{"id":21901,"date":"2023-09-30T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T07:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/?p=21901"},"modified":"2023-09-30T15:55:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T22:55:48","slug":"the-city-set-on-seven-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/the-city-set-on-seven-hills\/","title":{"rendered":"The City Set On Seven Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a city with a glorious past<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Roman annalist, Titus Livius, set the traditional date for the founding of Rome, Italy as April 21, 753 B.C.\u00a0 <\/span><\/b>The oldest settlement was just seventeen miles up from the mouth of the Tiber River on a cluster of seven hills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Initially Rome was ruled by Latin kings, but in about 600 B.C.\u00a0 <\/span>Etruscans from modern-day Tuscany along the northwestern coast of Italy took control.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 509 B.C. the Romans revolted against the Etruscans and established the Roman republic.\u00a0 <\/span>The republic\u2019s chief officers were two consuls, elected\u00a0 <\/span>annually and assisted by other elected administrative officials.\u00a0 <\/span>The defining moment for the republic came in 387 B.C. when the Gauls ransacked Rome.\u00a0 <\/span>Determined to be vulnerable no longer to outside attack, the\u00a0 <\/span>Romans took up the sword and, by so doing, united all of Italy south of the Po River into a confederation.\u00a0 <\/span>Rome became so strong that the city stood inviolate for eight centuries. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The republic ended in 27 B.C. when Caesar Augustus became emperor and the Roman Empire began.\u00a0 <\/span>At this time the population of Rome was well over one million souls.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first two hundred years of the Roman Empire are called the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, reflecting the empire\u2019s internal and external peace.\u00a0 <\/span>During this time of peace, Christians first appeared in Rome.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Initially they were not differentiated from the Jews, as we know Christians Aquila and Priscilla had to leave Rome when Emperor Claudius forced the Jews out of the city.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 57 A.D. when the apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans, there was a church there.\u00a0 <\/span>Paul was imprisoned in Rome from 59 until 62 and then a second time in 67 or 68.\u00a0 <\/span>He was finally martyred in Rome as was the apostle Peter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Six different caesars of the first two centuries persecuted Christians.\u00a0 <\/span>Then from the third century until Constantine in 313 A.D. there were five periods of persecution.\u00a0 <\/span>During this period the \u201cPax Romana\u201d disappeared.\u00a0 <\/span>There were twenty-eight claimants to the imperial throne in the Roman Empire between Commodus (180–192) and Diocletian (284–305) A.D.\u00a0 <\/span>Only one died a natural death, and only one reigned for more than ten years.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was during these turbulent times that the Christians of Rome retreated to the catacombs, the subterranean cemeteries outside Rome\u2019s city walls.\u00a0 <\/span>In these underground labyrinths Christians not only buried their dead but also worshipped during times of persecution.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 313 A.D. Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, giving Christians freedom of worship.\u00a0 <\/span>At this time there were approximately forty churches in Rome.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>
\nBut Constantine also moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople (Istanbul), leaving Rome as the capital of only the western empire.\u00a0 <\/span>Rome weakened, and in 410 A.D. the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe, sacked the city.\u00a0 <\/span>In 476 A.D. the Western Roman Empire fell to another Germanic tribe, the Ostrogoths.\u00a0 <\/span>As the city of Rome weakened politically, the church grew in power and came to dominate Rome.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 847 A.D. Pope Leo IV built a wall of defense around St. Peter\u2019s Basilica, and it became a center of a Christian Rome.\u00a0 <\/span>At this time the title \u201cPope\u201d from the Latin \u201cPapa,\u201d meaning \u201cfather,\u201d came to be reserved for the bishop of Rome.\u00a0 <\/span>Previously it had applied to all bishops.\u00a0 <\/span>Except for a period between 1305 and 1377 when the popes were captives of the French kings and ruled from Avignon, France, the Vatican in Rome has been the Pope\u2019s residence and the\u00a0 <\/span>Roman Catholic Church headquarters.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Point to Ponder<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The New Testament Book of revelation<\/b> contains references to the city of Rome.\u00a0 <\/span>A woman called \u201cBabylon the Great, Mother of all Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.\u201d symbolizing false religion, is pictured as sitting on \u201cthe seven hills of the city where this woman rules\u201d (Revelation 17:5,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

17:9).\u00a0 <\/span>The woman herself \u201crepresents the great city that rules over the kings of the earth\u201d (Revelation 17:18).\u00a0 <\/span>In A.D. 95 when the Book of Revelation was written, this description obviously applied to Rome.\u00a0 <\/span>What do you think is the significance of these references to Rome?<\/span><\/p>\n

(1)\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThen one of the seven angels who had seven bowls came<\/b><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>and talked with me, saying to me, \u2018Come, I will show you<\/b><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>the judgment of the great harlot<\/b> who sits on many waters,<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

(2) \u00a0 <\/span>with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and<\/b><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>of her fornication.\u2019 \u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Revelation\u00a0 <\/span>17: 1–2\u00a0 <\/span>NKJV<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Learn Well The Lessons of History…………\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a city with a glorious past The Roman annalist, Titus Livius, set the traditional date for the founding of Rome, Italy as April 21, 753 B.C.\u00a0 The oldest settlement was just seventeen miles up from the mouth of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21902,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21901\/revisions\/21902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}