The Ways of the Worldviews (Part 6): Ancient Rome (and how the USA is its reincarnation)

With the rise of the Roman Empire, there is yet another aspect to the ancient world that is relevant to understanding our world today. It was within this world dominated by the various Greek philosophical schools that the ancient Republic of Rome began to expand, grow, and eventually develop into the Roman Empire. Now, even though the Roman Republic (509-31 BC) had been around since roughly the birth of Athenian democracy, it is the Roman Empire of which we must be most mindful. The Roman Republic, much like the Athenian democracy, was constantly fraying at the edges.

Amplified Humanity
The reason for this, as Francis Schaeffer pointed out, was pretty obvious. Whether the government system was a democracy or a republic, regardless of the citizenry involved, when it came right down to it, both the Greek and Roman societies were founded on their gods—those very gods who were nothing more than “amplified humanity,” complete with all the pettiness, jealousy, and violence that characterized humanity. No matter how much a society might want to flourish under a democracy or republic, if that society is, in fact, based on power-hungry, pretentious, violent gods, that society will ultimately reflect those very gods. The prophets of the Old Testament got it right—you become what you worship.

In reality, the Greco-Roman gods were nothing more than projections of humanity onto the various forces of nature. That was why they were so violent—nature is often violent. That was why they ultimately displayed the worst of humanity—human beings, when given power, will often be inhumane and beast-like to others. And, as the failure of Athenian democracy and the Roman republic demonstrates, it was beast-like rulers who established their power by often savage means, all the while paying homage to the violent Greco-Roman gods, who brought about the destruction of those democratic systems.

That is not to say that every ruler was bad. Absolute power in the hands of a beast-like ruler will bring about much death, evil, and destruction to a society. Yet absolute power in the hands of a noble ruler will allow that ruler to do much good. Nevertheless, basing an entire society on the rule of one man is ultimately a recipe for disaster, for no man, no matter how virtuous and noble, is a god.

The failure of the Greco-Roman gods to provide a suitable foundation for society eventually resulted in the destruction of Athenian democracy and the end of the Roman republic. After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, and the ensuing civil wars, first between Brutus/Cassius and Octavius/Mark Antony, and then between Mark Antony and Octavius, it was Octavius, thereafter known as Augustus Caesar, who lifted the Roman republic from the ashes and established the Roman empire. Among his many achievements, Augustus established a common empire-wide currency as well as a postal system; he orchestrated massive building projects throughout the Roman Empire that constructed roads, aqueducts, bridges, and thereby united and strengthened the infrastructure of the empire; he was a huge benefactor of the arts; he built public baths, he expanded the Roman Empire to Spain, Gaul (modern day France), Egypt; he established laws aimed to promote marriage, discourage adultery, raise the birth rate…the list can go on.

The Rise of Caesar, the “god”
Augustus Caesar was so successful during his reign (27 BC-14 AD), that after his death he was officially recognized as “a god.” Not “God,” as in the creator of the universe; but “a god”—for it was acknowledged that only a god could have brought peace to the Roman world, and that was exactly what Augustus Caesar had done. Once such a precedent had been set, though, it was bound to be abused by later emperors. Declaring a great leader like Augustus Caesar a god after his death was one thing—it was pretty much a ceremonial honor that didn’t have any practical impact. After all, Augustus was dead. But as the first century AD unfolded, more and more emperors would be declared, or declare themselves, “gods” during their reign. When that happens, there is bound to be an egregious abuse of power, as the reigns of Caligula, Nero, and Domitian demonstrate.

It was precisely because of Augustus Caesar’s success that the Imperial Cult was established, and later abused. Being a polytheistic society with many gods, the Roman Empire didn’t care who or what you worshipped, just as long as you also took the time to go down to your local Temple to Caesar, offer a pinch of incense, and swear by the genius of the god Caesar as well. Acknowledging Caesar’s divinity meant that you showed yourself to be a good citizen of Rome. In that sense, the “official religion” of the Roman Empire was, in fact, the worship of Caesar as a god; and therefore, the “official religion” of the Roman Empire was a political religion. It was the worship of the state. Religion was never a “private affair”—it was always part of public life. Once this is understood, it becomes much easier to understand why the early Christians were often persecuted within the Roman Empire.

On a much more practical level, when one man (like Caesar) is not only the supreme ruler of the state, but on top of that is declared to be a god, it should come as no surprise that along with such absolute power comes the inevitable consequence that whatever happens to be the will of Caesar becomes the basis for society—the whim of one man become the “absolute.” Now, what would be the ultimate goal of such a ruler, other than to maintain his power, and how would he go about maintaining his power? The answer can be found it what happened in ancient Rome.

