Caesar and Christ

Similarities Between Roman and Christian Religious Propaganda

by Matthew Kruebbe

According to common beliefs of ancient Romans, Romulus, the first king of Rome, and Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, shared similar life stories.  Each man

Most of these features are also shared by Aeneas (son of Venus, Trojan hero, and ancestor of the Roman race and specifically the Julian clan), by Dardanus (ancestor of Aeneas), and by Julius Caesar. 

Significantly, each of these features is shared also by the Jesus character portrayed in early Christian literature, as well as by many other mythological and/or semi-historical persons.

There are numerous other elements that both sets of myths share.  In particular, many stories told of the Emperor Augustus bear strong resemblances to stories told later about Jesus: the miraculous nature of his birth, life, death, and ascension to heaven.  Also, events surrounding the deaths of Romulus and Julius Caesar bear a striking resemblance to later Christian stories surrounding Jesus' death:

Given the fact that Christianity arose from Judaism at a time when Jews were hostile to Rome and familiar with all of these stories told by Romans, the similarities are far too great for the similarities between Roman and Christian stories to be merely coincidental.  An overview gives one the impression that the creators of Christianity were copying and modifying Roman stories as they created their own literature about Jesus.  

I will give many examples and fuller accounts from ancient sources below, covering these four characters from Roman religion/history:

 

AENEAS

Vergil, the 1st century BCE Roman poet and creator of the great Roman epic, The Aeneid, wrote the most famous account of the Trojan hero Aeneas.  Aeneas is the son of the Goddess Venus and the mortal Anchises, cousin of King Priam of Troy.  He is also the father of Julus/Ascanius, the direct eponymous ancestor of the Julian clan from which Caesar and Augustus claim descent.  He escapes from burning Troy and wanders the Mediterranean until he is able to reach destined Italy, defeat his enemies, and establish a colony which will eventually produce Rome.  Aeneus' son Julus will found Alba Longa, the Julian clan, and the line of kings that will lead to Romulus.  Romulus will found Rome itself.  Along the way, he also has to descend to the underworld and come back up.  Vergil speaks of Dardanus, Aeneas, Romulus, Julius Caesar, and Augustus as offspring of the Gods, divine men, heroes who had long before been the subject of revealed prophecy. 

 

Aeneus shares the following features with Jesus and other heroic characters in ancient literature:

 

 In Aeneid 1, Jupiter foretells to Venus the deification and ascension of the Trojan hero Aeneas and of the future Julius Caesar (p. 12-14).  In Aeneid 3, the sacred images of the Trojan hearth Gods appear to Aeneas and reveal that some of his descendants will be exalted to heaven and that their town in Italy will be given dominion (p. 71).  In Aeneid 8, Evander alludes to the future deification of Aeneas, encouraging him to shape himself to merit divinity (p. 242).

 Vergil's writing serves the purposes of Augustan propaganda.  Augustus is a divine son of a God, destined to rule the world by divine right, to bring a golden age of peace, and subsequently to ascend to heaven and watch over Rome.

Coin of Julius Caesar, showing Aeneas, making his escape from Troy. Coin from the Westfälisches Römermuseum, Haltern.

 Descent into Hell and Re-Ascension (Katabasis and Anabasis):

 Aeneas' trip to hell and back makes him one of a series of ancient mythological or mythologized figures, often divine or semi-divine, who have been said to have accomplished such a feat. 

 In Vergil's Aeneid, the prophetess says to Aeneas, "The descent [to Hades] from Avernus is easy. The black Death-God's door stands open night and day. But to retrace your steps and to come back once again to the air above - this is the trouble, this is the hard part. A few whom Jupiter in His righteousness has loved or whom ardent virtue has carried up to heaven, Sons of Gods, have been able to do it" (6.126-131, my translation).

Aeneas lists Orpheus, Pollux, Theseus, and Hercules as among those few men who have made it to Hades and back alive.

So, here is a quick expanded list of

Heroes, Gods, or demi-Gods who have gone to Hades and back:

 

5 are Gods.  7 are demi-Gods (Jesus goes here for his human mother, even if he is said often to be "fully God and fully man.").  3 are human. 

 And as of 2005, with Rick Riorden's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, there is a modern American boy (and his companions) added to the number. 

Image:  Hydria found in Cairéa, 530-525 BCE

Musée du Louvre, Paris

Hercules brings back the 3-headed dog of Hades, Cerberus, to King Eurystheus, hiding in the bronze jar. Note the typical association of the number 3 with death, common in ancient mythology. This probably stems from the 3-day "death" of the moon in each lunar cycle (3 days when the moon is too close to the sun to be seen), before the moon is re-born and waxes again. Christianity would use the same number for Christ's death, before his resurrection. Hercules also once brought King Admetus' wife Alcestis back from the dead, just as Jesus was said to bring people back from the dead.


I was unsure whether to add Adonis and Attis to the list above.  They seem to represent regenerative vegetation power.

Some of these beings annually repeat their descent and ascent, thereby embodying a nature/vegetation/solar cycle of death and rebirth, which itself can also be compared to the generational cycle of birth, reproduction, death.  Christ will fit easily into the group with those whose cycles are annually repeated.  Every year Jesus, as the new sun, is born on December 25, triumphs over death and darkness on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox (i.e. on Easter Sunday), and then in the fall is once again metaphorically arrested by the growing length of night, to be crucified again in darkness and death in the depth of winter at the solstice.  That Jesus as sun is also Jesus as vegetation is shown by the fact that Jesus' crucifixion is one with his being the broken bread and the wine of communion/Eucharist, which is the blood of the crushed grape.  Another example of such symbolism is from John 12: 

24. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Jesus is the wheat, is the bread of life, just as Adonis is the anemone flower and Bacchus/ Father Liber is the grape that gives its life for us.  Likewise, a stalk of wheat grows from tail of the slain cosmic bull slain by the savior Mithras in Mithraic cave art.  The blood from the wound may be depicted as wheat or grapes (see p. 80, Manfred Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries, trans. R. L. Gordon, New York: Routledge , 2000).  New Life from death is the ubiquitous message.

Mithras killing the sacred cosmic bull.  Side A of a two-faced Roman marble relief, ca. 2nd or 3rd century AD. The Louvre, Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Denon wing, ground floor (Ma 3441).  Heroes, Gods, and Demi-Gods who go to Hades and back are experiencing a death and rebirth symbolic of the nature/life cycle.


THE DIVINE ROMULUS

 Romulus, the first king of Rome, had a story that followed a pattern typical of ancient mythology. 

What follows is my reconstruction of the typical story, followed by excerpts from the primary sources.  Note how many similarities there are to the later Jesus stories.

- - - - -

In the 700's BCE, when evil king Amulius stole the throne of Alba Longa from his righteous older brother Numitor, he also made Numitor's daughter Ilia, or Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin (priestess of the Goddess Vesta) so that she could never have children who might threaten his rule.  However, the God Mars came to the Vestal Virgin in secret and impregnated her with more-than-human twins.  He then comforted her and told her of the future greatness of her offspring and their impact on world history.

When Amulius found out, he ordered that the babies be killed.  His men put the children in a trough, manger, basket, box, ark, or some such container and they went to drown the boys, but the Tiber river was flooding, and they were afraid, so they set the container in the water and left.  The boys washed downstream and came ashore gently by the Palatine hill, where a she-wolf and woodpecker were sent by the Gods to care for them, until a shepherd found them and reared them.

Romulus and Remus grew in wisdom and stature, learned their true identity, avenged their father, and set out to found a new city.  Romulus founded Rome and became a great law-giver and military leader.  At the end of his life, Romulus was outside the city performing religious ceremonies, when the sun's light was obscured, sudden darkness came over the land out of a clear sky, and thunder and a storm burst.  Romulus was wrapped in the cloud, and when the sun shone again, Romulus was nowhere to be found.  Shortly thereafter, Julius Proculus, a righteous and honest nobleman, was walking into the city when suddenly Romulus descended from heaven in dazzling bright armor and spoke to him, explaining that it was the will of the Gods that he only be on earth a short time.  He said that he had risen to heaven and was now the God, Quirinus.  He commanded Proculus Julius to return to the city and tell the Roman people to honor him as the God Quirinus, and that if they pursued virtue, their city would one day rule the world.  Then Romulus Quirinus ascended again into heaven, and Julius continued to the city, where he gave sworn testimony to the events that transpired on the road.  All the people rejoiced at the news and honored Romulus as God with a temple, a priesthood, and regular prayer and sacrifice.

- - - - - 

 A Word about the Sources:

This story is recorded by the 1st century BCE poet Vergil and by the 1st century BCE historians Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who were themselves relying upon older historians, such as Quintus Fabius Pictor (fl. 200's BCE).  The Roman poets Naevius (200's BCE) and Ennius (c. 180's BCE) had written about the Romulus story, and Ennius also refers to Romulus' divinity.  Plutarch, writing probably in the late 1st century CE also wrote biographies of famous Romans like Romulus and Julius Caesar, but he, too, relied on older historians like Fabius Pictor, especially for his biography of Romulus.

In short, there is no questioning the fact that these Roman stories are older than the various Jesus stories of Christianity.

 

Romulus and Remus. Silver didrachm (6.44 g). Ca 260's BCE.


