Podcasts about Palatine Hill

Built Not Born Podcast (Episode 179)- Enri Pjetri: Rome Revealed - Gladiators, Emperors & Michelangelo's Secrets ⚔️

The Time Riders: Part 7 Becoming A Slave Owner. Based on a post by BiscuitHammer, in 16 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. Cast of Characters: Mark Simmons: 18 year old High School grad, enamored with Miss Becky Fischer. He finds the time machine and builds a new life. Uses various aliases in traveling. Rebecca 'Becky' Fischer: Mark's Physics teacher. Very intelligent, in her later twenties, Shapely Tall Blonde, lusty bisexual, D Cup tits. Martial arts expert, Uses various aliases in traveling. Henri: Claims to be a French physician and Apothicary. Chester Edgerton: Time traveling mentor, living in 17th Century French village. Cardinal Richelieu: ‘The Red Duke'. Statesman and Roman Catholic Cardinal. Dispises Queen Anne. Alexandra D'Assaut ('Alexa', or 'Lexi': Lady in waiting (and trusted advisor) to Queen Anne of France, Lusty bisexual, Very Tall, Busty DD tits, long golden blonde hair, Blue eyed. Lisette: servant (and lover) of Lady Alexandra, young, bespeckled brown eyes. Short, shapely, with wavy dark hair, bisexual. Dhallyla: Mark's mother. Roxy: Mark's sister. Nanu: An Egyptian slave of Pompeneia Flavius, purchased by Becky, dark complexion. Pompeneia: Roman hostess of Orgies. Lusty wife of Flavius, Mother of Domitia, bisexual, tall and shapely. Flavius: Roman aristocrat, husband of Pompeneia, protective father of Dometia, Domitia: Lusty young daughter of Pompeneia and Flavius. A pledged Vestal Virgin, Escapes to Sumeria when sentenced to death by starvation by Roman court. Pompeneia looked at Nanu and spoke to her somewhat tersely. "You are now owned by the Lady Aurora Horatia, who has purchased you at a fair price from me. Such belongings as you might have, girl, will be leaving with you when the Lady departs. Understood?" Nanu's eyes widened and she felt her heart suddenly pounding in her chest in shock and delight. Unable to contain her smile, she nodded eagerly. Pompeneia looked back at her guest and smiled. "She is all yours, my lady." Becky looked at Nanu and smirked, making a shooing motion with her hand. "Well, what are you waiting for, girl? Go find that lazybones Bonosus and tell him." Nanu was gone in a flash. Becky turned to look at Pompeneia and smiled wickedly as she leaned her back down on the couch and wiggled her way between Pompeneia's hips, so that her mouth was at her hostess' cunt. "Now, how about I find another way to thank you for your generosity?" she purred as she began sliding her tongue along those sticky lips; Mark was wandering through the darkened rooms of the parts of the house not currently being used by the orgy, still looking for a damn lavatory. Why the Hell did the Romans have such fucked-up house layouts? He'd passed about ten servants' bedrooms already; was he just supposed to piss on one of them? He paused as he heard a quiet noise, one he recognized quickly as sighing. It had been coming from a room nearby, and it was definitely a girl's sigh. Or a really femmy boy slave. You couldn't guess in ancient Rome. Either way, he decided to investigate. He tiptoed forward, looking into various dark rooms he'd passed. He heard another sigh, and then something more akin to a moan. He smiled slyly, identifying the room it had finally come from. He crept up and peered around the open wooden doors to look inside; She had her back to him, but inside the dark chamber, which was obviously a bedroom, was a young woman, with her face seemingly pressed to the far wall, and squirming her hips beneath her expensive clothing and beginning to pant. She had voluminous brown hair worn up on her head, exposing a shapely neck, and her stola dress had ridden up high enough to expose her lush ass cheeks, which were quivering and squeezing while she fingered herself. Grinning, Mark leaned against the door frame and just watched quietly. He wasn't beyond a good show. A tiny point of light near her head finally showed Mark what she was doing; there was a small hole in the wall, big enough for her to see through, and she was clearly watching the orgy happening on the other side. She was also clearly having a great time getting off to it. He liked the sight of her, at least, what he could readily see; she had a great ass, a slender back and shapely legs. Her dark brown hair, worn in several braids, was just begging to be pulled on. He couldn't see her cunt from here, but he could definitely hear how wet she was. He quietly entered the room and glided up behind her. She smelled of iris and roses, a perfume he found thrilling, especially here in this dark room, both of them unseen by the scores of others in the villa. His cock, still hard and throbbing, couldn't wait to be buried deep inside her. He moved in close and pressed up against her, his rigid shaft sliding between her legs. She shuddered in shock and drew in a breath, as if she was about to scream; but he quickly and gently clamped his hand over her mouth and wrapped his other hand around her waist. Her moved his head next to her ear. "You don't need to scream or be frightened," he whispered, feeling her still shaking. "I am the Lady Aurora's servant Bonosus, and I just want to be with you this day;” She turned her head, her eyes wide, as she tried to see him, his hand still loosely over her mouth. Her body was still stiff in possible panic, but she hadn't cried out yet. He smiled at her, trying to assure her he meant no harm. "If I let go of your mouth, will you scream?" he asked. The girl shook her head. For whatever reason, Mark believed her, and removed his hand from her mouth, and his arm from around her waist. She didn't run, but she threw herself against the wall she was standing next to, almost clutching at it as she turned around to face him. Her eyes were still wide, and he could see she was breathing heavily. "See? I'm not gonna hurt you," Mark said, smiling cheerfully. Staying pressed against the wall for safety, she looked him up and down slowly, noticing now that he was quite naked. Her eyes lingered on his erect cock for several seconds, as if captivated by it. He could now see her from the front, and what he was looking at pleased him; she had a pretty face, certainly. Not exotic, like Nanu, nor was she as striking and just plain gorgeous as Becky, but it was a pretty face nonetheless. Her eyes were brown, her cheekbones high, and her mouth sensual and full. The face; he knew it. Lady Pompeneia and Master Flavius! This must be their daughter. He continued looking at her body, noting now that her entire outfit was askew; not only had her dress been pushed up around her hips in front, to allow her to finger herself, but the top of her dress was pulled down, no doubt so that she could play with her pert tits. They were not large, but looked perfectly full on her slender frame, capped with brown aureoles and nipples, which were still hard. She had a tiny waist and womanly hips. He was going to enjoy fucking her. "My name is Bonosus, like I said," he repeated, moving in a tiny bit closer to her. She didn't try to escape, but perhaps flattened herself a little more against the wall. He tried not to seem so forceful. And odd thing, since he was at an orgy, and was already used to just fucking whomever he liked. "Would you tell me your name?" She finally spoke, her voice low and quiet. "My name is Domitia. I am the daughter of your hosts, the Master and Mistress Flavius." "I am very happy to meet you, Domitia," he said, smiling and nodding. In his ear, he could hear the implant translate her name as 'she who is tamed'. He suddenly had a very good feeling about this encounter. "In the name of my mistress' goddess, Feronia, I would ask you to join me in making love." "You; you are kind, Bonosus," she stammered, her face pale, but a flush in her cheeks. Her eyes were no longer wide, but turning glassy. "But I must; I shouldn't;” "I thought today was a day where all people cast aside their inhibitions, and did exactly as they pleased," he reasoned, stepping a little closer, noticing that she did not attempt to move away from him. "I already saw you looking through that hole there;” Now Domitia blushed furiously, turning her head to look at the ground. "I am ashamed; I should not; I shouldn't have been;” "What were you looking at, anyway?" he queried, pressing himself against her, his cock now flat against her belly, separated from her skin only by the fine material of her stola. She shivered as she felt his cock press to her, and her hands reached up and flexed, without touching him. Leaning over her shoulder, her wondrous scent in his nostrils, he closed one eye and peered through the tiny hole in the ochre-painted wall. He smiled slyly as he could see that the hole looked out on the palaestra, the courtyard in which he and Becky (and several others) had been fucking earlier. Even now, he could see a man bending a slave girl over in the shallow pool and fucking her from behind, while two women beyond the pool were lying opposite each other, legs scissored and slithering their pussies together. One of them was sucking on the cock of a slave who leaned over her, moaning and fondling her tits. "Well, you were enjoying yourself, clearly," Mark mused, turning and smirking at her. She looked at him, trying to smile back, but then just blushing and looking at the ground again. At least she wasn't trying to leave anymore. "Would you like to watch through the hole again while I fuck you from behind?" Something in his suggestion made her tense very suddenly, and she looked at him again, her eyes now wide. "I; shouldn't; no, my parents must not know I'm here, they; I should return to my domicile." "Are you married?" he asked, thinking that even if she was, she had showed up at her parents' orgy and was making herself cum, even if she'd been hiding. Marriage didn't seem to be a barrier during an orgy, near as he could tell. By his count, he'd already fucked at least four married patrician women and three plebeian women today. "Yes! No! I;” she stammered, blushing again and closing her eyes. Against her will, she inhaled deeply, taking in his raw, animal scent. Gods, he smelled divinely of sexuality, of carnality, of; heated fucking. It made her instantly wet, and her body trembled in need. "I cannot;” He smiled slyly and could tell that she wanted to stay. Even though she was protesting, he could already feel her hips pressing forward, squirming against him, desperate to finish what she was started when she was alone. She wanted to cum with him. "Then don't say anything," he whispered to her, his hands on her hips now. She shuddered again, her eyes wide and glassy as she gazed up at him. "Let me take care of this for you, Domitia;” He couldn't be sure, but the thought she nodded almost imperceptibly. Her felt her tits press forward against him. Her name means 'She who is tamed'; He took both her wrists in one hand and lifted them, pinning them against the wall over her head. She gasped and shivered, seemingly cowed by his superior strength. Her hips squirmed against him again, her tits heaving as she almost began to pant. Her eyes were flashing now, and he could see lust in them, almost as if it was forbidden and impure. He would give her what she wanted, that was certain. Domitia sucked in her breath as he put his free hand on her tit and fondled her, the soft skin yielding before his touch, his palm brushing over the hard nipple. Domitia bit her lip as she tried to remain quiet, her whole body trembling with a need for release. Mark caressed her other tit as well, pinching the nipple and pulling on it gently, making the brown-haired girl whimper and squeeze her eyes shut. "No; uh;” she gasped. His hand now found her waist and undid the cotton strip that belted the stola, letting it fall away. Domitia was breathing heavily now, especially when he began to pull her dress down, revealing more and more of her body. She gasped loudly as she felt his hard cock pressed against her belly now. She pushed her tits against his chest, squirming with urgency. Her protests made less and less sense by the moment, although he surmised it was just for show. Girls did that sometimes. At least, that's what Becky and other girls he'd fucked had told him. Domitia seemed to be no exception. Her stola now pooled around her ankles, revealing her body. The one flickering brazier in the corner of the room revealed that he had seen correctly; she had a lovely body. Not an erotic fantasy like Becky's, which was the product of the modern era of vitamins, yogurt, quinoa, hemp seeds and CrossFit, but still lush and attractive, and currently given to a deep-seated lust he wanted to fulfill. Her eyes were flashing as they stared up into his, her tits heaving. She bared her teeth as he reached down and cupped her cunt, which was now dripping wet. His finger slid up and down her length, finding her clit and eliciting a gasp. Her hands, still pinned above her head, flexed compulsively. She was breathing heavily now. "Keep your arms above your head," Mark said firmly as he released them and brought his hand down, both of them reaching behind her and taking hold of her ass cheeks. Domitia almost hissed as he lifted her up, her legs instinctively wrapping around his waist. She had readily obeyed, and kept her arms over her head, as if they were still pinned there. Her submission to him seemed very real and complete. Looking into her eyes, he held her steady, leaning her back against the wall while one of his hands guided his cock to her wet entrance. One he felt the engorged tip nestle against her lips, he placed his hand back on her ass cheek and began to push; Domitia breathed deeply as he penetrated, but then shook and whimpered as he encountered a barrier. Mark paused, but then felt her push her hips against him, and proceeded to lean forward against the wall. She shook and cried out, and Mark suddenly slipped deep inside her warmth easily. Holy shit, she'd been a virgin; awesome! She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and buried her face against his neck, trembling almost uncontrollably. Seconds later, she lifted her face and look up at him, her eyes glassy. Whatever pain she'd been feeling was clearly gone, now. He could, on the other hand, feel a single, warm trickle of a fluid down the underside of his cock, and the air smelled slightly of pennies now. "You have made me a woman," she murmured, still staring at him. "Let us finish this wondrous coupling now. Fuck me, Bonosus, servant of Lady Horatia;” She put her arms back above her head again, her wrists crossed, as a sign of his power over her. Mark nodded and began pumping slowly, sliding his cock in and out of her. Domitia trembled again, at the feel of him inside her, hard and throbbing, her cunt squeezing around him. She sighed loudly, eyes still locked with his. "A girl could die this way, and happily;” she breathed, squirming her tits against his chest. It was a bit of a strange thing to say, he thought, maybe a little morbid, but teen girls were like that sometimes, with the weird, poetic drama. He'd fucked a goth chick once, and she was; Domitia grunted and began pumping back against him lustily, all her fears of their fucking obviously gone. She was hissing through her teeth, grinding her hips against him as he made a sawing motion with his, pushing deep inside her wanton cunt. He could feel her cunt tightening around him as she found their rhythm, slippery and getting wetter by the moment. She jammed her lips against his and kissed him feverishly, their tongues wrestling between their mouths. He held her tighter, thumping her against the wall each time he thrust his cock deep inside her. She moaned into his mouth, and her warm skin was getting damp with sweat as he took her. She might have been a virgin mere moments ago, but her carnal desires would not be denied anymore. Domitia pushed back for all she was worth, her arms finally coming down and gripping his back. They were still kissing in a frenzy, and Mark was breathing through his nose, his hips smacking against hers. Domitia panted and moaned into his mouth with each thrust, her fingernails raking his back as she fought to get him ever deeper inside her. Her need almost baffled him, because he could feel the head of his cock battering her cervix each time he drove home. The wet sucking sounds her cunt made filled the room, even over the sounds of their groans. Mark was growing warm now, and he could feel that the sex tabs he'd used had already replenished his cum, deep inside his balls. When he did bust, this girl's first experience would see her overflowing with cum, his cum, and it would be glorious. He wanted to bring her out of hiding and over to the orgy. He wanted to fuck her at the same time as he fucked Becky and Nanu. Domitia seized up suddenly, shaking around him and screaming into his mouth while her cunt clenched him ferociously. He kissed her hard, making sure she didn't alert the whole house, and fucked her harder than ever, making her wail into his mouth again. He could feel his own body heating up rapidly, the distinct, tingling boiling in his balls letting him now that orgasm was now unstoppable. Mark pulled her hard against him, pressing into her as far as he could, straining and arching his back. The floodgates burst and he began filling Domitia with his pearly cum, and she panted and almost growled at the release. She churned and writhed on his cock, her frothy essence smearing his entire groin. He felt the peristaltic motions of his inner muscles, spurting his cum up his cock and deep inside his lover, a glorious, blessed release. Best. Orgy. Ever. He sagged against her, breathing heavily, while Domitia went limp in his grip, sighing in deep pleasure. She was no longer raking her fingernails over his back but caressing it gently, almost reverently. It was kind of backwards, since he was supposedly a slave and she was a patrician's daughter, but what the hey, she was a total subbie, right? She purred as she kissed his damp skin, still undulating her hips against him and squeezing his cock gently with her gooey cunt. He held her close, his forehead against her neck while he tried to regain his breath. This orgy was barely half over. There was so much to; The screech from behind them froze his blood instantly. He went rigid for several moments, before his head snapped around and he looked to see who was in the doorway. Gazing at the entwined pair in astonishment, bordering on horror, was Nanu. Still quite naked, her face was frozen in shock, her mouth working soundlessly. Confusion engulfed him, wondering what had caused the slave-girl to have such a caustic reaction to what she'd seen. Was it jealousy? It couldn't be that; she'd watched him fuck plenty of other women today. He looked back at Domitia, and saw that she had frozen as well, pale with what could only be described as terror about their discovery. That confused him too. What the Hell was happening here? Endless feet seemed to come stampeding toward them, and cries of shock now echoed through the house. Master Flavius surged through the door and stopped dead, his eyes wide as dinner plates. "Domitia!" he said in a quavering voice, pointing a trembling finger at the duo. "What are you;" Lady Pompeneia, accompanied by Becky, now bustled into the room. The matron stopped dead upon seeing them, her body shaking. Becky's eyes went wide. "Oh, shit;” she muttered in English. "Father!" Domitia called out, still impaled on Mark's cock, but looking over his shoulder at her parents. "Mother, I;” She made to move, but Mark's tool shifted inside her, and she gasped in pleasure and began wriggling furiously, fucking him again despite their ever-growing audience. People cried out in shock, and Lady Pompeneia's eyes rolled into her head before she fell to the floor in a dead faint. The cacophony grew, with Mark staring in confusion and Domitia grunting like an animal as she fucked her way to ecstasy again, seemingly unable to stop. A patrician woman entered and shrieked, scandalized by what she saw. "The slave!" she called out, aghast. "He has defiled one of Vesta's Virgins!" As if in response, Domitia shook and arched her back, wailing loudly as she came. "Seize that man!" shouted Flavius, his face purple with fury. Free men and slaves both surged forward, grappling onto Mark and trying to yank him away. But Domitia would not be pried off him, howling in protest and still grinding herself madly on his cock, squealing through another orgasm, even as they led the pair away. Most of the crowd followed them out, still clamoring loudly. Some women helped the swooning Pompeneia to her feet, and led her out of the room. Soon, the only people left were Becky and Nanu, who stood in the doorway. The slave-girl stared at her new mistress, who shrugged rather helplessly. Nanu turned and followed the crowd, leaving Becky alone in the room. It was eerily quiet now, the noise of the crazed crowd getting increasingly distant; people yelling in outrage, punctuated by the distinct sounds of Domitia cumming yet again, loudly. Becky finally hung her head for a moment, shaking it and smiling. "Oh, I can't wait to see how this turns out;” she said to herself as she walked out the door. The Wrath of Rome The mightiest city in the world, lord of Europa, teeming with untold citizens, slaves and foreigners. Blessed by Jupiter, greatest of the gods, and fed by the ancient Tiber River, Rome stood glorious and invincible, crowned with seven hills like jewels. Not that Mark could see any of that from his tiny, stinky little prison cell. He sat on the dirty floor, sighing despondently as he looked through the iron bars that separated him from the rest of the world. He'd found a corner that was not sticky with the effluences of previous inhabitants of the cell, crouching up with his knees to his chest. He suspected that the tab he was wearing would protect him from disease and sickness, but he'd be damned if he was taking any chances. He heard grunting and groaning from the cells behind him, then an absolutely disgusting series of splattering noises as someone began crapping themselves messily. He wrinkled his nose in revulsion and stared along the bottom of the wall, making sure nothing was likely to seep through. He turned his head and stared blankly across the small hallway at the cell opposite. Out of the darkness, a deranged, naked man appeared, his wild, scraggly beard greying and caked with God-knows-what. He cackled at Mark and helicoptered his cock at the new prisoner, all the while trying to shake the bars of his cell. Mark shook his head and looked away, finding a spot on the wall to stare at. He noted some graffiti, in Latin, brown with age; it was either dried blood or shit, but he decided he didn't care enough about what it said to get closer. He'd taken off the ratty tunic they'd given him, because it stank and had things crawling in it. Since he'd been arrested and dragged off naked from the Flavius villa, with Domitia still impaled on him, they'd eventually attempted to cover him up; somewhat difficult, since he was suffering from what was essentially medically induced priapism. Even now, he gazed down between his legs, noticing that his cock was still rock-hard. Had the tab malfunctioned? Was he supposed to stay erect this long? What the Hell kind of sex were they having in the twenty-eighth century that a guy needed to stay hard for a day and a night? He closed his eyes and pressed his head against his forearms, trying to figure out how it had all gone wrong; how the Hell was he supposed to know that there was a Vestal Virgin hiding in the damn house and masturbating? He'd heard of Vestal Virgins, of course, but he knew nothing about them. He'd paid attention in History class only moderately more than he had in Physics. Seemingly, he'd done an incredibly bad thing. Like 'fucking a pastor's blind virgin daughter on the altar' kind of bad. As decadent as Rome might have been, you didn't mess with their Vestals. He wished Becky was here. He hadn't seen her since he'd been dragged away from the villa, and he hoped she was okay. He had no idea if she was going to be in trouble or not, since she was supposed to be his owner. He groaned and shook his head, wishing he'd just wake up and this was all a dream; “Damn!” "Shut up in there!" said one guard harshly as he walked by. "Gonna make me, tough guy?" Mark grumbled, once the chip in his head had translated what the guard said, even though he could've probably figured it out on his own. The guard whirled around and stuck his arm through the bars, trying to hit Mark with the cudgel he was carrying. Mark hurriedly dodged out of the way and grabbed the club from the man's hand; the guard's eyes widened as Mark glared down at him, much taller than his would-be assailant. Mark was just over six feet, while the Roman was maybe five-three. The man's gaze dropped to Mark's erection, which pointed at him angrily. "Listen, pal," Mark growled, beyond caring about his hard-on at this point. "Try that again, and I'll shove this club of yours so far up your ass that you'll have splinters in your tongue for a month. Got it?" The man nodded hastily, his face pale. "Good," Mark grunted, shoving the cudgel bac through the bars at him. "Now fuck off and leave me alone." The guard hurried away while the crazy guy across from Mark cackled again and babbled incoherently at his retreating form. Mark slumped back down and continued moping. He'd been in this little crap-hole for the best part of a day now, without food or a chance to relieve himself, unless he chose to piss on the floor. He felt rather justified in sulking. Several minutes passed before he was interrupted once again. "Well, you look pretty grumpy for someone who spent most of yesterday getting laid;” chimed a sweet voice. Mark's eyes flicked open and he stood up hastily, gawking at his Physics teacher, who stood outside his cell, smiling at him in amusement. "Becks!" he said hastily, wiping at himself as if he had clothes on, forgetting that he was naked. "Hi! Uh; I'm glad you're okay!" "It's good to see you too, handsome," she replied, her eyes trailing down to his erection. She was wearing the elegant stola and accoutrements of a patrician