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28-06-2015, 21:19

The Religious Situation at the End of the Republic

This basic religious attitude of the Roman population had been intensified by the collective experiences of the last chaotic century of the Roman republic. Bloody civil wars, catastrophic defeats in wars against foreign enemies like the Cimbers and the Teutons, and social unrest like the slaves’ war under Spartacus had afflicted not only the Roman people, but the whole world that was ruled by the Romans. In this way a mental situation had been created in which humans felt abandoned and punished by the gods. The poet Horace (Epodes 16) declares that the civil wars are a direct result of Romulus’ fratricide. That means Rome and its population are doomed from the foundation of the city by Romulus and Remus. Horace, who had lived through the civil war between the followers of Caesar and his murderers, feels so desperate that he has only one final piece of advice for his fellow-citizens: leave this doomed land and follow me to a land far away without war and bloodshed.

The unpleasant feeling that they lived in a final time and were close to a catastrophic end of the whole world was not only widespread among the Roman population, but was common knowledge among nearly all people that lived in this time. That mankind existed indeed on the eve of the final destruction was corroborated by a multitude of oracles and ominous prophecies. Closely connected with the fear of a catastrophic end of the world and mankind was the hope that the looming catastrophe had to occur but that it did not mean the final end for the whole world. For there existed also a widespread conviction that after such a catastrophe there would be a new beginning for mankind, one could say a second chance. The guarantee of the new beginning was usually identical with the appearance of a divine being or at least of a human being who had been sent by the gods. With the friendly assistance of this person a new beginning would be possible.

These messianic expectations could assume quite different forms. For the people in the east of the Mediterranean world, this messiah was of course identical with the person who would free these nations from the oppression and injustice of the Roman domination, and bring back older and therefore better times. This holds true for the expectations that the Greeks connected with the policy of Mithradates VI (120-63 bc), but also for the messianic hopes of the Jews, who expected first of all, contrary to the Christian interpretation, a Jewish messiah with political aims. The Romans themselves expected especially the appearance of a man who would bring the nearly endless succession of civil wars and political upheavals to a fortunate and final end. In this case, too, the expected condition of the new world that would emerge was identical with the return to an older and therefore near paradisiac time.

The great poet Virgil voiced the hopes of many of his contemporaries in one of his poems (Eclogue 4). Virgil, too, was convinced that mankind had reached the final period of its existence, but that after the catastrophe a new generation would be sent from heaven and a new golden era would start again. Virgil had no specific idea who would accomplish this redemption of mankind and make the new golden era a reality. When he wrote this poem he only hoped for a child that would be sent from heaven. This “child” has to be understood as a symbol of something new and innocent, something that had not been tainted by past guilt. This poem was the expression of a widespread sentiment, not a political manifesto with a clear agenda. Every politician who responded to the feelings of the population could be regarded as the heaven-sent savior.



 

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