Villanova
Macedonia is a land to the north of Greece …Villanova is a land to the north of Italy.
This early civilization in the north of Italy(700 B.C.) are later called the Etruscans, and dominated by the Romans (app 200 B.C.). Rome is established in about 500 BC at the Southern edge of the Etruscan civilization. Romans would be a people that come from a mix of the Etruscan and Greek beliefs, same Gods different names. Similar to the relationship between England and the United States. The Romans are like the a young America taking lands from others and advancing the Greek ethos. The real power of Rome is the Republic, the democratic concepts given by the Greeks, where soldiers participate in their government. Unlike the kingdoms they will defeat whose armies are paid mercenaries or slaves.
From the time of Alexander the Great in 325 B.C. till about the year 100 B.C. the world is divided between the Greeks in the East the Romans in the Middle and the Carthaginians to the West.
The slaves in Egypt are controlled because ignorance is bliss. Each time a new Pharaoh comes into power the slaves are told of the miracles he can perform, battles with non existent peoples that he wins. That is what good priests do, they support the Pharaoh. High society lives well, Persian, Greek, and Egyptian upper classes all enjoy the fruits of the labor of slaves. Those who know ruling those that do not know.
Remember these are Macedonians that control Egypt, not with the same democratic values of the Greeks. Macedonians have kings. The only thing the slaves of Egypt and of the old Persian empire need to know is what they are told. The Israelites need to know only what the Pharisees will tell them.
No one needs to know the truth… its too important of a secret.
Travel is very difficult, news does not travel well, no news papers, very few can read for that matter, and what you will read will always be the governments propaganda. In these times people were deep in that very cave that Plato spoke of. Even if someone were to tell them the truth, they would reject it as heresy and kill him.
These are the waters within which those men from Villanova begin to build Rome. With regards to the story of the foundation of Rome, two brothers brought up as savages by a wolf, one kills the other and this is the beginning of Rome. Somewhat reminiscent of Cain and Able, rather this is Cain that lays the foundation Rome. Interestingly these roots never stop killing. Do we know of any culture that glorifies killing more than they?
Philistines, Phoenicians and Carthaginians
To understand Rome you must understand the "sea peoples". This was a loose alliance of maritime cities that traded all over the Mediterranean. They had made the Mediterranean sea their empire and are in direct competition with Rome.
The Phoenicians just north of Canaan, the Philistines are at the sea to the west of Canaan and the Carthaginians west of Egypt and in the lands that are north Africa and now Spain. They traded and ruled the costal areas from well protected port cities throughout the Mediterranean sea. For any people attempting to dominate the Italian peninsula the Carthaginians would be the competition. Rome will destroy Carthage as well as become Carthage.
The Israelites were land warriors and the Egyptians as well. The Phoenicians on the other hand were sea warriors. The Phoenician port city of Tyre dates back to 2700 BC. It is believed that these are people that founded Carthage. They would have also been the Menoans, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis.
In Alexander the Greats conquest of Egypt, the battles are with Palestine and against Tyre. A fortified port city with 150 foot walls. In 332 BC with Tyre defeated by Alexander, the Roman conquest of the Italian peninsula is made possible by the elimination of a key trading partner of Carthage. The Carthaginians that control the far western Mediterranean, have seen Tyre taken by Alexander and will make all efforts to take back the Eastern trading alliances they see the Greeks and Romans taking from them.
The Romans are an association of farmers and traders taking lands for personal gain. They have a Republic where individuals can rise according to their value. Rome first takes dominion of the Etruscans to the North, then begin to attack their neighbors steadily taking the Italian Peninsula. The costal cities that were controlled by these sea peoples is a problem for the early Romans. The defeat of Tyre by Alexander the Great opens the way for Rome to take a more firm control of the the Italian peninsula. Rome will begin to gain processions in Europe, Macedon, Persia, and finally the Carthaginians.
212 BC Syracuse or Sicily, once a Carthaginian strong hold, falls to Rome
197 BC Macedon the former home of Alexander the Great becomes a Roman province.
190 BC The Seleucid empire which were the Greek rulers of Persia is defeated by the Romans.
The Carthaginians almost ended Rome. Under Hannibal in about 200 BC they invade Rome by taking troops and elephants from Spain and coming into Rome from the Alps.
Finally in 146 BC the Romans sack and completely destroy the city Of Carthage.
This frees Rome onto the rest of the known world. The very battle hardened armies of Rome have only themselves to fight for control of the known world. Egypt is a land they can take, but, control is a separate issue for it has the supreme religion and Israel that will protect it.
Rome has become more powerful than the Greek empire and its problems are now internal. Who will govern Rome? A family feud of Global proportions ensues.
As we approach year one Persia, and Egypt, and Judea will be in the hands of Rome, and more particularly the property of blood line of Augustus Caesar.
Julius Caesar
This world we know today, and the way we understand Christianity strangely pivots on this man's actions.
100 years after the Roman defeat of Carthage. Rome has consolidated territories in Spain, England, and Gaul. By the time of Julius Caesar they control Egypt, Persia, and Greek Macedonia. They effectively rule all of western civilization.
Having fought their way from Villanova 500 years prior and now with an army, and no one to fight, they begin to fight amongst themselves for power.
