At year’s end, near Smyrna, Lucius Scipio decisively defeated the Greeks.
Then in the Battle of Mount Olympus, Roman General Gnaeus Manlius Vulso crushed an army of Galatian Gauls in 189 BCE. But the Romans would meet their match, losing to Perseus of Macedon during the Battle of Callicinus in 171 BCE. This is interesting because Perseus incited Rome into war. And yet, his miscalculation would be the last hurrah for the Macedonians and Greece, with the Romans under Lucius Paullus defeating and capturing the Macedonian king in the Battle of Pydna on June 22, 168 BCE even though the Romans were outnumbered forty-four thousand to twenty-nine thousand.
82The victory earned Lucius Paullus the title, Macedonicus – Master of the Macedonians. But evidently, he didn’t win the battle on his own. The previous evening there had been a lunar eclipse, which was perceived by the Macedonians as a terrorizing omen, as their goddess, Selene (also known as Artemis), the sister of Helios (also called Apollo), went dark. In reality, the Macedonian phalanx had just become obsolete, and it crumbled on uneven ground when facing a better trained, better equipped foe. The Romans would fight and win thirteen additional battles during the 2nd century BCE, but none would be as transforming as their triumph over the last vestiges of Alexander’s Hellenic Empire.
All the while, Rome had imposed humiliating restrictions on Carthage, requiring their Senate to ask permission of the Roman Senate prior to engaging in any battle. And since Carthage was also prohibited from fielding an army or navy, they didn’t give the policing action in 149 BCE against rebellious Namibians in their midst a second thought. But itching for a fight, Rome decided that, by suppressing a riot, Carthage had violated the terms of their onerous accord. They immediately launched their fleet, blockading Carthage.
Rome would then invade Africa whereby Carthage immediately surrendered, handing the Romans the weapons they had used to suppress the internal riot along with the protestors who had been captured. The Romans, however, demanded the complete capitulation and submission of the capital.
Somehow in defiance, Carthaginians manned the walls of their city and kept the Romans outside. All the while, the half million civilians inside Carthage transformed everyday items into three hundred swords, five hundred spears, two hundred shields, and one thousand projectiles for catapults each day during the height of their production.
83Outside of the city, the smallish Roman army somehow lost a skirmish against Carthaginian civilians at Nepheris. But given another go at it, Scipio defeated them, killing almost everyone. With the entire country now theirs to plunder, the Romans stepped up their siege of Carthage and broke through the walls in 146 BCE.
Inside, without a single soldier to oppose them, the women, children, and elderly, wielding improvised weapons, held the Romans off for a while. But eventually, the Roman killing machine was too efficient. Seventeen thousand Romans died murdering four hundred fifty thousand civilians. Fifty thousand Carthaginians were sold into slavery. The city was leveled.
In the final throes of death, as Carthage was burning to the ground, nine hundred survivors had found refuge in the Temple of Eshmun, the Phoenician god of healing, even as the shrine was burning around them. They pleaded with Scipio for mercy, but none was shown. They would burn alive. It all served as a foreshadow of what Rome would do not once but twice to Jerusalem. If to be human is good, they were the furthest thing from it.
During the waning years of the 2nd century BCE, migratory Germanic tribes of the Cimbri and Teutoni were forced into fighting a pair of Roman armies. From the Roman perspective, they had disturbed the balance of power – which is to say they spoke critically of Roman oppression. So, the Romans assembled their Legions and went on the warpath. But the adventure quickly soured. An advance party of Romans encountered a small contingent of Cimbri who routed them, capturing the Legate Scaurus. Arrogant even in the custody of those he had been sent out to eradicate, Scaurus belittled the Cimbri king and got himself killed.
All the while, the Roman Consuls were vying for control. Each wanted credit for the victory they were sure 84would come. Caepio, the “novus homo – new guy,” launched a unilateral attack on the Cimbri camp on October 6, 105 BCE to circumvent Maximus, the senior statesman, from claiming all the credit for the successful outcome. But instead of victory, Caepio’s army was annihilated, with the Cimbri moving into the Roman camp. The next day, the Cimbri attacked Maximus’ army, pushing the poorly positioned troops into a river behind their camp. At the end of the day, conflicting Roman egos had sacrificed the lives of eighty thousand soldiers and forty thousand support personnel.
After a string of Roman failures, Gaius Marius succeeded in killing ninety thousand Germanic Teutones and Scandinavian Ambrones, enslaving another twenty thousand – mostly women and children. It would have been even more, but most of the captured women committed mass suicide rather than endure life among the savages of Rome. The Romans even refused a last-minute offer to have married women serve as ministers in the temples of Ceres and Venus. “By the conditions of the surrender three hundred of their married women were to be handed over to the Romans. When the Teuton matrons heard of this stipulation they first begged the consul that they might be set apart to minister in the temples of Ceres and Venus; and then when they failed to obtain their request and were removed by the victors, they slew their little children and next morning were all found dead in each other's arms having strangled themselves in the night.” (Strauss, B., 2010. The Spartacus War, Simon And Schuster, pages 21-22)
Adding to this ocean of blood, and thereby becoming the living embodiment of Yahowah’s depiction of the savage brutality of Rome, in 101 BCE, Gaius Marius struck again. On this day, in northern Italy, Romans slaughtered one hundred forty thousand Cimbri, harvesting sixty thousand women and children as slaves. Neither life nor 85liberty mattered. The world’s greatest superpower, the ultimate integration of religion, politics, and the military, was to Yahowah as darkness is to light.
The carnage of the past fifty years had become almost unfathomable. A million souls had been devoured by the Beast.
The larger they become, the longer they exist, the more they would blend religion and politics, patriotism and militarism. Human institutions such as Rome come to embody everything God despises. Lives are truncated and freedom is negated. Deceit is celebrated to such an extent God becomes unknowable. It is the triumph of tragedy.
Rome’s first battle of the 1st century BCE was waged against Italians and was called the “Social War.” Cities that had been allies of the Roman Republic became foes. The reason was clear cut: once Rome demonstrated its dominance militarily, the Senate began to impose its will upon the nation’s neighbors and demanded tribute. But more concerning, Rome demanded soldiers – impoverishing the surrounding communities of their sons.
So onerous were the Roman demands that two-thirds of the soldiers in the Roman armies were now forced into service, having come from other Italian territories. This served to strengthen Rome militarily and weaken the client states, giving the Romans absolute control over the peninsula. The Republic’s subsequent policies of inequitable land and wealth distribution enriched Romans further, while turning their neighbors into serfs. The masses were rendered paupers without sons or hope.
In 91 BCE, in order to quell the simmering rebellion, Marcus Livius Drusus proposed reforms to the Roman 86Senate that would grant sub-citizenship to Italians. But his plan to allow them to vote on local matters, without having any say in alliances, wars, or the distribution of plunder, was soundly defeated by the aristocracy. The client cities declared their independence as a result, sparking the civil war.
The Italia Federation created their own coinage to pay for troops, most of whom were older men who had served in and now had been released from the Roman armies. But nonetheless, a battle-tested force of one hundred thousand men was fielded and then divided among fourteen consuls, most of whom would be killed or commit suicide within the coming year. Rome successfully pitted Italian cities against one another, persuading some to ally with Rome under the promise of full citizenship should they prevail. Rome became proficient at offering bribes but was never very good at honoring them. In typical Roman fashion, Lex Lucius Julius Caesar came with conditions that people in the allied cities could not meet. And in a matter of years, it would not matter anyway because Rome would transition from Oligarchy to Empire.
There would be more than fifty additional battles fought during the 1st century BCE as Rome became ever more tyrannical. This evolution from bad to worse commenced in earnest in 83 BCE when, following the first Mithridatic War against rebellious Greeks, the initial battle of what’s been called “the First Roman Civil War” was fought upon Mount Tifata. Aristocratic forces, or Optimates as they were known, were led by Lucius Cornelius Sulla. They opposed the Populares, shepherded by Gaius Norbnaus. And while the Populares were neither popular with the people nor comprised of ordinary people, they would initially go down in defeat for their political ideals. In 82 BCE, the Popular army was defeated at Asio River and again at Sacriporto.
87Later that same year, the Populares would regroup and defeat the Aristocratic Optimate forces at Clusium. But they lost at Faventia, Clusium, and Colline Gate, which was the decisive battle in the First Roman Civil War. The Samnites, comprising the preponderance of the Popular army, surrendered and were summarily executed by the Optimate within earshot of the Senate. Having slaughtered the rank and file of the opposing political party in the Villa Publica where the census was conducted, the Imperialists tossed their mutilated carcasses into the Tiber River. Then the Optimates, after making the Populares leadership watch the mass murder of their people, had them decapitated. Their heads were sent off to intimidate those who would dare consider rebellion against the aristocracy. It was Imperial, but it was not civilized. It was Roman, but also savage.
Pursuing those who valued their freedom to the ends of the earth, Roman Legions under Lucius Fulfidias chased rebel forces under the command of Quintus Sertorius all the way to Hispania, only to lose to them in 80 BCE. But halfway around the world, Fulfidias would avenge his loss seven years later, decisively defeating Mithridates (Gift of Mithra) the Great in northern Anatolia, today’s Turkey, during the Siege of Cyzicus. In reality, Mithridates’ army was starving to death, and they became easy prey as they scavenged for food.
Rome’s next battle is legendary. Roman slaves led by Spartacus were attacked by Gaius Claudius Glaber at the base of Mount Vesuvius. The Romans, to satiate their bloodlust, promoted gladiatorial games, whereby slaves and prisoners were taught to kill for the entertainment of the audience. But in 73 BCE, some two hundred gladiators in Capua plotted an escape, with seventy succeeding. Gallic slaves, Crixus and Oenomaus, and Spartacus, a Thracian, were elected to lead the band of freed men. Initially, they defeated a small force from Capua that had 88been sent to arrest them, capturing their weapons in the process. Now well armed, they freed other slaves in the area by menacing the wealthiest Roman estates, recognizing that this region was home to many elaborate vacation villas.
Glaber’s forces, comprised of a militia of some three thousand men, besieged the former slaves on the slopes of the ancient volcano, blocking their only means down the mountain. With them contained, the Roman aristocrat was content to let them starve. But Spartacus and his men were ingenious. They made ropes and constructed ladders out of indigenous flora to rappel down the cliffs, enabling them to surprise and take Glaber’s militia.