Here are some of the primary sources in translation, followed by commentary at the end of this section:

Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1st century BCE), a Greek historian, wrote as follows:

[Regarding the miraculous birth of Romulus:] 

1.77.1. The fourth year after this, Ilia, upon going to a grove consecrated to Mars to fetch pure water for use in the sacrifices, was ravished by somebody or other in the sacred precinct. ...  2. most writers relate a fabulous story [μυθολογοῦσι] to the effect that it was a specter of the divinity to whom the place was consecrated; and they add that the adventure was attended by many supernatural signs, including a sudden disappearance of the sun and a darkness that spread over the sky, and that the appearance of the specter was far more marvelous than that of a man both in stature and in beauty. And they say that the ravisher, to comfort the maiden (by which it became clear that it was a god), commanded her not to grieve at all at what had happened, since she had been united in marriage to the divinity of the place and as a result of her violation should bear two sons who would far excel all men in valor and warlike achievements. And having said this, he was wrapped in a cloud and, being lifted from the earth, was borne upwards through the air.  (1.77.1-2)

 

[Regarding the unusual death and ascension of Romulus:]

2.56.1. These are the memorable wars which Romulus waged. His failure to subdue any more of the neighboring nations seems to have been due to his sudden death, which happened while he was still in the vigor of his age for warlike achievements. There are many different stories concerning it.  2. Those who give a rather fabulous account of his life say that while he was haranguing his men in the camp, sudden darkness rushed down out of a clear sky and a violent storm burst, after which he was nowhere to be seen; and these writers believe that he was caught up into heaven by his father, Mars. 

2.56.3. But those who write the more plausible accounts say that he was killed by his own people; and the reason they allege for his murder is that he released without the common consent, contrary to custom, the hostages he had taken from the Veientes, and that he no longer comported himself in the same manner toward the original citizens and toward those who were enrolled later, but showed greater honor to the former and slighted the latter, and also because of his great cruelty in the punishment of delinquents (for instance, he had ordered a group of Romans who were accused of brigandage against the neighboring peoples to be hurled down the precipice[1] after he had sat alone in judgment upon them, although they were neither of mean birth nor few in number), but chiefly because he now seemed to be harsh and arbitrary and to be exercising his power more like a tyrant than a king. 4. For these reasons, they say, the patricians formed a conspiracy against him and resolved to slay him; and having carried out the deed in the senate-house, they divided his body into several pieces, that it might not be seen, and then came out, each one hiding his part of the body under his robes, and afterwards burying it in secret. 5 Others say that while haranguing the people he was slain by the new citizens of Rome, and that they undertook the murder at the time when the rain and the darkness occurred, the assembly of the people being then dispersed and their chief left without his guard. And for this reason, they say, the day on which this event happened got its name from the flight of the people and is called Populifugia[2] down to our times.

2.56.6. Be that as it may, the incidents that occurred by the direction of God [ek tou theou] in connection with this man's conception and death would seem to give no small authority to the view of those who make gods of mortal men and place the souls of illustrious persons in heaven. For they say that at the time when his mother was violated, whether by some man or by a god, there was a total eclipse of the sun and a general darkness as in the night covered the earth, and that at his death the same thing happened. 7 Such, then, is reported to have been the death of Romulus, who built Rome and was chosen by her citizens as their first king. He left no issue, and after reigning thirty-seven years, died in the fifty-fifth year of his age; for he was very young when he obtained the rule, being no more than eighteen years old, as is agreed by all who have written his history.

. . . 

2.63.3.  [King Numa] also ordered that Romulus himself, as one who had shown a greatness beyond mortal nature, should be honored, under the name of Quirinus, by the erection of a temple and by sacrifices throughout the year. For[3] while the Romans were yet in doubt whether divine providence or human treachery had been the cause of his disappearance, a certain man, named Julius, descended from Ascanius, who was a husbandman and of such a blameless life that he would never have told an untruth for his private advantage, arrived in the Forum and said that, as he was coming in from the country, he saw Romulus departing from the city fully armed and that, as he drew near to him, he heard him say these words: 4. "Julius, announce to the Romans from me, that the genius to whom I was allotted at my birth is conducting me to the gods, now that I have finished my mortal life, and that I am Quirinus."

 

The Roman Historian Livy, writing in the first century BCE, tells the story as follows:

[Regarding Romulus' birth:] 

1.3. He was succeeded by Proca, who had two sons, Numitor and Amulius. To Numitor, the elder, he bequeathed the ancient throne of the Silvian house. Violence, however, proved stronger than either the father's will or the respect due to the brother's seniority; for Amulius expelled his brother and seized the crown. Adding crime to crime, he murdered his brother's sons and made the daughter, Rea Silvia, a Vestal virgin; thus, under the presence of honoring her, depriving her of all hopes of issue.

But the Fates had, I believe, already decreed the origin of this great city and the foundation of the mightiest empire under heaven. The Vestal was forcibly violated and gave birth to twins. She named Mars as their father, either because she really believed it, or because the fault might appear less heinous if a deity were the cause of it. But neither gods nor men sheltered her or her babes from the king's cruelty; the priestess was thrown into prison, the boys were ordered to be thrown into the river. By a heaven-sent chance it happened that the Tiber was then overflowing its banks, and stretches of standing water prevented any approach to the main channel. Those who were carrying the children expected that this stagnant water would be sufficient to drown them, so under the impression that they were carrying out the king's orders they exposed the boys at the nearest point of the overflow, where the Ficus Ruminalis (said to have been formerly called Romularis) now stands. The locality was then a wild solitude. The tradition goes on to say that after the floating cradle in which the boys had been exposed had been left by the retreating water on dry land, a thirsty she-wolf from the surrounding hills, attracted by the crying of the children, came to them, gave them her teats to suck and was so gentle towards them that the king's flock-master found her licking the boys with her tongue. According to the story, his name was Faustulus. He took the children to his hut and gave them to his wife Larentia to bring up. Some writers think that Larentia, from her unchaste life, had got the nickname of "She-wolf" amongst the shepherds, and that this was the origin of the marvelous story. As soon as the boys, thus born and thus brought up, grew to be young men they did not neglect their pastoral duties, but their special delight was roaming through the woods on hunting expeditions. As their strength and courage were thus developed, they used not only to lie in wait for fierce beasts of prey, but they even attacked brigands when loaded with plunder. They distributed what they took amongst the shepherds, with whom, surrounded by a continually increasing body of young men, they associated themselves in their serious undertakings and in their sports and pastimes.   ...

[Regarding Romulus' death and ascension:]

1.15.   ... These were the principal events at home and in the field that marked the reign of Romulus. Throughout – whether we consider the courage he showed in recovering his ancestral throne, or the wisdom he displayed in founding the City and adding to its strength through war and peace alike – we find nothing incompatible with the belief in his divine origin and his admission to divine immortality after death. It was, in fact, through the strength given by him that the City was powerful enough to enjoy an assured peace for forty years after his departure. He was, however, more acceptable to the populace than to the patricians, but most of all was he the idol of his soldiers. He kept a bodyguard of three hundred men round him in peace as well as in war. These he called the "Celeres." 

1.16. After these immortal achievements, Romulus held a review of his army at the "Caprae Palus" in the Campus Martius. A violent thunderstorm suddenly arose and enveloped the king in so dense a cloud that he was quite invisible to the assembly. From that hour Romulus was no longer seen on earth. When the fears of the Roman youth were allayed by the return of bright, calm sunshine after such fearful weather, they saw that the royal seat was vacant. Whilst they fully believed the assertion of the senators, who had been standing close to him, that he had been snatched away to heaven by a whirlwind, still, like men suddenly bereaved, fear and grief kept them for some time speechless. At length, after a few had taken the initiative, the whole of those present hailed Romulus as "a god, the son of a god, the King and Father of the City of Rome." They put up supplications for his grace and favor, and prayed that he would be propitious to his children and save and protect them. I believe, however, that even then there were some who secretly hinted that he had been torn limb from limb by the senators – a tradition to this effect, though certainly a very dim one, has filtered down to us. The other, which I follow, has been the prevailing one, due, no doubt, to the admiration felt for the man and the apprehensions excited by his disappearance. This generally accepted belief was strengthened by one man's clever device. The tradition runs that Proculus Julius, a man whose authority had weight in matters of even the gravest importance, seeing how deeply the community felt the loss of the king, and how incensed they were against the senators, came forward into the assembly and said: "Quirites! at break of dawn, to-day, the Father of this City suddenly descended from heaven and appeared to me. Whilst, thrilled with awe, I stood rapt before him in deepest reverence, praying that I might be pardoned for gazing upon him, 'Go,' said he, 'tell the Romans that it is the will of heaven that my Rome should be the head of all the world. Let them henceforth cultivate the arts of war, and let them know assuredly, and hand down the knowledge to posterity, that no human might can withstand the arms of Rome.'" It is marvelous what credit was given to this man's story, and how the grief of the people and the army was soothed by the belief which had been created in the immortality of Romulus. (Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, 1.15-16)

 

Plutarch, a Greek philosopher and biographer, writing in the late 1st century CE, wrote this:

Suddenly there was a great commotion in the air, and a cloud descended upon the earth bringing with it blasts of wind and rain. The throng of common folk were terrified and fled in all directions, but Romulus disappeared, and was never found again either alive or dead.  (Plutarch Numa 2.2)

Proculus, a man of eminence, took oath that he had seen Romulus ascending to heaven in full armour, and had heard his voice commanding that he be called Quirinus. (Plutarch Numa 2.3)

Plutarch tells a fuller version of the story in his biography of Romulus:

27.6. [Romulus] was holding an assembly of the people outside the city near the so‑called Goat's Marsh, when suddenly strange and unaccountable disorders with incredible changes filled the air; the light of the sun failed, and night came down upon them, not with peace and quiet, but with awful peals of thunder and furious blasts driving rain from every quarter, 7. during which the multitude dispersed and fled, but the nobles gathered closely together; and when the storm had ceased, and the sun shone out, and the multitude, now gathered together again in the same place as before, anxiously sought for their king, the nobles would not suffer them to inquire into his disappearance nor busy themselves about it, but exhorted them all to honor and revere Romulus, since he had been caught up into heaven, and was to be a benevolent god for them instead of a good king. 8. The multitude, accordingly, believing this and rejoicing in it, went away to worship him with good hopes of his favor; but there were some, it is said, who tested the matter in a bitter and hostile spirit, and confounded the patricians with the accusation of imposing a silly tale upon the people, and of being themselves the murderers of the king.