woman now, much more modest than her attire just the day before. "Guess your hormones haven't worn off yet, hmm?" "Oh, he's got a mind of his own," Mark muttered, blushing slightly. "Trust me, the lynch mob was quite a libidoectomy. Where've you been?" "Well, once you got carted off, I thought I'd better take a look into what was likely to happen to everyone involved," she stated, seemingly not that concerned. "Roman litigation is a weird thing. They have trials, and you'll have a lawyer appointed to you, but the court of public opinion really counts as well, it seems." "So, I really screwed up when I fucked one of their Vestal Virgins?" Mark asked, trying not to sweat. Becky smiled. "Mark, you had no way of knowing, because she never should have been there to begin with. Vestal Virgins don't, in theory, belong to their parents any more, after they're selected for the honor. For her to be hiding in a room in her parents' house, jilling off, is a huge breach of her vows already, never mind getting caught with you bruising her brainstem." Mark thought about that for a moment. "So; Domitia's in trouble too?" "She's in even more trouble than you, to be honest," replied the teacher, shrugging. "You, you're some shmuck slave who got lucky. Her, she broke Rome's most sacred vows. She might as well have squatted over and peed on the Sacred Flame they protect, to extinguish it. Everyone associates the Vestals with the spiritual well-being of Rome itself. If one of the Virgins is impure, it's bad for Rome." "Damn;” he said under his breath, frowning at the floor. "Well, what about you? Are you in shit at all, because you're my owner?" "Well, not so far," Becky mused. "I'm sure that can change at a moment's notice, if anything goes really wrong." "Really wrong?" Mark exclaimed, gesturing to the cell around him in exasperation. "If this is only moderately wrong, I'd hate to see what's really wrong you're going on about!" "Oh, don't be such a drama llama," she cooed, waving dismissively. "We'll figure this out." "Are you okay, Becks?" he asked, making a wry face as he looked at her. "Last time we were in trouble like this, you kinda She-Hulked out on everyone, remember? You kicked at least five people in the crotch, one of whom was Cardinal Richelieu." "Yeah," she said almost wistfully. "I think my system is flooded with hormones from those tabs, and they're making me pretty mellow. I'm still in love with you right now, for instance." "Well, not to exploit your chemical imbalance here, but what are the chances of you doing something to make sure the man you're in love with doesn't die in this cell?" Mark said rather insistently. "Oh, you won't die in this cell," Becky pointed out. "The Romans weren't big on imprisonment at this point in their history. They're probably either gonna behead you or crucify you." "Becks!" Mark said loudly, going pale and beginning to panic. "You can't let them behead me, I like my head where it is!" "Yes, you are rather attached to it," she giggled. "And don't worry about getting crucified, only I'm allowed to nail you, after all. And speaking of;” She slinked forward, smiling saucily at him, lifting the hem of her long stola, revealing her wet cunt beneath. She turned around, presenting her shapely ass to him and swaying it back and forth while looking over her shoulder at him. "How about you put that stout nail of yours in my tool box?" she purred. "Now?" he exclaimed. "Not like you have anything else to do at the moment, Mark," she pointed out, still wiggling at him. "Move up to the bars and stick it out here;” Ignoring his exasperation, Mark sighed and pressed himself up against the bards, his rigid cock sticking out the other side. Becky lined up her sticky cunt with the head and pushed herself back on it, sighing in bliss as she did. Mark trembled as he penetrated her, having to admit to himself that it felt good to be inside his teacher. Becky closed her eyes as began squirming back against him, sliding his hardness in and out of her cunt. Eighteen hours without sex had felt like eighteen years, no doubt due to the hormones from the tabs. She guessed that their bodies, new to these stimulants from the far future, were not acclimated to the effects just yet; not that she was complaining, mind. She groped and massaged her tits as they spilled out of the top of her stola, reveling in the feel of Mark's lovely cock splitting her wide and touching deep inside. She stood up and pressed back against the bars, keeping his manhood firmly locked inside herself, wiggling and swaying, but also bringing his hands around to her tits, which he now squeezed and massaged in circles, making her groan loudly. The bars kept them apart somewhat, but he was still deep inside her, and that was what counted. Until she opened her eyes and saw the crazy guy in the cell across from them, looking at her with wild eyes, his tongue lolling out of his head, and jerking his filthy cock madly. "I miss seeing your face, Mark," she decided, turning around suddenly and pressing close to him again. She made him hold the bars, steadying his throbbing cock while she sidled forward, taking him inside her cunt again, sucking in her breath. She held onto the bars as well, squirming her hips. The bars were too closely spaced together to fit her legs through and wrap them around his hips, but he was still deep enough inside her to fuck her properly. "Hmm, baby;” If any guards knew what was happening, they chose to not interfere or even be nearby. They left the wealthy patrician woman alone. Of all the places Mark had expected to fuck Becky during their temporal travels, this would have been one of the last, he had to admit. Becky pushed her lips against his, kissing him deeply and lovingly. Their tongues tangled as she fucked him, exhilarating in the feel of his hard shaft in her and knowing she was going to cum quickly, and hard. She broke the kiss and stared into his eyes, her own flashing with lust. "You gonna cum in me, Mark?" she breathed, grinding on him hard, biting her bottom lip. "I want your cum in me, baby." He nodded, breathing heavily. He'd practically forgotten about his predicament, lost in the delirium of fucking his teacher. He pumped his hips back and forth in time with her movements, her cunt tightening around him and getting wetter with every second. He felt his cock throbbing and swelling inside her. "Yes, baby," she gasped, her skin flushed pink, her body trembling as she fought to hold on a few moments longer. "Cum deep inside me, Mark; oh God;” Becky clenched her teeth and arched her back as she pushed forward with her hips, straining hard; she felt Mark push against her as hard as he could, touching her cervix, and she shuddered and moaned loudly. The dam burst and he began cumming inside her, flooding her cunt with his desire. Becky shivered in pleasure, squeezing around him. They both sighed as the orgasm finally passed, leaning forward and pressing their foreheads together. Her fingers knotted with his and she gave him a peck on the lips before smiling. "Feel better?" she asked. "Oddly enough, yeah," he admitted, nodding. "So what do we do now? I don't wanna die here, Becks." "I know, don't worry, we'll figure it out," she replied, caressing his face with one hand while lowering the skirt of her stola with the other. "I've just gotta find out some things." "Can't we just bust me outta here and get out of Dodge?" he asked, not sure what the delay was. She gave him a quirky look. "Are we just supposed to leave Domitia to her fate? It's your fault she's doomed to death, you know. And there's also the matter of Nanu and what to do with her. We can't just prance around the timeline and mess up things with peoples' lives, Mark. I know you do it because you want to get laid, but there's still real consequences. You're living one of them." He sighed: "Yeah, you're right. I'm just worried." "I know you are, my love," she said gently, smiling warmly. "Just let me see what I can find out. Hang tight and stay out of trouble, okay?" She kissed him again lovingly and whispered something in his ear before sauntering out. He watched her leave and then sat back down, trying to ignore the fact that his hard-on was now sticky, on top of everything else. Getting shot by Richelieu may be have been ultimately worse, but this predicament was certainly less convenient. Some hours passed, and his mood decidedly did not improve. "Hello, my name is Faustus, and I am your legal representation during your trial," said a dull voice from beyond his cell. Mark's eyes drifted over to lay on a short, pudgy, balding man draped in a rather worn toga. He had some scrolls in a satchel he wore over his shoulder. He assessed Mark somewhat disinterestedly. "You are the slave Bonosus, yes?" Mark nodded. "And you are aware of the charges against you?" "Yup, I unknowingly boned a Vestal Virgin," Mark sighed, standing up, figuring he probably shouldn't be showing anyone any disrespect at this point. "What can I do for you, sir?" "Well, ignorance of the law is not likely to work as a defense in this particular instance, given the charge," Faustus said, tapping his satchel with his fingers. "Normally it might mitigate charges, but not where the Virgins are involved. At this point, I'm trying to spare you a cruel and painful death." "Swell," Mark said, his voice laden with apathy. "So, like, beheading instead of crucifixion sort of thing?" "Unless crucifixion is your preference, for some strange reason," replied the lawyer. "There is also the matter of your fee for my services in defending you?" Mark frowned: "I'm a slave, what am I supposed to be able to give you? Shouldn't you be talking to my owner, the Lady Aurora?" "The lady is proving difficult to contact, what with the entire city being in an uproar about you and all," Faustus reasoned, shrugging. "It may be up to you to see that my fees are met." "I don't have anything!" Mark protested somewhat angrily. Faustus trailed his gaze down Mark's well-built body, finally fixating on his erect cock and smiling lewdly. "Oh, I wouldn't say that;” Mark groaned and thunked his head against the iron bar that prevented his escape. He was wrong. This was worse than getting killed by Richelieu's men. Trial of Mark. Mark now found himself going through downtown Rome, but once again spending little time looking at the city; he was being hauled inside a cage on wheels along the Via Aurelia, with untold thousands of people lining the road, shouting, screaming and hissing at him. Rotten vegetables and rock-hard bread pelted his mobile prison, most of the projectiles not getting through to touch him. Mark didn't care. He stared out dully at the cacophony and churning masses of humanity, fully aware that his erect cock was pointing at them. He looked at the famed Palatine Hill and saw a large, rotund temple there, along with a vast manor. Outside the manor, standing on those distant steps, he saw many women dressed as Domitia had been, with their hair worn in the same style, staring down at him impassively. He almost laughed bitterly, knowing exactly who they are. No young person, ever, understood better than Mark now how important it was to pay attention to your studies. After all, it was about to cost him his head. His eyes widened when he saw Domitia dragged out the front doors of the manor by several servants and forced to look down at him. She seemed none the worse for wear, except for looking rather distraught and haggard. He saw, but could not hear her cry out at the sight of him, before being yanked back inside roughly, resisting the whole way. His lawyer, Faustus, had informed him that he'd be tried in a public court, his sentence determined there as well. If all went well, he wouldn't be made to wait long before his sentence was carried out. The waiting was the worst part, the lawyer assured him. The procession took forever, at least in his estimation. He was covered in tomato pulp and seeds, and bits of lettuce and other debris were sticking to him. "Will they at least allow me to bathe or clean up before my trial?" he'd complained to Faustus. He stank and he didn't like it. The lawyer said he'd see what he could do. On and on, his mobile prison rumbled slowly. They entered a crowded forum, surrounded by the white buildings Rome was renowned for. He saw several landmarks, but barely noted them. The presence of soldiers became heavier now, guarding against disturbances from the famously fickle and moody population of the city. They arrived at the courthouse, and he was hauled out of his cage by the chains his wrists were bound in. He ignored the cries and vitriol of the crowd, who had stopped throwing things, for fear of hitting a soldier or important person. At least there was that. He was brought into a small anteroom, where a pool sat in the center. He was unchained and shoved into it, allowed to bathe. Several Roman legionaries stood over him, one holding a whip in case Mark dawdled for any reason. Careful not to anger them, Mark cleaned himself diligently, but also as quickly as possible. When he got out of the pool, they dressed him in a plain but fresh tunic made of low-grade linen. There was one rather prominent problem, however, and the commander of the squad guarding him looked at Mark's crotch and scowled. "Does that thing ever go down?" he snapped. "Look, you're not as unhappy as I am about it," Mark shot back, exasperated about his condition. "Believe me! I had too many oysters at the orgy and now it won't go away." The commander thought about the predicament for a moment. He couldn't bring his prisoner into the courtroom sporting an erection. He finally ordered one of his men to tie a strap of linen around Mark's hips, keeping the obscene erection fixed flat against his belly. The legionaries chuckled as he was trussed, but then became serious as they prepared to lead him into the courtroom. Mark took a deep breath as he was led into the chamber that would determine his doom. Becky was squatting in a hallway, humming quietly as she sucked on the cock of a young lad who was running documents back and forth within the courthouse. He was pressed back against the wall, his eyes closed and moaning in pleasure as he let her work her magic. He didn't know exactly who this patrician woman was, but he wasn't about to stop her, either. Becky bobbed back and forth, swirling her tongue around his hardness and gently caressing his balls. She couldn't believe how horny she was! It had been more than twenty-four hours since the orgy and these sex stimulants were still wreaking havoc with her libido. If this kid lasted, maybe she could fuck him? She needed a good orgasm. A horn sounded outside the courthouse, and Becky paused mid-suck, opening her eyes and turning her head slightly to look in the direction of the noise, her cheek bulging comically as his cockhead pushed into it. The young man was still trembling and almost whimpering, even though she was distracted. "Damn, is it time for the trial already?" she exclaimed to herself before she stood up, straightened out her elegant stola and hurried down the hallway. The young paralegal gaped at her retreating form, his body trembling and his cock throbbing. "But I; I;” he protested, even though she was gone. He couldn't stop it. He whimpered and danced about on his toes, cum spurting from his aching cock. He grabbed his crotch and sighed deeply, doubling over at the release. Too late, he opened his eyes and noticed he'd spattered his jizz all over the documents he'd been bringing for the trial; "The accused is named Bonosus, a slave owned by Lady Aurora Horatia," announced one of the scribes in the room, a rotund chamber that had benches lining most of the walls, allowing for spectators. Today it was crowded, because the charges were so extraordinary. "Prior to this trial, the lady Horatia has been determined free of all guilt, with no investigation or charges needing to be brought forward." Becky, sitting near the trial stand, smiled and winked at the presiding praetor judge, an older, distinguished man, who subtly winked back at her before turning his attention back to Mark, staring sternly. Mark stood alone in the center of the rotunda, his hands and feet manacled, a single beam of wan light shining down on him from a hole in the center of the domed ceiling. He looked back at the judge blankly. "The accused is charged with disgracing a sacred virgin of the goddess, potentially putting great Rome in her disfavor, and such charges warrant only the ultimate of punishments, your honor!" declared a man in a well-embroidered toga made of exquisite fabric and trimmed in yellow. Mark assumed this was the lawyer meant to prosecute him. "For this heinous crime, Rome must be cleansed, to appear cleansed in the eyes of Vesta! We demand this Bonosus be burned at the stake!" Mark swallowed and looked at Faustus, who was sweating and wiping at his collarbone, trying not to fidget. People around the room were talking and whispering to one another. The judge looked down at the pudgy lawyer. "What say you on behalf of the accused, man?" "I;” he began, already faltering. "Your Honor, we feel that the defendant, being a mere slave ignorant of all law and education, had no way of knowing that he was indeed in contact with one of Rome's sacred girls. In that light, while we do not protest his guilt, we ask for clemency; lashes, if possible, or exile beyond the Empire's borders; but if he must die for this crime, let Great Rome show its much-famed mercy and give my client a swift beheading." People in the gallery began shouting angrily in protest at his words, while many of the advocates and adjudicates involved in the case began laughing derisively. Nobody seemed to be in Faustus' corner about this. Mark flicked his eyes up at Becky, and she was simply looking in impassively. A sinking feeling in his stomach took over his senses. Despite his fear, his cock throbbed in yearning at the sight of her. "Faustus, Faustus," chided the lawyer representing the city of Rome, shaking his head almost ruefully. "My dear Faustus, you are so good-hearted, but this defendant of yours did not simply assault one of the Sacred Virgins, he did not merely violate her chaste body, he sublimated her. He changed her! He has corrupted her! Bring in the girl!" Mark's eyes widened as Domitia was dragged into the chamber, clad in her sacred robes, but with strips of red fabric bound to her arms and around her forehead. She looked terrified, but then she saw Mark and her eyes widened. Before anyone could stop her, she broke free of the servants holding her and dashed forward, howling loudly and falling to her knees at his feet. Everyone gaped in astonishment as she lifted his tunic, releasing his cock from its confinement against his stomach, kissing and then sucking on it hungrily, plunging it all the way down her throat in crazed need. People howled in shock and outrage at the scene. Mark, who hadn't had any sex in over twenty-four hours and was in horny agony, groaned loudly despite himself and gripped her head, pumping his hips against her face desperately as people rushed toward him and tried to pull them apart. Someone finally managed to pry Domitia's mouth away from his cock, but when spectators tried to drag her away, she wildly latched her legs around his waist, grinding and humping at him in a desperate frenzy of lust, the skirt of her stola giving way and allowing her to spike herself onto him. The judge and other officials watched in bewilderment as the fracas stumbled around the rotunda, with people trying desperately to pull them apart. They were yanking at Domitia, who was panting and crying out in ecstasy, while Mark groaned in relief and need, despite the people clawing at him and punching him. One enterprising and rather stout legionary knelt beside the fornicators and grabbed hold of them, straining to separate them. Domitia's yelps and Mark's moans became desperate grunts to hold one to one another for several seconds. Eventually, though, Domitia's legs gave out and she was dragged back from him. Mark roared in protest as he shivered and came a split-second after she had been pulled off him. His cock, now released from its warm, wet confines, smacked the legionary across his nose and spat ropes of cum in his eye and across his face. He wailed at the sting and fell on the floor, kicking in panic and trying to wipe the spume out of his eyes. Domitia was finally restrained, and her mouth gagged to stop her howling. She continued to struggle, but it was no use. At last she sagged, seemingly exhausted. Mark looked around, finally noticing Lord Flavius and Lady Pompeneia in the crowd, looking on in horror and mortification. He glanced up at Becky, but she was looking at the ceiling and covering her mouth, trying not to laugh. "This!" said the prosecutor angrily, jabbing his finger first toward Mark and then at Domitia. "This is what the accused has done to one of the sacred Virgins! Turned her into an uncontrollable harlot! She is so completely undone that she cannot think of anything except quenching the fire between her wanton loins!" Many women gasped or cried out at his unprecedented words, while men muttered to one another. Lady Pompeneia looked like she was ready to faint again. "This is an outrage!" Lord Flavius shouted furiously. "We gave our daughter to the state willingly, to fulfill her destiny as a priestess of the goddess, and now we see ourselves unfairly shamed! And this; this; slave; endangers the safety of us all, calling our favor with Vesta into question!" "Do you call charges against the Lady Horatia to ruin your good name?" asked the prosecutor coolly. "Oh, no, no, of course not," Lord Flavius said hastily, shaking his head and looking over at Lady Aurora. "She remains blameless in all of this, assuredly." Becky winked at Lord Flavius, and then subtly at the prosecutor, who smiled and winked back. "Jesus, Becks;” Mark muttered, scowling at the ground. "You've been around the pool more times than Katie Ledecky since we got here;” "Silence!" boomed the judge angrily, his face still rather purple from witnessing the lewd chaos wreaked in his court. "Centurion, strike that man if he won't show respect!" Mark grunted and staggered as the centurion standing close to him cuffed him across the ear. He stayed upright, but glowered at the man. "Wanna try that while my hands aren't cuffed, asshole?" "Silence!" roared the judge, turning purple again as other guards kept Mark from jumping on his assailant. "You are a creature of vile sin!" shouted Lord Flavius from the benches, pointing a trembling finger at Mark. "Yeah? Who cares?" Mark shot back, glaring at his host. "Your wife wasn't complaining yesterday when she rode my hog to the Promised Land, was she? No complaints from your daughter, either!" Lord Flavius howled in fury as he tried to rush the floor but was restrained. Lady Pompeneia fainted again. Another guard cuffed Mark on the back of the head, staggering him again, but this time he didn't have a snappy comeback. He looked angry, but his face had a tic suddenly. People were shouting and crying out in horror at the chaos the proceedings had become. "What manner of devil are you, boy?" the judge hissed at Mark. "Oh, I'm here to fuck every woman in Rome," Mark said sarcastically, tired of this bullshit. "I meant for a Vestal Virgin to be last, ya' know, sort of the proverbial cum icing on the titty cake. But the opportunity came up, and wham, bam, thank you, Vesta;” People shrieked in outrage, and Faustus pissed himself, staring at Mark in dumbfounded horror. "That's right, gents, line 'em up!" Mark said angrily, his face still twitching. Why was he saying these things? Was the chip in his head giving him Tourette's? He wiggled his erection before the entire room, since his tunic had got caught on it when he was separated from Domitia and it was still in plain view, glistening with her spittle and cunt juice. "Bring your uppity wives and daughters to me, I'll make 'em behave!" Faustus just threw his legal scrolls in the air and stormed off. Another legionary tried to punch Mark, but he dodged the punch and rammed his forehead into the man's nose, just avoiding his helmet. The man fell backwards, holding his face. Mark might have tried to kick him, but there were suddenly ten legionaries surrounding him, their swords pointed at his throat. Mark held very still, glowering. The judged barked for the legal scrolls he was meant to consult during this trial, but they were not to be found. He yelled for them again, and a young man barged in hastily from the back door to the rotunda, and the chamber beyond, carrying armfuls of scrolls. He dumped them on the judge's stone table and scurried off without another word. The judge made to pick up one of the documents, but paused; it was sticking to another scroll. He frowned and pulled them apart, noticing that a pearly residue was the source of the problem. Worse, the scroll pages became slippery as he tried to pry them apart. The sticky substance was all over them. And his fingers now. He quietly put the parchments down and shoved them aside. Once the judge had composed himself, clearly livid about the circus his courtroom had become, and once Mark was facing him again, he leaned in and asked a question. "Do you have anything to say before your sentence is pronounced?" "Don't you think this is enough of a sham that we should just get it over with?" Mark grumbled. "What?" the judge asked, confused. "I said, how about you get this show on the road, because thousands of my potential children have a date with your mom's face tonight!" Mark snapped, jerking slightly. What the absolute fuck was happening? He wasn't speaking Latin anymore, he was speaking Greek! "You mock us by speaking Greek?" demanded the judge, rising from his chair. "Do you seek to invalidate this court?" "This court is full of invalids already!" Mark raged, the chip inside his head sputtering. Apparently one of the blows to his head had made it misfire. "Get your mother out here already! And your daughter too!" The judge slumped back on his stone chair, as if stunned by what Mark was saying. Everyone in the court was silent, waiting to see what happened next. He turned to Domitia, who was restrained nearby. "Domitia, former daughter of the Flavian household