In retaliation, the Romans dispatched four thousand men under Praetor Publius Varinius to deal with the slave rebellion. But he too was defeated in a battle that served to better equip the former slaves. With each successive victory, more slaves were willing to risk their lives for a chance at freedom, ultimately swelling their ranks to some seventy thousand.
After investing a year training his new recruits, Spartacus defeated the Roman army at Picenum, again at Mutina, and then at Campania, only to lose to Marcus Crassus at the Battle of Silarius River. So intent were the Romans at suppressing any hope of freedom, Crassus trapped Spartacus in Bruttium by building a forty-mile-long system of ditches and walls.
Following a failed truce, Spartacus and fifty thousand of his men were able to break through the Roman siege and escape, gathering in the open fields along the banks of the Sele River. Crassus pursued them, and although Spartacus and his men fought valiantly, one by one they were killed by the superior force, Spartacus, himself, dying as he tried to reach Crassus. The total casualties were too numerous to count, but an estimated thirty-six thousand gladiators and 89slaves were murdered for the crime of wanting to be free. Another six thousand survivors were captured and then inhumanly crucified on Crassus’ orders. Romans had little respect for those who actually built Rome or for those who entertained them. The fact is, the Romans had no respect for the law, liberty, or life.
Following this cruel display of sadism, the Romans turned their attention toward others, attacking and defeating the Armenians in 69 BCE and the Tigranes in 68 BCE. Then in the Battle of Lycus, Pompey the Great annihilated the army of Mithridates VI, ending the Third Mithridatic War. At the same time, while basking in the ghoulish glory, he claimed credit for defeating Spartacus, which irritated Crassus. And while books have been written about Catiline and his role in trying to preserve the Aristocratic Republic against the likes of Caesar and Crassus, he was labeled a traitor and conspirator. So, in 62 BCE, he and those loyal to him were killed in the Battle of Pistoria.
This brings us to Gaius Julius Caesar, who was at the time known as a clever politician rather than a crafty general. As Governor of Gaul, he fought and won his first battle against the migrating tribes of the Helvetii, who had come from today’s Switzerland, initiating the most brutal part of the Gallic Wars. Near present-day Geneva, the Romans destroyed a bridge across the Rhone, impeding the people’s migration. Then they constructed nineteen miles of fortifications to stop the Helvetii passage. Rome was always opposed to the homeless who roamed the land because their continual movement made them difficult to suppress and tax.
Having no interest in fighting, the Helvetii tried a different route, crossing the Arar River using improvised rafts. But Caesar, coveting easy prey, attacked the migrant community with three Roman Legions, killing or enslaving all of those who had yet to cross the river. Julius’ 90motivation was simple if not grotesque. The Roman Legions were funded by stolen booty, and they were manned by captured slaves. Those unfit to fight were sold into slavery with the generals retaining the proceeds. The conquered lands were not only taxed, massive land grants were used as bribes to ensure loyalty.
A month later, and now with six Legions under his command, Julius Caesar moved his army ahead of the Helvetii migration route, confiscating the available food supplies. Then Caesar deployed his cavalry to delay the Helvetii while he positioned his Seventh (Bull), Eighth (Augusta), Ninth (Hispania), and Tenth (Equestris / Mounted) Legions in battle order at the foot of a nearby hill along the Helvetii migration route. Caesar took the Eleventh (Claudia) and Twelfth (Fulminata / Thunderbolt) to the top of the hill. The battle began at noon, according to Caesar, with his men piercing the Helvetii civilians with their javelins.
Trying to flee the onslaught, the Helvetii retreat was supported by two nearby tribes who arrived just at the right time to assist them, the Boii and the Tulingi, both of whom engaged to flank the Romans. But with an overwhelming advantage, Julius was able to rebuff the Celtic tribes, while simultaneously pursuing his primary prey, the Helvetii and their baggage train. By the time the blood had stopped running, Julius Caesar had killed or captured two hundred thirty-eight thousand people, slaughtering nearly a quarter of a million civilians.
In so doing, Julius Caesar became the embodiment of Rome – a savage whose business became slaughtering and enslaving. He and his evil empire demonstrated that Yahowah was correct in His exposé on the horrors of human governance during His response to His people’s desire for a king. Julius Caesar is also proof that Paul’s declaration in favor of government in his letter to these very same Romans was misguided.
91Two months later, Rome’s most acclaimed killer attacked and defeated the Germanic Chieftain Ariovistus, although he never disclosed the reason for his actions. The following year, in 57 BCE, Julius fought the Belgae, apparently for sport and booty. A month later, he took on the Nervians on rumors that they were forming a federation of allied tribes to thwart the Roman onslaught.
But it wasn’t all a parade of victorious mass annihilations and enriching enslavements of vulnerable communities. In 53 BCE, in the last days of the Roman Republic, the Parthian Empire stopped a Roman invasion force under the command of the great crucifier, Marcus Licinius Crassus. At the time, Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome and member of the First Triumvirate (a fragile yet powerful political, economic, and military alliance between three egomaniacs: Caesar (the politician), Pompey (the military muscle), and Crassus (the banker)), was enticed by the prospect of military glory, because of the added riches and power it would provide. So, he invaded Parthia, marching his armies directly through the deserts of southern Turkey in search of territory and treasure. But once he arrived in present-day Harran, Turkey, the Persian Spahbod Surena outmaneuvered Crassus’ superior force. Most of the Roman soldiers under the financier’s command were either killed or captured. Crassus suffered the same fate during truce negotiations.
This battle was among the first fought between the Romans and the Persians, starting a prolonged war that would last five to six hundred years. It also provides a window into the mindset of the Roman elite, revealing that they fought not to defend Rome, but to promote their personal ambitions. These motivations precipitated the Great Civil War which doomed the Republic and brought Julius Caesar to power.
On the other side of the known world, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony busied themselves pummeling Gauls 92into submission, this time in France. The Siege of Alesia is considered one of Caesar’s greatest military achievements. It brought the Celtic influence in France, Belgium, and Switzerland to an end, making France another Roman Province to pillage.
It is odd to note, however, that the primary account we have of the battle was written by Caesar, and his depiction does not correspond to the location where he claimed it occurred. But as they say, history is often little more than the voice of victors justifying the unjustifiable. Caesar’s revisionist claims and self-serving testimony reveal a tendency that would play a major role in the birth of Christianity within the Roman Catholic Church.
In this regard, the Senate’s refusal to allow Caesar the honor of a Triumph, a civil ceremony and religious rite designed to celebrate and sanctify a military achievement and an army commander, is what caused him to rebel. In such a celebration, the general is given a laurel crown and wears a purple toga, regalia that identifies him as divine. And as a god, he would ride through the streets in a four-horse chariot, his army marching behind him, parading along with their captives and spoils of war. The procession would typically conclude at the Temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill.
Returning to France circa 52 BCE, Julius Caesar bestowed upon himself honors his fellow Romans thought unwise. He appointed himself Pro-Consular Imperium and became the absolute dictator over the territories north of Rome, from the Adriatic to the Apennines. Having defeated and robbed the Gallic (Celtic) tribes, including the Helvetii, Boii, Tulingi, Belgae, and Nervii, he brought enormous wealth to himself, his loyalists, and fellow Roman oligarchs. He also provided new lands to tax and more sons and daughters to enslave. In the process, Caesar became fabulously rich because, as a Roman general, he personally pocketed the proceeds from the sale of those 93enslaved by his Legions and received a cut of what they stole.
But all was not well in Caesar’s world. He had given his daughter, Julia, in marriage to Pompey to garner political favor, but she had just died in childbirth. And having lost the support of his allies in Rome, men dedicated to preserving the Aristocratic Republic, like Cato, started political campaigns against Caesar, accusing him of wanting to overthrow the Senate so that he could become king of Rome. Cato and his ilk were, of course, correct – although also self-serving.
That is not to say that Julius Caesar wasn’t vulnerable in his own right. Around this time, his Fourteenth Legion was wiped out in a cleverly planned ambush by the Eburones, causing him to lose a quarter of his soldiers. The Celtic victory inspired a revolution throughout the region as those who had been ravaged and oppressed by Rome sought their freedom. To quell the uprising, Caesar hastily rallied his army and crossed the Alps, which were still covered in snow. Catching the Gauls by surprise, he split his forces, sending four Legions with Titus Labienus to fight the Senones and Parisii in the north of France while he set out with six Legions and enslaved the Germanic cavalry in pursuit of the Arverni and their commander, Vercingetorix. The two armies met in Gergovia, where Vercingetorix, holding the high ground, forced Caesar to retreat after suffering heavy losses.
But these same foes would meet again, which brings us to the Alesia and their hilltop fortification. Recognizing that a frontal assault would be suicidal, Julius Caesar, who outnumbered the Gauls four to one, decided upon a siege, hoping to starve the eighty thousand Alesia troops garrisoned there into surrender along with the local population they were protecting. Caesar, therefore, had his men construct twelve-foot-high encircling fortifications with corresponding ditches, each fifteen feet wide and 94twelve feet deep, filling the inner one with water. Then he built a series of traps to bury the men and women who would try to escape, along with towers his artillery would use to shoot those who avoided the pits.
Starving to death, the Alesians decided to let tens of thousands of local women and children go, thinking that Caesar would let them pass through his lines since they were noncombatants. But Julius was too cruel for such niceties. He trapped them between his earthworks and trenches, seeing to it that over thirty thousand mothers and their babies died of starvation in full view of the men trapped inside of the fort. It’s hard to fathom such cruelty.
Then after a series of desperate probing attacks by the Gauls, some of which found weaknesses in the Roman earthworks, both sides were near physical exhaustion. With nothing to lose, the Alesians launched a major offensive with sixty thousand men, which proved successful until Caesar deployed his favorite tactic, which was to menace his enemy’s rear with his cavalry, effectively pushing armies trying to escape the mounted foe behind them into the teeth of his infantry. On this day, it surprised the Gauls, who were slaughtered no matter which way they ran. And as usual, the few not killed were taken prisoner and sold into Roman slavery.
Proud of himself, and laden with stolen treasure and slaves, Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BCE, the border between Rome and the Province of Gaul. It was considered an act of insurrection. This provocation precipitated the Second Civil War which was fought over four years, with Romans killing Romans through 45 BCE for no other reason than to advance the fortunes of the filthy rich.