28.1. At this pass, then, it is said that one of the patricians, a man of noblest birth, and of the most reputable character, a trusted and intimate friend also of Romulus himself, and one of the colonists from Alba, Julius Proculus by name, went into the forum and solemnly swore by the most sacred emblems before all the people that, as he was traveling on the road, he had seen Romulus coming to meet him, fair and stately to the eye as never before, and arrayed in bright and shining armor. 2. He himself, then, affrighted at the sight, had said: "O King, what possessed thee, or what purpose hadst thou, that thou hast left us patricians a prey to unjust and wicked accusations, and the whole city sorrowing without end at the loss of its father?" Whereupon Romulus had replied: "It was the pleasure of the gods, O Proculus, from whom I came, that I should be with mankind only a short time, and that after founding a city destined to be the greatest on earth for empire and glory, I should dwell again in heaven. So farewell, and tell the Romans that if they practise self-restraint, and add to it valour, they will reach the utmost heights of human power. And I will be your propitious deity, Quirinus." 3. These things seemed to the Romans worthy of belief, from the character of the man who related them, and from the oath which he had taken; moreover, some influence from heaven also, akin to inspiration, laid hold upon their emotions, for no man contradicted Proculus, but all put aside suspicion and calumny and prayed to Quirinus, and honoured him as a god.  . . .

29.2.  However that may be, a temple in his honor is built on the hill called Quirinalis after him, and the day on which he vanished is called People's Flight, and Capratine Nones, because they go out of the city and sacrifice at the Goat's Marsh; and "capra" is their word for she-goat. And as they go forth to the sacrifice, they shout out many local names, like Marcus, Lucius, and Caius, in imitation of the way in which, on the day when Romulus disappeared, they called upon one another in fear and confusion.

 

Vergil 

Vergil, the 1st century BCE Roman poet and creator of the great Roman epic, The Aeneid, spoke of Romulus as someone who had long before been the subject of revealed prophecy (more below). 

Book 1:  Jupiter foretells to Venus the deification and ascension of the Trojan hero Aeneas and of the future Julius Caesar, as well as the birth of Romulus, fathered by Mars.  Both Aeneas and Romulus are mythological models for Julius and Augustus Caesar.  pp. 12-14.

Book 3:  The sacred images of the Trojan hearth Gods appear to Aeneas and reveal that some of his descendants will be exalted to heaven and that their town in Italy will be given dominion.  p. 71.

Book 6:  Aeneas descends into the underworld, where his father's spirit reveals to him the most famous and heroic of his future descendants, including 1.) Romulus, son of Mars and Ilia, who will found Rome on 7 hills and lead the city to bound its power with earth and its spirit with Olympus; and 2.) "the man, this one, of whom so often you have heard the promise, Caesar Augustus, son of the deified, who shall bring once again an Age of Gold" and will extend Rome's power in all directions.  pp. 187ff. 

Book 7:  Faunus, grandson of Saturn prophesies to his son, King Latinus that he shall marry his daughter to foreigners who will come, and that "children from that stock will see all earth turned Latin at their feet, governed by them as far as on his rounds the sun looks down on ocean, east or west." p. 198.

King Latinus reveals that Dardanus, ancestor of the Trojans, had also ascended to heaven and become a God.  Dardanus is, then, yet another model for Julius and Augustus Caesar.  p. 202.

 

Commentary on Romulus:

 Notice the similarities to the later Jesus.  Both characters, if at one point historical, have accumulated many mythological elements. 

Each character, Romulus and Jesus,

 

Many of these features are too specific and too indicative of mythology to justify accepting the complete veracity of either story.

 

Unusual Solar Darkness at Death:

The eclipse of the sun or "sudden darkness" that covered the earth is an important aspect of the story.  Romans told a similar story of the death of Julius Caesar (below). 

Christians would eventually add such an element to their stories of the death of Jesus as well, starting with Mark 15:33, then Matthew 27:45, 51-54; Luke 23:44-45; and a slew of other non-canonical works such as the Gospel of Nicodemus; Gospel of Bartholomew; Acts of John; Letter from Pontius Pilate to Tiberius; Gospel of Peter; [Pseudo-]Dionysius the Areopagite; and even an 1879 forgery, the Archko Volume. 

The addition of the darkness to the crucifixion story was likely at least partially inspired by the parallel symbolism with the 3 days of darkness in the Exodus and Noah stories, and creating a literary connection with Amos 8:8-9.[6]  Since the savior goes through a death and resurrection/ascension process comparable to the annual Solar Cycle in nature, it should be no surprise that solar symbolism like an eclipse worked its way into the myth.

Interestingly, since the Christian hero's death was supposed to occur at the time of the Jewish Passover and a full moon, an eclipse of the sun would be impossible, thus creating funny apologetic issues for centuries of eager, literal-minded apologists.  At any rate, it seems that there was no such thing as a "darkness over the whole earth" from the 6th to 9th hours around 29-33 CE.  The event, at least as described in the gospels, belongs rather to myth and symbol than to history.  See, for starters,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_darkness_and_eclipse, and to it add a study of Roman prodigy lists (with the likes of talking cows, crying or bleeding statues, etc.) in order to show the superstitious nature of ancient people, with their credulity, miracle-mongering, and manipulative use of religion.  

 

Alternative Possibilities (Romulus simply murdered, Christ's body stolen):

Well-educated ancient historians like Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus did not simply believe the tradition that was handed to them, and they both include the possibility that Romulus did not really ascend to heaven but was simply murdered by senators who subsequently used the story of his ascension to placate and manipulate the masses.  They are careful, though, not to cast excessive doubt on their state religion, and they end up with a politically correct version that still represents the traditional story in a mostly positive light, comparably to what some more liberal Christians might say today.  Early Christian writers in the century after Dionysus and Livy were not attempting (or capable of attempting?) to present any balanced historical account or entertain any skepticism at all. 

Still, it is noteworthy that one alternative was mentioned by the writer of Matthew (27:62-66; 28:11-15):

27:62  The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63  "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' 64  So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."

27:65  "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." 66  So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

. . .

28:11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13  telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' 14  If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." 15  So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

The last verse, 15, fairly openly reveals the motive for the creation of these details not to be found found in Mark of Luke or John or Paul.  The writer of Matthew, or his community, added the story of the guards to the gospel version he/they inherited from Mark as an apologetic move to create "evidence"/explanations that might counter arguments from local Jews who were enemies of the Matthean community.  (Antagonism toward local Jewish groups is even retrojected into Christ's rhetoric elsewhere, e.g. the woes pronounced upon Pharisees.)  Such a conclusion is rendered all the easier in that the Matthean author created other fanciful embellishments, too, like earthquakes and roaming resurrected corpses (which may be borrowed from Ovid and other Roman stories of Julius Caesar's death – covered below).  Knowing that Matthew was written so long after the events also argues against the authenticity of such unique and suspicious elements.  For other problems with gospel accounts of the resurrection and post-resurrection events, see http://sites.google.com/site/investigatingchristianity/home/resurrection.

 

The Violent Death:

It is interesting to me that the violent version of Romulus' death can so easily be compared to the death and resurrection of Osiris of Egypt, symbolically, who was likewise torn into pieces.  Osiris became God in the afterlife, too, as well as a source of nature's yearly renewal.  Dionysius, as the flesh of the grape, the fruit of the vine, is also a vegetative symbol regularly torn apart and reconstituted, both in the making and ingesting of wine, and at the mid-winter Lenaia Festivals of the Greeks, where Dionysus seems simultaneously to be the dying and reconstituted sun.  Dionysius is ingested as Jesus is.  Jesus, too, is the grape and the wheat, the bread and the wine: 

John 12:24.  I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25.  The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  (NIV)

Anyway, the tearing asunder of the savior king may be related to ancient kingship/ high priest ritual in which the king/priest represents the nature/vegetation/solar cycle and is annually scourged/killed/crucified/torn apart and reborn.  Therefore, the whole series of ancient dying and reviving gods/kings/saviors/forces should be seen as but variations on a theme.  There is nothing involved that we do not all participate in, but it seemed that some wanted to add in shallow-but-enticing promises of permanent souls, manipulative threats, and mechanisms of social/behavioral control.

Back to violent death.  It is interesting to me that Julius Caesar's death certainly was violent, in reality, and that the granting of immortality and divinity to this popular leader somehow redeemed the sacrifice that he had made of his person for the sake of the state.  Rome required one-man rule in order to function with relative peace and avoid continuing civil war and internal power struggles, and Caesar cult was one of the best mechanisms for further one-man rule.

Alternatively, Caesar's divination can be viewed as a political maneuver by Augustus simply to secure his own power and manipulate the people. 

An early Judeo-Christian attempt to set up Jesus as an alter-ego/ alternative to Caesar could have stemmed from many possible motivations: revenge; desperation; the desire to create a better system, even if still manipulative; the desire to redeem effort invested into a reform/liberation movement – effort that might otherwise have been wasted; genuine superstition; a desire for power; et alia; or any combination of the above. 

Alternatively, the Jesus created by Christian literature can be seen as a synthesis of some of the most appealing aspect of cult practices in the Mediterranean world, the creation of a hybrid, a new and more viable extra option – religious evolution and survival of the 'fittest.'