Roman History: The Rivalry Between Cicero and Clodius GUEST NAME: Professor Josiah Osgood Professor Josiah Osgood discusses the end of the Roman Republic. The scandal involving Publius Clodius Pulcher disguising himself as a woman at the women-only Bona Dea ceremony led to his trial. Cicero testified against Clodius, leading to a dangerous rivalry. Acquitted, Clodius won election as tribune, passed a law targeting Cicero for executing citizens without trial, and destroyed his Palatine Hill mansion. Later, Cicero was present during Julius Caesar's assassination, though not involved in planning.

Roman History: The Rivalry Between Cicero and Clodius GUEST NAME: Professor Josiah Osgood Professor Josiah Osgood discusses the end of the Roman Republic. The scandal involving Publius Clodius Pulcher disguising himself as a woman at the women-only Bona Dea ceremony led to his trial. Cicero testified against Clodius, leading to a dangerous rivalry. Acquitted, Clodius won election as tribune, passed a law targeting Cicero for executing citizens without trial, and destroyed his Palatine Hill mansion. Later, Cicero was present during Julius Caesar's assassination, though not involved in planning.

Roman History: The Rivalry Between Cicero and Clodius GUEST NAME: Professor Josiah Osgood Professor Josiah Osgood discusses the end of the Roman Republic. The scandal involving Publius Clodius Pulcher disguising himself as a woman at the women-only Bona Dea ceremony led to his trial. Cicero testified against Clodius, leading to a dangerous rivalry. Acquitted, Clodius won election as tribune, passed a law targeting Cicero for executing citizens without trial, and destroyed his Palatine Hill mansion. Later, Cicero was present during Julius Caesar's assassination, though not involved in planning.

Roman History: The Rivalry Between Cicero and Clodius GUEST NAME: Professor Josiah Osgood Professor Josiah Osgood discusses the end of the Roman Republic. The scandal involving Publius Clodius Pulcher disguising himself as a woman at the women-only Bona Dea ceremony led to his trial. Cicero testified against Clodius, leading to a dangerous rivalry. Acquitted, Clodius won election as tribune, passed a law targeting Cicero for executing citizens without trial, and destroyed his Palatine Hill mansion. Later, Cicero was present during Julius Caesar's assassination, though not involved in planning. 1770

CBS EYE ON THE WORLD WITH JOHN BATCHELOR 1909 DR THE SHOW BEGINS IN THE DOUBTS ABOUT THE LA FIRE RESTORATION...... 10-10-25 FIRST HOUR 9-915 Palisades Fire Aftermath and In-N-Out Expansion GUEST NAME: Jeff Bliss Jeff Bliss discusses the aftermath of the Palisades fire, noting that Adam Carolla, who lost his home, believes rebuilding is stalled by political forces seeking subsidized housing or natural restoration. An arrest was made in Florida for Jonathan Flendernik in connection with the fire. Video evidence suggests the LA Fire Department failed to fully extinguish the initial fire, which spread through root systems. In business news, the family-owned In-N-Out chain, known for high profits and employee treatment, is expanding with five new stores. The Boring Company's Prufrock tunneling machine is operating in Las Vegas. 915-930 Mixed Economic Signals and High-Tech Development in Lancaster County GUEST NAME: Jim McTague Jim McTague reports on Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which is introducing high-tech industry by building two data centers on the former RR Donnelley printing plant site. Construction is underway on the L-shaped, two-story building. Anecdotally, the local economy shows mixed signals: two young people were seen signing up for the National Guard, suggesting tight employment, while an entrepreneur boasted of successful property investments. Consumers are cautious, engaging in "inflation shopping." 930-945 The Perpetual Conflict Over Executive Power and the Rise of Lawfare GUEST NAME: Professor Richard Epstein Professor Richard Epstein analyzes the perpetual clash between executive and congressional power, particularly regarding the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. He notes the Roberts court generally protects executive power. The dispute over fund impoundment, seen in Department of State et al. versus AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, reflects deep polarization, hindering compromise. Epstein criticizes the use of lawfare, exemplified by the indictments of Letitia James and James Comey, stating it fails long-term and leads to cycles of violence and discord. 945-1000 The Perpetual Conflict Over Executive Power and the Rise of Lawfare GUEST NAME: Professor Richard Epstein Professor Richard Epstein analyzes the perpetual clash between executive and congressional power, particularly regarding the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. He notes the Roberts court generally protects executive power. The dispute over fund impoundment, seen in Department of State et al. versus AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, reflects deep polarization, hindering compromise. Epstein criticizes the use of lawfare, exemplified by the indictments of Letitia James and James Comey, stating it fails long-term and leads to cycles of violence and discord. SECOND HOUR 10-1015 NPT Enforcement and the Golden Dome Defense Concept GUEST NAME: Henry Sokolski Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Center, debates whether the US should abandon the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), citing foreign criticism and industry constraints. He argues the US should stay to enforce the NPT by clarifying red lines, justifying the bombing of nuclear facilities. Sokolski also discusses the proposed Golden Dome defense system, intended to protect the Western Hemisphere against missiles and drones. The viability of the system, particularly regarding Low Earth Orbit defenses, remains unclear and requires greater Congressional buy-in. 1015-1030 NPT Enforcement and the Golden Dome Defense Concept GUEST NAME: Henry Sokolski Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Center, debates whether the US should abandon the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), citing foreign criticism and industry constraints. He argues the US should stay to enforce the NPT by clarifying red lines, justifying the bombing of nuclear facilities. Sokolski also discusses the proposed Golden Dome defense system, intended to protect the Western Hemisphere against missiles and drones. The viability of the system, particularly regarding Low Earth Orbit defenses, remains unclear and requires greater Congressional buy-in. 1030-1045 The US Fiscal Crisis: Spending Cuts Are the Only Way Out GUEST NAME: Adam Michel Adam Michel, director of tax policy at the Cato Institute, discusses the US fiscal crisis stemming from large deficits and overwhelming debt. He recalls the 1980s Ronald Reagan tax cut where promised spending cuts never materialized. The deficit is the annual gap between taxes and spending, accumulating into the national debt. Michel identifies a "deficit hawk coalition" split between deficit hawks (agnostic on revenues/spending) and budget hawks (concerned with government size), advocating for spending cuts to solve the crisis. Entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the root of fiscal problems. 1045-1100 The US Fiscal Crisis: Spending Cuts Are the Only Way Out GUEST NAME: Adam Michel Adam Michel, director of tax policy at the Cato Institute, discusses the US fiscal crisis stemming from large deficits and overwhelming debt. He recalls the 1980s Ronald Reagan tax cut where promised spending cuts never materialized. The deficit is the annual gap between taxes and spending, accumulating into the national debt. Michel identifies a "deficit hawk coalition" split between deficit hawks (agnostic on revenues/spending) and budget hawks (concerned with government size), advocating for spending cuts to solve the crisis. Entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the root of fiscal problems. THIRD HOUR 1100-1115 Roman History: The Rivalry Between Cicero and Clodius GUEST NAME: Professor Josiah Osgood Professor Josiah Osgood discusses the end of the Roman Republic. The scandal involving Publius Clodius Pulcher disguising himself as a woman at the women-only Bona Dea ceremony led to his trial. Cicero testified against Clodius, leading to a dangerous rivalry. Acquitted, Clodius won election as tribune, passed a law targeting Cicero for executing citizens without trial, and destroyed his Palatine Hill mansion. Later, Cicero was present during Julius Caesar's assassination, though not involved in planning. 1115-1130 Roman History: The Rivalry Between Cicero and Clodius GUEST NAME: Professor Josiah Osgood Professor Josiah Osgood discusses the end of the Roman Republic. The scandal involving Publius Clodius Pulcher disguising himself as a woman at the women-only Bona Dea ceremony led to his trial. Cicero testified against Clodius, leading to a dangerous rivalry. Acquitted, Clodius won election as tribune, passed a law targeting Cicero for executing citizens without trial, and destroyed his Palatine Hill mansion. Later, Cicero was present during Julius Caesar's assassination, though not involved in planning. 1130-1145 Roman History: The Rivalry Between Cicero and Clodius GUEST NAME: Professor Josiah Osgood Professor Josiah Osgood discusses the end of the Roman Republic. The scandal involving Publius Clodius Pulcher disguising himself as a woman at the women-only Bona Dea ceremony led to his trial. Cicero testified against Clodius, leading to a dangerous rivalry. Acquitted, Clodius won election as tribune, passed a law targeting Cicero for executing citizens without trial, and destroyed his Palatine Hill mansion. Later, Cicero was present during Julius Caesar's assassination, though not involved in planning. 1145-1200 Roman History: The Rivalry Between Cicero and Clodius GUEST NAME: Professor Josiah Osgood Professor Josiah Osgood discusses the end of the Roman Republic. The scandal involving Publius Clodius Pulcher disguising himself as a woman at the women-only Bona Dea ceremony led to his trial. Cicero testified against Clodius, leading to a dangerous rivalry. Acquitted, Clodius won election as tribune, passed a law targeting Cicero for executing citizens without trial, and destroyed his Palatine Hill mansion. Later, Cicero was present during Julius Caesar's assassination, though not involved in planning. FOURTH HOUR 12-1215 Trump's Diplomatic Triumph: Expanding the Middle East Peace Consensus GUEST NAME: Conrad Black Conrad Black discusses the ceasefire deal between Gaza, Hamas, and the Israeli Defense Forces. He praises President Trump for his astute diplomacy in attracting sympathy from Arab states and non-Arab Muslim countries apart from Iran, such as Indonesia and Pakistan. Black considers this the greatest diplomatic success in the Middle East since the establishment of the state of Israel. The consensus, achieved by expanding the negotiating scope, is that established states are preferable to terrorist operations. 1215-1230 Italy's Rising Diplomatic Status Amid Economic Headwinds GUEST NAME: Lorenzo Fiori Lorenzo Fiori details Italy's enhanced diplomatic role, noting that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been invited to the Israel-Gaza peace agreement signing. Italian carabinieri are already training local police near the Rafah border. Meloni has friction with French President Macron over migration policy and Africa. Italy's production index has fallen below mid-2021 levels due to weak internal demand and the highest energy costs in Europe. Mr. Trump restored Columbus Day, and AC Milan owner Cardinale received honorary Italian citizenship. 1230-1245 Space Updates: NASA Administrator, Reusable Rockets, and Satellite Cell Service GUEST NAME: Bob Zimmerman Bob Zimmerman discusses the potential renomination of billionaire Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator, noting Isaacman's previous private manned space missions. He highlights Stoke Space raising nearly $1 billion to develop its fully reusable Nova rocket, potentially cheaper than SpaceX's offerings. AST SpaceMobile signed Verizon (adding to AT&T) to use its "Bluebirds" satellites for direct cell phone service, eliminating dead spots. SpaceX recently flew a Falcon booster for its 29th flight. Congressional cuts zeroed out 15 potential space missions. 1245-100 AM Space Updates: NASA Administrator, Reusable Rockets, and Satellite Cell Service GUEST NAME: Bob Zimmerman Bob Zimmerman discusses the potential renomination of billionaire Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator, noting Isaacman's previous private manned space missions. He highlights Stoke Space raising nearly $1 billion to develop its fully reusable Nova rocket, potentially cheaper than SpaceX's offerings. AST SpaceMobile signed Verizon (adding to AT&T) to use its "Bluebirds" satellites for direct cell phone service, eliminating dead spots. SpaceX recently flew a Falcon booster for its 29th flight. Congressional cuts zeroed out 15 potential space missions.