In 50BC Julius Caesar is heading to Rome to end a civil war. He has won the world and now comes to take Rome itself. His troops are a representative power base that comes to fight Pompey who represents the established aristocracy that wish to stop the republic.
The underling cause of this civil war is the class struggle between the established aristocracy and a growing citizen class. The two factions are called Optimates and Populares .
Optimates... Were dedicated to keep power in the hands of noble families and wished to put an end to the republic and were headed by Pompey.
Populares... Are a Roman aristocracy that relies on citizen and popular support for political power, the spread of democracy if you will, and for whom Caesar stands.
As Caesar inters Rome, his opponent, Pompey, the Senators that are with him and their armies sail to Epirus. Epirus is where the oldest Hellenic oracle is, where Alexander the Greats' mother came from. A region that Aristotle considered to have been the most ancient part of Greece and where the Hellenes originated.
Stop and think about this for one moment... These men have gone to the most holy ground they know to fight the last battle of a long civil war. They are fighting in Greece, the land that gave them their Gods their Logos.
To the Roman religion these must be extremely sacred grounds.
Here in 48BC Caesar wins his battle with Pompey. Caesar is now appointed dictator, with Mark Anthony as his Master of the Horse.
Pompey and his remaining forces go to Egypt where there is an ongoing civil war between Cleopatra VII and her brother Ptolemy XIII. Pompey seeks protection from Ptolemy XIII, but is murdered by him instead.
Caesar comes to Egypt to deal with Pompey's remaining forces. He sides with Cleopatra in the civil war and defeats her rival Ptolemy XIII. He then installs Cleopatra as Queen, and has a child with her. Born in 47 BC one year after his battle with Pompey back in Epirus.
That moved quickly... barely meet the girl and have a child and not get married? They are Gods, who would marry them?
He has just beat the wealthy establishment of Rome. He has won battles, but has not taken control of the economies that these wealthy families control. He must pay his soldiers, and keep the economy going. Cleopatra is the wealthiest person in the world. She is the Nile river and the source of grain for his troops and people. Caesar has favored alliances with Egypt and the Jews, a policy that will unite in peace these civilizations.
With this child and alliance he can pay his troops. With his new family, this child will be the next ruler of not only Rome but Egypt as well. This cause the roman senate to fear this dictator and the end of their usefulness.
Twenty years earlier in 63BC Caesar been declared "Pontifex Maximus", making him the administrator of jus divinum or divine law for life It is important to consider that both Octavian soon to be Agustus Caesar and Mark Antony promoted the cult of Divus Iulius. After the death of Mark Antony, Octavian, as the adoptive son of Caesar, assumed the title of Divi Filius (son of a god)... sound familiar? It should sound familiar because there is another individual that will claim the same title. That other son of God, Jesus Christ.
This family of Cleopatra and Caesar is now the law of two religions, the Roman and the Egyptian, and their child will inherit the known world as a God.
February 15, 44 BCE Caesar is made Dictator in Perpetuum and is promptly assassinated on March 15, by a group of senators.
Cleopatra
At the time of the assassination of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra had lived for two years in Rome, from the summer of 46 BC, with their son Caesarean. They would leave immediately after the death of Caesar for Egypt. Back in Rome, Mark Anthony, Caesars second in command will try to restore order. Mark Anthony will join forces with Octavian the adopted son of Caesar, to seal the bond he will marry Octavian's sister Octavia.
October of 41 BC Mark Anthony meets with Cleopatra in Tarsus (please note Tarsus is where Paul is from), he has children with Cleopatra. Then in September of 40 BC he marries Octavian's sister and leaves her pregnant and returns to Egypt, to get support from Cleopatra in his battle his battle with is brother in law Octavian.
This World War is all about something very personal, a sorted family matter in which the richest people in the world (Gods) conspire and kill each other to see who will end up with all the loot.
Capturing Jerusalem in 37 BC, Mark Anthony installs Herod as puppet king of Judea. Caesarian, then thirteen years of age, was formally made " King of Kings by Anthony and Cleopatra in 34 BC.
War started over a divided Rome in 31 BC, with Cleopatra backing Mark Anthony. Mark Anthony and Octavian would confront each other in Actium, on the east coast of Greece.
They fight here because these are the front lines between Rome, and what was once the Greek.. empire. Cleopatra who was in fact a Greek Macedonian Queen would be there in person along with Mark Anthony. As the battle goes poorly for Anthony and Cleopatra, they leave the battle return to Egypt.
August 1, 30 BC, Octavian is in Egypt takes the city of Alexandria. First Mark Anthony takes his life and then Cleopatra commits suicide on August 12, 30BC.
History will say that she tried to send he son Caesarean to India via the Red Sea. Octavian would say he had killed him and "there can not be two Caesars"
The Roman republic will now have Octavian become Agustus Caesar. Gone will be the republican changes that Julius Caesar had hoped to establish 20 years ago. This point is argued in light of the fact that his troops would not have been so loyal if they has not trusted in Caesar giving them representation.
This moment also marks, the end of both the Hellenistic(Greek) Age and the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.
The Pharaoh Gods and the priests of the Egyptians do they now just vanish, what occurred to them?
These are the events that bring us Christianity, an knowing these events will give a greater appreciation of the coming Christ. If we would like to understand Christianity and todays Church, would it be wise to carefully look into these historical events.