 

THE DIVINE JULIUS

Julius Caesar was deified after his death, just as Jesus would be in the next century.  When Caesar's grand-nephew, adopted son, and heir, Octavian, held ceremonies in honor of Caesar's death, Haley's comet appeared in the sky before sunset.  The ancients did not understand what Haley's comet was, but Octavian proclaimed that this star was the soul of Julius Caesar, having risen to heaven.  The people believed it.  The senate proclaimed Julius Caesar a God afterward. 

The Roman historian Suetonius wrote,

88.  He died in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and was numbered among the gods, not only by a formal decree, but also in the conviction of the common people. For at the first of the games which his heir Augustus gave in honor of his apotheosis, a comet shone for seven successive days, rising about the eleventh hour,[7] and was believed to be the soul of Caesar, who had been taken to heaven; and this is why a star is set upon the crown of his head in his statue.

[Suetonius Divus Iulius 88.  Transl. by J.C. Rolfe in The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Loeb Classical Library, 1913, now in the public domain. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html]

 

 

Darkness At Caesar's Death (cf. Romulus and later Jesus):

Ancient authors report darkness during the death of Julius Caesar, just as they report it for the birth and death of Romulus. 

Plutarch writes

69.4. and among events of divine ordering, there was the great comet, which showed itself in great splendor for seven nights after Caesar's murder, and then disappeared; also, the obscuration of the sun's rays. 5. For during all that year its orb rose pale and without radiance, while the heat that came down from it was slight and ineffectual, so that the air in its circulation was dark and heavy owing to the feebleness of the warmth that penetrated it, and the fruits, imperfect and half ripe, withered away and shriveled up on account of the coldness of the atmosphere. (Caesar 69.4-5)

Here it is to be noted that Caesar is connected with the sun, with vegetation, and with all of nature in his death, just as were many examples of ancient dying and reviving Gods.

 

Ovid wrote in the Metamorphoses (finished 8 CE) concerning the death and ascension of Julius Caesar as well as the divinity of Augustus (15.745-870). 

Venus foresaw what was going to happen to her descendent Julius, and she cried throughout heaven.  The Gods were moved, but nothing could alter Fate (15.779-81).  Still, the Gods gave sure signs of the grief to come on earth.  People heard trumpets in the sky and weapons clashed in black clouds.  The sad image of the sun offered only a lurid light to the worried lands (785-6).  Drops of blood fell among the clouds; the Morning Star was spattered with darkness; the Moon was spattered with blood; ivory statues cried in a thousand places (788-92).  "They say that ghosts of the silent dead wandered around and that the city was moved by earthquakes" (797-8, umbrasque silentum erravisse ferunt motamque tremoribus urbem).  Yet the forewarnings of the Gods could not stop the treachery or fated events.  Venus tried to hide Julius in a cloud, but Jove read her the fates and explained that Julius had completed the time and finished the years he owed to the earth (816-7, hic sua conplevit ... tempora, perfectis, quos terrae debuit, annis).  Venus and Julius' son Augustus will make it so that Julius will accede to heaven and be worshiped in temples (818-19, ut deus accedat caelo templisque colatur, tu facies natusque suus).  "Meanwhile, make this spirit, taken from its murdered body, into the heavenly brightness (iubar) of a star, so that from his exalted dwelling place the divine Julius may always look down upon our Capitol and Forum" (840-2, 'hanc animam interea caeso de corpore raptam / fac iubar, ut semper Capitolia nostra forumque  / divus ab excelsa prospectet Iulius aede!').  And immediately Venus came to earth unseen and took Julius' spirit from his body and bore him aloft to the celestial stars.  He rose as a comet and shone as a star (843-850).

 

One familiar with the various Christian passion narratives (and the evolution of the story from Mark and Q-source through Matthew and Luke) knows that Matthew alone added to Mark's account such elements the earthquakes and dead people roaming the city of Jerusalem (Matt. 27:50-53).  It is hard not to think such stories were influenced by earlier stories of Julius Caesar's death.  However, either way the savior in question is symbolic of nature, vegetation, the sun, all of life.

 

- - - - - 

 

The Caesar death narratives and the New Testament share all of the following elements:

 

These shared features can be no mere accident.  The comparison helps to reveal influences on the development of the cults and to reveal that the two religious systems were created by common social forces.

 

Ovid and Plutarch were by no means the only Roman writers to include such events.  The Jewish historian Josephus records a letter from Marc Antony to the Jewish high priest Hyrcanus, in which Antony writes, "we have taken vengeance on those who have been the authors of great injustice towards men, and of great wickedness towards the gods; for the sake of which we suppose it was that the sun turned away his light from us, (23) as unwilling to view the horrid crime they were guilty of in the case of Caesar." (Josephus, Antiquities 14.12.3, http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews/Book_XIV)

The following additional examples I gathered from a DivusJulius blog which cites several primary sources -  http://divusjulius.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/darknesshour6/.  I have added quotations of many of the primary sources.

Servius, commenting on Vergil (Georg. 1.466.1–5), says that there was a failure/disappearance/weakness of the sun on the day before the Ides of March from the 6th hour until night:

Ille etiam extincto miseratus C. R. bonum epilogi repperit locum, ut in Augusti gratiam defleat Caesaris mortem.  constat autem, occiso Caesare in senatu pridie iduum Martiarum solis fuisse defectum ab hora sexta usque ad noctem: quod quia multis tractum horis est, dicit ‘aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem’.

This is obviously VERY suspiciously similar to and prior to the gospel claim (Matthew 27:45, 51-54; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44-45) that there was darkness from the 6th to 9th hour during Christ's crucifixion.  DivusJulius' blog suggests that Gospel writers, influenced by the preceding numeral sexta (“sixth”) could have misread NOCTEM (“night”) as NOVEM (“nine”), and that such could explain why the darkness ends at the ninth hour in the Gospels.

Servius also explains the origin of the darkness (1.472), citing Livy (1st century BCE):

It is a bad portent when Mount Aetna of Sicily emits not puffs of smoke but balls of flame; and as Livy reports, such a quantity of flame poured forth from Mount Aetna before Caesar’s death that not only the neighboring cities but even the community of Regium, which is some considerable distance away, felt the blast of the heat.

According to DivusJulius, modern research into artic ice cores and tree ring analyses confirm the activity of Aetna at this time and "independent Chinese astronomical sources also mention the atmospheric changes in 44 and 43 BCE."

Pliny the Elder (Natural History 98) states that the sun went dark for an extended time when Caesar was murdered, and that the sun remained weak and pale for almost a year. 

The elegaic poet Tibullus also writes about the failing sunlight (sol defectus) in 44 BCE (Eleg. 2.5). 

Appian (Civil Wars 4.4) reports “fearful signs” around the sun even in the year 43 BCE.

While these transactions were taking place many fearful prodigies and portents were observed at Rome. Dogs howled continuously like wolves — a fearful sign. Wolves darted through the forum — an animal unused to the city. Cattle uttered a human voice. A newly born infant spoke. Sweat issued from statues; some even sweated blood. Loud voices of men were heard and the clashing of arms and the tramp of horses where none could be seen. Many fearful signs were observed around the sun, there were showers of stones, and continuous lightning fell upon the sacred temples and images; and in consequence of these things the Senate sent for diviners and soothsayers from Etruria. The oldest of them said that the kingly rule of the former times was coming back, and that they would all be slaves except only himself, whereupon he closed his mouth and held his breath till he was dead.  [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Appian/Civil_Wars/4*.html]

 

Cassius Dio (Roman History 45.17.5) says that the light of the sun was actually “extinguished.”

17.1. In the consulship of Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Vibius (for Vibius was now appointed consul in spite of the fact that his father's name had been posted on the tablets of Sulla) a meeting of the senate was held and opinions expressed for three successive days, including the very first day of the year. 2. For because of the war which was upon them and the portents, very numerous and unfavorable, which took place, they were so excited that they failed to observe even the dies nefasti and to refrain on those days from deliberating about any of their interests. Vast numbers of thunderbolts had fallen, some of them descending on the shrine of Capitoline Jupiter which stood in the temple of Victory; 3. also a mighty windstorm occurred which snapped off and scattered the tablets erected about the temple of Saturn and the shrine of Fides and also overturned and shattered the statue of Minerva the Protectress, which Cicero had set up on the Capitol before his exile. 4 This, now, portended death to Cicero himself. Another thing that frightened the rest of the population was a great earthquake which occurred, and the fact that a bull which was being sacrificed on account of it in the temple of Vesta leaped up after the ceremony. In addition to these omens, clear as they were, a flash darted across from the east to the west and a new star was seen for several days. 5 Then the light of the sun seemed to be diminished and even extinguished, and at times to appear in three circles, one of which was surmounted by a fiery crown of sheaves. This came true for them as clearly as ever any prophecy did. For the three men were in power,— I mean Caesar, Lepidus, and Antony,— and of these Caesar subsequently secured the victory. 6 At the same time that these things occurred all sorts of oracles foreshadowing the downfall of the republic were recited. Crows, moreover, flew into the temple of Castor and Pollux and pecked out the names of the consuls, Antony and Dolabella, which were inscribed there somewhere on a tablet. 7 And by night dogs would gather together in large numbers throughout the city and especially near the house of the high priest, Lepidus, and howl. Again, the Po, which had flooded a large portion of the surrounding territory, suddenly receded and left behind on the dry land a vast number of snakes; and countless fish were cast up from the sea on the shore near the mouths of the Tiber. 8 Succeeding these terrors a terrible plague spread over nearly all Italy, because of which the senate voted that the Curia Hostilia should be rebuilt and that the spot where the naval battle had taken place should be filled up. However, the curse did not appear disposed to rest even then, 9 especially since, when Vibius was conducting the opening sacrifices on the first day of the year, one of his lictors suddenly fell down and died.  (45.17.1-9)

 

DivusJulius writes,

the prominent image of Caesar veiling his head during the assassination (cf. Suet. Jul. 82.2; De Vir. Illustr. 6.1), ... was associated with the veiled sun as the “extinction” (exstinctus) of Caesar’s life in light, which Virgil describes together with the subsequent fears of “eternal night” (Georg. 1.465–8):

He too it was, when Caesar’s light was quenched,

For Rome had pity, when his bright head he veiled

In iron-hued darkness, till a godless age

Trembled for night eternal."

