Bootstrap of the Roman Empire

Many have pondered the fall of Rome and how it bodes for our wondrous country. -- A wonderful question that has never been fully answered -- until now.

First off, the reason we worry about the fall of Rome is dishonestly portrayed. We do not care about the fall of a pagan Rome, any more than we care for the fall of a pagan Babylon. Christians do not defend and do not mourn for the fall of a Roman-Pagan people who had tried to conquer every neighbor they ever had. Americans do not relate to empire and abhor it. American Christians are the exact opposite of the Pagan-Roman society so often depicted in the Hollywood movies of the militant Caesars, the sexual debaucheries of Caligula and Cleopatra, the sadistic debauchery of Nero and Commodus, the political intrigues of Brutus, the enslavement and brutal defeat of the Spartacus slave revolt, the total destruction of Carthage, and of course, the persecutions of Christians.

While the decline of Rome did begin while the Roman-pagans were still firmly in control, the actual fall of Rome happened after Christians had inherited the reigns of power. So the story of the fall of Rome is not the story of the fall of a Roman-Pagan people, but the fall of a people who had found salvation in Christ.

The fall of Rome was a Christian loss and that is why it should be of interest to us today.

Since Christians had control (or appeared to have control) as Rome went off the cliff, Edward Gibbons, in his definitive 1776 book on the subject, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, places partial blame for Rome’s fall on the Christians themselves. He said that Christians just did not have the same warrior spirit of the infamous Roman legionnaire and believed that their “Kingdom” was not Rome, but Heaven, so they did not adequately defend Rome. First off, if the fall of Rome was needed to rid the world completely of Roman-pagans, then Christians should be thanked not blamed. Second, the invading barbarians were largely Christian themselves, having been previously converted by Christian missionaries. Third, Christianity lived on in the “more Christian” Eastern half of the Roman Empire for another thousand years, proving that Christians will defend Christianity. Gibbons is flat out wrong in his analysis.

This author’s take on the cause of this disaster have the NT Jews initiating “The Decline of Rome” during the Roman-pagan stage and subsequently, have the NT Jews agitating Rome’s enemies to affect “The Fall of Rome” during the Roman-Christian stage. After these two timeline sections, we will finally discuss “The Causes of the Decline and Fall”.

The Decline of Rome

With the overthrow of the monarch Tarquin the Proud, having been so abusive of his powers, the Senate refused to elect a new king to replace him. Thus, the Roman Republic was established in 509 BC. Rome then built itself up over an expansive period of 500 years, as a stable Republic with a Senate in full control. It even absorbed the previously ascendant Greek civilization by 146 BC.

All that would change in 63 BC, when Roman Emperor Pompey, who Plutarch would portray as a Roman Alexander the Great, made the fatal decision to enter and conquer semi-free Israel, thereby making Pompey and thus Rome, a blood-enemy of the Israelites.

The Pharisees, Sadduceans and media-Scribes operating within and without the Roman Empire, retaliated with smear campaigns that would turn Rome against Pompey, lead Rome to tyranny, and eventually, to its destruction.

Within 15 years of Pompey conquering Israel, in 49 BC, Caesar had “crossed the Rubicon” in pursuit of Pompey in a Roman Civil War. Pompey escaped to Egypt where he was assassinated. Caesar arrived shortly thereafter, but when presented with Pompey’s head, he removed Ptolemy XIII and replaced him with Cleopatra.

Not that Romans felt as if much had changed, but 15-years after Rome had conquered Israel, the Roman Republic of 500 years had become permanently altered.

After Caesar, Octavian would take the title Augustus, defeat Anthony and Cleopatra in 31 BC, would assume almost absolute power, retaining only a pretense of the former Republican form of government. The Senate would appear to be functioning to most, but it had little real power now.

Rome, 30 years after taking Israel, now had a dictatorial Emperor. The Sadduceans and Pharisees had succeeded in destroying the moral base to the government of Rome -- their adopted, decentralized Greek city-state model of government, where Rome (the federal government) did little more than keep the peace among city-states. But no Romans had noticed.