It began in June of 49 BCE. The reconstituted Populares (Popular Political Party), of which Caesar was head, encountered the Optimates (Best Men or Aristocratic Political Party) of Pompey the Great. Julius, who was 95commanding six Legions, opposed the Spanish army of his rival, comprised of seven Legions and twice as many men. They met at Ilerda in modern-day Spain. Caesar, writing in third person, as was his custom, described his pursuit of the army of the Roman Republic – a force loyal to his former political ally and his late daughter’s husband, Pompey. As you consider the sacrifices these men made, most of whom were slaves, on Julius Caesar’s behalf, keep in mind that the only reason this battle was being waged was because the man who had made a career of murdering and enslaving noncombatants wanted to be god and king. The “enemy,” therefore, is the Roman Republic. The January 6th Trumpites, armed as they were with misguided notions and smartphones for selfies, had nothing on these boys. This was an actual insurrection. And as such, the leading instigator wrote of himself…
“Caesar, contrary to his expectation, finding the consternation likely to spread through the whole army, encouraged his men, and led the ninth legion to their assistance. He soon put a stop to the vigorous and insulting pursuit of the enemy, obliged them to turn their backs, and pushed them to the very walls of Lerida. But the soldiers of the ninth legion, elated with success, and eager to repair the loss we had sustained, followed the runaways with so much heat that they were drawn into a place of disadvantage. They found themselves directly under the hill where the town stood. The enemy, again facing about, charged vigorously from the higher ground.... Here they bravely maintained the fight, although with great disadvantage to themselves, on account of the narrowness of the place and because of being posted at the foot of the hill. None of the enemy’s darts fell in vain. Still however they supported themselves by their courage and patience and were not disheartened by the many wounds they received.”
Having led his men into this unfavorable position, Julius Caesar went on to profess: “The enemy’s forces 96increased every moment, fresh cohorts being sent from the camp through the town. They succeeded in the place of those that were fatigued. Caesar was likewise obliged to detach small parties to maintain the battle and bring off such as were wounded. The fight had now lasted five hours without intermission, when our men, oppressed by the multitude of the enemy, and having spent all their darts, attacked the mountain sword in hand. Overthrowing such as opposed them, obliged the rest to betake themselves to flight. The pursuit was continued to the very walls of Lerida. Some out of fear took shelter in the town, which gave our men an opportunity of making good their retreat. At the same time the cavalry, though posted disadvantageously in a bottom, found means by their valor to gain the summit of the mountain. Riding between both armies, they hindered the enemy from harassing our rear. Thus, the engagement was attended with various turns of fortune.”
The battle wasn’t actually heroic, as Caesar was painting it, but instead miserable. Spring storms had flooded the Roman and rebel camps, bringing with them famine and disease. Nonetheless, Julius Caesar ordered half of his army to overtake the retreating army of the Aristocratic Optimates while the other half blocked their route of escape. In this way, Caesar completely surrounded Pompey, forcing the Consul general and his five Legions to surrender. Immediately thereafter, two additional Legions defected to the Populares, allowing Caesar to retain control of Spain while he pursued his ultimate ambition.
Julius’ next move proved disastrous. He dispatched a force to North Africa under the command of Curio to counter the Optimates forces garrisoned there. But every strategy his insurrectionists deployed backfired, prompting the panicked retreat of the conspiratorial Populares into troop transports anchored offshore, swamping their only 97means of escape. With their backs against the sea, Curio surrendered based upon assurances from the Optimates that the Julian troops would not be harmed. But they were summarily executed by the Republic, depriving Caesar of ten thousand soldiers.
The next move of the man who sought to be worshiped as if a god was hardly divine. After crossing the Rubicon, Caesar confronted the Senate. His motivation was financial, because his prior behavior had left him susceptible to lawsuits, many of which were being filed. But inside Rome, he knew that he could not be served as a Proconsul because public officials were immune from litigation. Therefore, with his term nearing its end, he went to the Senate to request an extension. They, however, were not only unwilling to renew it, but with him having crossed the Rubicon with his Legions, the Senate demanded that he surrender his army.
As a result of Caesar’s own Triumvirate agreement, Rome was Pompey’s territory, not Julius’. But he, ever the politician, proposed an interesting option, saying that he would resign his military command if Rome’s authorized commander, Consul Pompey, followed suit. Finding that unacceptable, the Oligarchs comprising the Roman Senate declared Julius ineligible for public office. They demanded that he disband his Populares army or be declared an enemy of the people. Realizing that he would be prosecuted, lose his fortune, and be politically marginalized, losing his power, Caesar positioned his Legions against the Republic of the Optimates, forcing Pompey and most of the Senate to flee to Greece.
While he was eager to do so, Caesar couldn’t chase after Pompey because the Optimates had left him no ships with which to cross the Adriatic and enter Greece. Moreover, the Optimates Legions in Spain had begun to reconstitute and mobilize against the Populares forces he had left in place to protect the territory in the Iberian 98Peninsula he had just secured. So, Julius turned his army toward Spain to protect his rear while others built a navy for his army.
After cleaning house, and upon his return, Caesar found that only a portion of the necessary ships had been built. Growing impatient, Julius divided his force, again, sending half to Greece under the proviso that the ships would then return to transport the remainder of his troops.
The winter crossing was treacherous, and unbeknownst to Caesar, the Republic’s massive six-hundred-ship fleet lay waiting just off the coast of Greece. And while Caesar’s initial wave of men was able to reach their destination unhindered, most of the Populares’ ships were destroyed as they attempted the return voyage. This blunder left Caesar vulnerable, with too small a force to attack and no way to retreat. Further, there was no means to supply his army due to the lack of vessels and the naval blockade. He couldn’t even use local resources because the Greeks preferred the Optimates to the Populares.
Julius’ situation was so grim he tried to negotiate peace with his rival. But even that failed because, as a former ally, as the husband of Caesar’s deceased daughter, Pompey knew that Julius could not be trusted. And yet, rather than attack and finish off the army of the Popular Political Party, Pompey adopted Caesar’s preferred tactic, hoping he could starve the opposing force so that he wouldn’t have to fight them.
But then, just when it appeared that the final curtain would be drawn down over Julius Caesar, his Master of the Horse, Marc Antony, hastily built the requisite ships and successfully broke through the naval blockade, arriving north of his position. That meant the race was on. Would Caesar or Pompey reach Marc Antony first, with nothing less than the fate of the Roman Republic hanging in the balance? And while Pompey prevailed, Caesar was rapidly 99closing the gap, putting the army of the Optimates between the two belligerent forces, prompting Pompey to retreat to Dyrrachium.
There, the Optimates’ rear was guarded by the sea, and in front, they held the high ground, making an assault suicidal. So, Caesar dusted off the strategy that he had used against the Gauls, building earthworks to pin Pompey against the sea. But not to be outdone, the Aristocratic Party had their minions carve their own ditches and mounds. This created a no-man’s land between the spoiled brats, a foreboding landscape hauntingly similar to the inhuman trench tactics deployed by bankers, politicians, and generals during the First World War.
This time, however, while Caesar was in control of the neighboring farmland, every edible plant and animal had already been harvested by Pompey’s men who, in addition, were also resupplied by the Optimates’ navy. But after a while, fodder for their horses and water became problematic, so Pompey attacked the weakest point in Caesar’s defenses, overwhelming the Ninth Legion, which retreated during the onslaught. In response, Julius Caesar dispatched Antony with reinforcements to counterattack. But Pompey’s vastly superior army of the Optimates Republic was up to the challenge, quickly flanking the Populares, causing a panicked retreat which neither Caesar nor Antony could arrest.
This should have been the last gasp for Julius. But always timid, rather than pursuing his fleeing foe, Pompey the Great withdrew from the battle. He may have thought that his rival had been defeated. He may have even believed that the retreat had been feigned to lure his troops into a trap. Either way, Caesar would write: “Today the victory had been the enemy’s, had there been any one among them to take it.”
100After a month of maneuvering and posturing, on August 9th, 48 BCE, the players’ fortunes changed during the Battle of Pharsalus in central Greece. Caesar, who was short of men and supplies in a hostile country, should have been easy prey, but Pompey hesitated once again, believing that his rival would surrender rather than let his men starve. Impatient, however, the accompanying Optimates Senators finally goaded Pompey into advancing, something they and he would soon regret. Pompey was soundly defeated by a foe half his size, forcing the Optimates to flee toward Egypt to survive. The Oligarchs were on the run.
Julius Caesar would pursue him and the two would meet again on a field near Pharsalus. Caesar was equipped with veterans of the Gallic Wars, his favorite Legions: the Tenth Equestris, the Eighth Augusta, the Ninth Hispana, and the Twelfth Fulminata in addition to three new Legions which had been levied expressly for the Great Civil War. These included: One Germanica, Three Gallica, and Four Macedonica. Pompey the Great had reconstituted his army as well. He now had mastery over one hundred Pompeian cohorts and eleven Roman Legions. Even having lost their previous encounter, living at a time when peasants had very little control over their lives, the Optimates could rely upon Rome’s oppressive grip on its provinces to effectively swell any fighting force. So, on this day, the Senate’s chosen consul possessed every tactical advantage. He held the high ground, commanded a larger army, and he was far better equipped and supplied for fighting in a subjugated province.
Always predictable, the conservative aristocrat deployed the Optimates Army in the standard Roman fashion. Pompey would field three lines, each ten deep. He placed his most formidable defenders on his flanks. His new and untested recruits would be in the center, along with his Syrian and Cilician Legions. Since his right was protected by a river, he positioned all of his cavalry on his 101left flank, where Pompey took command of the First and Third Legions. His auxiliary troops were stationed behind him, protecting his rear.
Pompey’s plan was to wait for Caesar to advance his infantry. He would then deploy his cavalry to push the numerically inferior Julian horses and foot soldiers back. If all worked according to plan, by day’s end, his Optimates would be attacking retreating Populares forces from all sides.
At his wit’s end, Caesar had run out of supplies. He had no means of retreat. So, there would be no tomorrow if he did not prevail on this day. Since defeat meant certain death, Julius rallied his troops, encouraging them to fight for their lives – if not for his. Following the pep rally, he too would arrange his men in three lines, but only six soldiers deep, due to his lack of manpower. The Populares left flank was protected by the same river that was guarding the Optimates’ right, so Julius positioned his entire cavalry on his exposed side. Then as was typical of Caesar, he took a risk most generals of his day would have considered foolhardy, thinning his already sparse and vulnerable line to create a fourth regiment of infantry behind his cavalry. Knowing that Pompey’s riders vastly outnumbered his own, Caesar took command of his cavalry, bolstering his Tenth and Eighth Legions, both under the command of Marc Antony.