Londinium Chronicles Part 3 Audio Sept 28.mp3 HEADLINE: How to Move the Billionaires: War, Leveling, and the Failure of Reform SPEAKERS: Germanicus and Gaius 200 WORD SUMMARY: The speakers address the internal crisis within "Fortress America": the modern-day Palatine Hill, represented by the billionaires who are untouchable and above the law. Gaius cites economist Thomas Piketty, highlighting the "gigantic" wealth amassed by the super-rich. Germanicus asserts that the only guaranteed pathway to practical leveling—bringing the super-rich back down—is through war, whether external conflict or civil war. He explains that upheaval is necessary because the rate of return on investments consistently outpaces inflation, creating extraordinary wealth imbalance. World War II and the Great Depression were instruments of leveling in the US, creating the middle class and a more cohesive society. Today, US society is highly bifurcated, with the top 7-8% of the population holding 60% of the nation's wealth. Germanicus suggests that the populares committed to radical change are not the conventional "socialist" progressives (who are "parasites" of the state), but groups motivated by non-material goals. Both speakers emphatically agree that the problem of wealth inequality and the power of the Palatine will not be solved by reforms, calling reform a "misdirection." They conclude that maintaining the "status quo" means they are deeply "in trouble." 1790 SULLA'S PROSCRIPTIONS

This luminous episode offers a gentle and profound conversation with Rachel Sarah Roberts, founder of Wolf Woman Rising. Wander through the sacred and hidden layers of Rome — from the She-wolf Lupa of the Palatine Hill to the flame keepers of the Vestal Virgins and the sacred waters threading the city — as Rachel guides us into Rome's unseen spiritual heartbeat, where myth, ritual, and feminine power converge.

On this episode of Out Of Office: A Travel Podcast, the boys treat the ancient aqueducts like a flume ride and splash right into Rome! Kiernan and Ryan talk Emperors, SPQR, why columns make the best decor, plus just a touch of new Pope speculation. Our episode on Vatican City: https://outofofficepod.com/podcast/episode-197-vatican-city/ Things We Talked About on Today's Episode: “The Fall of Rome” podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fall-of-rome-podcast/id1141563910 “SPQR” by Mary Beard https://a.co/d/71DS93Z  “Roman Holiday” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rL5QxXF0g8  Colosseum https://colosseo.it/en/area/the-colosseum/  Forum https://colosseo.it/en/area/the-roman-forum/  Palatine Hill https://colosseo.it/en/area/the-palatine/  Pantheon https://www.pantheonroma.com/home-eng/ Borghese Gallery https://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/en/  Bath of Diocletian https://museonazionaleromano.beniculturali.it/en/baths-of-diocletian/  Trevi Fountain https://www.blacktomato.com/us/inspirations/the-history-of-romes-trevi-fountain/  Spanish Steps https://romesite.com/spanish-steps.html  Catacombs of Saint Sebastian https://www.catacombe.org/  Lego Trevi Fountain https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/trevi-fountain-21062 

Do you smell that? Chocolate. Roses. Some special occasion fragrance. And, of course, the dewy marinara of a romantic pizza tarp! It's Valentine's Day and that's LOVE you're smelling on the air. A smell so potent that this episode is all about the FIRST VALENTINE'S DAY! Was it always about buying stuff for your paramour? We'll let you know, but only if you listen to the show! Plus, we get cinematic and etiquettical in the MouthGarf Report... And as always, there's I See What You Did There.Sources:https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/16945378#:~:text=The%20Romans%20had%20a%20festival,in%20the%20year%20496%20AD!https://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/holidays/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day#:~:text=At%20the%20end%20of%20the,generally%20more%20religious%20than%20romantic.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia#:~:text=Lupercalia%2C%20also%20known%20as%20Lupercal,for%20the%20month%20named%20FebruariusPlease give us a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts! Want to ask us a question? Talk to us! Email debutbuddies@gmail.comListen to Kelly and Chelsea's awesome horror movie podcast, Never Show the Monster.Get some sci-fi from Spaceboy Books.Get down with Michael J. O'Connor's music!Next time: First Televised Trial

Wander through the storied remains of Rome's most iconic ruins. Explore the famed Palatine Hill, before venturing to the Colosseum where the echoes of history guide you into a restful state. Unwind with the soothing Bee Breathing technique as Rome's timeless beauty lulls you into a deep and peaceful sleep. For more from OpenMind, follow us on Instagram @openmindstudios Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After two episodes on the Forum Boarium, we move up to the Palatine Hill. At the same time, we move from Rome's distant prehistory and Aeneas to its founding by his descendant Romulus, the son of Mars. Later still, Caesar and his adopted son Augustus presented Aeneas and Romulus as precursors of the Caesars.

My links: My patreon: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/user?u=103280827 My Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/rhetoricrevolution Send me a voice message!: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/liam-connerly TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@mrconnerly?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc⁠ Email: ⁠rhetoricrevolution@gmail.com⁠ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connerlyliam/ Podcast | Latin in Layman's - A Rhetoric Revolution https://open.spotify.com/show/0EjiYFx1K4lwfykjf5jApM?si=b871da6367d74d92 Gut Guardian Discount Code: LIAM64728 In the cradle of time, amidst the whispers of ancient gods and the rustle of the Tiber's waters, there arose a tale both grand and eternal — the myth of Romulus and Remus. Listen, for within its folds lies the genesis of a mighty empire, woven with threads of destiny, betrayal, and the indomitable spirit of mankind. Once, in the heart of Italia, where hills kissed the sky and forests whispered secrets, there dwelled a vestal princess named Rhea Silvia. She, ordained by fate and bound by duty, tended the sacred flames of Vesta, her beauty radiant as the dawn, her spirit as untamed as the wind. But the gods, in their capricious dance, cast their gaze upon her, and Mars, the god of war, was ensnared by her allure. Beneath the moon's soft glow, amidst the silken whispers of night, their love blazed fierce and forbidden. And from this union, twin sons were born — Romulus and Remus, heirs to both mortal and divine. Yet, fate, ever a master weaver, ordained a cruel twist. For jealousy festered in the hearts of men, and Amulius, the usurper king, sought to quench the flame of their divine lineage. Thus, the babes were cast adrift upon the currents of the Tiber, cradled by the river's gentle embrace. But the river, in its wisdom, bore them to safety, where they were discovered by a she-wolf, fierce and noble, who suckled them as her own, her heart stirred by a primal bond that transcended blood. Raised in the wild, amidst the whispers of the forest and the ancient songs of the earth, Romulus and Remus grew strong, their spirits unyielding as the mountains, their destiny intertwined with the very fabric of Rome itself. Years passed, and the brothers, forged in the crucible of adversity, emerged as champions of their people, their names whispered in reverence, their deeds etched upon the annals of time. But destiny, like a river's course, is oft fraught with treacherous bends. Ambition stirred within their hearts, a tempestuous fire that threatened to consume them whole. For Romulus, emboldened by visions of grandeur, sought to raise a city, a beacon of civilization amidst the untamed wilderness. And so it was, upon the Palatine Hill, that the foundations of Rome were laid, the soil stained with sweat and sacrifice, the echoes of hammer and chisel ringing through the ages. But the bond of brotherhood, once unbreakable, now strained beneath the weight of ambition and pride. In a moment of madness, amidst the clash of swords and the cries of men, fratricide stained the earth, a crimson testament to the fragility of mortal bonds. Yet, from the ashes of tragedy, a phoenix rose, for Rome, like her founders, was forged in the crucible of strife. And so, Romulus, with a heavy heart and eyes cast skyward, ascended to the heavens, where he became a god, immortalized in the annals of legend.

fWotD Episode 2414: Temple of Apollo Palatinus Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.The featured article for Thursday, 14 December 2023 is Temple of Apollo Palatinus.The Temple of Apollo Palatinus ('Palatine Apollo'), sometimes called the Temple of Actian Apollo, was a temple to the god Apollo in Rome, constructed on the Palatine Hill on the initiative of Augustus (known as "Octavian" until 27 BCE) between 36 and 28 BCE. It was the first temple to Apollo within the city's ceremonial boundaries and the second of four temples constructed by Augustus. According to tradition, the site for the temple was chosen when it was struck by lightning, which was interpreted as a divine portent. Augustan writers situated the temple next to Augustus's personal residence, which has been controversially identified as the structure known as the domus Augusti.The temple was closely associated with the victories of Augustus's forces at the battles of Naulochus and Actium, the latter of which was extensively memorialised through its decoration. The temple played an important role in Augustan propaganda and political ideology, in which it represented the restoration of Rome's 'golden age' and served as a signifier of Augustus's pietas (devotion to religious and political duty). It was used for the worship of Apollo and his sister Diana, as well as to store the prophetic Sibylline Books. Its precinct was used for diplomatic functions as well as for meetings of the Roman Senate, and contained the Portico of the Danaids, which included libraries of Greek and Latin literature considered among the most important in Rome.Augustan poets frequently mentioned and praised the temple in their works, often commenting on its lavish artistic decoration and statuary, which included three cult statues and other works by noted Greek artists of the archaic period and the fourth century BCE. These poets included Tibullus, Virgil and Horace, whose Carmen Saeculare was first performed at the temple on 3 June 17 BCE during the Secular Games. The Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE damaged the temple, but it was restored under the emperor Domitian (r. 81 – 96 CE). It was finally destroyed by another fire in 363 CE, which was rumoured to be an act of arson committed by Christians. The temple has been excavated and partially restored in various phases since the 1860s, though only partial remains survive and their documentation is incomplete. Modern assessments of the temple have variously treated it as an extravagant, Hellenising break with Roman tradition and as a conservative attempt to reassert the architectural and political values of the Roman Republic. It has been described by the archaeologist John Ward-Perkins as "one of the earliest and finest of the Augustan temples".This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:18 UTC on Thursday, 14 December 2023.For the full current version of the article, see Temple of Apollo Palatinus on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Salli Neural.

Welcome to ancient Rome. In this episode you will be walking the along the historic streets of the Roman Forum which was the heart and soul of the Roman Empire from 800 BC to 400 AD. You will hear about all the temples, basilicas and emperors of Rome in that time. We take you down the main boulevard of the Forum where the emperors would parade with their spoils of far away victories, which always included gold, plants and many exotic animals that no-one had ever seen before. We tell you all about the most famous leader of all – Caeser – his life and how he died. Palatine Hill overlooks the forum area and this is where the emperors built their palaces. Listen as we take you up the 7 levels of the Imperial ramp with its 35 metre high ceilings to the top of Palatine Hill. We share the views from the top and also the remains of the palaces and their private grounds, including a swimming pool and private arena. Walk with us as we leave the Forum past Titus's arch and enter one of the most well-known historic buildings in the world – the Colosseum. We were able to visit the arena floor which is where all the action happened and get a great insight into the tunnels, cells and trapdoors (spoiler alert - there were 88 of them). Listen as we transport you to those ancient times when the Colosseum was at capacity with 50,000 screaming spectators enjoying the “entertainment” of the day. You will want to stay listening to the end to find out exactly what that entertainment was – you might not call it entertainment and also what the crowds had barbecued for lunch.  And no, it wasn't another shrimp on the barbie. Don't forget if you want to see all the pictures and find the link to the tour we did in this episode then click here www.beachtravelwine.com/podcast/66/rome If you know anyone planning trip to Italy then please share our Italy podcasts with them at www.beachtravelwine.com/italy Please enjoy episode 66 all about Ancient Rome.  Find us at www.beachtravelwine.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leanne-mccabe/message

A Journey Through History Rome's history spans over 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. From its legendary founding by Romulus and Remus to its evolution into the capital of the mighty Roman Empire, the city has played a pivotal role in shaping Western civilization. Rome is a treasure trove of architectural marvels that showcase the skill and creativity of generations past. The Colosseum, an imposing amphitheater, symbolizes ancient Roman engineering and entertainment. Its grandeur and the stories of gladiators and epic battles that once took place within its walls continue to inspire awe. If you are taking a tour, book the ground flour tour. You will need half a day to explore the Colosseum.Another architectural gem is the Pantheon, a feat of engineering and design with its perfectly preserved dome and oculus. Originally built as a temple to honor the gods, the Pantheon's dome remains the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world, a testament to the ingenuity of Roman architects. It is a quick visit and larger than most expect!Architectural MarvelsAnother exciting spot is Largo di Torre Argentina, where Julius Caesar was assassinated. Also known as the Area Sacra, this area is a large sunken square containing the ruins of four ancient temples and the Curia of Pompey. Area Sacra is another quick visit.For more historical sites, visit the Victor Emmanuel II National Monument and the Forum and Palatine Hill. The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument is a large national monument built between 1885 and 1935 to honor Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy. The iconic Roman Forum, a sprawling archaeological site, offers a glimpse into ancient Rome's political, social, and religious life. Walking through these ancient ruins, one can almost hear the echoes of the past and imagine the grandeur of the empire that once ruled a vast expanse of the world.The Forum and Palatine Hill are where you can find Octavian's (also known as Ceaser Agustus) house, the imperial palace, and where Romulus, the founder of Rome, lived. You will need a full day or two to explore the vast area has a multitude of history.All the churches in Rome are spectacular. You can walk into any for a beautiful historical and moving site. A favorite church in Rome was Sant'Ignazio of Loyola Church.Vatican City: A Spiritual CenterNestled within the city of Rome, Vatican City is the smallest independent state in the world and the spiritual epicenter of the Roman Catholic Church. Home to the awe-inspiring St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums, this tiny enclave is a pilgrimage site for millions of faithful and art enthusiasts.St. Peter's Basilica, with its imposing dome and breathtaking interior, is a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. The Vatican Museums house an extraordinary collection of art and artifacts amassed by the Catholic Church over centuries, including Michelangelo's stunning frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.Remember, you must walk up the dome about 500 stairs to get to the top of St. Peter's Basilica. Pay a bit extra to take the elevator or wear comfy shoes because you still need to walk 300 stairs even with taking the elevator. Don't forget to tour the Sistine Chapel. With all its facets, you can spend as little as one and as many as three days at the Vatican. They have self-guided and private tours. Don't forget to book entry & all tours.The Art If you are a lover of "Arte," the Borghese art museum is a must-see. Here, explore the works of Raphael, such as Young Woman with Unicorn, and works by Caravaggio. This museum is also one of the few sites where you don't need to pre-book or get a guide. However, the museum only allows a certain number of people each hour.Culinary DelightsItalian cuisine is renowned worldwide, and Rome is no exception. From classic pasta dishes like carbonara and cacio e pepe to mouth-watering pizzas and gelato, the city's culinary scene is a delight for the senses. Trattorias and osterias line the charming cobblestone streets, offering a chance to savor authentic flavors passed down through generations. Our top picks for all things “buonissimo” are Tempio di Bacco, Gallura. Tempio di Bacco is a delicious local spot where the owner is quite friendly. Gallura is outstanding dining with a modern twist. Don't forget to stop for gelato.Exploring the NeighborhoodsRome's neighborhoods each have a unique character and charm. With its narrow streets and colorful buildings, Trastevere exudes a bohemian atmosphere. The Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain are located in the charming area of Piazza di Spagna. The Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps are gorgeous. At the top of the Spanish Steps, The Church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti can be found. At the same time, the historic Jewish Ghetto offers a glimpse into a lesser-known facet of Rome's history. Where to StayBook a room at the Westin Excelsior Rome for the perfect stay when in Rome. Should You Visit Rome?Rome, Italy, is a city that encapsulates the essence of human achievement, creativity, and endurance. From its ancient ruins to its modern-day vibrancy, every corner of Rome tells a story of the past and present. Whether you're a history enthusiast, an art lover, a food connoisseur, or a traveler seeking beauty and inspiration, Rome offers an unforgettable experience that will leave an indelible mark on your heart and soul. So, pack your bags and embark on a journey to the eternal city that has captured the imagination of countless generations.