Virgil continues and alludes to the ongoing eruptions of Mount Aetna after Caesar’s murder (1.471–3), which are supported by many of the above writers, especially by the “triple sun” in Dio’s account (45.17.5), which is a corona effect created by volcanic particles in the atmosphere. This phenomenon is also mentioned as a rainbow-like sphere by Julius Obsequens for the adventus of the bodily resurrected Caesar (i.e. Octavian) in Rome in April or May (De prod. 68), a good indication that the sun remained weak for a significant time of the year.

 

- - - - - 

 

Caesar's Divinity:

Valerius Maximus, writing under the Emperor Tiberius, said that the risen God Julius, after his death and ascension into heaven, appeared to Cassius (one of his assassins) at the battle of Philippi.  Terrified by the appearance of the divine Caesar on horseback and dressed in a purple cloak, Cassius turned and fled.  "What more can I do, if killing you was not enough?" he asked.  Valerius writes, "Indeed, Cassius, you had not killed Caesar, for no divinity can be extinguished.  Yet by committing violence against the mortal body which he had heretofore used, you merited that you should have such a hostile God as an enemy" (Valerius Maximus Memorable Deeds and Sayings 1.8.8, translation mine).  According to Valerius, Caesar was a God who was merely using a mortal body for a time, and Caesar could not truly be killed, since he was divine.

1.8.8 Facta mentione urbis, e qua primordia ciuitas nostra traxit, diuus Iulius fausta proles eius se nobis offert. quem C. Cassius numquam sine praefatione publici parricidii nominandus, cum <in> acie Philippensi ardentissimo animo perstaret, uidit humano habitu augustiorem, purpureo paludamento amictum, minaci uultu et concitato equo in se impetum facientem. quo aspectu perterritus tergum hosti dedit uoce illa prius emissa: 'quid enim amplius agam, si occidisse parum est?' non occideras tu quidem, Cassi, Caesarem, neque enim ulla extingui diuinitas potest, sed mortali adhuc corpore utentem uiolando meruisti ut tam infestum haberes deum. (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/valmax1.html ) 

At 6.9.15 as well, Valerius Maximus speaks of Caesar, "whose virtues built for himself an entrance to heaven" (C. autem Caesar, cuius uirtutes aditum sibi in caelum struxerunt).  At 1.6.13, Valerius prays at Caesar's altars and most sacred temples for Caesar's divine power and favor.  He refers to the parricides/assassins of Caesar, who intended to subtract him from the number of men, but inadvertently thereby added him to the council of the Gods ("erupit deinde eorum parricidium, qui, dum te hominum numero subtrahere uolunt, deorum concilio adiecerunt.").

In 42 BCE the senate recognized the divinity of Caesar and built the first temple to Caesar.  Two years later, Marc Antony was inaugurated as the first priest of the divine Julius (flamen divi Iulii), though he had actually been appointed as priest to Caesar while Caesar was still living, and Octavius began to use the title Divi Filius, Son of God, for himself.

 

Vergil, the 1st century BCE Roman poet and creator of the great Roman epic, The Aeneid, spoke of Dardanus, Aeneas, Romulus, Julius Caesar, and Augustus as offspring of the Gods, divine men, heroes who had long before been the subject of revealed prophecy. 

 

Julius Caesar and Christ Compared:

Each character, Caesar and Jesus,

 

Many of these features are too specific and too indicative of mythology to justify accepting the complete veracity of either story.

 

THE DIVINE AUGUSTUS

 

Omens, Prodigies, Miracle Stories, Prophecies:

The ancient Roman historian Suetonius listed "the omens which occurred before he was born, on the very day of his birth, and afterwards, from which it was possible to anticipate and perceive his future greatness and uninterrupted good fortune" (94.1).

The town where Augustus' ancestors and family lived, Velitrae, claimed that Augustus' birth as ruler of the world had been prophesied long ago.

94.2 In ancient days, when a part of the wall of Velitrae had been struck by lightning, the prediction was made that a citizen of that town would one day rule the world. Through their confidence in this, the people of Velitrae had at once made war on the Roman people and fought with them many times after that almost to their utter destruction; but at last long afterward the event proved that the omen had foretold the rule of Augustus.

The people of Velitrae made Augustus' nursery into a holy site, and they also claimed it was his birthplace.  People could only enter it after religious purification, and they believed that supernatural powers were in that place.  Suetonius told the story as follows: 

A small room like a pantry is shown to this day as the emperor's nursery in his grandfather's country-house near Velitrae, and the opinion prevails in the neighbourhood that he was actually born there. No one ventures to enter this room except of necessity and after purification, since there is a conviction of long-standing that those who approach it without ceremony are seized with shuddering and terror; and what is more, this has recently been shown to be true. For when a new owner, either by chance or to test the matter, went to bed in that room, it came to pass that, after a very few hours of the night, he was thrown out by a sudden mysterious force, and was found bedclothes and all half-dead before the door.  (Suetonius Augustus 6)

 

Efforts to Stop the Birth of the Promised Child:

Here is another story in which portents foretell the birth of a king of Rome and some senators try to prevent the future king from being born and reared:

According to Julius Marathus, a few months before Augustus was born a portent was generally observed at Rome, which gave warning that nature was pregnant with a king for the Roman people; thereupon the senate in consternation decreed that no male child born that year should be reared; but those whose wives were with child saw to it that the decree was not filed in the treasury,[10] since each one appropriated the prediction to his own family. (Suetonius 94.3)

[Nigidius] cried out, "You have begotten a master over us." At this Octavius was alarmed and wished to destroy the infant, but Nigidius restrained him, saying that it was impossible for it to suffer any such fate.  (Cassius Dio 45.1.5)

These stories repeat a motif found often in ancient literature.  Romans knew the motif from their stories of their first king Romulus, as well as from Greek mythology.  Usually some wicked or ignorant person tries to destroy the prophesied hero/savior figure, and all attempts to avoid the prophecy only help it to come true. 

Some Christians would also invent stories that applied such a motif to Jesus' birth.  The Gospel of Matthew has Herod the Great murder all male children under the age of two in order to prevent the birth of the king indicated to the magi by the star in the east (Matthew 2).  The event is not historical; neither Josephus nor any other legitimate historian mentioned it.  It is a popular myth with a typical plot.  This same motif had been used in a myth about the lawgiver Moses, too, whose mother hid him to protect him from the [unnamed of course] Pharaoh's attempt to kill all Israelite male children (Exodus 1-2). 

Similar myths were told concerning Perseus, Oedipus, Paris of Troy, Romulus and Remus, Cyrus the Great of Persia, and Sargon of Akaad (2300 BCE), whose alleged autobiography contained perhaps the earliest literary reference to such a story.  A Neo-Assyrian text from the 600's BCE claiming to be a copy of Sargon's autobiography says the following:

My mother was a high priestess, my father I knew not. The brothers of my father loved the hills. My city is Azupiranu, which is situated on the banks of the Euphrates. My high priestess mother conceived me, in secret she bore me. She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid. She cast me into the river which rose over me. The river bore me up and carried me to Akki, the drawer of water. Akki, the drawer of water, took me as his son and reared me. Akki, the drawer of water, appointed me as his gardener. While I was a gardener, Ishtar granted me her love, and for four and […] years I exercised kingship.  [King, L. W., Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings, II, London, 1907, pp. 3ff; 87–96.]

 

Really the Son of God:

Just as Christians invented stories that Jesus was not Joseph's son, but was really God's son by a miracle, so Augustus was not really the son of Octavius, but the son of the God Apollo.  When Augustus' mother was sleeping in a temple of Apollo, the God came to her in another form and impregnated her.  Suetonius wrote as follows:

I have read the following story in the books of Asclepias of Mendes entitled Theologumena. When Atia [Augustus' mother] had come in the middle of the night to the solemn service of Apollo, she had her litter set down in the temple and fell asleep, while the rest of the matrons also slept. On a sudden a serpent[11] glided up to her and shortly went away. When she awoke, she purified herself, as if after the embraces of her husband, and at once there appeared on her body a mark in colors like a serpent, and she could never get rid of it; so that presently she ceased ever to go to the public baths. In the tenth month after that Augustus was born and was therefore regarded as the son of Apollo. (Suetonius, Lives of the 12 Caesars, "Divus Augustus" / "The Divine Augustus" / "Life of Augustus" 94.4)

Cassius Dio tells the same basic story:

For Caesar, being childless and basing great hopes upon him, loved and cherished him, intending to leave him as successor to his name, authority, and sovereignty. He was influenced largely by Atia's emphatic declaration that the youth had been engendered by Apollo; for while sleeping once in his temple, she said, she thought she had intercourse with a serpent, and it was this that caused her at the end of the allotted time to bear a son.  (Cassius Dio, Roman History, 45.1.2)

The snake, by the way, is often a symbol of healing and eternal life in ancient literature (probably because snakes shed their skins), and it shows up even as a symbol for the risen Christ in John 3:13-15:

No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert,[12] so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (NIV)

 

- - - - - 

 

Solar Imagery:

Augustus was more than a mere mortal, as was revealed to his earthly father in a dream:

Moreover, the very next night he dreamt that his son appeared to him in a guise more majestic than that of mortal man, with the thunderbolt, scepter, and insignia of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, wearing a crown begirt with rays and mounted upon a laurel-wreathed chariot drawn by twelve horses of surpassing whiteness. (Suetonius 94.6)

Octavius dreamed that the sun rose from Atia's womb. (Suetonius 94.4; also in Cassius Dio 45.1.3)

Later in life, too, Augustus saw signs in the heavens that connected him with the sun:

As he was entering the city on his return from Apollonia after Caesar's death, though the heaven was clear and cloudless, a circle like a rainbow suddenly formed around the sun's disc, and straightway the tomb of Caesar's daughter Julia was struck by lightning.  (Suetonius 95.1)

In the above passage, the rainbow seems to represent a promise.  Lightning or thunder from a clear sky appears in Roman myth as a sign from God (Aeneid 2, 8, p. 57, 248).  The fact that the lightning strikes the tomb of Julia points to divine support for Augustus' as Caesar's son and heir.  And he is to be associated with the greatness, brightness of the sun.