Since the distance between the belligerents was considerable, Pompey, who remained stationary, expected the Julian forces to wear themselves out crossing the abnormally wide gap. But when Caesar’s troops saw that Pompey was not charging, without orders to do so, they stopped halfway to rest before continuing their charge. Then as Julius had expected, once the battle lines were joined, Pompey deployed his cavalry, galloping directly into Caesar’s hidden fourth line. The Populares in the rear immediately deployed seven-foot-long pilum javelins, 102causing the Optimates’ horses to swerve away and retreat. This enabled Caesar to attack Pompey’s right flank, effectively deciding the outcome of the battle. The Popular Political Party would lose over a thousand men, but Caesar would win the day.
The Patrician Party of the Best Men retreated, as did Pompey. In the ensuing mêlée, the Aristocratic Optimates were left to their own devices. Pompey, himself, threw off his general’s cloak, gathered his family and as much gold as they could carry in a horse-drawn cart, and fled, masquerading as civilians. Eventually making his way to Egypt, he was captured by Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII, who ordered his assassination. He even sent his head to Caesar in an effort to garner favor. The plan backfired, however, because it deprived Caesar of his ultimate public relations moment – pardoning the glorified general to win the hearts of patriotic Romans.
Angered by the gift of his rival’s head, Julius invaded Egypt in 47 BCE under the guise of trying to resolve the Alexandrine Civil War between Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra. Emotions still raw from his lack of support in Greece, Caesar favored Cleopatra and captured Ptolemy XIII, only to release him. Gathering his army, the Greek potentate besieged Julius in Alexandria. But Mithridates of Pergamum marched overland from Asia Minor to rescue Caesar and defeated the Egyptian force dispatched to stop him. The allies joined forces and routed Ptolemy in the Battle of the Nile. With Egypt in Caesar’s hand, he appointed Cleopatra queen. But more than that, Julius lingered in Egypt, enjoying a liaison with the young and beautiful woman.
Julius Caesar left the embrace of Cleopatra in May 47 BCE to fight Pharnaces II of Pontus for the Kingdom of Pontus. Pharnaces had acted like a Roman, committing atrocities against prisoners and civilians alike. In pursuit, and during his long march through Israel, Syria, Cilicia, 103and Cappadocia, Julius was accompanied by the Sixth and Twelfth Legions in addition to the Balatians and Vexillations from the Thirty-Sixth Legion. But Pharnaces, tearing a page out of his opponent’s playbook, gave up the high ground to launch a surprise attack upon the Julian forces while they were still digging earthworks. The tactic backfired, however, with the more experienced Romans quickly regrouping, driving their overly aggressive foe away. The quick victory prompted Caesar’s oft-referenced citation: “Veni, vidi, vici – I came, I saw, I conquered.”
During January of 46 BCE, a different fate lay before him. Julius Caesar returned to Africa to battle the Republican forces of the Optimates under the command of Titus Labienus, his former ally. Recognizing that Labienus significantly outmanned him, Caesar fell back, which served to give Labienus the land of his choosing. And while Caesar claimed victory, the resulting battle was a bloody affair, costing Julius one-third of his men.
A month later, the Optimates and Populares fought again, this time in Thapsus in modern Tunisia in continuance of Caesar’s Civil War. The Popular Political Party remained in opposition to the Aristocratic Party – the traditional elitists who supported the caste system of the old Roman Republic. The Optimates had amassed forty thousand men in eight Legions along with sixty war elephants to confront the wannabe king and god. But Caesar’s archers menaced the elephants, causing them to panic and trample their riders. The Julian cavalry outmaneuvered the Aristocrats and destroyed their camp, forcing the Oligarchs to retreat. Some ten thousand Optimates troops tried to surrender to Caesar but were slaughtered instead.
The final battle of Caesar’s insurrection was fought at Munda in southern Spain on March 17, 45 BCE. After a short siege, Julius Caesar with the backing of eight Legions took the fortified city of Ategua, causing the Optimates and 104their allies to flee into the desert, leaving the aristocratic old guard vulnerable to the cruel tyrant.
Caesar ordered a frontal attack while shouting the name “Venus” as a rallying cry. The Roman goddess of love and beauty, seduction and enticement, magic and prosperity, was chosen to punctuate the moment because it was from Venus that Julius Caesar claimed to be descended. He was announcing to the world that he was more than a man – he was a god.
Preoccupied with the savage fighting inspired by Caesar’s bold pronouncement, on his left flank, Pompey’s son, Pompeius, removed a Legion from his right to combat the Populares. This move left the Optimates vulnerable to the Julian cavalry which turned the course of the battle. The infantry broke their lines and retreated in a disorderly fashion. By sundown some thirty thousand men were dead.
Demonstrating his wanton cruelty and unbridled greed, in the aftermath of the battle, and within the city of Munda, the entire civilian male population was summarily executed and the surviving women were forced to pay a heavy tribute to Caesar.
After routing the Republican armies of the Optimates Aristocratic Party and killing Pompeius (Pompey’s eldest son who was cornered while trying to flee), Julius Caesar returned to Rome as a dictator. But it was not the homecoming he had envisioned. According to Plutarch, “the triumph which he celebrated for this victory displeased the Romans beyond anything. For he had not defeated foreign generals, or barbarian kings, but had destroyed the children and family of one of the greatest men of Rome.”
Nonetheless, Julius Caesar was declared “Dictator for Life” by the Popular Political Party. But he would not live to have the hair beneath his crown grow grey, because the following year, one of his most trusted lieutenants, 105Trebonius, orchestrated his assassination along with Brutus on the Ides of March, 44 BCE. The transition from the Roman Republic to the Imperial Roman Empire occurred shortly thereafter with the reign of his great-nephew and adopted heir, Octavius, who became known as Augustus – the first Roman emperor.
The killing did not stop with Julius Caesar’s celebrated death. Marc Antony was unhappy with the Senate’s decision to send him to the Province of Macedonia as Governor, principally because it was too far away from Rome. So, he exchanged the post for a five-year term in Gaul in northern Italy, even though its governor had already been appointed. So, in April 43 BCE, Marc Antony, after transferring his Legions in Macedonia to Italy, lost a battle north of Rome he had all but won.
Facing off again a month later, Antony had Brutus trapped in Mutina, a village near today’s Modena. But before he could capitalize, Octavian came to the aid of Brutus, not out of respect for his adoptive father’s assassin, but to prove to the Senate that he could be trusted as a leader of men. And while the combined forces routed Antony, the Senate’s interim leader, Hirtius, was killed during the battle, leaving the army and Rome leaderless. Seizing his opportunity, Octavian took control of the combined forces. But when the Senate asked him to relinquish control to Brutus, Octavian refused, noting that the eight Legions would refuse to fight under the man who murdered his adoptive father. As proof, the Legions under Brutus at Mutina deserted him and joined Octavian. The assassin fled toward Macedonia, but Brutus was killed en route by Celtic warriors sent to chase after him by Antony. As a result, young Octavian was now the most powerful man in the world. Although, he wasn’t the only arrogant soul in Rome.
Marc Antony crossed the Alps with his army and assembled seventeen Legions plus ten thousand cavalry. 106But before they could be positioned for the next battle, a truce was formed between Antony and Octavian at Bologna. A “Commission of Three” for the “Ordering of the State” was established, known as the “Second Triumvirate,” with Marcus Lepidus, Octavian, and Marc Antony as the Triumvirs. This trinity of dictators, however, turned on the Senate. As was common among Romans, their egos were too large to work well together.
In the years that followed, Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra at Actium near Greece. This naval battle was waged in 31 BCE, leading to Imperial Rome in 27 BCE, or Principate, with Octavian becoming Caesar Augustus and reigning as emperor.
Octavian and Antony would fight two battles as allies and cohorts in October 42 BCE. But by 41, they were at each other’s throats vying for supremacy. Thereafter, on his own initiative, Octavian, now Augustus, would attack the Cantabria people in 25 BCE. His Legions, however, were defeated by West Germanic warriors in Gaul in 16 BCE, a loss Augustus’ stepson, Drusus, would avenge five years later.
As we open the Julian calendar to the 1st century CE, nothing much changes with Rome’s attitude toward life and liberty. And yet, the next battle would shape the Empire’s future. So, let’s consider what happened to precipitate the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 BCE when an alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius ambushed and destroyed three Roman Legions led by Publius Varus – one of Rome’s most vicious generals.
By way of perspective, a decade or so earlier, the Marcomanni tribe of Suebi warriors, who survived the 107battle with Drusus, fled into the territory of the Boii and formed an alliance with the Hermunduri, Quadi, Semnones, Lugians, Zumi, Butones, Mugilones, Sibini, and Langobards. So, then in 4 CE, when Tiberius (whom we will study in a moment) entered Germania to continue subjugating the native population, and expressly the Cananefates, Chatti, and Bructeri tribes, he met with fierce opposition. As a result, in the process of his assault upon Germania, a massive rebellion arose in the Illyricum Province, prompted in part by broken promises made to the Marcomanni. So, Tiberius was forced to stop his campaign against the local Germanic tribes and send eight Legions (VIII Augustan, XV Apollinaris, XII Balerian, XXI Predator, VIII Twin, XIV Twin, and XVI Gallic) to the Balkans to crush the more disruptive and threatening of the two rebellions.
The events in Germania and the Balkans are related, and they ultimately foretell Rome’s fate. The Illyricum revolt, like the one about to occur in Germania, arose because the Romans were callous and cruel. Each province was required to send their sons to serve long stints in the Roman army. In addition, the Romans grossly overtaxed those they conquered, taking so much of the food produced in the provinces away the locals often starved. Aggravating matters further, the abuse doled out by the Roman officials and tax collectors became legendary. Further motivating some while tranquilizing others, those who rebelled against Roman oppression were persecuted, usually tortured to death as a public spectacle. But through all of this, desperate people with nothing to lose became increasingly difficult to subjugate. The entire edifice of Rome hung in the balance, which is why half of the Empire’s legions were deployed to the Balkans to punish those who had every right to hate their oppressors.