In this episode of Travels Through Time the classicist Honor Cargill-Martin takes Artemis on a tour of the debauched and dangerous world of Roman politics. We meet Messalina, one of the Rome's most notorious women, and follow her through the events of 48 AD that would lead to her eventual downfall and execution. For over two thousand years Messalina has been characterised as the scheming and sexually rapacious wife of Emperor Claudius. In one famous story she attends a brothel to take part in a twenty four hour sex competition. But now, in her wonderful new biography, Messalina: A Story of Empire, Slander and Adultery, Honor Cargill-Martin challenges this version of the empress's life. In particular, Honor seeks to rescue Messalina's reputation from some of the more egregiously sexist stereotypes that powerful women throughout history have often borne the brunt of. As Honor shows us in this episode, Messalina certainly wasn't a saint, but she was a serious political operator who had survived and thrived in the volatile world of the first century Roman Empire.  For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes   Scene One: Autumn 48 AD, Imperial Palace, Palatine Hill. The emperor Claudius is out of Rome. Messalina, the handsome Gaius Silius, and their friends are partying in celebration of the wine harvest. This, her enemies will argue, is actually a bigamous wedding party. Scene Two: A few days later in autumn 48 AD, From the Via Ostiensis to the Praetorian Camp. Messalina stands accused of adultery, bigamy, and treason. She tries to beg Claudius to spare her life but is blocked. The freedman Narcissus shows Claudius evidence of her adulteries before taking him to the Praetorian Camp where he executes a string of her alleged lovers. Scene Three: New Years Day 49 AD, Claudius marries Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Nero. Lucius Silanus – Messalina's daughter's fiancé, now accused of incest to clear the way for her to marry Nero – commits suicide as the morning of the wedding dawns. Memento: Nero's golden snakeskin bracelet.    People/Social   Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Honor Cargill-Martin Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 48 AD fits on our Timeline      

Paolo Carafa and I discuss the archaeology of the Palatine Hill.

Joe Mulinaro joins the Passion for Italy Travel crew. He will be having a number of guests join him to discuss their trips to Italy.In this episode of the Podcast, Joe invites his wife, Lori, to discuss her recent trip to Italy where they visited Rome, Florence, Positano, and Capri. In this first show, they discuss the Rome portion of the vacation. They start with their planning and flight. The episode continues with five days of filling their agenda with all the major points of Rome.Monti District, Santa Maria Maggiore, Spanish Steps, Piazza Republica, Altar of the FatherlandVilla Borghese, Laghetto, Piazza del Popolo, Via Del Corso, Trevi FountainVatican Musuem tour, Castel Sant Angelo, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Campo di Fiore, St Agnes Church, Piazza Venezia, St Peter's BasilicaColosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Teatro Marcello, Jewish Ghetto, Capitoline Museum, Tiber IslandSo much, pizza, pasta, wine, gelato and cornetti.

Before Valentine's Day, ancient Romans celebrated a festival of fertility in the shadow of the Palatine Hill. Lupercalia was a popular holiday that featured blood, goat sacrifice, and getting whipped by naked guys.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 16, 2023 is: paladin • PAL-uh-din • noun A paladin is a leading champion of a cause, or a trusted military leader (as for a medieval prince). // The keynote speaker is regarded as a paladin of environmental justice. // The prince summoned the paladin and commended him for his actions in battle. See the entry > Examples: “This collection of stories by one of England's best novelists is both playful and serious in the manner of Laurence Sterne, the 18th-century author of ‘Tristram Shandy.' ... Sterne was the master of the marginal, the random, the inconsequential. In our own day, David Foster Wallace, Geoff Dyer and Ali Smith have become the paladins of this goofy manner.” — Edmund White, The New York Times, 2 Dec. 2016 Did you know? Rome wasn't built in a day, and we know the site where it was founded: Palatine Hill (known as Palatium in Latin), site of the cave where Roman legend tells us Romulus and Remus were abandoned as infants, nursed by a she-wolf, and fed by a woodpecker before being found by a herdsman. In ancient Rome, the emperor's palace was located on the Palatine Hill; since the site was the seat of imperial power, Latin palatium came to mean “imperial” as well as “palace.” From palatium came Latin palatinus, also meaning “imperial” and later “imperial official.” Different forms of these words passed through Latin, Italian, and French, picking up various meanings along the way, and eventually some of those forms made their way into English, including paladin and palace.

Nicknamed the 8th wonder of the ancient world, the Colosseum still stands in splendour today. Located in the heart of Rome, nestled at the bottom of the Palatine Hill, neighbouring the ancient Roman Forum - the Colosseum is nearly 2000 years old. But who is responsible for this colossal amphitheatre, and what exactly was it built for?Tristan is joined by Dr Nathan Elkins to talk about this monument of Roman imperialism, and to take a look at the role it has played throughout history. Taking 10 years and 3 emperors to be completed - the crumbling marble was once decorated with vibrant colours and architectural features, representative of Roman might and decadence. Home to beast hunts, gladiatorial games, and one of the most remarkable sewage systems in the ancient world - what can we learn about Roman life from one of the world's most famous monuments?For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here. If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nero's first attempt at building a single property that covered his estates on the Palatine Hill and the Esquiline Hill was The Domus Transitoria, the House of Passage. It burned down in the Great Fire. He replaced it with the Domus Aurea (Golden House), designed by expert engineers Severus and Celer, and it was so revolutionary that it appears to be the stuff of genius. The post Nero #41 – The Stuff of Genius appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

In this burst of classical interest, Dave and Jeff discuss the graffito discovered on the Palatine Hill in 1857. Does it depict Christ Jesus crucified, mocked in the shape of a donkey? What is onolatry? Who was Alexamenos and why is he being ridiculed? What about the early evidence from apologists Tertullian and Minucius Felix? What can they tell us about how the Romans viewed their Christian and Jewish neighbors? Tune in as we discuss these questions and more, and don't forget to check the link for the image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito

On the slopes of the Palatine Hill, supposedly on the site where the she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, a new food museum.

Three Praetorian Guards cornered Caligula in a cryptoporticus beneath his palace on the Palatine Hill and stabbed him to ...

The Roman civilization was long-lasting and might have lasted longer than any other large culture depending on the period being considered. From a small agricultural community to a worldwide empire with a population of over 100 million at its peak, Rome had changed immensely throughout its history. The development from a simple settlement on the Palatine Hill to an empire and the influence of this civilization on everything from language to politics is profound. To say that Rome's art reflects its history would be an understatement. Get full access to Art Legends in History at www.artlegends.org/subscribe

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (08/24/21), Hank recounts the words of Christian author Os Guinness. No matter how grand a civilization may be, there is an ultimate flimsiness. If you view Washington, D.C. from the heights of Capitol Hill, it would seem that we will be around forever. Yet if you view Rome from the Palatine Hill, you will see the remains of a once-proud republic that has fallen into ruin—a poignant reminder of how fragile civilization is, and how near we are to losing our inheritance. We are facing totalitarianism from multiple fronts. Who will stand in the gap? Winning back the West won't be done by a politician; it will be done by people like you and me who are willing to stand for truth no matter what the cost.Hank also answers the following questions:Do the variants between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint change any of the doctrines of Scripture?Must Christian parents provide an inheritance for their children?In Mark 2:22, Jesus is talking about not putting new wine into old wineskins, but my KJV uses the word “bottles.” When did they make this change?What is a good Bible reading plan to start getting into Scripture?In 1 Chronicles 21, why did God react so harshly to David's census of Israel?