This destruction of the Greek city-state model would slowly, but eventually, lead to the centralized power of dictators and subsequent loss of support from the citizens within. But at first, the early emperors maintained that “res publica” still existed, albeit under their extraordinary powers, and would eventually return to its full Republican form. A line in the movie, Gladiator, would have Marcus Aurelius return Rome to a Republic, but power corrupts absolutely and Rome continued toward empire. All in all, “first citizen” or “princes” would become the modern word “prince” while the title of the victorious Roman commander, “imperator” would become “emperor”, while finally the word “Caesar” would become the German word “Kaiser” and the Russian word “C’zar”.

Following Augustus was Rome’s second Emperor, Tiberius, who ruled during the preaching and crucifixion of Jesus, under the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

Following Tiberius, in 37 AD, a dynasty was initiated with the insane Caligula and ended with the heartless Nero in 68 AD. The first NT Jewish revolt began during Nero’s reign, in 66 AD; it would not conclude until 73 AD, by Vespasian after Nero’s death.

Per the Talmud, Nero had converted to Judaism after visiting Jerusalem in 66 AD. Not surprisingly, Nero would also be the first emperor to persecute Christians after the great fire of Rome in 64 AD, and would be responsible for killing the Apostles Peter and Paul.

Meanwhile, the Sanhedrin would reconvene in Yavneh in 70 AD.

With Judea firmly back under Roman control though, Rome entered an era under “The Five Good Emperors”, began in 96 AD and finished in 180 AD with the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelias of Gladiator fame. Rome would be at its pinnacle of power, reaching its greatest extent with its renowned Pax Romana (Roman peace)

Rome was on top of the world and none knew that an insignificant occurrence 45 years earlier, during the middle of the reign of the Five Good Emperors, would bring Rome to its knees.

During the empire-wide NT Jewish Kitos Revolt against Rome in 115-117 AD, Edward Gibbons did not just speak of Christians

“Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which Jews committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwell in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of legions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of Roman government, but also of humankind.” –Edward Gibbon (Womersely ODNB pp11, 12)

Obviously, Gibbon wrote this before one would be denounced and ran out of “respectable” centers of power as being anti-Semitic. But there is more in Gibbon’s footnotes detailing the magnitude of NT Jewish destruction:

“In Cyrene, the Jews massacred 220,000 Greeks; in Cyprus, 240,000; in Egypt, a very great multitude.

Many of these unhappy victims were sawed asunder, according to a precedent to which David had given sanction of his examples. The victorious Jews devoured the flesh, licked up the blood, and twisted the entrails like a girdle around their bodies. --see Dion Cassius I, lxviii, p. 1145

Implacable enemy indeed for yet another revolt was coming in the next generation of NT Jews, 25 years later.

The NT Jewish Revolt by leader Shimon Bar Kokhba of 132-135 AD was the last straw for Roman tolerance. The Five Good Emperors, Trajan, already had to put down a second revolt of Judea with the Kitos War of 115-117 AD. A revolt every generation, 70 AD, 115 AD, and 132 AD, from already conquered peoples was not acceptable in Roman tradition.

In Roman tradition, the civilized world knew that when Carthage revolted a second time with Hannibal’s Elephants descending menacingly on Rome, the Roman response would have Roman soldiers sewing Carthage grain fields with salt and having the city of Carthage taken apart until “one stone did not set upon another”.

After the Bar Kokhba Revolt, Jerusalem would finally get the Carthage treatment itself from Rome. Israel had been free for two and a half years under Bar Kokhba, but would pay dearly once the Romans regained control. In Roman custom, Jerusalem was “plowed up with a yoke of oxen.” The Second Temple would be destroyed, Jerusalem would be leveled, Judea was renamed Palaestinia, and the NT Jews would be dispersed in a two-thousand-year Diaspora. Many were shipped all over the Roman world as slaves. Some escaped to the Judeo-Persian Empire and would make their reappearance 500 years later. Some escaped to Arabia, eventually establishing Islam in their ultimate revenge, but also 500 years into the future.

But per terms of the Diaspora, none was allowed to stay in Jerusalem, and the second Diaspora would become a disaster for Rome, for they had just brought Hannibal into their society. -- not their feared enemy, the Hannibal of Carthage -- but the terrorist Hannibal of Hollywood fame. -- the Hannibal Lecter who could devise all means of deceptions to instigate hideous evil upon others! This Hannibal was far more menacing than the Hannibal of Carthage that they could see, attack and defend against, as this Hannibal was an undetectable menace spread throughout their mighty empire.

