In the year 1175 Anno Domini, the French Poet Alain de Lille wrote: "A thousand roads lead forever to Rome." This proverb is based on the Roman Empire's extensive road system which radiated from the capital city like the spokes of a wheel. This proverb was first written in English by Geoffrey Chaucer in the year 1391. This version reads: "Right as diverse pathes leden diverse folk the righte way to Rome."
It has been speculated, that this proverb is based on a monument known as the Milliarium Aureum. This golden milestone was erected by Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus in the central forum of ancient Rome.
Today, we are familiar with this popular phrase as: "All roads lead to Rome." Did you notice the progression from, a thousand roads, to diverse roads, to all roads? If this ancient network could be compared to time, then this place in the ancient world could be considered ground zero for our current world crisis.
It is at this point in history, that another concept claims its origin. It is written in the gospel of Luke, in the first verse of the second chapter, that a "decree went out from Caesar Augustus in those days" that would pave a path to our modern world.
Some historians may challenge the accuracy of the writer's claim about the timing of the events to follow, but our current Gregorian calendar system is based on this moment in history when a family of Jewish descent was temporarily displaced from their home town of Nazareth to a small village south of Jerusalem, named Bethlehem. This is said to be the birthplace of the most influential person in history.
Regardless of what you believe, it is important for all of us to see the connection between these two stories, because one day these two unrelated concepts will come together, paving a path to our modern human society.
This couple, mentioned in Luke chapter two had a son who would ignite a movement, that would eventually make use of the many and diverse roads that lead out of, and towards the city of Rome. You might say ground zero and year zero are one and the same, give or take a year or so.
None of this has anything to do with the year that matters most in this chapter. All of this geography, has been mere preamble for another pivotal moment in time. According to legend, the date is October 27. The year is 312 from zero year. The event takes place on a bridge, on a road that leads back to ground zero.
A young general, by the name of Constantine was leading his troops back to Rome in order to secure his position as the next Roman Emperor.
As the story goes, that young general saw something in the sky that day, that would eventually lead to an odd coupling of Church and State (pun intended). Whatever he saw, whether real or imagined, it created a chain reaction, that affects everyone on this planet right now.
By Constantine's time, the grassroots movement that emerged from the son of the couple mentioned earlier from Nazareth, had spread throughout the Roman Empire. It had experienced many changes in the past three hundred years. Many christian adherents had survived hostile Roman persecution under the tyranny of Domitian, an earlier Roman Emperor. Many christians had become fractured into various theological views by this time. This in turn, led to arguments, and even fighting in the streets among various factions.
They had come a long way from the teachings of their founder who said: "Those who live by the sword will die by the sword." Their lord, who they referred to as Jesus Christ, told his followers over two hundred years earlier, that he had conquered the world. Shortly after that he was executed by his own people at the order of a Roman procurator named Pontius Pilate.
This revolutionary who taught conquest through peace, rather than warfare, was about to have his message paved over by Constantine in the most unexpected of ways. You see, on that day in October 312 that young general claimed he saw a symbol in the sky that was believed by christians to be the execution weapon of their lord and savior. Constantine later recounted seeing a glowing cross in the sky above that bridge, with the words in Latin: "hoc signo vinces", which translates to: "In this sign conquer!"
With the Nazarene's message of peace completely obscured, this soon to be Roman Emperor, did what Roman Emperors do best. He conquered. He was, after all a soldier.
Eventually, Constantine brought peace to the disagreements his contemporary christian peers were having over doctrinal views regarding their lord and savior's true nature. He had indeed conquered Christianity through diplomacy.
Perhaps, you believe that Christianity conquered Constantine. Either way the two were now intertwined. Like a double helix of D.N.A. something new was born from this coupling. Something not quite Roman, and not quite Christian. Neither, and yet both. A child was born. It was called a Holy Roman Empire, with universal overtones. History records an unholy aftermath in the dark ages that followed. But that is another story.
What if things had gone differently on that day in October of 312 A.D.? What if Constantine didn't see that vision in the sky? What if he lost that battle? Every Road led back to Rome. Was his path predestined? Did he have any choice? More importantly, do any of us have a choice? These are important questions, because today, we all face a mammoth task of titanic proportions. If all things are foreordained, what is the point of trying to steer our way out of our current global climate crisis? Let's explore these questions on the next page.
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