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Usually about this time of the year, we do this every year, where we focus on the DNA of Mosaic. The reason why we do this is because every single organization has mission leak or mission creep, where they forget why we exist. So we remind ourselves of why we exist and we communicate that with the three words, love Jesus simple. This is our DNA. Why do we use the word DNA? DNA is the information within every single organism that gives identity, that dictates function, how we are going to function, and it dictates the activity of this organism. I use the word organism because church is an organism. It's not just an organization. Church is alive. Jesus Christ says that the church is His body. It's alive. It's an organism. And the church is His bride. It's alive. It's an organism. And that's why we use the word DNA. The DNA is the blueprint, it's the recipe, the code for who we are.Last week we talked about love is the motive for everything that we do, because love was the motive for everything Jesus did. Jesus Christ loved God and loved people by primarily loving the church. So we do the same. And today we're talking about Christ as Christ is the center of everything that we are. He is our identity, and He as we proclaim Him, His word, that we proclaim Christ crucified, that is the power of God onto salvation. St. Paul said, "The power of God is in the gospel for anyone who believes." The reason why we do this series is to remind ourselves of the mission of God. CS Lewis says, "There exists in every church something that sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence." So we must strive very hard, by the grace of the church focused on the mission that Christ originally gave to it.At the center is Jesus Christ. He's the center of everything we do. He's the main point of everything we do. He's the main point of the Christian life, of the Christian faith. And this is our message that your happiness, your eternal happiness, the eternal happiness of every single person wholly depends on Jesus Christ, what you do with His life, death, burial, and resurrection. If you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, you are saved by grace through faith, saved meaning you need to be saved. By grace is a gift from God, and it happens when you believe that Jesus Christ didn't just die, He died for your sins. When you believe that Jesus didn't just come to show us the way to God, that He is the only way to God. It sounds outrageous, I know, and it always has. But when the message is proclaimed, people do get saved. So that's why we do this on a weekly basis.Our text for today is 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. I didn't bookmark it, so let's see if Pastor Jan knows his Bible. Oh yeah, right there, 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.' Where's the one who is wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and weakness of God is stronger than men. Consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you are wise according to worldly standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth. But God shows what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'"And I, when I come to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. And my speech, my message were not implausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." This is the reading of God's holy and infallible, authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts.Why do we preach Jesus Christ crucified? That's why. I can just say amen and pray. That's why. The scripture says, "For each Christ crucified, that's all we do." Did St. Paul write to the church in Corinth? Did he tell them any other things other than Christ crucified? Yeah, of course, he did. But the central message that impacts everything else is that Jesus Christ died on a cross for our sins. Three points to frame up of our time. First, the cross is folly. The cross is power. And the cross is wisdom. St. Paul starts with where everyone knows the first time you hear the message. The secret to the universe, the secret to reality, the secret to understand yourself, the people around you, the secret to understand all the world history is the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin. The fact that when you hear that, the first time you ever hear, the natural reaction is: "It's folly. It's foolish to believe. You believe this? You gather on a Sunday to proclaim it? You believe this?"Yes, it sounds folly. That's the point. In verse 18, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to those who are being saved, it is the power of God." On the one hand, yes, it's folly, but it's also power. Let's start with it's folly. St. Paul in this text, he talks about two groups of people, the Jews, and he talks about the Greeks. The Jews he's talking about, religious Jews, that grew up with the mosaic law, the 10 commandments that God gave through Moses. They believed that they were religious. They believed that they could save themselves through their own efforts. And then the group, the Greeks on the other hand were too sophisticated. The Jews are too religious for Jesus. The Greeks are too sophisticated.So we start with the Jews. For the Jews, the cross was a scandal, scandalous to say that God became man. It was scandalous to say that God's Messiah was crucified. That's like saying God sends a king who then loses, He's crucified. It was an impediment to them, first of all, because in law of Moses, there's a Bible verse in Deuteronomy that says, "Cursed is anybody who hangs on the tree." So when St. Paul comes in, when the disciples come in, they say, "Our Messiah died on a cross." They looked at text, and like, "You're saying our Messiah was cursed? That's blasphemous." On top of that, they hated even the idea of crucifixion because so many of their countrymen died through persecution. The Romans would come in, and anytime there was an insurrection, they would take all of the people, hundreds and thousands of them, and on the way into the city put up cross after cross after cross and execute people. So for Jews to hear that your Messiah was executed through crucifixion, they had the same visceral, emotional antagonism to it as telling a 20th-century that your Messiah died in a concentration camp. The same visceral reaction.Besides the cross, telling Jews that the Son of God died was ludicrous. They had a high view of the divine transcendent God. They had a very inflexible commitment to monotheism, that God is one. It was in their Shema. It was blasphemous to say that there's a second person, there's trinity, there's God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, but it's one God, three persons. That was blasphemous to them. So they had theological, intellectual, emotional opposition to it. And we see it all culminating in St. Paul. Paul before he became Paul, he was Saul. He studied under Gamaliel. He's the greatest theologian, probably theological mind to have existed probably second to Jesus Christ.What did Paul do in his early ministry? Well, he thought that he was doing God's work by persecuting Christians. When he heard about Christian, when he heard about Jesus Christ dying on the cross, that this is the Messiah, he had such a visceral reaction that he wasn't just motivated to speak out against it. It wasn't just about him not liking the message. He would actually physically hunt down Christians, persecuting them to the point of terrorizing them and then killing them. And that ministry started with him watching the death, the stoning, physical stones were thrown at the first martyr, Stephen, and Paul was there. He hated that message. And what changed his mind was when he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.So for the Jews, the religious people, they had a visceral reaction against this truth. And for the Greeks, they just felt too sophisticated to believe that their hope, their eternal happiness, eternal life hinges on what they do to a carpenter who then became an itinerant rabbi who died in Judea on a Roman cross and that crucifixion had anything to do with God. Because there was a stigma attached to crucifixion. The elite Greeks and the Romans were embarrassed that this was even a part of their society. The scholars who study the writings of the Greco-Roman literature at that time, they point out the fact it's rarely ever mentioned. It's like the French never talking about the guillotine.This is in us. They would rewrite their own history. They didn't want it to be part of what they did as a society. Crucifixion was regarded as the worst form of death. It was worse than dying in an arena where animals, beasts were released from trap doors. They weren't fed for days and released to tear Christians limb from limb. Dying in an arena eaten by animals was considered more noble and honorable than being crucified. Being crucified was worse than even being burned to death. Crucifixion was that brutal, and any person that was crucified left a legacy as being the worst kind of criminal scum. That's why the early churches was ridiculed, mocked for worshiping. And they said, "An evil man. Your God is a criminal. Your God was crucified. How can you believe this?"Archeologists excavated the quarters of the Imperial pages in the Palatine Hill in Rome. It dates back to the third century, so the 200s. In it, they found this carving on a wall, and it's a picture of a little boy who's got his hand raised as if he's worshiping someone on a cross. It was a body on a cross. And instead of a head, they put a head of a donkey. And underneath it said, "Alexamenos worships his God." Little boys were mocking a Christian little boy who worshiped Jesus Christ dying on the cross. It was blasphemous for them to believe this is true. And you can Google it, Alexamenos worships his God, to see the depiction.Not many people worship someone who's been executed with an electric chair. No one puts little electric chairs around their necklace or a needle for lethal injection. No one hangs a noose around their neck as a little symbol of something great. No one does it with a guillotine. Yet we do as Christians. We wear little crosses to remind ourselves that our savior died on a cross, experienced excruciating pain. We had to come up with a word to describe just how bad crucifixion was. We worship a Savior who died the death of the most heinous, monstrous criminal. And on top of all of this, for the Greeks and the Romans to tell them, "It wasn't some political statesman like Cesar who died for your sins. And it wasn't some philosopher like Socrates who died for your sins. It was just some obscure carpenter, amateur rabbi." And here come the Christians proclaiming what? Proclaiming the secret to human life is found in some rabble-rousing rabbi from a distant Judea, telling people that the meaning of life is found in the life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension of Jesus Christ.And as we do so, that was crazy then, it's just as crazy now. It's always been crazy to get up and to tell someone, "Hey, unless you believe in Jesus Christ that He died on the cross for your sins, you're going to spend eternity in hell, apart from God." that's always nuts. It's always crazy to say that. But that's what the early church did in the beginning. And that's what we continue to do. And by the way, here's the other challenge of doing that. The moment you say that, that very moment, what else are you saying? What else am I saying when I say Jesus Christ is the only way to go? What am I saying? I'm saying there's no other way. I'm saying there's no other way. So what I'm saying is every other way is wrong, every other way is a lie. Jesus Christ is the only way. Right, that doesn't feel good. That sounds so intolerant.If there was another way, then Jesus Christ would not have had to die on a cross. It was the only way. That's what it took. There's no other way. So yes, I'm standing up here, and I am saying that everything else is wrong. Islam is wrong. Buddhism is wrong. Atheism is wrong. Secular is wrong. It's all wrong. And you saying Jesus Christ is one of them, that's wrong too. When our world hears that, they say, "That's folly. That's folly." But for us, we love this message. Yes, it's naturally repugnant. Yes, it's naturally faintly ridiculous. But it's also wonderful to us. What makes us think it's so wonderful? How could anyone think this is wonderful? How could anyone give their life to this message? Give their life for this message? Give their time, talent, treasure to invest resources in the propagation of this message? It's so improbable, so unsophisticated. It's so offensive to our culture or taste. It's foolish.But it's got power. And that's why we do what we do. This is the only thing that can really save us. And this is the second point, that the cross is power. 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, "For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." So the Jews would say, "Hey, we want more evidence. We want more signs. We want signs like Moses. Moses did the signs as he led the people of God out of Egypt, out of captivity. We're looking for the same political Messiah, and we want signs to go along with it.For the Greeks, they want sophia or wisdom. Their civilization astounded the world with its progress. Their advances caused many to abandon belief in traditional God. We want something that polished. The Jews said, "We want something religious." These guys said, "We want something really, really polished." St. Paul comes in and he says, "The greatest sign that God could give is that God the Son, Son of God, Son of man died on the cross for our sins, and He came back from the dead." For the Jews, a crucified Messiah was an oxymoron, like a married bachelor. For the Greek, it wasn't so much more irreverent, it was just ridiculous. But St. Paul says, "There's another piece, there's another element. It's not just this message. It's not just information. This information, when God the Holy Spirit takes it and applies it to your heart, when the God of grace gives a man, a woman by the Spirit of God a brand new heart, summons that heart to Himself, what was first thought as foolish is recognized as the deepest wisdom. Initially thought as weak and silly, it's nothing less than the actual power of God.This is where the power is. The power source is the proclamation that Jesus Christ died for your sins. Karl Barth in the 20th century was probably one of the most influential theologians. At the end of his life, he was giving a lecture in the '70s in Princeton, theological lecture. At the end, he was doing a Q&A, and one person asked him, "Hey, Dr. Barth, you have read tens of thousands of theological tomes. You've written hundreds of theological tomes. If you could synthesize the greatest, the greatest truth that you discovered, the greatest nugget of gold to share with us from your vast experience, what would it be? And he said, "That's easy. Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so." That's it. That's our message.Jesus loves us so much that He was willing to die on the cross for our sins. And when you realize, when it goes from, oh, Jesus did that thing to He died for my sins, my particular sin, when God reveals the darkness of your sin to you, the cross becomes life and life when you realize that nothing short of the death of the Son of God would be adequate to atone for our sins. And this is what we do every single week that I stand up here and I just remind you how evil you are, that you don't understand yourself, you don't understand the world, you don't understand anything. You don't understand parenting. You don't understand that they are born as little evil, cute little baby. They're evil. You're evil. You don't understand marriage unless you understand it's two evil people getting married. You don't understand the economy unless you understand it's evil people. Politics, it's all evil people. It's all evil. You don't understand any of them unless you understand that we're all evil. And it took Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sin.Every single person, there's two realities to you, to every single person. The first one is who you are on paper. The first one is whom you project yourself to be to the world. It's what you have achieved. It's what you look like. It's your LinkedIn, it's your social media. That's one part of you. And then there's the real part of you, the daily life part of you, the no one's in your car when you're on Storrow Drive part of you. My wife tells me, "Don't forget that our back windows are tinted, but the front ones are not. So when you drive, Pastor Jan, you just need to remember that people are going to see you." I'm like, "I know, I want them to see me. I want them to hear my horn when I'm discipling them to be a better driver. I want to do that."So there's two parts of it. There's the you part when you interview for a job and they're asking you, "Hey, what's your greatest weakness." "Is I work too hard. I work too hard. I care too much. I can't stop working. That's me. That's my greatest weakness. I'm going to put in 100 hours a week on this job. Tremendous." And the real part of you is one month into your job. That's The real part of you when you work 10, maybe 15 hours a week. Maybe. So your company knows that you're online, you get the little Mouse Jiggler so when you stop working it just says, "You're online. You're online." That's the real part of you. The real part of you is... Your roommates, ask them the real part of you. Your spouse. Yeah, I know the real part. That's every single one of us. And deep inside we know that for all of our moral goodness showboating, for all of our virtue signaling on our bumper stickers and our yard signs, deep inside, when no one's looking, there is so much evil right in there. We just don't have the power, most of us, to sin in the way that we really would want to sin.If you were a trillionaire, and you can do whatever you want, would you live a holy life for God? There's sin in our hearts, every single one of us. We're all moral failures, inveterate sinners, no more able to rid ourselves of our pride, selfish impurity, sexual sin, hypocrisy, dishonesty, envy and different-stored God. And that's really what it boils down to. God created you. He has power over you. And if you are indifferent toward Him as if God doesn't exist, you are living your life as a huge middle finger to God. I don't care. That's the greatest level of sin that there is. You created me. You have total claim over me. You have a moral code for me that I don't even know what it is.And then we also have standards for ourselves that we break. We have standards for other people that we ourselves break. And as soon as we realize the true weight of our sin, that we sin against the holy God, we deserved what Jesus Christ went through. He went through hell. We deserved that, but He was willing to take it. We see the holiness of God, the justice of God, and the love of God all coinciding at the cross. When you hear, and when you understand that this terrible death, it was horrifying, and it was horrifying for Jesus. It was terrible because it had to be terrible. Only such suffering, such a sinless victim that God, man, He alone could pay the terrible debt that we owe God. And when you realize that Jesus did that for me, He died on the cross for my sin and my sins, that Jesus Christ is the only one that stands between me and the judgment of God that I deserve, when you see that, now the terrible cross becomes the most precious message that you've ever heard. It's wonderful. It's powerful.Scripture says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung upon a tree.' Jesus Christ was cursed. Deserved blessing, was cursed because we deserved that curse. He was doing it for us so that He could extend blessing to us. We're like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. For the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Why did Jesus do this? Because He loves us. He loves us. That's the only reason why He did it. 1 John, 3:16, "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers."He died for us when we were His enemies, when we were His sinners. He did that because He loves us, so that He can forgive us. Jesus Christ loves you. We are not to take that for granted. Jesus Christ the God of the universe whom we've rebelled against, turned our back on Him, He loves us. 1 John 4:9-10, "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. And this is love not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." On the one hand, God loves you, but that doesn't make sense unless you understand that God hates you. It's true. A lot of us, we've just taken the message of Christianity, "Jesus loves you," put that as a bumper sticker. Your buddy, Jesus? Yeah, yeah, you're cool. Look up the word propitiation. It means He absorbed the wrath of God. Meaning God has a wrath against you. God hates you. In your sin, apart from Christ, God hates you.When people say things like, "Every single one of us, we're a child of God." No, we're not. We're creatures of God. But if you reject Jesus Christ, you're not a child of God. You're still in your sins. So for love of God to make sense, you need to understand what it took for God to not hate you anymore. And it took Him pouring out His hatred, His wrath,... on Christ for your sins. We receive the love of God when we believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.Here's what the early Christian father, Tertullian, described this. This is how he described the place of the cross, the heart of the early Christians. He says, "Every forward step and movement, every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, and all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead sign of a cross just as a reminder that the cross is the center of everything we do. The cross is power. And also, the cross is wisdom." St. Paul uses this word 17 times in the 1 Corinthians, wisdom. In the first three chapters, 16 times. In all of his other letters, he uses the word wisdom only 11 times. So this is crucial to him. It's the Greek word, sophia. I remember I loved that word so much in seminary. I named my first daughter after wisdom, Sophia, Lord give us wisdom. If anyone lacks wisdom, God gives us sophia. So anytime I say Sophia, just a reminder that I need more wisdom from God.I went on a roll in seminary, and then we had our second kid. I was still in seminary, cage stage, where everything's about seminary. And then I had my second kid, my second daughter. I liked the ESV's Bible version so much I named my second daughter ESV, Elizabeth Seraphin Vezikov. I was going to keep doing that with all my other kids. My wife was like, "That's enough. That's enough. We're not going to play that game." But he talks about wisdom here as this is how you understand the world, that you do not truly understand reality unless you understand that Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins. And that's why he does this analysis of it doesn't matter how wise you are in the world. It doesn't matter if you have a PhD from Harvard. It doesn't matter if you're a president of Harvard. Doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter you're noble birth. None of that matters when it comes to knowing the greatest truth at the center of the universe is that Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.If you don't know that, if you don't believe the greatest truth at the heart of the universe, you're wrong. If you don't know that this is true, you're wrong about the most important fact. Therefore, no matter how wise you are from an earthly perspective, you're a fool. If you don't believe that Jesus is Lord, if you don't submit to Him, you're going to die. You're going to stand before Him, and all of your eternity you're going to be saying, "I was a fool. I was wrong about the greatest truth." That's why he talks about wisdom. And that's why in 1 Corinthians 1:25-2:5, he goes on and he's like, "Consider your calling, bros. Not many of you were wise, not many by worldly standards, not many powerful, not many of noble birth, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera." And what he says, "What makes the difference, what made you a Christian, it's not your education. It's not your bank account. What made you a Christian, what made you a Christian is that God chose to save you so that no one boasts.And that's why he goes on, "God chose... " That's verse 28. He starts at 27, "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, redemption. So that as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'" So if you are a Christian and I ask you, "Why are you a Christian? Why are you a Christian?" and if you say anything along the lines that begins with I, if you say anything where it's like, "I believed. I studied. I read. I chose Jesus," then I don't know if you're a Christian. Because it wasn't you at all. The answer is, "Jesus saved me. Jesus chose to save me."Christians need a robust understanding of election and predestination. But what makes the difference between an unbeliever and a believer? What makes the difference between someone who's dead in their sins and someone who is alive to God? What makes the difference? What role did you play to decide that you are going to be born? Nothing. No one asked you. No one gave you a vote. You weren't interviewed. Nothing. Same goes with becoming a Christian. You become a Christian, the only reason you're a Christian: God saved you. The only reason I'm a Christian. God saved me. And I can't believe God saved me. If you know me, I have a hard time following Jesus as it is. But if I wasn't a Christian, if I know the Holy Spirit, I would be one bad guy. I'd be a terrible dude. I'd be a gangster or a legal gangster. That's working for the IRS and stealing money from people legally because taxation is theft. I'd do one or the other.But God saved me. That's it. This is what he's saying, he's like, "You heard the message that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. Jesus was crucified for you. You Heard it, but what makes the difference between one person hearing another person hearing is God chose you. God by the power of the Holy Spirit saved you. You need to understand, you played zero role in that. If you're like, "Well, how do I know if I'm elect?" Choose yourself. That's how I say. Choose Jesus, and then you're elect. But you only chose Jesus because Jesus chose you. That's how it works. So that there's 0% of your work in being saved because Jesus saves.You know who we are? We're the degenerate, reprobate sinners. We should have been left in our sins. I got one Bible verse, one very special Bible verse the Lord laid on my heart today. At the next Mosaic members meeting, this is the next... 2020, my t-shirt idea was, "2020, skubula happened." If you don't know what skubula is, look it up. My idea for 2021 is from 1 Corinthians 4:11-13. Let me read the text. "To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless. We labor working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted; we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things." I want a t-shirt that says, "Mosaic Boston, scum of the earth." That's what I want. Or if we ever rebranded the church, I want to be scumoftheearthchurch.com. That's what I want. This is tremendous. What's your message to the world? You're all scum. We're the worst scum of the earth.Jesus Christ died for us. The Son of God died for us? What? To make us children of God. I can't believe it. And by the way, this message is what transformed the world. St. Paul was writing to Christians who lived under tyranny. Not only was it illegal to be a Christian, but they were persecuted for their faith, made a show in arenas where tens and hundreds of thousands would gather to watch Christians getting eaten by lions and crucified upside down, et cetera, et cetera. And by the way, if you're not a Christian, you have to answer the question of how did Christianity, despite the odds, how did it grow from one Jewish guy, kind of a rabbi, kind of a carpenter? He had 11 guys and then St. Paul gets saved. And then with them in 100 years is 25,000 Christians in the Roman Empire. And then when that generation of eyewitnesses died, it became even more powerful so that by the time Constantine comes to power in 310, we go from 25,000 Christians in the year 100 to 20 million Christians by 310 A.D. In 200 years, it grew by 40% per decade, the greatest movement in the history of the world. How did that happen?It happened with people proclaiming the message: Christ crucified. Just to give you a perspective, it was illegal to be a Christian. They didn't have church buildings. They didn't have any institutional resources. So how in the world did that happen? They proclaimed the one message that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we are to submit to Him. We haven't submitted to Him. We deserve damnation, but Jesus Christ is also savior. And then once you're saved, you've got to bring everything, every part of your life in submission to Jesus Christ. And startled the message, Jesus is Lord. And they got that from Deuteronomy 6:14 where it says, "Hear all Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord you got with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."The Lord is one. Yahweh is Lord. Jesus shows up and says, "I'm Yahweh. I am Lord. I'm king over everything." God is one, and the task of our lives is to bring every aspect of our lives under the reign of Jesus Christ, every aspect of our life, from our finances to our work, to our domestic life, to sexuality. Everything we bring under the reign of Jesus Christ. And the reason why we focus on Jesus in particular is because that's how the New Testament explains how we are to do ministry. God the Father puts Jesus in a position of preeminence, and the Holy Spirit blesses the church when the church focuses on Jesus Christ. Why? Because of the role he played in redemption, but also the role that God the Father gives Jesus as sitting at the right hand of God the Father.Psalm 110:1 says, "The Lord says to my Lord," so God the Father speaks to God the Son, "'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.'" And Paul even suggested the actual function of the Lordship was given by the Father to the Son, it's passed to Jesus. Ephesians 1:20-23, "He," God the Father, "raised Him," Jesus, "from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in His age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under His feet and gave Him as a head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."So Jesus is in the position of preeminence, and that's why we focus on Jesus. That's why we talk about Jesus all the time. If you ever move away, and you're looking for a church, this is the secret sauce of finding if it's a good biblical church. When the pastor gets up there and preaches a sermon, he's got to say the name of Jesus at least 50 times. That's just from my professional experience. It's got to be at least 50 times. You just talk about Jesus. If you don't talk about Jesus, huge red flag, huge red flag. And if you change the name of Jesus, if it's like Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints, no, don't change the name, it's just Jesus Christ. You talk about Jesus Christ because the Bible tells us to talk about Jesus Christ. And when we talk about Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit takes that message. It is power, and it is wisdom. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Him. Our identity, our destiny as a church must be inextricably linked to Jesus Christ. He's the only way into a relationship with God.A lot of churches talk about God in general, some nebulous idea, so that you can think God is whomever you want, that God demands whatever you think he demands. But when we say Jesus Christ, this is a historical figure who lived in a particular time, particular place, human body. He really lived. He really taught. He really died. Historical fact. We're not talking about spiritually or this is metaphor for something. He literally died for our sin, and He literally rose from the dead. So when we talk about Jesus, we're talking about what's at the heart of scripture. Jesus Christ is the door. He's the connection to God the Father.George Adam Smith, 19th-century biblical scholar, but wanted to see the holy land. He meets a shepherd in the holy land, and the shepherd was very hospitable. They spent the day together. And at the end of the day, the shepherd said, "Hey, do you want to see the fold where I keep the sheep?" And he goes into an enclosure with four walls, and there's an opening in one of the walls. The sheep all came in, and the shepherds said, "This is where they go at night." And then George Adam Smith asked, "Hey, where's the door? Where's the gate." And the shepherd says this: "When the light has gone and all the sheep are inside, I lie at that open space and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body. I am the door."Jesus Christ is the only way into a relationship with God, and He's the door because He laid down His life for His own sheep. Apart from Jesus Christ, we are nothing. Apart from Jesus Christ, we have no message as a church. Apart from Jesus Christ, we have no mission as a church. We take all of our talking points from Jesus Christ. I pray that we never become like the Church of Laodicea, which a lot of the churches in Boston, historically, they became the church in Laodicea. Church of Laodicea, Jesus Christ is standing outside the door knocking. A lot of people use that verse in Revelation 3 to say, "Oh, Jesus is standing at the door of your heart, and He's knocking." No, Jesus doesn't stand at doors, and He doesn't knock. He breaks the door down and regenerates people. That's how Jesus saves people.But he's talking about Jesus not in terms of one particular soul. He's talking about Jesus Christ is standing outside of a church. It's the Church of Laodicea. How did Jesus get outside the church? They forgot to let Him in. Jesus is standing outside the door knocking. They forgot to let Jesus in. So the question we're going to ask is, for myself, is Jesus Christ the Lord of my life? For my family, is Jesus Christ the Lord of my family? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of my community group? Do you talk about Jesus in your community group? Is Jesus Christ at the center of my conversations with other Christians, or do we talk about the Red Sox finally going to turn things around, or the Pyths, they really got a squad this year? Or are we're going to talk about politics?What really brings things into perspective is when someone dies, someone close to you dies. I had a family member that passed away this week. And we had a gathering with my family yesterday, completely different. Just the reminder of how close we are to death. You know what we talked about? We talked about Jesus. We hugged each other. We cried. We told each other how much we love each other. We focused on what matters. Every single one of us needs to live every day like that, that this day could be my last. Because there will come a day that will be I last, and we have no idea when that day comes. Imagine if we lived like that, that every time you saw an unbelieving friend, you want to tell them about Jesus. This is the only hope you have. This is the only way to God. This is the only way for your sins to be forgiven.And with Christians, why aren't we talking about Christ all the time? It could be our last day. The greatest example I see this is in Elijah. I'll do this, and I'll close with a quote from John Stott. Elijah in 2 Kings, the day before he gets taken up to heaven, it's his last day on earth, you know what he does? He wakes what's up, and he preaches the gospel in Bethel, preaches about God, preaches in Jericho, preaches in Jordan. What you realize is he's just living a normal life. It's just what he did every day. He just shared with people about God over and over and over. He followed the normal schedule. He so followed God as shepherd. Didn't have to do anything out of the ordinary on his last day alive, and he goes to heaven in glory. He's lived his day every day like it was his last.Imagine if we did. Imagine if we as a church had that kind of urgency. There's people around us who are dying, who are going to die and spend eternity either with God in heaven or apart from God in hell. It all depends on what they do with this message. I can't save them with the message, but I can proclaim the message and then let the Holy Spirit do what the Holy Spirit will do. Jesus Christ is our touchstone. He's our defining center. He's our founder. And therefore, he has preeminence in our life as a people, our life as a church.Oh, here's the last thing I wanted to say before John Stott. The gospel is something so simple that every child can understand it. And the gospel is the wisdom of God, that once you start to plumb the depth... It's like the message, "Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior or Christ crucified," and you read it and like, "Oh, tremendous." But then it's like you take the message and you pull it out. It's like an accordion. And you see it's like level after level after level after level. And then you see it's dimensions. You're not just talking about one dimension or secondary, you're talking about multiple dimensions of the gospel as it applies to every aspect of your life. That's why we focus on the gospel.Okay, John Stott, end of his life. If you want more theology on the cross, the greatest work written on this and the most accessible is written by John Stott. It's called The Cross of Christ. It's probably one of the greatest books of the 20th century. It's a modern classic. In the preface to the masterpiece, this is what he writes: "I try to show that the cross transforms everything. It gives us a new worshiping relationship to God, a new and balanced understanding of ourselves, a new incentive to give ourselves a mission, a new love of our enemies, and a new courage to face the perplexities of suffering. In daring to write a book about the cross, there is, of course, a great danger of presumption. This is partly because what actually happened when God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ is a mystery whose depths we will spend eternity plumbing. And partly because it would be most unseemly to feign a cool detachment. For willy-nilly, we are involved. Our sins put Him there."So, far from offering us flattery, the cross undermines our self-righteousness. We can stand before only with a bowed head and a broken spirit. And there we remain until the Lord Jesus speaks to our hearts His word of pardon and acceptance, and we, gripped by His love and brimful of thanksgiving, go out into the world to live our lives in His service." Let's pray.Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are the head of the church. Jesus, we thank you that you died on the cross for our sins. Jesus, we thank you for this message, and we thank you for the power that you bring by the power of the Spirit when this message is proclaimed, when this message is understood and when this message is believed. I pray for every single one of us. Make us a people who love the message of the cross and love the way of the cross and live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Lord, I pray that you continue to save many people in this city, in this region. And use us in the process as we proclaim your gospel and pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) are joined by May (age 6) to tell the legends and truth behind of the Founding of Rome.----more---- We start with Aeneas escaping from a burning Troy. The gods tell him that it is his job to find the area where Rome will later be founded. Aeneas has many adventures, including visiting the underworld. He stops off in Africa where he meets Dido, the beautiful Queen of Carthage. They fall in love. Dido wants Aeneas to stay. However, the god Jupiter, reminds Aeneas that he needs to find the place where Rome will founded. Aeneas leave. Dido is furious. She curses Aeneas and his descendants and then kills herself. Later the Romans believe that the wars between Rome and Carthage are because of the curse that Dido made. Aeneas eventually finds the area near where Rome will one day be built. He settles there in some towns called the Latin people. Later one of the Kings of the Latins is thrown off the thrown by another man called Amulius. The old Kings daughter is a priestess. She has two children by the God Mars – Romulus and Remus. Amulius is worried that the boys will one day want to take his throne. So he abandons them by the river Tiber to die. However, the two babies are rescued by a she-wolf. The She-wolf takes them back to her cave and feeds them her own wolf milk to keep them alive. Later a shepherd finds them and raises them as his own son. As the boys grow up they realise who they are. They make a plan to get rid of the evil King. They are successful and they put their old grandfather back on the throne. The brothers now decide to found their own city. They find a place with seven hills and a river which looks good for a city. However, they argue about which hill to put the city on. Romulus wants to build it on the Palatine Hill. Remus wants to build it on the Aventine Hill. They argue and Remus is killed. Romulus now gets his way and the city of Rome is built on the Palatine Hill. We then discuss if these legends are true or not. We talk about how the Romans believed that they were true and that is important. The stories are probably not totally true. However, it is true that Rome was founded on the Palatine Hill and previously had been different Latin villages. So there is some truth in all the stories. PATRONS CLUB If you liked this episode you might like to join our Patrons' Club. We have exclusive episodes there and you can help choose an episode or be in an episode like May. You can join at www.patreon.com/historystorytime.