For now, the threat to Roman rule was unchallenged, while the battered NT Jews regrouped as an underground movement. The next 40-years, from 140 AD to the end of The Five Good Emperors in 180 AD, the NT Jewish Hannibals, dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, taught themselves and then, taught their children Latin and Greek while becoming adjusted to the new Roman customs. No longer would NT Jews revolt in pitched battle, for the battle cries of the Pharisees and the Sadduceans would now be replaced by the meek and obedient Rabbinate System. But the Pharisee and Sadducean Hannibals would forevermore operate by undercover deceptive cunning and by leveraging the might of others to fight their battles for them.

As will be repeated many times, once released upon society, it only takes two generations (around 40 years) for NT Jews to ascend into positions of power and influence in any society and then it only takes another two generations (another 40 years) to totally destroy that civilization.

In a word, Rome was unknowingly on its way to being transformed into a Judeo-Roman Empire.

Although unable to prove this accusation with available documentation, an accusation can legitimately be leveled against the Pharisees and Sadduceans of the Roman Era, based upon available documentation in both The Bootstrap of Europe and in The Bootstrap of America. It can safely be said that the NT Jews quickly became the defacto middleman traders within the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was the most vast, far-reaching, empire in history, yet news still traveled throughout this empire literally by word of mouth on the back of a horse, donkey or camel. And that word of mouth most likely would be the word of a NT Jew traveling between the provinces of the Roman Empire, or traveling between Western and Eastern half’s of the Roman Empire, or traveling to and fro from the Germanic Barbarian regions, or traveling to and fro from the Persian and Arabian worlds where many NT Jews still lived and helped in the trade with Rome.

The opportunities for such middlemen traveling traders and merchants to create havoc were immense. Upon entering German territory, while drinking beer with the locals, they could have told Germans untrue stories that Romans were scared stiff of them and were planning to exterminate them. Upon returning to Roman lands, they could have told the Romans the exact same thing. Next thing you know, there is a German-Roman war. – or a Persian-Roman war, or a pagan-Christian war, or a Citizen-slave war, etc.

With this in mind, realize that the first generation of NT Jewish Diaspora, in 140 AD, was from enslaved parents of the 132 AD Bar Kokhba revolt. First, their freedom had to be bought. Then the second generation of Diaspora, around 160 AD, had grown up among Roman citizens, learned Latin and Greek and most importantly, learned where the levers of power were in their travels as merchants and traders. Trading money is little different than trading grain and they soon gained prominence in financial circles. Men with financial clout soon obtained political clout.

So after 40 years had passed, in 180 AD, what would soon become the prevailing attitude in Rome after the death of Marcus Aurelius? Roman citizens would lost the will to fight; they would lost the will to defend Rome; Citizens felt Rome was not worth defending anymore; The economy would become a shambles with runaway inflation; They would lose their own faith in Roman Mythology; They would be talked into indulging in decadent lifestyles; then when things turned ugly, they were convinced to lash out at the Christians as being the source of all their problems and persecuted them horribly.

Rome began subsidizing entire barbarian tribes, such as Attacotti, Franks, Vandals, Alans, and Visigoths – in exchange for providing soldiers to fight in the Roman armies. The Roman subsidy was food and money, but later, due to declining tax revenues, they were subsidized by allowing them to be billeted on local large landowners. This became the same as allowing them to settle in Roman territory and local landowners’ loyalties dwindled as a result.

How did Roman citizens lose their identity as Roman citizens and lose their patriotism? How did a 700-year-old, previously sound, economy become financially insolvent? Who would talk Romans into subsidizing barbarians? Once the middle class was squeezed past the breaking point to where they gave up engaging in taxable professions and little tax revenues was coming in, who convinced Romans to allow the barbarians to immigrate onto Roman territory?

After the death of Marcus Aurelias in 180 AD, 40 years after the Bar Kokhba Revolt was settled in 140 AD, Pax Romana would become history as the grandchildren of the Diaspora NT Jews, now with political, economic and media power, would insure that the Roman world would crumble from within; the final battle won!

Per Wikipedia, for the 40 year period “from 193 to 235 AD, Rome experienced imperial collapse and external invasions. Anarchy reigned from 235 to 284 AD, with the “barrack emperors” of one military coup after another. Decline would be held off for a while by Diocletian, who in 293 AD split the Latin-dominated Western half and the Greek-dominated Eastern half.”