In all of these passages Augustus is depicted as the sun.  Christians also used solar imagery to depict Jesus, who is the "light of the world," the "risen one," whose resurrection is celebrated on the first SUNday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, when the power of light annually overcomes the power of darkness (by daylight exceeding night) and all of nature is "reborn" (in the northern hemisphere, at least).  A mid-third-century mosaic from the tomb of Pope Julius I underneath St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican depicts Christ using imagery associated with Apollo/Helios/the Sun, with rays emanating from his head and riding in a chariot across the sky - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ChristAsSol.jpg. The birthday of Christ, also, was made to coincide with the annual birth of the new Sun after the winter solstice, Dec. 25.

A mid-third-century mosaic from the tomb of Pope Julius I underneath St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican depicts Christ using imagery associated with Apollo/Helios/the Sun, with rays emanating from his head and riding in a chariot across the sky.

Silver disc of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, from Pessinus, 200's CE. To me, the rays of the sun look much like Christ's crown of thorns, as well.

 

Unusual Darkness Coincident with Death of the King/Hero/God:

56.29.2.  Indeed, not a few omens had appeared, and these by no means difficult of interpretation, all pointing to this fate for him. 3. Thus, the sun suffered a total eclipse and most of the sky seemed to be on fire; glowing embers appeared to be falling from it and blood-red comets were seen. When a meeting of the senate had been appointed on account of the emperor's illness, in order that they might offer prayers, the senate-house was found closed and an owl sitting on it hooted.  (Cassius Dio 56.29.2-3)

Solar imagery is behind the story that unusual darkness of the sun coincides with the death of the savior.  This is the case for Romulus, Julius, Augustus, and Jesus.  This is no mere coincidence.

 

- - - - -

 

Astrologers:

The day Augustus was born, Publius Nigidius, speaking to the senate, declared the birth of the ruler of the world, which he had discerned based on astrology and the hour of Augustus' birth:

The day he was born the conspiracy of Catiline was before the House, and Octavius came late because of his wife's confinement; then Publius Nigidius, as everyone knows, learning the reason for his tardiness and being informed also of the hour of the birth, declared that the ruler of the world had been born. (Suetonius 94.5; Cassius Dio 45.1.3-5)

[Nigidius] cried out, "You have begotten a master over us." At this Octavius was alarmed and wished to destroy the infant, but Nigidius restrained him, saying that it was impossible for it to suffer any such fate.  (Cassius Dio 45.1.5)

We also see here the astrologer running upon someone who wishes in vain to prevent destiny from coming to pass.

Once, upon receiving Augustus' time of birth, a wise astrologer prostrated himself before Augustus' feet. 

At Apollonia, Augustus mounted with Agrippa to the studio of the astrologer Theogenes. Agrippa was the first to try his fortune, and when a great and almost incredible career was predicted for him, Augustus persisted in concealing the time of his birth and in refusing to disclose it, through diffidence and fear that he might be found to be less eminent. When he at last gave it unwillingly and hesitatingly, and only after many requests, Theogenes sprang up and threw himself at his feet. From that time on Augustus had such faith in his destiny, that he made his horoscope public and issued a silver coin stamped with the sign of the constellation Capricornus, under which he was born.  (Suetonius 94.12)

Likewise, the Matthean Christian community would later propagate a story that magi (Persian astrologers) found and worshiped Jesus as a child (Matthew's gospel only).

 

- - - - -

 

Pillar of Fire, Ruler of the World:

Priests of Dionysus also revealed to Octavius that his son would rule the world, when they saw a pillar of fire reaching to the heavens appear over the altar at a sacrifice:

Later, when Octavius was leading an army through remote parts of Thrace, and in the grove of Father Liber (Dionysus/Bacchus) consulted the priests about his son with barbarian rites, they made the same prediction; since such a pillar of flame sprang forth from the wine that was poured over the altar, that it rose above the temple roof and mounted to the very sky, and such an omen had befallen no one save Alexander the Great, when he offered sacrifice at the same altar. (Suetonius 94.5)

- - -

Childhood Signs:

When Augustus was still an infant, as is recorded by the hand of Gaius Drusus,[13] he was placed by his nurse at evening in his cradle on the ground floor and the next morning had disappeared; but after long search he was at last found on a lofty tower with his face towards the rising sun. (Suetonius 94.6)

Perhaps this could compared with the story of Christ at age 12, missing for 3 days, then found at the temple, Luke 2:41-48; the numbers 3 and 12 also are astrologically significant, as the moon is missing for 3 days out of every lunar cycle, and the sun passes through 12 houses of the zodiac in its yearly circuit.  Another story:

As soon as he began to talk, it chanced that the frogs were making a great noise at his grandfather's country place; he bade them be silent, and they say that since then no frog has ever croaked there. (Suetonius 94.7)

Compare the above story with the manner in which Christians invented various amazing deeds performed by Jesus as he was growing up - e.g. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, or Luke 2:41ff.

Prominent senators allegedly had dreams revealing that God the Father, Jupiter, planned to give the state a savior in the form of Augustus.  They saw the child Augustus sitting in Jupiter's lap or being let down from heaven by a golden chain and granted authority from above to rule the world:

After Quintus Catulus had dedicated the Capitol, he had dreams on two nights in succession: first, that Jupiter Optimus Maximus called aside a number of boys of good family, who were playing around his altar, and put in the fold of his toga an image of Roma, which he was carrying in his hand; the next night he dreamt that he saw this same boy in the lap of Jupiter of the Capitol, and that when he had ordered that he be removed, God warned him to desist, declaring that the boy was being reared to be the savior of his country. When Catulus next day met Augustus, whom he had never seen before, he looked at him in great surprise and said that he was very like the boy of whom he had dreamed.  Some give a different account of Catulus's first dream: when a large group of well-born children asked Jupiter for a guardian, he pointed out one of their number, to whom they were to refer all their wishes, and then, after lightly touching the boy's mouth with his fingers, laid them on his own lips.  (Suetonius 94.8; also in Cassius Dio 45.2)

As Marcus Cicero was attending Gaius Caesar to the Capitol, he happened to tell his friends a dream of the night before; that a boy of noble countenance was let down from heaven on a golden chain and, standing at the door of the temple, was given a whip by Jupiter. Just then suddenly catching sight of Augustus, who was still unknown to the greater number of those present and had been brought to the ceremony by his uncle Caesar, he declared that he was the very one whose form had appeared to him in his dream.  (Suetonius 94.9; also in Cassius Dio 45.2)

- - -

94.10.  When Augustus was assuming the gown of manhood, his senatorial tunic was ripped apart on both sides and fell at his feet, which some interpreted as a sure sign that the order of which the tunic was the badge would one day be brought to his feet.  (Suetonius 94.10;

45.2.5. When, later, Octavius had grown up and reached maturity and was putting on man's dress, his tunic was rent on both sides from his shoulders and fell to his feet. Now this event in itself not only foreboded no good as an omen, 6. but it also distressed those who were present because it had happened on the occasion of his first putting on man's garb; it occurred, however, to Octavius to say, "I shall have the whole senatorial dignity beneath my feet," and the outcome proved in accordance with his words. 7. Caesar, accordingly, founded great hopes upon him as a result of all this, enrolled him among the patricians, and trained him for the rule, carefully educating him in all the arts that should be possessed by one who was destined to direct well and worthily so great a power.  (Cassius Dio 45.2.5-7)

- - -

 

The Great Tree Symbolism and Overshadowing His Father:

As the Divine Julius was cutting down a wood at Munda and preparing a place for his camp, coming across a palm tree, he caused it to be spared as an omen of victory. From this a shoot at once sprang forth and in a few days grew so great that it not only equaled the parent tree, but even overshadowed it; moreover many doves built their nests there, although that kind of bird especially avoids hard and rough foliage. Indeed, it was that omen in particular, they say, that led Caesar to wish that none other than his sister's grandson should be his successor. (Suetonius 94.11)

The doves are signs of love and peace, associated with the Goddess Venus, from whom the Julian family claimed descent.  In book 6 of Vergil's Aeneid, doves helped Aeneas (son of Venus, founder of the Roman race, and ancestor of the Caesars) to find the golden bough, which enabled him to travel to the underworld and back. 

The story of the shoot that grows taller than its parent tree is vaguely reminiscent of the Greek historian Herodotus' story of the prophecies of the birth of Cyrus the Great, in which Cyrus' grandfather had a dream that a vine grew from his daughter's womb and overshadowed the whole land (Herodotus Histories 1.107ff.).  The magi said that this foretold the greatness of the future child. 

It is also reminiscent of the great tree that will grow from a small seed and give shelter to the birds of the air (cf. Matthew 13:31-32, Eze 17:23).