The twins Romulus and Remus were borne by Ilia, daughter of king Numitor, and the war-god Mars. They were condemned by King Amulius, the ruler of Alba, to be cast into the river. The king's servants took the children and carried them from Alba as far as the Tiber on the Palatine Hill. However, when they tried to descend the hill to the river to carry out the command, they found that the river had risen and they were unable to reach its bed. They therefore thrust the tub which the children slept into the shallow water at the shore. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2018/12/21/sons-of-the-wolf-the-birth-of-romulus-and-remus-founders-of-rome/

The Ascension of Christ is not about the absence of Christ but about the exaltation of Christ to the right hand of God — his promotion to the Oval Office of the Universe. Our King is not on Palatine Hill or Pennsylvania Avenue, our King is enthroned...

Augustus boasted that he turned Rome from brick to marble, and I think he  did. But did he also turn it from a republic to an empire and, if so, did his architectural projects help? We consider his majestic Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill.

Romulus Romulus, son of the god of war and the daughter of the king Numitor, was the first king of Rome and also its founder, thus the city was called after him. He formed the Roman Senate with one hundred men and gave the inhabitants of Rome a body of laws Chapter 5, page 152, "The RomanState." The Romans had been ruled by kings under the Etruscans. As a result, they distrusted kingship and devised a very different system of government.  According to  history, the first king of Rome was Romulus, who founded the city in 753 BC upon the Palatine Hill. Seven legendary kings are said to have ruled Rome until 509 BC, when the last king was overthrown. These kings ruled for an average of 35 years The overthrow of the Roman King, a political revolution in ancient Rome, took place around 509 BC and resulted in the expulsion of the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and the establishment of the Roman Republic. ... The Roman army supported Brutus, and the king went into exile The Roman Empire was founded when Augustus Caesar proclaimed himself the first emperor of Rome in 31BC and came to an end with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE. An empire is a political system in which a group of people are ruled by a single individual, an emperor or empress.

As part of this description I will provide some directions and guidance to specific locations to help you explore the site however it is difficult to provide an exact route as the access paths change depending on what archeological excavation or restoration work is taking place.  This tour starts at the entry gate on Via di San Gregorio.  Once inside the Palatine park, make your way up the hill until you are standing in a wide graveled area overlooking the sunken garden (also known as the Hippodrome). As you walk I will give you some of the general history of the site. Note that visiting the House of Livia and the House of Augustus requires arranging tickets in advance as only limited small group access is allowed and for both of these you will have a dedicated tour guide. For more details go to Coopculture.it The Palatine Hill is said to be the site of the first settlements in Rome and archeological evidence shows indeed that human habitation here extends back to the 10th century BCE.  Visible today are therefore the remains of multiple phases of building, rebuilding, stone robbing and overlaying of structures across three thousand years of people living on this hill. Although names have been given to some structures often there is no reliable evidence that links a person to a specific house however you will see that some structures are labelled with Roman names, these are largely a matter of convention rather than evidence that a particular person lived there. The rich and wealthy had long sought to live here overlooking the Roman Forum but it was Emperor Augustus who established the trend of Rome’s emperors making it their imperial residence from around the year 40 BCE.  Redevelopment of the hillside over the following centuries means that there is still some debate over the exact identification of buildings from Augustus’ time, some do remain but most of the major large-scale structures we see today were commissioned by Emperor Domitian in the first century or later revised or repaired by the Severan emperors of the third century. Domitian’s extensive palace, which is the first area we will explore, was designed by Rabirius, the construction and remodeling took roughly 10 years and was completed around the year 90.  This episode describes: - Domitian's Palace - The Temple of Apollo - The House of Livia - The House of Augustus - The House of Romulus - The Temple of Victory - The Temple of the Great Mother As well as other general history of the Palatine Hill.

Have you ever wondered where the word MILESTONE comes from? We need to thank the Romans for that one!:) Hear more in this podcast episode. About Michele Michele is an Australian language and travel blogger and ‘guide' behind The Intrepid Guide. Michele aims to enrich her readers' travels with her detailed destination guides, free travel phrase guides, and online language courses so they can enjoy meaningful interactions with the locals and avoid being treated like a tourist. Follow Michele on Instagram, and Twitter and Facebook and YouTube as she shares fascinating and little-known linguistic and cultural facts. Mentions in the Podcast History Romulus and Remus - Rome was founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus. Romulus wanted to found the city on Palatine Hill (where the Roman Forum is now), while Remus wanted to found the city on Aventine Hill Places Knights of Malta Keyhole (Il Buco della serratura) Is where you'll find the Knights of Malta Keyhole where you'll see the Dome of St. Peter's framed by garden hedges. Located on Aventine Hill Pantheon Pantheon - means “temple of all the gods" is a former Roman temple but is now a Catholic church. The Pantheon still holds the record for the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. Colosseum aka Flavian Amphitheater (il Colosseo) The name Colosseum comes from a colossal statue of Emperor Nero that once stood nearby. Trevi Fountain Is located at the junction of three roads. Trevi → tre vi e→ three roads. Il passetto The Passetto di Borgo, or il Passetto, is an elevated passage that links the Vatican City with the Castel Sant'Angelo. This was the escape root used by Popes if they were ever under threat. Via Appia Antica One of Ancient Rome's roads that leads all the way down to Bari in Puglia You'll find “mile stones” here. Placed along the road every 1000 paces. Used to calculate distances. Food Cacio e pepe Spaghetti alla Carbonara Tiramisù literally means “pull me up” Gelato / Gelateria (gelato shop) Gelato is more dense than traditional fluffy, whipped ice cream. Real Gelato uses flat, metal 'spades' instead of curved ice cream scoops Look for flat metal tins, which may have lids on them not white containers overflowing with brightly coloured gelato. This is fake. Gelato has a more natural colour. Let's connect: www.curiouspavel.com/links/all •••••••••••• Music By ••••••••••••• Rising Spirits Jay Man - OurMusicBox http://www.youtube.com/c/ourmusicbox #podcast #travel #italy

Peter and Paul are often depicted together in iconography in a circle, embracing one another in a brotherly hug with expressions of affection. In contrast, images of Romulus and Remus, the mythological twins, are usually facing away from each other. According to legend, Romulus and Remus, after whom the city of Rome was named, were abandoned at birth and cast into the Tiber River. When they grew up, the twins embarked on a quest to found their own city. Romulus and Remus disagreed about which hill to build their city on. Eventually, Romulus just started digging a ditch around the Palatine Hill and building a wall. Remus mocked his brother’s work, and in a fit of anger Romulus killed him; Rome and her empire were founded on fratricide. Now contrast this with the re-founding of Rome through the spread of Christianity by Sts. Peter and Paul. If anyone had a cause for strife and division, it was these two. Paul was the chief persecutor of the early Christians led by Peter. These two, at first, had little in common. It took divine action to make these enemies into brothers. Peter and Paul were ultimately bound together in a bond stronger than blood: the love of Christ. Subscribe to Daily Mental Prayer by Email Support and Donate Shop my Catholic Art --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/shalonecason1/message

Even though the usual cold weather had set in on the eve of Lupercalia, Octavia was determined to sleep well. Thoughts of the coming festival put a smile on her face as the young woman warmed her body under the blankets. She still lived with her parents basically at the center of Rome, near Palatine Hill. And Palatine Hill just happened to be at the center of the upcoming annual celebration.Lupercalia had not only been a tradition that Octavia had grown up observing, but one that her family, and indeed most of Rome had celebrated every February for centuries.But this year was special in that Octavia had really matured into a young beautiful woman. Her body had developed and her mind was not only more aware of the opposite sex but at times preoccupied with it. Before this time without her parents approval, Octavia could really only look on at the events and watch the older women run around and flirt with the other young men, hoping that one of the Luperci, (the group of Roman priests who administered the good luck lashing) found their body to strike.You see, after the priests sacrificed some goats and dogs to Lupercus, (the Roman goddess of fertility), they’d cut the skin of the goats into long strips. After smearing goat blood on their foreheads and then removing it with milk, the priests would then grab the ribbons of goat hide and run around laughing, whipping any female within range. While all the women obviously wanted to be touched by the goat hide turned to playful whip, no woman wanted to look desperate and run towards the priests, but away from them. It was like an innocent game of boys and girls chasing each other, where the girls acted like they didn't want to be pursued, but really enjoyed it, while the boys likewise feigned being burdened by running after the girls but were themselves, loving it. The women wanted to be lashed with the goat skin because it was legend that it would help them become more fertile - if the woman was already pregnant it was a sort of added blessing for a healthy pregnancy and delivery. In reality, only a few really believed in this consecration of fertility whereas most just wanted to have fun and potentially find a mate - even if it was just for a night or two. That was the other part of Lupercalia - the men would randomly chose a female’s name from a jar and be paired up with them for the remainder of the celebration. Few couples stayed together for the whole year.All of this celebration was made even more provocative by both the priests and women being somewhat scantily clothed. Octavia had heard stories from her grandparents that when Lupercalia was observed in their day, the priests were actually naked, but as time past, for whatever reasons, full nudity had become unpopular. It probably had something to do with Rome officially changing from pagan to Christian worship over a hundred years ago in A.D. 380. Nonetheless, Octavia had her outfit picked out and ready to go - the perfect mixture of concealing and revealing. Although she had tried it on numerous times in the weeks before, Octavia fell asleep imagining what she’d look like with it on tomorrow among all the other girls in the crowd.As the sun rose, so did Octavia - a bit earlier than normal. The excitement of the upcoming day, was difficult for the young woman to hide. It was the morning of February 13th in the year four hundred and ninety-six - the first of the three day celebration and excitement was in the air. That is, until Octavia overheard her father talking to her mother in a hushed voice. They knew Octavia was desperately looking forward to Lupercalia, so they both looked a bit dumbstruck when their daughter abruptly approached and asked what they were talking about.Her father, at least with some grace then preceded to inform his daughter that Lupercalia had been essentially cancelled - outlawed would be more correct. Unbeknown to everyday people, the Pope had been trying to do away with pagan practices for years now. Rumors that Lupercalia was going to be banned by Pope Gelasius the first had briefly circulated years ago - but nothing materialized and they were forgotten as fast as they were spread.Before Octavia could voice her disappointment and anger her mom quickly interjected assuring her that the Feast would still happen. The name was just going to be changed and some of the rituals involved. It would now be celebrated on the fourteenth of February and be called The Feast of Saint Valentine.The Feast of Saint Valentine? This is going to be a Christian celebration now? Why? And who was Saint Valentine? And Can I still wear my dress? These questions filled Octavia’s mind.Throughout the day, Octavia learned through her mother who seemed more keen on Christianity than her father, about this Saint Valentine. He had lived over two hundred years ago in a time when anyone who called themselves a Christian was systematically persecuted and even killed. In the year two-hundred and fifty, the Emperor Decius instituted “Emperor Worship” - mandating his subjects to worship and offer sacrifices to him. But because Christians were monotheistic and their dedication to the Christ did not allow for this, they had to choose between their state law and religious convictions. Because of this, many Christians were murdered and while some abandoned their faith many more went into hiding.Valentine was one of the leading servants in the Christian Church during that time. Legend had it that he ministered to persecuted Christians - healing children with epilepsy, and even once giving sight to a blind girl. But the most intriguing story that Octavia heard about Valentine was that he was performing secret marriages between young lovers in defiance of Roman law. He was eventually found out and Valentine of Rome was martyred on February 14th in 269.As the afternoon past, Octavia was enthralled by these stories and before she knew it, she had almost forgotten about the traditions of Lupercalia with the priests chasing the woman and the good luck fertile lashing of the goat skin. No doubt, she still wanted to be chased by boys, but something resonated within her as her mom continued telling the history and origin of the Christian faith. And even though she didn’t like that the Pope of Rome could change laws as he personally saw fit whenever he saw fit, Octavia’s youthful disappointment with him softened in light of Valentine’s story of sacrificial love. The stars had come out and Octavia readied herself for bed. But in contrast to the night before the young woman was now thinking about a new and different kind of celebration - in reality though, it was a different sort of love, with a different kind of sacrifice and a deeper sense of meaning. All the symbols of Lupercalia seemed like shadows of something greater and something true. The life of Valentine was inspiring, unlike the mythical legend of Romulus and Remus being reared by a she-wolf - not to mention much more believable.So on February 13th, near Palatine Hill, Octavia went to sleep on the eve of the First Feast of Saint Valentine now considering a story of a man called the Christ who gave up his life to save others - and how his followers hundreds of years after he lived followed in his footsteps. A love worth dying for she pondered, more theoretically than emotionally - must be something worth living for. As she dosed off, the young woman’s desire to be beautiful and to be loved didn’t diminish and her longing to flirt with boys obviously remained unchanged. But Octavia’s spirit seemed to have found something true and right in Saint Valentine that Lupercalia had never offered.As she noted how Lupercalia had been celebrated for hundreds and hundreds of years and that now in her own time had been essentially replaced by Saint Valentine - Octavia wondered how the new Feast would be celebrated (if at all remembered) hundreds of years after she lived. Whatever future times, cultures, and politics made of Saint Valentine’s celebration, Octavia could only imagine. But she dreamed it would still involve boys and girls toying with each other while also offering something objectively true and beautiful - Something that pointed towards the greatest kind of self-sacrificial love, not only seen in the life of Saint Valentine but more importantly, his God._____________________________Timeline: 250      Emperor Decius institutes "Emperor-Worship" and persecutes Christians269     Valentine is Martyred313      Edict of Milan - The Persecution of Christians is outlawed325     Council of Nicea (to determine Christian orthodoxy)380     Emperor Theodosius issues Edict of Thessalonica, (Nicene Christianity become official religion.496    Lupercalia outlawed in honor St. Valentine. ____________________________TEXT:John 15:13 NIV, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."John 3:16 NIV "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."Romans 5:10 NIV "For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!"SPONSOR:COMMUNITY RENEWAL - Community Renewal invites the whole body of Christ to take the whole Gospel ​to the whole city in order to demonstrate "our good works and glorify our father who is in heaven."631 N. 2nd StreetTucson, AZ 85705(520) 622-1482 

Freshly graduated from high-school, Marie's expectations were great when travelling to Rome over summer. And indeed, some of them were met- join us this week and take a trip to the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Trevi Fountain and the Vatican City. However, be assured that you'll also hear about how Marie had to get used to her travels always including some disasters- like a pretty precarious soap mix-up, more bathroom problems, as well as walking issues. Travelling Eggs returns to Italy and surely won't disappoint in terms of adventures and mishaps.