The Fall of Rome

There was only one thing that saved Rome now -- The rise of Christianity. So much for the historical analysis of Edward Gibbons! The Pharisees and Sadduceans had done their job well of totally destroying the faith and moral character of the Roman-pagans, but by the grace of God, the long-suffering Roman-pagans found salvation in Christ. During those turbulent hundred-years after Marcus Aurelius in 180 AD, more and more Romans converted to Christianity.

Perhaps, we can only thank the Satanic Pharisees and Sadducees for the spread of Christianity. Perhaps, we can think God’s will that it be done.

This was obviously NOT in the game plan of the Pharisees and Sadduceans. God was spreading his grace and the Jesus-deniers were again thwarted for the time being.

On May 11, 330 AD, with Rome in decay, Constantine would made the Bosporus port city of Byzantium the capital of the entire Roman Empire, later to be renamed, Constantinople. Constantine would grant religious tolerance toward Christianity for the first time and even converted to Christianity himself on his deathbed, just in time to name his Christian successor. This would establish a long-standing tradition of Christian Roman emperors.

Constantine was not without tolerance toward the NT Jews as well. He allowed the NT Jews to mourn their “defeat and humiliation” by the Roman-pagans once a year on Tisha B’Av at the Western Wall. Not much, but a start.

In 392 AD, Emperor Theodosius would take matters further, finally declaring Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire, thus becoming the Roman Empire’s first “Christian Prince”. (The province of Armenia had become the first province of the Roman Empire to elect a “Christian prince”. -- The same Armenian Christians that Islam would slay at the end of WW1)

This did not set well with the Roman Senate, which was still largely Roman-pagan, but it really did not set well with the Pharisees and Sadduceans who were fully expecting and anticipating Rome’s total collapse.

Since the Roman Senate was still Roman-pagan, they were easily agitated by the media-Scribes into a civil war, ignited by the assassination of the emperor of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent appointment of an all-Pagan leadership by the Roman-pagan Senate. This coup d’etat was put down by Theodosius’s trusted General Stilicho during the Battle of the Frigidus.

For a look at the heroic life of Christian General Stilicho, as one of Christendom’s greatest defenders of the faith, his betrayal by a weak “Christian Prince” and Rome’s subsequent defeat, read the appendix article:

A1: Epic Movie Plot for next “Gladiator”

Stilicho’s victory would re-unite the Roman Empire for the last time, but only for a short time. The real importance of the Battle of the Frigidus is that it would permanently cement Christianity as the dominant faith for all time.

Stilicho would be called upon over and over again to defend Rome against barbarian invasions. Only in Stilicho’s betrayal and death would Stilicho’s archenemy, Alaric of the Visigoths, be able to lay siege to Rome as the first invading army in 800-years to do so. In 410 AD, Alaric completed his two-year siege and sacked Rome. But just as Roman citizens still thought they had a Republic after Augustus took dictatorial control will leaving the Senate in place to give appearances of a Republic, so did the barbarians leave in place both the Senate and the Emperor to give the appearance that an Empire still existed.

In 438 AD, the Eastern Empire was still alive even if the Western half just gave the appearance of being alive. This was the year that Empress Eudocia removed the ban on NT Jews praying at the Temple site altogether. To NT Jewish Pharisees, this would be seen as a sign of weakness, not a Christian act of charity. The heads of the NT Jewish Community in Galilee issued a call “to the great and mighty people of the Jews” which began: “Know that the end of the exile of our people has come!” Well enough, the exile had indeed come to an end, only to begin in earnest the preparations to betray their Christian benefactors altogether.

Only on September 4, 476 AD, did everyone know for sure that the Western Roman Empire was dead as the last Roman Western Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was replaced by a German barbarian, Odoacer. At which time, the Sadduceans and Pharisees immediately began plotting stage two of the defeat of Rome, the demise of the Eastern Roman Empire of the Byzantines. They plotted and conspired with Western Civilization’s arch enemies, the Persians, to invade Jerusalem in 614 AD for a short, but eventually unsuccessful 5-year period, followed by the more devastating but permanent invasion of their Islamic messiah, Muhammad, in 638 AD, 24 years later.

The Bootstrap of the Roman Empire -- completed!