When Augustus was visiting Capreae, the drooping, dying branches of an old oak tree suddenly regained their strength and life (Suetonius 92).

Such power over nature as revealed here and in the story of the child Augustus commanding the frogs to be silent (Suetonius 94.7) would later be attributed to Jesus as well, e.g. the cursing of the fig tree (Mark 11:12-14, 20-24).

 

- - - - - 

Here are some other miracle stories:

Again, as he was taking the auspices in his first consulship, twelve vultures appeared to him, as to Romulus, and when he slew the victims, the livers within all of them were found to be doubled inward at the lower end, which all those who were skilled in such matters unanimously declared to be an omen of a great and happy future.  (Suetonius 95.1)

"He even divined beforehand the outcome of all his wars."  (Suetonius 96.1)

"As he was walking on the shore the day before the sea-fight off Sicily, a fish sprang from the sea and fell at his feet." (Suetonius 96.2)

 

Deification and Ascension:

Augustus' divinity had been revealed to his parents even before he was born:

Atia too, before she gave him birth, dreamed that her vitals were borne up to the stars and spread over the whole extent of land and sea, while Octavius dreamed that the sun rose from Atia's womb. (Suetonius 94.4; also in Cassius Dio 45.1.3)

Jupiter sent signs to show how long Augustus would live and that he was divine:

His death, too, of which I shall speak next, and his deification after death, were known in advance by unmistakable signs. As he was bringing the lustrum to an end in the Campus Martius before a great throng of people, an eagle flew several times about him and then going across to the temple hard by, perched above the first letter of Agrippa's name. On noticing this, Augustus bade his colleague recite the vows which it is usual to offer for the next five years for although he had them prepared and written out on a tablet, he declared that he would not be responsible for vows which he should never pay.  At about the same time the first letter of his name was melted from the inscription on one of his statues by a flash of lightning; this was interpreted to mean that he would live only a hundred days from that time, the number indicated by the letter C, and that he would be numbered with the Gods, since aesar (that is, the part of the name Caesar which was left) is the word for God in the Etruscan tongue.  (Suetonius 97.1-2)

 

August died in 14 CE and according to the Romans he became a God.  He was seen by at least one witness to ascend into heaven.   Suetonius wrote,

"There was even a man of praetorian rank who swore an oath that he had seen the form of the cremated Emperor going to heaven."  (100.4, transl. mine)

So just as Julius Caesar had risen into heaven, so did Augustus Caesar rise to heaven after his death.  Just as Romulus was seen by a trustworthy witness ascending to heaven, so was Augustus' ascension witnessed by a trustworthy man.

 

Other Examples of Augustus' Propaganda:

 Augustus minted coins with his image and the words "Caesar" or "Augustus" and "Divi F" (Son of God) stamped on them.

Divi F. stands for "Divi Filius," Son of God, or Son of the Divine. From Pudukottai Hoard, India

CAESAR AUGUSTUS;  DIVUS IULIU = Divine Julius.  The star is the soul of Julius Caesar that reported shone in the sky for 7 evenings when Augustus celebrated the funeral games of his adoptive father Julius. It was considered evidence of his ascension to heaven and his divine status.

Caesar Augustus, Divi F, Pater Patriae = Caesar Augustus, Son of God, Father of his Country.  

Rom Et Aug = Rome and Augustus.  

(Semis, 9-14 C.E.)

CAESAR DIVI F. = Caesar, Son of the Divine

The Temple of Divine Julius (DIVO IUL) can be seen on this coin.

The Res Gestae Divi Augusti ("Acts of the Divine Augustus") was an autobiography of Augustus inscribed on monuments throughout the Roman Empire after his death and ascension.

In Priene, Turkey, at the ruins of the Temple of Athena Polias, the text of an architrave inscription rededicating the Temple to Athena Polias and Augustus reads as follows, and explicitly calls Augustus "God":

ho dêmos Athênai [P]oliadi kai

[??]o?kratori Kaisari theou huiôi theôi Sebastô[i].


The people [consecrate this] to Athena Polias and

to Emperor Caesar, Son of God, God Augustus.

[Translation mine.]

(http://www.goddess-athena.org/Museum/Temples/Priene/ )

Priene, Turkey, at the ruins of the Temple of Athena Polias. On the bottom left, you can just make out the [Th]eou [h]uio[s] ("Son of God") in capital Greek letters.

Paulus Fabius Maximus, Roman Governor of Asia proposed that the New Year be celebrated on Augustus' birthday. Notice the use of the Greek word "euaggelia" (= evangelia).  This is the "Good News," the "Gospel." It started with Augustus, not with the New Testament. [Image from Daniel E. H. Bryant, First Christian Church, Eugene, Oregon.]

[http://www.heartofeugene.org/Sermons/2007/WordInHeart.htm.]

For information, see p.239 of John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed, In Search of Paul: How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom, NY: Harper Collins, 2004.



An Egyptian inscription referring to Augustus calls him Liberator, Divine Father, Marvelous Star, a Savior:

"ruler of oceans and continents, the divine father among men, who bears the same name as his heavenly father - Liberator, the marvelous star of the Greek world, shining with the brilliance of the great heavenly Savior"

(inscription from Egypt, cited in Ethelbert Stauffer's Christ and the Caesars, translated by Kaethe Gregor Smith and Ronald Gregor Smith, London: SCM-Press, 1955, p. 99, quoted in John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed, In Search of Paul: How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom, p.144, NY: Harper Collins, 2004.)

 

This gate in Ephesus shows, once again, the ubiquity of the message that Augustus was the Son of a God.

[Image from Daniel E. H. Bryant, First Christian Church, Eugene, Oregon.]

[http://www.heartofeugene.org/Sermons/2007/WordInHeart.htm.]

Coins, monuments, temples, priests, and literature through the Mediterranean world in the 1st centuries BCE and CE proclaimed Augustus a God and the risen son of a God.  It is no accident that the creators of Christianity told the same types of stories about their alternative to Caesar.  They would have to tell such miraculous stories simply to compete with pagan and older Jewish religion.

 If one looks to a sufficient depth and compares both Roman and Judeo-Christian propaganda with the rest of ancient literature, which displays similar features and from which both Roman and Judeo-Christian propaganda were derived, one can readily see that neither should be taken as historical fact.  They are symptoms of human nature, superstition, the lust for the miraculous, the tendency to exaggerate, the relishing of the attention one gets from telling a 'better' version of a story, the love of symbol, the desire to use religion to manipulate and to gain authority/reverence, etc.

 

 

VERGIL:

Vergil, the 1st century BCE Roman poet and creator of the great Roman epic, The Aeneid, spoke of Dardanus, Aeneas, Romulus, Julius Caesar, and Augustus as offspring of the Gods, divine men, heroes who had long before been the subject of revealed prophecy. 

Book 1:  Jupiter foretells to Venus the deification and ascension of the Trojan hero Aeneas and of the future Julius Caesar, as well as the birth of Romulus, fathered by Mars.  Aeneus will bring Trojans to settle in Italy. Aeneus' son Julus will found Alba Longa, the Julian clan, and the line of kings that will lead to Romulus.  Romulus will found Rome itself.  Both Aeneas and Romulus are mythological models for Julius and Augustus Caesar.  pp. 12-14.

Book 2:  Hector's spirit prophesies to Aeneas.  pp. 43-4.

Jupiter sends a tongue of fire to dance around Julus' head, as one of three signs of his future greatness. p. 57.  (cf. Acts of the Apostles 2; Livy AUC 1.39; Vergil Aeneid 7)

Creusa's spirit appears and tells Aeneas of his future kingdom and marriage.  p.60.

Book 3: Apollo's oracle foretells Trojans destination and world empire for Aeneas' descendants.  p. 68.

The sacred images of the Trojan hearth Gods appear to Aeneas and reveal that some of his descendants will be exalted to heaven and that their town in Italy will be given dominion.  p. 71.  Cassandra had prophesied the same.  p. 72.

The prophet Helenus tells Aeneas of journeys, symbols, wars, and foundations to come.  pp. 79ff.

Book 4:  Jupiter prophesies that Aeneas' descendants are to bring the entire world under law's dominion.  pp. 103-4.

Book 6:  Aeneas descends into the underworld, where his father's spirit reveals to him the most famous and heroic of his future descendants, including 1.) Romulus, son of Mars and Ilia, who will found Rome on 7 hills and lead the city to bound its power with earth and its spirit with Olympus; and 2.) "the man, this one, of whom so often you have heard the promise, Caesar Augustus, son of the deified, who shall bring once again an Age of Gold" and will extend Rome's power in all directions.  pp. 187ff. 

Book 7:  Faunus, grandson of Saturn prophesies to his son, King Latinus that he shall marry his daughter to foreigners who will come, and that "children from that stock will see all earth turned Latin at their feet, governed by them as far as on his rounds the sun looks down on ocean, east or west." p. 198.

King Latinus reveals that Dardanus, ancestor of the Trojans, had also ascended to heaven and become a God.  Dardanus is, then, yet another model for Julius and Augustus Caesar.  p. 202.

Aeneas is appointed by fate, and his heirs will be masters of the world. pp. 204-5.

Book 8:  Evander alludes to the future deification of Aeneas, encouraging him to shape himself to merit divinity.  p. 242.

Venus gives Aeneas a shield made by the God Vulcan.  The shield depicts the future on it, including the story of Romulus, and Augustus Caesar whose crest reveals his father Julius' star, the symbol of Julius' ascension and deification.  The future accomplishments of Augustus are foretold on the shield.  pp. 254ff.

Book 9:  Apollo, in the form of an old man, says to Ascanius/Julus, "By striving so men reach the stars, dear son of Gods and sire of Gods to come.  All fated wars will quiet down, and justly, in the end under the descendants of Assaracus." p. 283.