As an interesting affirmation, when Tiberius asked Bato and the Daesitiates why they rebelled, Bato is reputed 108to have answered, “You Romans are to blame for this. For you send as guardians of your flocks, not dogs or shepherds, but wolves.”
As a result of this massive projection of military might, in the autumn of 6 BCE, there were just three Legions left to control the Germanic tribes. Varus, a nobleman related to the imperial family, was assigned the mission of consolidating Roman assets. He was chosen because he was especially ruthless, routinely crucifying anyone in opposition to Roman authority.
But he did not march into a vacuum. Earlier that same year, Gaius Saturninus and Marcus Lepidus had led a massive army of sixty-five thousand Legionaries, ten thousand cavalrymen, and five thousand archers, with a supporting staff of twenty thousand, organized in thirteen Legions in an offensive operation against King Maroboduus of the Marcomanni, a tribe of the Suebi, whom Drusus had defeated in 11 BCE. So, there was lingering animosity.
Especially problematic, unknown to Varus at the time, his eventual opponent, Arminius, had previously been sent to Rome as tribute by his father, Seimerus, chief of the Cherusci. In the heart of the Beast, Arminius had spent his youth as a slave in a military training facility, which made him a formidable and angry foe. Also noteworthy, during his absence, his father had been labeled a coward by other Germanic chiefs because he had surrendered to Rome and submitted to their demands – acts punishable by death under Germanic law.
To achieve his revenge, Arminius earned an appointment as one of Varus’ advisors, all while secretly forging alliances with Germanic tribes, some of which had previously been enemies. His stealth federation was comprised of Cherusci, Marsi, Chatti, Bructeri, Chauci, Sicambri, and the remaining Suebi. He succeeded largely 109because of their collective outrage over Varus’ tyrannical rule and grotesque cruelty. The universal hatred of Roman dominion forged enduring alliances.
So while Varus was meandering from his summer camp west of the Weser River to his winter headquarters near the Rhine, Arminius fed him false reports of a local rebellion. Considering Arminius a submissive vassal, Varus never suspected that he was being played by his slave.
Varus, true to his nature, decided to suppress the feigned uprising immediately. In a hurry to strike down the insurgents, the general was even willing to follow Arminus along an unfamiliar path that the Germanic slave had claimed was a shortcut. En route to the location of the intended ambush, Arminus left under the pretext of rousing allegedly supportive Germanic forces to fend off the hostile tribe to assist the Romans in quelling the rebellion. But once free of Varus, Arminus led the federation of Germanic tribes he had secretly forged against their merciless foe.
In the narrow valley, the Roman forces were strung out over ten miles, making them particularly vulnerable. Their susceptibility to attack worsened because Varus failed to dispatch advance scouting parties. And as they entered the forest, the undulating roadway became muddy and narrowed, which is when the allied Germanic tribes attacked, raining down javelins on the Romans. This was followed by menacing attacks with lances and swords.
Arminus, aware of Roman tactics, countered every move Varus made, inflicting heavy casualties on the Roman army. As they fought throughout the night, the Romans attempted to establish a protective camp. The next morning, as Varus tried to break out into open ground, the constant rain proved a menace because the sinew strings of Roman bows became slack when wet. Even the Roman shields became waterlogged and too heavy to carry.
110During the second night of the ambush, the surviving Legions embarked upon a moonlit march in an attempt to escape. But they found themselves engulfed in another of Arminius’ traps – a sandpit between a steep embankment and a wall of trees. The Romans were easy prey, no matter if they attempted to scale the rock wall, move slowly through the sand or run toward the trees. In the ensuing mayhem, Varus’ cavalry fled, only to be wiped out in yet another ambush. Varus then took his own life rather than endure the kind of treatment he typically imposed on his victims.
In all, the Romans lost twenty thousand soldiers, with many of the officers taking their own lives by falling on their swords. The few who survived were used as human sacrifices during Germanic religious ceremonies. Others were cooked in pots so that their bones could be displayed around the forest to ward off future Roman Legions. The surviving enlisted men were sold off as slaves.
Following their victory, the Germanic federation destroyed every Roman fort, garrison, and outpost in the region. The XVII, XVIII, and XIX Legions were never reconstituted, something that only occurred one other time in Roman history – when the XXII was disbanded after heavy losses during the Bar Kokhba Revolt over a century later in the Province of Judea. The ambush abruptly ended Roman expansion.
Having prevailed in the Balkans while Romans were dying in Germania, Augustus’ stepson, Tiberius, was given control of the army. It was an act which will soon loom large.
Victorious for the moment, Arminius sent Varus’ severed head to King Maroboduus of the Marcomanni, encouraging him to join the anti-Roman federation, but he declined. And without the benefit of such cohesion, the Romans, who were masters at sowing dissension and 111disuniting their foes, would get their revenge. Once Tiberius became emperor (as the adopted son of Octavian), he led a succession of monstrous raids into Germania between 14 and 16 CE, killing and enslaving hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children. After the raids, the Roman Aquilas | Eagles (the symbol of Rome and the standard of the army), lost in Western Germania by the XVII, XVIII, and XIX Legions, during the Teutoburg Forest ambush, were returned to Rome. They would be placed in the Temple of Mars Ultor | the Avenger.
Rome’s vengeance tour of Germania was led by Germanicus in 15 CE. He fought the Chatti and then the Cherusci. After inflicting considerable injury on both tribes, the Roman Legions returned to the Teutoburg Forest, where the bleached and unburied bones of their fallen soldiers littered the ground and trees.
The following year, in 16 CE, the most telling of the punitive retaliatory assaults perpetrated by the Beast against those they considered barbarians occurred at the time Dowd was equidistant from his second arrival and departure. It was waged against an alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius – the slave who had outsmarted his captors. Tiberius, the adopted son of Germanicus, engaged in the family business, seeking revenge for the loss of the Legions, wanting to restore the Roman psyche, hoping to quell a formidable foe, and to make a name for himself. And so, he did, inflicting heavy losses on the allied tribes. But his prize eluded him – Arminius’ head. Also, infuriating, Rome lost ten thousand soldiers in the process of killing ten thousand Germans. But nonetheless, needing a victory to inspire patriotism, and thus submission, Tiberius arranged for a Triumph to be held for his returning army on May 26, 17 CE. As for Arminius, he was later assassinated by rival Germanic chiefs.
Before we depart this horrible time in Roman history when mass murder was proclaimed divine, let’s consider 112the character of the man at the helm of the Beast. Tiberius Divi Augusti Filius Augustus was born in November 42 BCE, he became emperor in 14 CE, and he died twenty-three miserable years later in 37 CE. He was therefore the man in charge of the empire when Rome savagely crucified the second coming of Dowd | David as the Messiah and Son of God. His father was Tiberius Claudius Nero, a prominent Roman politician. His mother, Livia Drusilla, divorced his father within three years of his birth and married Emperor Augustus, making Tiberius the stepson of Octavian.
And while we are getting ahead of our story, since we are speaking of matrimony and keeping it all in the family, after Octavian told Tiberius to marry his best friend’s daughter, he was ordered to divorce her and then marry his best friend’s wife, Augustus’ daughter, Julia. After which, Tiberius was adopted by Octavian making him a Julian in addition to a Claudian, gaining a weighty pedigree in aristocratic Rome. As the forefather of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Tiberius was the grand-uncle of Caligula, the paternal uncle of Claudius, and the great-granduncle of Emperor Nero.
Tiberius’ first public appearance was when he attended his biological father’s eulogy at age nine. Four years later, in 29 BCE, he and his brother were seen riding alongside Octavian during his Triumph celebrating the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra. A handful of years later, Octavian became sufficiently ill to consider succession, thereby directing Tiberius to enter politics. His stepfather even waived the age limit so that he could “run” for Praetor and Consul five years earlier than stated in Roman Law. Run was in quotes because these were now appointed positions, not elected as they had been in the oligarchic Republic.
With an affinity for Greek philosophy and rhetoric, Tiberius was sent east alongside Marcus Agrippa to 113bargain with the Parthians after the Roman defeat. With his words failing to achieve the desired result, Tiberius led an army into Armenia, using the threat of force to negotiate the return of the highly prized Aquila Eagles lost by Crassus. He was also able to reestablish neutrality for Armenia – returning the region to its previous role as a buffer between the superpowers.
Upon his return to Rome in 19 BCE, Tiberius married the aforementioned Vipsania Agrippina, the daughter of Marcus Agrippa, Octavian’s closest friend and greatest general. Thereafter, the newlywed was appointed Praetor and sent off to subjugate the Gauls in Northern Italy. Seemingly successful, he was relocated to the Danube to harass Germans. By 13 BCE, he was appointed Consul around the same time his son, Drusus, was born.
Upon General Agrippa’s death in 12 BCE, Tiberius became the chosen one. Augustus ordered him to divorce Vipsania, his departed general’s daughter, and to marry Julia, Augustus’ daughter but also Agrippa’s widow – making her Vipsania’s stepmother and his stepsister. To no one’s surprise, the contrived nuptials didn’t produce harmony. So miserable was Tiberius at the annulment of his first arranged marriage and the imposition of the second, he ran to Vipsania’s home crying, begging her to join him and his promiscuous wife in a twisted arrangement. To preclude the love triangle, Augustus dispatched Tiberius to Pannonia and then to Germania – both highly volatile regions.
A good Roman, Tiberius played his part in suppressing Pannonia (located in today’s Hungary, Austria, Herzegovina, and Slovenia), Dalmatia (located along the Adriatic Sea in today’s Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia), and Raetia (in modern Switzerland), while subduing Germania (with ill-defined borders encompassing today’s Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Belarus, Denmark, and Lithuania).
114But somewhere along the way, the world turned dark for Tiberius. In 6 BCE, on the cusp of being put in command of the entire Eastern Empire, becoming the second most powerful man in Rome, Tiberius announced his withdrawal from politics and the military. Having retreated to the Island of Rhodes, he would not find rest for his inner demons. His wife, Julia, became publicly licentious, thereby embarrassing and taunting her husband. He would not only grow to loathe her, but Octavian had also ordered the Praetorian Guards to assure that he would never again see Vipsania.