The Politics and Religion…of Keeping Power
First and foremost was maintaining power through military dominance. The one with the most weapons is the one who calls the shots, so if you want to continue to call the shots, you continue to demonstrate to everyone that you are the one with the most weapons. And one thing was certain: Rome’s military might was unrivaled in the ancient world.

Secondly, in order to maintain power, you must demonstrate that you can exercise that power in every area of life. Consequently, under the rule of the Roman emperors, the imperial government continued to expand and essentially take over every area of Roman life. By doing so, it ensured that everyone was dependent on the government for their survival. Thus you had a system where the ruling elites, through the mechanisms of an ever-expanding, costly, and highly bureaucratic government, reduced the majority of the populace to virtual servitude and slavery. Such a system inevitably leads to abuses of power and tyranny.

But the trick, of course, is to make sure the slavish majority of the populace don’t really catch on to how much they have been reduced to servitude. This brings us to another characteristic of Roman society: bread and circuses. Keep the masses entertained and occupied: horrifically violent gladiator games, the wide-variety of sexual perversions that were practiced in pagan temples and encouraged throughout Roman society, went hand in hand with the overall lack of any kind of intellectual life, or quality of art and music. Who has time to discipline oneself to become truly accomplished and creative when the roar of the coliseum, the sexual delights of the pagan temples, and the bombastic music of the cult of Dionysus called one to a life of apathy and hedonism? The emperor was in charge anyway—let him take care of everything.

And thus, any semblance of true individual freedom was sacrificed for security. When government takes care of everything, people have nothing to strive for, so they turn to pleasure and perversion to keep themselves occupied. Ultimately, the result is a hedonistic and lazy society allowing themselves to be tyrannically ruled by a “god-Caesar.” Ironically, not only was it not free, it also was not truly secure either. It was a society enslaved…to Caesar, to violence, to perversions, and to apathy. It was a society that became like the immoral gods they worshipped.

Summary of the Greco-Roman World
And so, what we see in the Greco-Roman world was an ancient society that was in many respects much like ours. In both ancient Greece and Rome, regardless of whether the government be a democracy, a republic, or an authoritative empire, underlying the form of government was a worldview that was based on belief in violent, petty, immoral gods—and that, in turn, led to a violent, petty, immoral society. The attempts at democracy or a republic, since they still were ultimately based on ‘the gods,’ were doomed to fail. Those societies ultimately led to chaos, fighting, and the eventual take over by military dictators. Power ultimately ruled the day…for that the way of the gods.

At the same time, though, there still was the underlying fear of impersonal fate. It didn’t matter which gods you sacrificed to, or how many times you swore to the genius of Caesar, you would ultimately be a victim of the fates. From the plebian to Caesar himself, ultimately chaos and Hades stole any ultimate meaning from human existence.

The structure of the ancient city-state was centered around the polis, which in turn was centered around pagan temples. In other words, what brought people together was something fundamentally religious, and that religion was intimately wrapped up in politics.

The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle opened doors to ways of understanding reality that have an impact up to the present day, particularly the “spirit-matter” dualism. What that means is that, from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans up to modern day America, there has been a tendency to view “the spiritual world” as something good and completely detached from the material world, and “the material world” as something bad and dirty and undesirable (i.e. the longing to “shed this mortal coil” and be “pure spirit”).

Put all that together, and the impact it had on daily life was an oppressive society to the majority of the people, particularly to women and slaves, with no value for human life. Abortion, infanticide, and the exposure of infants were just an acceptable part of life.

Indeed, in seems that ancient Rome and the modern United States certainly share a lot in common, don’t they? Just look at the way our society is today:

1. The practical deification of political leaders (depending on your party, of course)
2. The ever-increasing power of a massive centralized government
3. The massive industrial military complex and hyper-nationalism
4. The glorification of violence in our society
5. Yes, we don’t have pagan temples encouraging promiscuity and prostitution, but the pornography industry and sex-trafficking is at an all-time high, creating modern-day examples of sex slaves
6. Abortion on demand also dehumanizes human beings

The list can probably go on. But the point is simple: despite it’s great military might and impressive monuments and buildings, daily life in ancient Rome was anything but glorious. Life was cheap and disposable…and then you die. Indeed, in many ways, modern America is just ancient Rome 2.0.