The Destruction of Pagan Rome

17 years after Rome banned Paganism, Rome found itself under siege to Alaric the Goth

The leftover pagans in Rome were furious their new regime of ideological extremists had spent the last decade purging Rome instead of defending the wide open borders that the Gothic gangs were crossing

This siege was clear proof for the pagans that abandoning the Gods had been a dangerous move for Rome

They rallied and demanded that sacrifices be reintroduced

The aim of the ban was to kill the Roman religion by making the pagan sacrifices treason

In the pagan mind this was cultural suicide

The Romans saw the city of Rome as something of a magic spell

They diligently and almost robotically did their ritual sacrifices

This created a vortex of power that emanated out of Rome…

The word Piety is a Latin word and the Romans saw themselves as the most Pious people of earth… hence their power

They drew the Gods around them, and the Gods favoured them heavily for their constant offerings and obedience

But the flip side of this was that ending these rituals killed off Rome’s expansive will

It’d be like banning Churches nowadays: think of the huge downstream problems in funerals, marriages, Christmas time, and the general sense of coherency in the population

The pagans knew what had happened was a disaster

Emperor Theodosis decreed this ban in 391 AD

All religions except Christianity and its ancestor Judaism were now illegal

All pagan temples were to be repossessed or burned

The Olympic Games were even banned

During the siege in 408, the son of Theodosis was in power: Emperor Honorius

He had recently had his best general executed for lack of ideological purity, and was generally seen as a useless Emporer

He had overseen Rome’s split into an East and West Empire

He lived miles away and had abandoned Rome, leaving it to barbarians

The pagans brought all this up in the Senate:

“Ignore Theodosis’ mandates, his son is an idiot, instead protect Rome! This is a crisis! Let’s go back to the Gods!”

Pope Innocent I, who was in Rome at the time, actually conceded the point… perhaps the Gods of War would come in handy

But before going for public sacrifices, Innocent said to put the question to the people

So the pagans took a shot at persuading the plebs… but the people were hesitant…

Rome was now a heavily Christian city… it’s against their religion to allow idol worship

Distraught, the pagans got frustrated and stalled

Just then, Alaric’s messengers arrived saying they would lift the siege if they were paid 10,000 kg of silver

The Christian senators saw opportunity in the pagan’s failure

They seized the silver pagan statue of the god Victory that stood in the senate

Victory is called Nike in Greek, where the footwear brand gets its name

It’s also where we get the name Victoria

One of the most famous desecrated statues of the classical world is of “winged victory”

The Christian regime melted Victory down and paid it to the Goths

The pagans lamented, what a twisted proof that Rome had lost its will… the selling of Victory to the enemy

All analogies suffer from anachronism, but the recent images of American statues being melted comes to mind

Despite the bribes, Alaric returned 2 years later in 410 AS with menace

He sacked Rome

Rome would fall, never to recover again

St. Augustine would write “City of God” a few years later in 414 to try an address these obvious problems

This is a foundational work of Christendom that has shaped our perception of Paganism, Rome, and the “sins of the old world”

He would claim that the fall isn’t proof of Christian failure, but of Rome’s Gods failing to protect Rome

The Roman project that emanated from their power was a “City of Man”

This materialistic city was necessary to wash away to usher in the new “City of God”

This period blows my mind, it is the most devious and unnerving moment in all of European history

All through the Cold War it was standard practice for rival Soviet or US intel agencies to conduct psychological warfare on rival populations

The aim to undermine their tradition and completely demoralise the population

Then they invoke a Marxist or Colour Revolution to enact regime change and convert them to a friendly ideology

What a frightening thought… this is all too much!

History is a nightmare out of which I’m trying to awaken…

There’s nothing else to be done, I’m becoming a Buddhist…