Glories of the Empire
Dear People of St. Boniface,
In the year 57 I wrote from Corinth to the already well-established community of Christians in Rome ahead of my intended visit, giving them my encouragement – they were into the third year of the reign of the unpredictable Emperor Nero – and three years later I actually arrived, walking in, the troublesome tourist from Turkey, along the Appian Way which so many victorious legions had trodden before.
To stand in the Roman Forum was to stand in the “centre of the universe”. I had been to Athens and seen its sights, but Athens’ glory days were over. The Roman Empire was now 90 years old and confident, and new building projects were everywhere. Included in the Forum complex now were the Temple of the Divine Julius Caesar (29BC), the enlarged House of the Vestal Virgins, guardians of the Eternal Flame, the Temple of the Greek gods Castor and Pollux (6AD), and the Golden Milestone, milepost ‘O’ of all the roads of the Empire (20BC). All of these were projects of the Divine Emperor Augustus.
Simply to stop and take all this in was enough to make you gulp. Especially when you think that I had come to remind them that it was all wrong: Julius Caesar and Augustus were not divine, Castor and Pollux were imaginary, and the true Eternal Flame and Golden Milestone was the mighty Lord Jesus Christ, son of the eternal God, who loved us so much that he died for us.
It was in this spirit that I wrote my words: “With God on our side, who can be against us?”
My blessing, from Heaven, PAUL.