- - - - - 

 

OVID, the Roman poet, c. 8 CE, speaks of the day when Augustus shall leave the world and ascend to heaven, there to hear the prayers of the Roman people (Metamorphoses 15.869-70).

 

Augustus Caesar and Christ Compared:

Each character, Augustus and Jesus,

 

Conclusion

It would be fairly easy to think that the lofty claims made by Romans concerning their rulers, heroes, Gods, and ancestors encouraged the Jews and Christians to make equally outrageous claims for their God and heroes.  And Christianity was inclined to compete not only with Greek and Roman religion, but with its parent Judaism as well.  Believers over time built up a Jesus whose fanciful accomplishments and powers could match any of those of the Greeks, Romans, or old Jewish prophets. 

They would make the new savior walk on water and appear transfigured on a mountain in order to make him superior to Moses, who presided over the parting of the Red Sea and was transfigured on a mountain.  They would create a "sermon on the mount" for him (in Matthew, as opposed to Luke's comparable sermon on the plain), where Jesus gives the new version of the commandments in another Mosaic parallel.  Matthew also invented a story about Herod killing babies to try to prevent the birth of the coming king/prophet.  The story is not historical.  No genuine ancient historians recorded it, and even the other gospel writers seem unaware of such a story.  However, it was invented as an echo of Moses' birth story and numerous stories in Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, and other cultures (cf. Sargon of Akkad, Cyrus the Great, Perseus, Krishna, Romulus and Remus, etc.). 

Christian myth-makers had Jesus fast for 40 days and nights to symbolically match Moses and Elijah and even the 40-year Israelite sojourn in the desert described in the Pentateuch.  They make him raise the dead to match the feats of Elijah and Elisha (as well as Hercules and Asclepius).  Elijah and Elisha also create abundance from little, a feat topped by the literary Jesus, who feeds 4,000 or 5,000 with a small amount (like 5 loaves and 2 fishes [5+2=7] or with 12 baskets left over [notice the use of special numbers!]).  The whole "3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth" thing (Mt 12:40) is symbolism from the Jonah story and the older Exodus story.  For more examples in better detail, see Randel Helms, Gospel Fictions, (1988. Prometheus Books), which gives a short literary analysis. 

Yet Christian myth-makers could also turn around and take an episode from Greek mythology, having a virgin impregnated by God with a savior-hero.

It is no accident that the stories also relate to astronomy/astrology and resemble elements of ancient mythology.  Ancient astrologers marked the 3-day disappearance of the moon in every lunar cycle.  Odysseus was in the cave of the Cyclops for three days and nights, too.  The guard dog of the underworld, whom Hercules retrieved when he went to Hades and back, was said to have 3 heads.  Odysseus tried to embrace his dead mother in the underworld 3 times (as did Aeneas with his wife Creusa and with his father Anchises).  Also, when Hercules saved Laomedon's daughter Hesione from the sea monster, he entered the mouth of the monster and hacked at its insides for three days before he emerged again with Athena's help (William Hansen, Ariadne's Thread, 2002, p. 163).  In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed Humbaba with 3 blows, the dead were shrouded with 3-ply cloth, and the Bull of Heaven, which Gilgamesh and Enkidu slew, snorted 3 times, opening up the earth and causing death which each snort.  Ancient mythology from Egypt and Sumer on would fill its stories with 3's, 7's, 12's, 40's, etc., just as the Bible does.  Given these facts, is it any surprise at all that Jesus is said to go missing for 3 days at age 12, or for there to be exactly 3 hours of darkness on the cross, or 3 days in the tomb?

Vergil in his Aeneid, which advances Augustan religious and political propaganda such as Augustus' status as the promised Son of God who would bring a golden age of peace, filled his stories and 'prophecies' with the very same astrologically significant numbers.

Christians were as willing to take Jewish scriptures out of context and even fabricate prophecies wholesale as the Roman emperor was willing to have his best poets create prophecies of present times retrojected into the bronze age.  For cases of the former, see http://sites.google.com/site/investigatingchristianity/home/messiah#appendixd, as well as such Christian works as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Ascension of Isaiah, which show Christians at work fabricating "prophecies" of Jesus' crucifixion and Christian theological points, which they can then retroject into older contexts, i.e. claiming that the 12 sons of Jacob and the prophet Isaiah foretold Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.  For a simple yet robust Roman example see Vergil's Aeneid, examined above for prophecies put into the mouth of bronze age warriors and Gods.  Educated Romans would not have taken such 'prophecies' too seriously, but commoners may well have.  After all, they certainly bought Augustus' claim that Haley's comet was the ascended soul of the divine Julius.  Christianity certainly found enough credulous people to win great success over time with its miracle stories, however typical or formulaic they were, and with its 'fulfilled prophecies,' however non-contextual they were.

Augustus claimed through literature, coins, monuments, and rites, to be the Son of God and to rule the world by divine right.  He had plenty to show for his claims to power to rule the world.  Christianity would create a rival Son of God, combining some of the most commonly appealing aspects of both Judaism and Greco-Roman religions and mysteries.  And with enough time, Christianity was successful, even if one could at times question whether it ended up more Jewish or more pagan.

- - - - -   - - - - -   - - - - -

(Partial) Bibliography

Appian.  Civil Wars. Translated by Horace White.  Loeb Classical Library, 1913. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Appian/Civil_Wars/4*.html.

Cassius Dio.  Roman History. Vol. IV, Loeb Classical Library, 1916.  Translated by Earnest Cary.  (c. 155-230 CE) http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/45*.html.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus.  Roman Antiquities.  Translated by Earnest Cary.  Loeb Classical Library, 7 volumes. Harvard University Press, 1937 thru 1950. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/home.html.

Livius, Titus. The History of Rome, Vol. I. Editor Ernest Rhys.  Translator Rev. Canon Roberts.  Everyman's Library. London:  J.M. Dent and Sons, 1912.  Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Liv1His.html.

Ovid.  Metamorphoses.  Latin text at http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.met15.shtml.

Plutarch.  Romulus.  In The Parallel Lives by Plutarch, Vol. I, Loeb Classical Library, 1914.  Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/home.html.

Plutarch.  Numa.  In The Parallel Lives by Plutarch, Vol. I, Loeb Classical Library, 1914. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/home.html.

Plutarch.  Caesar.  In The Parallel Lives by Plutarch, Vol. I, Loeb Classical Library, 1914.  Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/home.html.

Vergil.  Aeneid.  Translated by Robert Fitzgerald.  New York: Vintage Classics, 1981.  1990 edition.


NOTES:

[1] The Tarpeian rock.

[2] Or Poplifugia. The same explanation of the origin of the festival is given by Plutarch (Rom. 29), who also records the more common version that the original "flight of the people" occurred shortly after the departure of the Gauls, at a time when several Latin tribes suddenly appeared before the city. According to a third view, found in Macrobius (III.2.14), Etruscans were the invaders.

[3] Cf. Livy I.16.5‑8.

[4] In response to Christian claims, often without bothering to contest other assumptions, some ancient Jewish and pagan sources suggested Mary was actually impregnated by a Roman soldier named Panthera (Celsus' The True Word, in Origen Contra Celsum 1. 69 [100's CE]; Epiphanius [300's]; Mishna supplement Tosefta Chullin 2:22-24, stories possibly from 100's CE).

[5] Some Christians thought that Christ, being God, could not really suffer, and that it was merely an image of the true Christ that suffered, whereas the true God is too powerful actually to suffer human pain, which often stems as much or more from psychological issues as/than more obvious physical issues.  It would be easy to say that such Christians may have been influenced by Greek philosophy, but what sect wasn't influenced by Greek thought?

[6] However, note well that 1.) the 'prophecy' in Amos was one of those retroactive prophecies that had already been fulfilled at the time of writing (see 1:1), and 2.) Amos itself tells when the earthquake happened, i.e. two years after Amos' vision, Amos 1:1.

[7] About an hour before sunset.

[8] Luke 24:13-35; Jn 20:15; 21:4.  Cf. Apocryphon of John:  "Straightway, while I was contemplating these things, behold, the heavens opened and the whole creation which is below heaven shone, and the world was shaken. I was afraid, and behold I saw in the light a youth who stood by me. While I looked at him, he became like an old man. And he changed his likeness (again), becoming like a servant. There was not a plurality before me, but there was a likeness with multiple forms in the light, and the likenesses appeared through each other, and the likeness had three forms.  He said to me, "John, John, why do you doubt, or why are you afraid? You are not unfamiliar with this image, are you? - that is, do not be timid! - I am the one who is with you (pl.) always. I am the Father, I am the Mother, I am the Son. I am the undefiled and incorruptible one."

[9] Caesar seems to have begun to receive divine honors before his death.  That may have contributed to his execution.  Antony had already been appointed, but not yet inaugurated, as priest to Caesar.

[10] The decree was not complete until this was done; cf. Jul. 28.3.

[11] The genius, or familiar spirit, was often represented by a serpent, and those of husband and wife by two serpents; e.g. in Pompeian frescoes. [Thayer's Note: In Roman art, as far as anyone can tell, serpents as genii appear to be a motif of Etruscan origin; at any rate, they appear very frequently in very old Etruscan tombs and sculpture.]

[12] Numbers 21:5-9:  "Then YHWH sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the YHWH and against you; pray to the YHWH to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the YHWH said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live."

[13] Otherwise unknown; Müller would read Caesarem Drusum. Stahr believes that the reference is to the Eulogy in chap. c.3.

[14] Caesar seems to have begun to receive divine honors before his death.  That may have contributed to his execution.  Antony had already been appointed, but not yet inaugurated, as priest to Caesar.