Rulers of Rome

I used Romans 13:1-8 (expository) to preach the responsibility of believers toward Civil Government.  I used the following information to show that Paul wrote Romans 13 when these wicked rulers were over the Roman Empire.  The Roman Baptist church was commanded to be obedient to these wicked leaders, never fearing the consequences of their good acts.  The parallel between the Roman emperors and the current and immediate past rulers of the Democratic and Republican parties are strikingly similar! 

Julius Caesar – 46-44 BC

Augustus Caesar – 31 BC to 14 AD

• Augustus had ended 100 years of civil war and achieved over 40 years of internal peace and prosperity. His vision and power had expanded the Roman Empire to become far more than a collection of countries. Instead, it was a diverse society and enormous marketplace in which people across Europe, north Africa and the Middle East could trade and travel under Rome’s protection.
• He had won over the Senate and founded a dynasty. But this would feature as many villains as heroes, and would take Rome on a roller-coaster ride into assassination, insanity and terror.

Tiberius Caesar – 14-37 AD

• His political inability, poor judgment and jealousy led Rome into a dark age of political purges, murder and terror.  Still in Capri, Tiberius continued to rule, with Caligula now his heir. When he died in 37 AD, Rome welcomed the news. Little did they know what was yet to come.

Caligula Caesar – 37-41 AD

• Seen as a welcome breath of fresh air when he took the throne, Caligula’s eccentricities soon became terrifying and he was murdered after just five years in power.  Mad or bad?

o        Seven months after taking power, however, Caligula fell ill. Although he recovered, he began to act very strangely. Was he mad or just pretending? Some believe that he suffered from epilepsy, but historians are divided.

o        Dressed in silk robes and covered in jewels, Caligula pretended he was a god. He forced senators to grovel and kiss his feet and seduced their wives at dinner parties.

• Dangerous to know

o        Then his eccentricities became more murderous. He restored the hated treason trials of his predecessor, executing both rivals and close allies, including the head of the Praetorian Guard, his personal protection squad.

o        At other times, his cruelty was more random. In one instance, he was about to sacrifice an animal as a sacred offering to the gods. He raised his mallet to kill the animal and brought it down hard. At the last moment, however, he turned and struck a priest standing nearby, who died instantly.

• The situation gets worse

o        All this time, Caligula was spending vast quantities of money. His extravagance soon emptied Rome’s treasury, which Tiberius had greatly increased. Still spending, but now short of cash, he began blackmailing leading Roman families and confiscating their estates.

o        In 40 AD, he led an army north into Gaul, robbing its inhabitants before marching to the shore to invade Britain. Just as the army was about to launch its attack, he ordered them to stop and gather seashells. He called these the spoils of the conquered ocean.

o        Meanwhile, Caligula still wanted to become a god. The same year, he ordered his statue to be erected in the Temple at Jerusalem. This would have been highly controversial in a region already prone to revolt. Luckily, Herod Agrippa, who ruled Palestine on behalf of Rome, managed to persuade Caligula to change his mind.

• A solution is found

o        His behavior was making Caligula seriously unpopular among Rome’s elite. Plots against his life soon became commonplace. In 41 AD, four months after he returned from Gaul, he was murdered by his closest advisors, including members of his Praetorian Guard. To prevent reprisals, they also killed his wife and daughter. Dead but certainly not mourned, Caligula was succeeded by his uncle, Claudius, the most unlikely of emperors.

Claudius Caesar – 41-54 AD

·                     Disfigured, awkward and clumsy, Claudius (10 BC – 54 AD / Reigned 41 – 54 AD) was the black sheep of his family and an unlikely emperor. Once in place, he was fairly successful, but his poor taste in women would prove his undoing. 

·                     Left disfigured by a serious illness when he was very young, Claudius was also clumsy and coarse , and was the butt of his family’s jokes. When he dozed after dinner, guests pelted him with food and put slippers on his hands so that he’d rub his eyes with his shoes when he woke up. 

·         Surprisingly popular

o        Despite these dangers, Claudius worked hard at his job, starting work just after midnight every day. It began to pay off: he made major improvements to Rome’s judicial system, passed laws protecting sick slaves, extended citizenship and increased women's privileges.

o        He also treated his people with unusual respect, apologizing to visiting pensioners when there were not enough chairs. Hardly surprising, then, that Suetonius wrote how this sort of behavior endeared him to the people.

·         Permanent separation

o        Silius was killed and Messalina fled to a friend's villa to decide how to get herself out of trouble. It was too late. The emperor was hosting a dinner party when he heard that his wife had died. Without asking how, he called for more wine.

o        The next year, Claudius decided to marry again, surprising Rome by choosing his own niece, Agrippina.

·         Oh dear

o        This was a bad mistake. Determined to make the most of her luck and happy to use any means necessary, Agrippina was about the only woman who could make Messalina seem a good catch.

o        Agrippina began her quest for power by persuading Claudius to bring back Seneca from exile so that he could become tutor to her own son, Nero, the boy she planned to make an emperor.

·         Speeding things up

o        Gradually Agrippina removed all her rivals and convinced Claudius to disinherit his own son, Britannicus. With Nero now heir, the only remaining obstacle was Claudius himself. Agrippina took drastic action: as Tacitus reports, her weapon of choice was poisoned mushrooms, delivered by a faithful servant.

o        Claudius appeared on the brink of death, but began to recover. Horrified, Agrippina signed up the emperor's own doctor to her cause. While pretending to help Claudius vomit his food, the doctor put a feather dipped in poison down his throat. As Tacitus said, "Dangerous crimes bring ample reward."

o        Claudius was dead. Nero was Emperor. This would prove interesting.

Nero Caesar – 54-68 AD

·         Controlled by his wife, Agrippina, Nero killed his mother.  Many unsuccessful plots to kill Nero continued, while Nero killed many Roman citizens.  A complete lack of trust was evident. 

Galba Et Al – 68-69 AD

Otho – 68-69 AD

Vitrellis – 68-69 AD