Causes for the Decline and Fall

There are many explanations for the decline and fall of Rome, but none gets to the root cause. Many of the explanations given are:

n Lack of innovation -- Rome did not innovate with new labor-saving technology, because it depended too much on slave labor

n Financial collapse -- Due to inflation caused by the currency debasement started under Nero and due to huge governmental borrowing brought about by numerous civil wars and vast subsidies to Germanic tribes

n Loss of Roman character and loyalty: patriotism: Loss of the loyalty of the Roman soldier – Loss of the morale and patriotism of Roman citizens. led to military manpower shortages, resulting in the need to enlist large quantities of foreign, non-citizen, mercenary barbarians into the ranks of Rome’s Legions who were not ultimately loyal to Rome

n Piracy and banditry -- A broken justice system, with the injustice allowing piracy and banditry to exist, which in turn caused a reduction in trade and industry

n “Bread and Circuses” -- An immoral welfare state, where the barbarian hordes were “paid off” with food, clothing, employment in the military, and eventually, even immigration into Roman territory, in return for not rioting and sacking Roman citizens

n Collapse of the cities -- Roman citizens, heavily taxed into poverty to pay for Bread and Circuses, having lost many children in endless wars, surrounded by barbarian crime and decadence, started leaving the “inner” cities for peaceful rural life, creating the beginnings of the feudal system, as life in the city became barbarized by the barbarians allowed to immigrate into Roman cities

n Centralization of power -- The Caesars, who took dictatorial control, began destroying the self-ruling, self-sustaining city-state model that the Romans had adopted from the Greeks, resulting in feelings of lose of control by ordinary citizens and thereafter loss of Roman love for country.

n Chaos – Further collapse as the disloyal barbarian soldiers started engaging in military coup d’etats

n Loss of culture and civilization – Swarms of unassimilated foreigners entering the cities refused to engage in Roman society

n Lead Poisoning -- The elite ruling class in Roman society, responsible for managing the economy, government and cultural affairs of Rome, in one example of innovation toward the end of the empire, adopted lead piping in their aqueduct water systems, leading to many premature deaths, just when their years of experience would be most valuable to Rome.

Many of these issues America faces today, except our lead poisoning, which today comes from Chinese imports, not water pipes.

Still, the underlying cause is still not addressed. Yes, financial collapse could cause the Roman Empire to fall apart. Yes, financial collapse is caused by government spending on “bread and circuses” and endless civil wars. But what causes an 800-year-old government to have all these problems simultaneously:

n A dependence on “slave” labor

n A financial stability problem

n A loss of Patriotism problem

n A loss of trade and business problem

n A welfare state problem

n A loss of religious faith problem

n An unjust justice system problem

n A strained middle class problem

n A dictatorial centralization of power

n A loss if individual and local freedoms problem

n A decay of morals problem

n A loss of civility problem

n An immigration problem

n an endless wars problem

n A lead poisoning problem

ALL AT THE SAME TIME?

Consider this 1960’s play:

If (John) Kennedy was not a clear champion of civil rights early in his administration, however, he was closely associated with the cause of immigration reform. In 1958, he had written a pamphlet, A Nation of Immigrants”, calling for an end to the “national origins” system of immigration quotas. The publisher was the Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai Brith, and the argument, which became a significant part of the rationale for the Immigration Act of 1965, was not that immigration should be restricted, but that the preference for Northern Europeans in the quota system was morally wrong.

In a crucial scene of the film, (Marcus) Aurelius’ friend, the Greek freedman-philosopher Timonides addresses the (Roman) Senate, hoping to win approval for his settlement of Germans. He argues that if “barbarians” are given “Roman freedom” and treated as equals, there will be no motive for attacks on the frontiers, as others will seek Romanization instead. He incidentally argues, against the proposal that the Germans be enslaved, that slavery is unprofitable, in an obvious echo of the standard view of American slavery In the 1960s.

A disgusted senator responds:

“Equality…freedom…peace…Who is it that uses these word but Greeks, and Jews, and slaves?”

- "Slaves, Greeks and Jews": The Politics of "Fall of the Roman Empire" - "Fall of the Roman Empire", released Feb 1964 Quoting Marcus Aurelius

Can we say that Rome’s problems were caused by the same Hannibalistic evildoers that have destroyed our beloved country today? And, can we safely say they were neither Greeks nor Slaves?