The retreat from power put a crimp in Octavian’s plans, especially when his grandsons died, first Lucius passing in 2 CE and then Gaius’ death in Armenia in 4 CE. By default, Tiberius, the adopted son, became the exclusive heir, inheriting Augustus’ Imperium Maius – Greatest Power to Command. Eight years later, in 13 CE, Octavian would announce that Tiberius was “co-princep” and, thus, emperor-in-waiting.
All the while, from 10 to 12 CE, Tiberius was earning his Triumph by hunting Germans. When he returned to great fanfare, he governed jointly with his promoter and tormentor, Augustus. Affirming this, as part of the subsequent census, those subjugated by Rome were required to pledge their allegiance to both men, declaring that they were gods. Then upon the conclusion of the “lustral – purification” ceremonies in 12 CE, Tiberius was dispatched to Illyricum, from which he returned two years later to preside over Augustus’ death and deification.
At the time, Tiberius was offered, but did not accept, the title “Pater Patriae – Father of Fathers,” also known as “Pope.” The term now synonymous with Roman Catholicism was first offered to Furius Camillus in 386 BCE, when myth tells us that he arrived in Rome just after the city had been sacked, making him a Father of Fathers, not unlike the mythical wolf, Romulus. Cicero would 115receive it next for his role in suppressing the Catilinarian conspiracy. The third Roman Pater | Pope was the man who, as dictator, wanted to be heralded as a god – Julius Caesar. Augustus received the title in 2 BCE. Caligula (in 37 CE) would claim it next, as would Claudius (42 CE), Nero (55 CE), Vespasian (70 CE), Titus (79 CE), Domitian (81 CE), Trajan (98 CE), Hadrian (128 CE), Commodus (177 CE), and Diocletian (in 284 CE) – the ultimate bad boys of Rome. The last to receive it was Constantine (in 307 CE), the pagan general who paved the way for Imperial Rome to evolve into the Roman Catholic Church. There is an undeniable connection between the rhetoric and leadership of the Empire and resulting Church.
Tiberius was also afforded, but then refused to bear, the Civic Crown of interwoven laurel and oak which announced that the emperor was the Savior of Roman lives. In addition to declining the aforementioned titles, considering the fact that Tiberius wouldn’t allow anyone to call him Imperator or Augustus, the very titles Octavian is famous for bequeathing upon himself, it becomes obvious that he hated the Pater Patriae Imperator Augustus who had controlled his life, making him so miserable.
At his best, Tiberius was a derisive obstructionist. At his worst, he became the Devil incarnate. While we will never know just how abusive Octavian had been, his victim would make Rome pay for what was done to him.
As the reluctant prince told the Senate that he couldn’t be bothered with the trivial matters of State, he then issued vague orders with wildly variant interpretations. He derided the aristocratic Senate as “men fit to be slaves” while in the same breath ordering them to act independently.
In this chaos, the Legions oppressing the Germanic tribes were cheated out of the compensation Augustus had promised. And when they mutinied, it became clear that 116Tiberius had been the reason they had not been paid. Worse, rather than providing the bonuses, Tiberius dispatched his son, Drusus Julius Caesar, and Germanicus with an army to quell the mutiny.
Their solution was pure Roman: Germanicus led the mutineers in terrorist raids across the Rhine and into Germania, telling the Legionnaires that whatever plundered treasure they could steal from the people they encountered along the way would count as their bonus. This grotesquely unethical and savage recipe for quelling the Beast’s insatiable war lust and greed was duly celebrated with a Triumph in 17 CE, rekindling Roman pride and patriotism.
Germanicus was given the Eastern Empire as a prize but died shortly thereafter. He accused Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, the governor of Syria, of poisoning him. And while there was no merit to the charge, since the Pisones had allied themselves with Octavian, with Piso even marrying Livia (Augustus’ widow and Tiberius’ mother), he was indicted. But when brought to Rome and questioned before the Senate, Piso threatened to implicate Tiberius. His subsequent death was officially called a suicide.
In 19 CE, Emperor Tiberius demonstrated overt anti-Semitism. He ordered all Jewish men between the ages of sixteen and forty-six to be conscripted into the army. They were required to sacrifice a minimum of twenty-five, and as many as forty years of their lives, to fight in the army of the Beast that was oppressing them. Beyond this, Satan’s associate banished every Jew who was not in the military from Rome, threatening to enslave them for life if they did not leave his city. (Jossa, Giorgio, 2006, Jews or Christians, pages 123-6)
The killing and oppression took their toll. Tiberius became the “gloomiest of men” – a paranoid, demented, and sadistic recluse – especially after the death of his son, 117Drusus, in 23 CE. Three to four years later, around 27 CE, he exiled himself from Rome, and moved to the Villa Jovis (Home of Jupiter) on the island of Capri, leaving control of the empire to his unscrupulous Praetorian Prefects – and most notably, the equestrian Lucius Sejanus.
Before we examine Lucius’ role in Tiberius’ drama, consider the fact that Lucius was derived from the Latin “lux – shining light.” It was thereby a cognate of Lucifer – the name of Satan in the Roman Catholic Church’s Latin Vulgate.
On this day in Rome, Lucius transformed the Praetorian Guards, a paramilitary police force whose principal mission had been the defense of the city and emperor, into his own personal army of 9,000 troops. Shortly thereafter, Sejanus initiated a series of purge trials, thereby removing and robbing the elitists with the power and wealth to oppose him. The confiscated funds were split between Lucius and the Empire’s treasury. It was the ancient world’s version of the one percent paying their fair share. Next, Lucius went after the most popular citizens, especially Germanicus’ wife and sons. They were arrested in 30 CE only to die under suspicious circumstances. Caligula was one of the few survivors.
Immediately thereafter, Lucius tried to marry his way into the Julian line, beginning with a licentious affair with Claudia Livilla Julia (the daughter of Nero Claudius Drusus and the sister of both Emperor Claudius and General Germanicus, also Caligula’s aunt and Emperor Nero’s great aunt). Livilla was later implicated in this plot and killed, one which contemplated murdering Tiberius with the consent of the Julians. So, with all of the blood feuds and bloodletting, Tiberius ordered the Senate to rid Rome of Lucius Sejanus, who was executed after being accused of treason, along with all those implicated in the coup d’état. At the same time, Tiberius invited the nineteen-year-old Caligula to play at his Villa Jupiter.
118Tacitus, the famed Roman historian, claims that more treason trials followed and that, without compunction, the lives of anyone with political ties to the Julians were truncated. Even the imperial magistracy was hit, as anyone who had associated with Lucius Sejanus was eliminated, their properties seized by the State.
Tacitus vividly describes what Tiberius had done to Rome circa 33 CE at the very moment the Passover Lamb was being crucified by Rome: “Executions were now a stimulus to his fury, and he ordered the death of all who were lying in prison under accusation of complicity with Sejanus. There lay, singly or in heaps, the unnumbered dead, of every age and sex, the illustrious with the obscure. Kinsfolk and friends were not allowed to be near them, to weep over them, or even to gaze on them too long. Spies were set round them, who noted the sorrow of each mourner and followed the rotting corpses, till they were dragged to the Tiber, where, floating or driven on the bank, no one dared to burn or to touch them.” (Tacitus, Annals, VI, page 19)
Tacitus would ascribe Tiberius’ apparent virtues as hypocrisy – as the crafty assumption of virtue. He would display the pretense of good while being the embodiment of evil. He was infamous for his cruelty and veiled debauchery. He lived in the shadows and hid from the light. He noted that corruption, and the growing tyranny among the governing classes of Rome, was the overriding theme of his reign. And by 33 CE, Tiberius plunged headfirst into every wickedness and disgrace, without concern or shame. He indulged his own inclinations while devaluing the life and liberty of others. (Tacitus, Annals, VI, pages 50-51) Coincidence?
This comparison between earthly contemporaries, the second coming of Dowd | David and Tiberius, is one of absolute contrasts: of good and evil, of freedom and enslavement, of mercy and vindictiveness, of life and 119death, of relationship and estrangement, of a loving family and child abuse, of light and darkness, of Yahowah versus the Beast.
But even more lurid behavior was in the offing along the coast of Capri. Rumors abound as to what the paranoid Tiberius was actually doing there. Suetonius records the tales of sexual perversity, including graphic depictions of child molestation and cruelty. (Suetonius, The Lives of Twelve Caesars, Life of Tiberius, pages 43-45) While we cannot prove either claim, we have every reason to suspect that Caligula was abused as a child by Tiberius, just as Tiberius had been abused by the man who placed him upon the throne.
The news that Tiberius had died in Misenum on March 16, 37 CE was celebrated in Rome. The city rejoiced when it heard that Caligula had smothered him. (Tacitus, Annals, VI, page 50) In his will, Tiberius appointed his grandson, Tiberius Gemellus, and his killer, Caligula, the sole surviving son of Germanicus, joint control over the Empire. But then in his first act of business as co-emperor, Caligula voided Tiberius’ will. In his second, and now as an accomplished killer, he had Tiberius Gemellus executed. Thereafter, Caligula spent Tiberius’ fortune, which was indistinguishable from the Roman treasury, of nearly three billion sesterces, on personal indulgences.
Caligula was twenty-five when he became emperor and pope. He may have been even more twisted than his benefactor. Initially hailed by patriotic Romans as “Our Baby” and as “Our Star” by the adoring crowds, most every historical source portrays Caligula’s four-year reign as cruel, extravagant, and sadistic. He was sexually perverted in addition to being a megalomaniac and tyrant.
120As was the case with the Germans in the late 1920s who worshiped Adolf Hitler, Caligula was admired by Romans according to Philo of Alexandria, who wrote On the Embassy to Gaius. Suetonius wrote that over one hundred sixty thousand animals were sacrificed during demonstrations of public rejoicing as part of the religious ceremonies ushering in the reign of Rome’s new god. (Suetonius, The Lives of Twelve Caesars, Life of Caligula) And as will be the case with the Towrahless One during the onset of the Time of Troubles for Yisra’el, Philo described the first seven months of Caligula’s reign as “completely blissful.” (Philo of Alexandria, On the Embassy to Gaius, Volume II)
Forecasting the tactics that will be deployed by the Beast of the later days, Caligula’s first acts were said to be generous in spirit, though many were political in nature and bankrupted the country. To garner support for his reign, he granted bonuses to those in the military including the Praetorian Guard. To appease the wealthy, he declared that treason trials were a thing of the past, recalling the aristocrats Tiberius had sent into exile. To endear himself to the poor, he offered tax relief to those on the bottom rung of the Imperial revenue system. Then in an act of hypocrisy, to appear moral, he even banished certain sexual deviants. Then, recognizing the hypnotic effect of patriotism, Caligula promoted lavish spectacles for the public’s entertainment, sponsoring ever more ghoulish gladiator battles.
But within seven months at the head of this deadly Beast, Caligula became gravely ill – with many thinking that he had been poisoned. While he would recover somewhat from his illness (likely epilepsy), the young emperor became a diabolical monster. Then, as will be the case with those who abet the Towrahless One’s rise to power, Caligula had all of those who were closest to him killed, especially those he saw as a potential threat. Of his 121family, only his uncle, Claudius, was spared, and that was because Caligula enjoyed mocking him.
In 38 CE, Caligula promoted political reform. He published an accounting of public funds he was squandering. He reimbursed those who lost property in fires and abolished taxes for everyone except the wealthy. He even enabled upward mobility for the middle class, allowing new members into the Equestrian and Patrician orders. Toying with Roman citizens, he restored democratic elections, knowing full well that their votes didn’t matter. Of them, the noted Christian historian, Cassius Dio, wrote: “though delighting the rabble, it grieved the sensible who stopped to reflect. If offices should once again fall into the hands of the many...many disasters would result.” (Cassius Dio, Roman History, Volume LIX, 9.7) It was spoken like a true Roman Catholic.
Then appearing like Barack Obama’s proclivity to kill civilians with American drones without so much as an indictment, much less a trial, we find Caligula executing people throughout the realm without even the pretense of judicial process.
According to Cassius Dio, a financial crisis arose early in Caligula’s short reign, perhaps as soon as the spring of 38 CE. The emperor’s liberal and progressive policies, which were designed to garner political support, bankrupted the Empire. His increased military spending was contrived for greater control, but all it accomplished was to undermine the Roman economy. Then his overall extravagance in the promotion of ‘Build Back Better,’ while keeping the people entertained and distracted, set the stage for Rome’s great reset. Collectively, Caligula’s amoral progressives exhausted the Empire’s treasury. In three years, Rome went from a surplus of three billion sesterces to a deficit almost that large. He would make Biden and his fellow Progressives look like pikers.
122Ancient historians state that Caligula began falsely accusing the rich, fining the most productive Romans, and even killing the wealthy to seize their estates to resolve the national debt. But confiscating all of the wealth of the richest citizens wasn’t nearly enough, so before the invention of fiat money and the smoke and mirrors of quantitative easing, in order to resolve the debt and keep from declaring bankruptcy, Caligula asked the public to lend the State money. Next, he levied taxes on lawsuits, marriage, and of course, prostitution.
Ever the entertainer, Caligula began auctioning the lives of the gladiators at his shows. Wills that left anything of value to anyone other than the emperor were reinterpreted, granting all assets to Caligula instead. Even the Legion’s Centurions who had stolen property during plundering raids were compelled to turn over their spoils to the State. (Suetonius, The Lives of Twelve Caesars, Life of Caligula, pages 38-42)
Current and past civil servants were accused of incompetence and embezzlement. And even they were forced to reimburse the treasury. According to Suetonius, in the first year of Caligula’s reign, he squandered the 2,700,000,000 sesterces that Tiberius had amassed. And as a result, Rome was besieged by a famine that was induced by Caligula’s response to this financial crisis. Once production was penalized and economic success essentially criminalized, there was no longer an incentive to grow or transport food. (Suetonius, The Lives of Twelve Caesars, Life of Caligula, pages 38-42)
In a nation now devoid of businessmen, and incentive, Caligula seized the means to transport grain imports, distributing food to whom he pleased using his boats, carts, roads, and bridges. (Seneca the Younger, On the Shortness of Life, Volume XVIII, page 5) And in so doing, he set the stage for what is about to befall our world, especially as we approach 2030.
123Even though the Beast was bankrupt, Caligula completed the Temple of Augustus, promoting patriotic devotion not unlike what the United States did with its Temples and Shrines to Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln – and more recently, monuments to its wars. And in keeping with American presidents and the enormity of the White House, to convey the proper prestige, Caligula had his Imperial Palace expanded.
Rome’s most notorious pervert also funded the construction of a large racetrack known as the Circus. It’s important because it connects the Roman Empire with the Roman Church. Pope and Emperor Caligula had an Egyptian obelisk transported by sea and erected in the middle of his Circus amphitheater. Today, that same Obelisk sits in the middle of the Vatican. (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Volume XVI, page 76)
It isn’t, however, the largest pagan monument in Rome. Constantius II removed a two-hundred-thirty-ton obelisk from the Temple of Amun in Karnak to decorate the Circus Maximus in 357 CE, shortly after Christianity became the official religion of Rome. Today, that same tribute to the sun god, Amun Ra, stands proudly outside of the Apostolic Palace of the Lateran, the ancient Roman palace which now serves as the papal residence. It is, of course, covered in hieroglyphics, all paying homage to the Egyptian gods.
Caligula was devoted to restoring and erecting temples to the gods, including his masterpiece, the Temple of Apollo at Ephesus. But since there was another god closer to home that Caligula preferred, he constructed two massive landlocked ships for himself on Lake Nemi – the largest vessels in the ancient world. The smaller of the two was designed as a Temple to Diana, the virgin goddess of the moon, to lure young women to the larger ship, which was essentially a decadent and ostentatious floating palace designed to accommodate Caligula’s orgies.
124Caligula lived in the whirl of conspiracies, all of which he resolved through execution. So, when visiting kings came to Rome to pay their respects to him, if they claimed noble descent, the insecure pontiff would wail: “Let there be only one Lord and one King.” (The Lives of Twelve Caesars, Life of Caligula, page 22) He was speaking, of course, about himself.
By 40 CE, Caligula began implementing policies whereby religion and politics became indistinguishable in Rome – with Caligula, himself, playing the leading role. The emperor began appearing in public dressed as a variety of gods and demigods such as Hercules, Mercury, Venus, and Apollo. (Philo of Alexandria, On the Embassy to Gaius, Volumes XI to XV) The pope even began referring to himself as a god when meeting with politicians. He adopted the name Jupiter when signing public documents. (Cassius Dio, Roman History, Volume LIX, page 26-28)
A sacred precinct was designated and cleared for emperor worship, and temples were erected specifically for Caligula. The existing Temple on the Forum grounds was then reconsecrated with Caligula as its focus. It would serve to connect his Imperial residence on Palatine Hill with the seat of government, integrating religion and politics.
Rome’s pope would even make appearances in his temples, presenting himself as god to the public. Then Caligula had the heads removed from numerous statues of gods throughout Rome and replaced with his own. He grew to prefer being worshiped as “Neos Helios – the New Sun.” He even had coins minted presenting himself as the Egyptian sun god, Amen Ra. Charming, to be sure.
According to Cassius Dio, prior to Caligula, living emperors could be worshiped as divine in the East and dead emperors could be gods in Rome. The exception was Augustus, who had the public worship his spirit while alive 125and his body when deceased. Caligula went all the way to having everyone in Rome, including Senators, worship him as a god. It was the perfect setup for Christianity. The Romans were preconditioned to accepting gods, dead and alive, and gods no bigger than men.
It should not be surprising that Caligula often came to the aid of his good friend, Herod Agrippa. This then led to an overt increase in anti-Semitism. He would take an active role in suppressing and antagonizing Jews, forcing them to accept Greek culture and Roman Law.
In 38 CE, Caligula sent Agrippa to Alexandria unannounced to check on Flaccus whom he did not trust. According to Philo, the visit was met with jeers from the Greek population who saw Agrippa as the king of the Jews. Flaccus tried to placate both the Greek population and Caligula by having statues of the emperor placed in Jewish synagogues. As a result, riots broke out in the city with Jews blaming Greeks for the blasphemy. Caligula responded by removing Flaccus from his position and executing him.
Relations with Judaea deteriorated when, in 39 CE, Agrippa accused Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee, of planning a rebellion against Roman rule. Herod Antipas confessed, and Caligula exiled him. Agrippa was rewarded with his territories.
Riots again erupted in Alexandria in 40 CE because Jews were accused of not worshiping the emperor by anti-Semitic Greeks. Jews were frustrated further by the erection of a new altar to Caligula in their midst, which they destroyed. In response, Caligula ordered a massive statue of himself be placed in the Temple in Yaruwshalaim, which was nothing less than a declaration of war. And it was in this context that Philo wrote that “Caligula regarded the Jews with special suspicion, as if they were the only race which cherished desires opposed to his own.”
126Postponing the inevitable conflict for nearly three decades, the Governor of Syria, Publius Petronius, fearing civil war if the order were carried out, delayed implementing it for nearly a year. Agrippa then convinced Caligula to reverse his decision.
Historians Philo of Alexandria and Seneca the Younger describe Caligula as an insane and self-absorbed, angry and murderous man who indulged in too much spending and sex. He was accused of sleeping with other men’s wives and bragging about it, of killing for mere amusement, of deliberately squandering Rome’s treasury, of causing the population to starve, and of wanting a statue of himself erected so that he would be worshiped as the most important god in the universe.
When he was presiding at the Circus, he would order his guards to throw an entire section of the crowd into the arena during intermission to be eaten by wild animals because, when there weren’t enough criminals to torture in this way, he grew bored.
Suetonius and Cassius Dio provide additional tales of perverted insanity. They accuse Caligula of incest with his sisters, Agrippina the Younger, Drusilla, and Livilla, and say he prostituted them to other men. He turned his palace into a brothel, and infamously, he promised to make his horse, Incitatus, Consul, while actually appointing him a priest.
While none of this seemed to bother Romans, as most of their politicians, priests, generals, and aristocrats were similarly perverted, Caligula’s announcement to the Senate that he would be leaving Rome permanently so that he could move to Alexandria, Egypt to be worshiped as a living god was not well-received. The prospect of Rome losing its emperor, and thus its political influence, was unconscionable, as was the realization that people less perverted might find Caligula’s debauchery unbecoming. 127So, the Senate did what it did best – plan the emperor’s assassination.
The perpetrator would be Chaerea, an effeminate man with a weak voice. He had been slandered by the emperor, who had called him derogatory names. In particular, Caligula mocked Chaerea’s compassionate approach to tax collection by referring to him as “Venus.”
On 22 January 41 CE, we are told by Suetonius that Caligula’s death was similar to that of Julius Caesar, in that he was stabbed thirty times by multiple conspirators. What’s interesting is that Caligula’s Germanic guard was grief-stricken and enraged. They not only attacked the assassins and conspirators, but they also lashed out at innocent senators and bystanders alike.
The Senate tried to capitalize on Caligula’s death by restoring the Republic. But the military remained loyal to the office of the emperor and kept it from happening. Still in love with their young monster, grieving Romans demanded that Caligula’s murderers be tried for treason. As a result, the assassins decided to go out swinging, stabbing Caligula’s wife, Caesonia, to death and then killing their young daughter, Julia, by smashing her head against a wall.
Claudius would become emperor of the Evil Empire after procuring the support of the Praetorian Guard. He immediately ordered the execution of Chaerea and all other known conspirators. And thus ends another sordid affair.
Turning our attention from Roman perversion back to its killing machine, in 43 CE, the Romans began attacking the Celts living in England, invading Britain for the first time. The initial phase of this conflict raged for seven years, with the deciding battle occurring in Caer Caradoc (perhaps around Herefordshire) in 50 CE.
128The Celtic leader, Caratacus, was among the last of his kind, someone with the courage, character, and conviction to openly resist Roman oppression. For his moral stand, he and his family were captured and hauled off to Rome as slaves. They were paraded in shackles as part of Claudius’ Triumph. Intimidation was Rome’s strong suit.
So, it would be almost a decade before an alliance of indigenous peoples in Roman-occupied Britain would rebel again. But as before, they were annihilated so mercilessly, their demise ended all resistance to Roman rule for centuries thereafter.
Halfway around the world, Rome turned its iron teeth on the Parthian Empire in an effort to control Armenia, which had been serving as a territorial buffer between the two superpowers. Augustus had made Armenia a client of Rome, but then when Nero ascended to the throne, the Parthians installed their own vassal. Nero reacted impulsively as was his style, dispatching Legions to reestablish Armenia under the Roman sphere of influence. He picked Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, who from a Roman perspective had distinguished himself subduing the Germanic tribes, to command the assault. Corbulo, who was serving as governor of Asia, was given control over Cappadocia and Galatia in modern-day Turkey, with Pro-Consular authority Imperium to induce him to accept the associated risk. And although Galatia was considered an ideal recruiting ground for Legionnaires, in that the native population was often rash and impulsive, the bulk of Corbulo’s forces came from Syria. All four of the Legions garrisoned in the vicinity were transferred to his command.
Keenly aware that the Parthians were formidable foes, Corbulo tried to be diplomatic. When it failed, he prepared his forces for war, ruling over them with an iron fist. The young Tiberius had tried this same carrot-and-stick approach with considerable success.
129But even with the uncompromising discipline which made Corbulo infamous, fighting began through an act of insubordination. One of Corbulo’s advance cavalry units launched a failed raid against the Armenians and, during their retreat, panicked Rome’s armies. Now faced with the old ‘use them or lose them’ adage with regard to his soldiers, Corbulo readied three of the Legions at his disposal (III Gallica, IV Scythica, and VI Ferrata) and hurriedly attacked Armenia.
The Romans prevailed, sacking Armenian cities and torching its capital – although partly because the Parthians were otherwise occupied, dealing with a revolt by the Hyrcanians near the Caspian Sea and couldn’t properly defend their client. Then in typical Roman fashion, the Armenians who stood up against Rome’s unprovoked invasion, and who fought to preserve their lives and freedoms, were captured, tortured, and killed.
But now Armenia, at least what was left of it, was under Roman control. So Corbulo, having murdered most of the Armenian royal family, installed one of the few survivors as king, leaving some troops behind just to make sure he behaved.
Nero’s rash actions proved counterproductive. Armenia had never been the adversary, only a buffer; Parthia was the enemy. Therefore, in response to Nero’s provocation, King Vologases of Parthia quickly negotiated a truce with the Hyrcanians so that he could turn his undivided attention toward Rome. To which, Corbulo, on Nero’s behalf, dispatched the IV Scythica and XII Fulminata Legions to Armenia while he positioned the III Gallica, VI Ferrata, and XV Apollinaris along the Euphrates, thinking that the Parthians might invade Syria.
Instead, the Parthians marched directly into Armenia. But when they failed in their initial siege attempts against the Romans garrisoned there, a fragile truce was devised 130because the leaders in the theater recognized that all-out war might prove catastrophic.
However, since Nero was never moved by reason, he divided Rome’s army, giving Lucius Paetus control of three Legions, including the newly arrived V Macedonica, to reinvade Armenia. Meanwhile, he told Corbulo to remain in Syria.
After a series of minor skirmishes in the Armenian countryside, Paetus withdrew, dispersing some of his forces and granting leave for his officers during the winter. The Parthians capitalized and laid siege to Paetus’ remaining troops. And while he dispatched messengers to Corbulo, requesting help, the rescue was too slow in coming. With a divided army, Paetus was forced to surrender to Vologases. Then as Corbulo had feared, the conditions of capitulation became onerous, with the Romans agreeing to leave Armenia and surrender all forts to Parthia. Under the terms of this accord, the VI and XII Legions were to strip naked, giving the Armenians who the Romans had plundered, their weapons and clothes. It was a horrifying embarrassment for the ego of Nero and Rome.
Before we consider the next battle, let’s ponder the conflict brewing within the Beast – of lives being discounted to facilitate an ever-expanding palette of elitist indulgences. Throughout the Republic and continuing during the Empire, Rome imposed a strict caste system. At the bottom were slaves. They were property, often abused in horrible ways for the sadistic pleasure of the aristocrats. These slaves, most of whom were women and children, had no rights or legal standing.
Greek slaves, however, who were better educated than their masters, were valued possessions – but only in the sense that they were not worked to death doing menial tasks. Illiterate slaves and those lacking the technical skills of a trade were condemned to manual labor and were often 131worked as if they were tools or simply beasts of burden. Violent and disobedient slaves were subjected to inhuman conditions in Roman mines.
Freemen without citizenship were either called Peregrini or Liberti depending on whether they were foreign subjects or liberated slaves. A unique set of laws were written to govern their conduct. Foreigners doing business with Romans were known as Clients.
Climbing up the social ladder from the bottom rungs, we discover that Roman citizens fell into three castes, with common people on the bottom rung of society known as Plebeians. The only ways for them to rise in status and to assert any control over their lives were to be adopted by a Patrician or to win the highest award for valor in fighting foreign foes.
Those in the intermediate class were Equestrians, also called Equites or Knights. There weren’t very many of them, and most were deployed in the Praetorian Guard or as intermediate officers in the military.
The Roman aristocrats were known as Patricians. They were fabulously rich, self-indulgent, typically carnal, and often cruel. The highest-ranking Patricians were in the Senate. Equal to them, sometimes even above them, were priests.
In the military hierarchy, generals were almost always Patricians. The officers, called Equites, were Equestrians. The Hoplites were typically Plebeians. The infantry was comprised of Liberti, while the Support and Rabble were almost always forced conscriptions or slaves. The youngest were sixteen, but a man could be conscripted and forced to serve even into his mid-forties. The minimum tour of duty was twenty years plus an additional five in the reserves. At Rome’s option, this could be extended to forty years. And there was no opting out. If a man got homesick, if he 132wanted to see his family, and he went AWOL, he would be hunted down and tortured to death.
Women were objects to be manipulated in Rome. Loving monogamous marriages were rare. Some women were considered citizens, but they could not vote or hold political office. And Roman Law required that both the man and the woman be citizens for the title “marriage” to apply. For example, if one or the other was not a citizen, they weren’t considered married, and their children wouldn’t have any rights within the Empire.
Just as there was a hierarchy among the gods, there was a religious hierarchy among Romans. Those who worshiped the Roman or Greek pantheon were afforded more opportunities than the devotees of the Egyptian gods. And the subjects of Amun Ra, Osiris, and Isis held sway above those devoted to the Persian variations. But even their deities and devotees were more highly regarded than the gods and goddesses of the barbarians.
Also, within this spectrum, some of the differences between religions were diminished through syncretism, whereby gods were amalgamated. A devotee of Dionysus, for example, might join the cult of Bacchus.
Within the religious class system, there was a pariah, a people considered indistinguishable from their religion. As a result of having only one God, as a result of their unwillingness to be syncretistic, their God, Towrah, Shabat, Feasts, Temple, and Land were despised – considered beneath contempt. Their refusal to pay homage to the Imperial Cult was considered an act of treason which was punishable by death.
The harassment of God’s Chosen People spread to Rome from Babylon, Persia, and Greece, and it never subsided. With the emergence of Judaism, it became worse and then continued to fester as the empire transitioned into the Church of Rome. From the time of Tiberius and 133continuing with Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, Jews were personae non gratae.
At this time, there was a battle brewing between the alleged Disciples and Paul, a Jew and Roman citizen, which was taking place throughout the Roman world. Many Jews, those who celebrated the Passover Lamb’s sacrifice, were caught up in this dispute. Uninterested in distinguishing between them, in 64 CE when the Great Fire swept through Rome, Emperor Nero blamed Chrestuaneos (meaning “good and useful implements prepared for service,” later corrupted to Christians, meaning “drugged”). Writing about it, the historian Tacitus (one of the classical world’s most authoritative voices) in Annals XV, 44, 2-8, reported: “All human efforts and propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the fire was the result of an order [from Nero]. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Chrestuaneos by the populace. Chrestus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate.”
Ever since Tiberius attempted to cleanse his city of Jews, with Caligula, Claudius, and Nero being equally anti-Semitic, the emperor’s scapegoat was always more racial than religious and focused upon Jews – the only people unwilling to worship the Roman gods and the Roman emperors as god. It was an insult their fragile egos could not endure. This reality was borne out by the historian Suetonius (69 to 122 CE), who affirmed that the Yahuwdym who followed Chrestus were held in low esteem. In his Lives of the Twelve Caesars, he reports: “Claudius expelled from Rome the Iudaeos (Yahuwdym) for constantly making disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus.”
134Most modern historians have come to realize that the Roman government did not distinguish between Jews and those who would later become known as Chrestuaneos, then Christians, prior to Nerva’s modification of the Fiscus Judaicus in 96 CE. As a result of this edict, practicing Jews paid a punitive religious tax and Christians did not. But that is the first time they were actually distinguished from each other.