One of the seven hills of Rome, the Palatine is associated the mythical origins of the city and the very wealthy elite. It was here, starting with Augustus, that the Emperors made their home, looking down on the city they ruled over for hundreds of years. Here’s Gillian Shepherd. Guest: Dr Gillian Shepherd (Trendall Centre, La Trobe University)

Disciple Up #119 Show Notes What's So Important About the Cross? By Louie Marsh, 7-31-2019   Introduction: The only way to comment publicly on the podcast is at the FaceBook page, facebook.com/discipleup.  You can e-mail me at louie@discipleup.org.   Request for an upcoming episode I'm researching now.   Most of the information on today's episode is taken from John Stott's masterful book, “The Cross of Christ.” Link below.   The Centrality of the Cross   What part does the cross of Christ play in our Christian faith? Why did Jesus have to die on the cross, and why has the cross remained the central symbol of the Christian faith for over 2,000 years?   Christians agree that it was on the cross that Christ died to save our souls. But is it really central to our faith? Here's what Paul said, For Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speeches and high-sounding ideas, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power. I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God. 1 Cor. 1:17-18 (NLT) [See also Gal. 5:11; 6:12,14; Phil. 2:8]   To Paul there is more to the cross than it's use by God in redeeming mankind. He makes it central to his message and his life. As we begin our look at the cross of Christ we must start with attempting to discover why it is placed squarely at the center of our faith.   The Cross as a Sign and a Symbol   Every major group, movement, nation and religion has a visual symbol. Buddhism has the lotus flower and Islam the crescent. Ancient Judaism avoided a symbol for fear of making an idol, but modern Judaism has two symbols, the Star of David and the Menorah.   Secular states have symbols also. The Nazi's had the swastika, the Soviet Union had the hammer and sickle and the New Age Movement today uses the rainbow. Today almost every business or group has its own symbol (called a logo usually). This includes Christ's Church on the River!   In the early church the Christian symbol wasn't the cross. The earliest symbol was the peacock, which symbolized immortality. The first Christians also used a dove, the athlete's victory palm and of course the fish. Yet gradually the cross replaced all these. (It also precluded others from rising such as the manger, the empty tomb, etc.)   Instead the cross was chosen. It's two bars were already a cosmic symbol from antiquity of the axis between heaven and earth. When the church chose the central truth of the faith to commemorate they chose neither Christ's miracles nor teachings, they didn't even choose His resurrection! Instead they chose the cross. (By the way, just in case you're wondering, the crucifix doesn't seem to have been used before the 6th century AD.)   How they used the Cross   From the second century onward early Christians made the sign of the cross on themselves and others. Early Church Father Tertullian (A.D. 200) wrote this,   “At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of life, we trace upon the forehead the sign.”   Hyppolytus wrote The Apostolic Tradition (215 A.D.) about the traditional rites of the church. He recommended in private prayer to, “imitate him always, by signing the forehead sincerely; for this is the sign of his passion.”   It seems clear then that the sign of the cross was intended to identify and sanctify each act belonging to Christ. In the early church the cross of Christ was ever present in the life of the believer.   The Surprise of the Cross   It is surprising that the church chose the cross as their symbol when we remember the horror it was regarded with in the ancient world.   Cicero wrote, “To bind a Roman citizen is a crime, to flog him is an abomination, to kill him is almost an act of murder; to crucify him is – what? There is no fitting word that can possibly describe too horrible a deed…the very cross should be far removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen, but from his thoughts, his eyes, his ears.”   The first surviving picture of the crucifixion of Jesus is a caricature found on Palatine Hill in Rome, in a school for Imperial Pages. A crude drawing shows stretched on a cross a man with the head of a donkey. To the left stands another man with one arm raised in worship. Scribbled underneath are the words, “Alexamenos worships his God.”   In the light of all this why did the church choose the cross for its main symbol? Only one answer can suffice – that the centrality of the cross originated from the Lord Jesus Himself.   Scripture and the Cross   The centrality of the cross began early in Christ's ministry.  He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. (Mark 8:31-32)  The word plainly means “with freedom of speech or openly.” In a parallel passage (Matthew 16:21-23) the cross was so important that Jesus called Peter “Satan” when he urged Jesus to avoid it!   Jesus repeats himself in Mark 10:32-34. By saying the Son of Man will suffer and die Jesus daringly combined the two images of the Messiah in the Old Testament; the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 and the Reigning Son of Man of Daniel 7. Jesus said that He is both and will die before He reigns.   Jesus emphasis on the cross is also reflected in the amount of space the Gospels give to their accounts of His passion. It takes up between one-third and one-fourth of the Synoptic Gospels, and almost one-half of John!   The Apostles View of the Cross   How the Apostles viewed the cross can be discovered in their use of the word “tree.” Peter used it in Acts 5:30 and Paul used it in Acts 13:29.   Why is this so important? Because of what the book of Deuteronomy says, If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. Deut. 21:22-23   The Apostles deliberately drew to people's attention that Jesus died under a curse! Why on earth would they do that?   Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." (Galatians 3:13)  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)   These Scriptures show that the ancient people guessed right about the cross. The cross of Christ indeed became the nexus of heaven and earth! For on the cross God met and dealt with man's central problem – sin!  Jesus did this by bearing our sins in His body!   Why Did Christ Die?   The standard Christian answer to this question is four fold: 1) He died for us (Rom. 5:8). Professor Martin Hengel has shown that the concept of a person dying voluntarily for his city, family, friends, the truth or to pacify the gods was wide spread in the Roman world. They even had a special word for it. That's one reason they so quickly understood the Gospel.   2) He died to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). 3) Christ died to forgive our sins (1 Cor. 15:3). 4) Christ died our death, (Rom. 6:23) He died so that we might live.   All this means that the simple statement Christ died for our sins says a lot more that it appears to on the surface. It says that Jesus, though sinless and not needing to die, did die the death we deserve to die for our sins.   Do these answers fit the facts, as we know them from the Gospels? Or are they something cooked up later to explain what happened to Jesus? To find out let's look at two events beginning with Maundy Thursday and the institution of the Lord's Supper, and Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.   The Last Supper   When I read about the Last Supper the first thing that stands out to me is that Jesus doesn't spend the evening sadly looking back over His life and lamenting the fact He is going to die so young. Instead He look forward to His death as something that must happen and must be remembered!   Here in the only regular commemorative act ever authorized by the Lord Jesus, He is concerned not about His birth, miracles or teachings, but His death. Jesus is saying to us that above all else we must not forget His death and what it means!   According to Matthew and Paul Jesus said that His death and the shedding of His blood would forgive sins and bring about a new covenant (relationship) between God and man.   The Old Covenant was brought about by blood.  Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey."  Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words." ( Exodus 24:7-8)   Later the Prophet Jeremiah foretold a New Covenant,  "The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Jeremiah 31:31 (See Jer. 1-34 for the whole picture) Six centuries after this prophecy Jesus said that His blood must be shed to bring this New Covenant into being.   The Lord's Supper was an advance dramatization of Christ's death. It is designed in such a way that everyone in the room is a participant! No one is a spectator – everyone must get involved. To take part in it you must personally take inside of yourself the bread and the cup. This symbolizes the necessity of personally making a choice about Christ.   Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. (John 6:53-55)   The Garden   The Gospel accounts of Jesus in the Garden use some very forceful words to describe what happened there. Luke says Jesus was in “anguish,” the Greek word means “Appalled reluctance.” Matthew and Mark use the word “troubled,” which means a “loathing aversion.”   Jesus said He was “overwhelmed” with “sorrow.” Mark says He was “deeply distressed,” a phrase that literally means “horror struck!”   What caused these very strong reactions? The Cup. What was The Cup? Some say that it was Christ's fear of physical death. To that I say – No way Jose!! Christ who knew that there life after death, who had brought people back from death itself, could not have feared it.   So what caused this reaction? In the Old Testament The Cup was a phrase often used to refer to God's wrath. As a nation or people sinned the cup would get fuller and fuller until at last it was filled up. Then God in His righteous wrath would pour out His judgment until the cup was empty and justice was satisfied.   Jesus knew that He was going to take upon and within Himself all His Father's wrath for all the sins of the world! This knowledge that He – a sinless being – would experience all sin – caused Him such horror.  He foresaw that this would separate Him from His Father for a moment – and that in Paul's words,  “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Cor. 5:21, NLT)   Yes The Cup had to be drunk. People often say that God can do anything – but that's not true. According to the Bible He cannot lie, cheat or fail to fulfill His Word. He also could not avoid the need for a sacrifice for our sins. His love drove Him to make the greatest sacrifice of all – Jesus dying on the cross for your sins and mine!   Why the Cross?   There are many theories about why God chose to use the cross to forgive us. Was it to satisfy the devil, as the early Greek Fathers (church leaders) thought? Was it to satisfy the Law as the early Latin Fathers thought? Or did God's sense of honor and justice as Anselm taught in the 11th century?   While there is some truth in each of these ideas, the plain fact is that the cross is necessary because it arises from within the nature of God Himself. So how and why does God react to sin? The Bible uses several words that will help us understand this question.   The first one is “provoked”. In Judges 2:12-13; 1 Kings 15:30, 21:22 among others places we see this word used. It expresses the inevitable reaction of God's perfect nature to evil. He is never provoked without reason and must react this way or He would cease to be God!   The second word is “burning.” It's used in Joshua 7:1, 23:16; Judges 3:7-8 & Hosea 8:5 and many other places. It's when God is provoked to anger that He is said to burn with anger. (See 2 Kings 22:17)   So there is something in God's essential moral being which is provoked by evil, which is ignited by it and that burns until the evil is consumed.   Our third and final word is “satisfaction.” The Hebrew word means “to be complete, at an end, finished, accomplished, spent.” It's found in Ez. 7:8 and Lam 4:11 where God is described as about to “pour out” and “spend” His wrath. Notice that pouring out and spending go together. That which is poured out can't be gathered again, that which is spent is finished.   So, to sum this up, God is provoked to anger over sin, once kindled His anger burns and is not easily quenched. At last He unleashes it, pours out the cup, and spends it.   But this isn't a complete picture because it leaves out the background of God's wrath. What's that?  Believe it or not it's God's love!   Love and Wrath   In this section I'll be using human figures of speech here, because I don't have any others to use! Does the Almighty really have problems? Not from His perspective I'm sure, but from ours He's does! So I'm talking this way so that it will, hopefully, make sense to us mortals!   God's problem in dealing with humanity is described in Hosea 11:       "When Israel was a child, I loved him,         and out of Egypt I called my son.     But the more I called Israel,         the further they went from me.     They sacrificed to the Baals         and they burned incense to images.     It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,         taking them by the arms;     but they did not realize         it was I who healed them.     I led them with cords of human kindness,         with ties of love;     I lifted the yoke from their neck         and bent down to feed them.       "Will they not return to Egypt         and will not Assyria rule over them         because they refuse to repent?     Swords will flash in their cities,         will destroy the bars of their gates         and put an end to their plans.     My people are determined to turn from me.         Even if they call to the Most High,         he will by no means exalt them.       "How can I give you up, Ephraim?         How can I hand you over, Israel?     How can I treat you like Admah?         How can I make you like Zeboiim?     My heart is changed within me;         all my compassion is aroused.     I will not carry out my fierce anger,         nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.     For I am God, and not man--         the Holy One among you.         I will not come in wrath. Hosea 11:1-9   Paul expresses this dual nature of God, “he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26) This dilemma between justice and grace is always worked out in a way that is in perfect accord with both love and holiness.   The cross then is the event in which God reveals His holiness and love simultaneously. The cross is the only place where we can see that God's holiness and love are equally infinite. Emil Brunner wrote this daring sentence, “The wrath of God is the love of God.”   It might help us understand this if we think about why we discipline our children. We do it out of love – but they don't see it that way do they? Have you ever looked at God's wrath like a child?   Well you don't have to any longer because God's wrath against your sin was poured out, and spent on, the cross of Christ! There isn't any left to pour on you – it's was spent on the cross! That's what the whole New Testament means as Paul points out in Romans, “But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight—not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago. We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.” “For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times. And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus.” (Romans 3:21-26)   The Achievement of the Cross   What did Christ's death on the cross achieve? To really answer that question we'll need to look at the four main images that the New Testament uses of Salvation. They are drawn from four different places: the shrine, the market place, a court of law, and the home.   Propitiation   I know, I know, this sounds more like a disease than anything else doesn't it? Well it's isn't! It comes from the ancient temples and shrines. It means to appease or to pacify anger. Is God an angry God who demands bribes and gifts to forgive us? No!   Propitiation is necessary because as we've seen sin arouses God's wrath. Pagan religion, and in some ways legalistic Christianity, say that we must provide propitiation for our sins. But the Bible doesn't say that! In fact it says the exact opposite!   In the Old Testament God provided the Law – “for the life of any creature is in its blood. I have given you the blood so you can make atonement for your sins. It is the blood, representing life, that brings you atonement.” (Leviticus 17:11, NLT)   In the New Testament God presented Jesus to save us as we saw in Romans 3:25.   Dr. David Wells wrote, “man is alienated from God by sin and God is alienated from man by wrath. It is in the substitutionary death of Christ that sin is overcome and wrath averted, so God can look on man without displeasure and man can look on God without fear.”   Redemption   Our next word comes from the ancient market place. The word literally means, “a ransom or price of release,” and was used of buying or setting free slaves.   Just was have we been redeemed from?  “He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right.” (Titus 2:14, NLT) Moral slavery, guilt, God's wrath etc.   We must never forget the great price Christ paid to redeem us. What was that price? First his incarnation (when he became a man, Phil. 2:5-7). Secondly his shed blood on the cross (I Peter 1:18-19).   We're looking at these things in a logical manner. Propitiation inevitably comes first, because until the wrath of God is appeased (that is until His love has found a way to avert his anger) there can be no salvation for us. Next, when we are ready to understand the meaning of salvation we begin negatively with redemption. Which is our rescue, at the high price of Christ's blood, from sin and death.   Justification   This third word is taken from the law court. Justification is the opposite of condemnation, and both are verdicts of a judge. Justification is the positive counterpart of redemption. It bestows on us a righteous standing before God. J.J. Packer wrote: “Justification by faith appears to be the heart of God's saving grace…like Atlas, it bears a world on its shoulders.”   The Source of our Justification according to Romans 3:24 is God's grace. “…and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24)   Grace means something freely given that brings about well being. Therefore self-justification is impossible (Rom. 3:20) and so God does it for us (Rom. 3:21-25). This is grace, a free gift that brings good.   The Ground of our Justification. We are justified by Christ's blood, “And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ,” (Romans 5:9, NLT). The blood shed on the cross allows God to make us right with him. Therefore justification isn't amnesty or an overlooking guilt, or a pardon without principle. It's not some plea bargain with God. Justification is an act of justice, a gracious justice, but justice nonetheless.   The Means of our Justification, is faith. “So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.” (Romans 3:28, NLT). But faith in what? Faith and grace belong together. Since faith's only function is to receive what Grace freely offers, you cannot split them apart. So we are made right with God by our faith in his gracious sacrifice of Christ on the cross.   Reconciliation   The fourth word or image of salvation is very popular because it's so personal. We've left the temple and the market place and the court of law behind, and now we've come home.   “And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's judgment. For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God—all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.” (Romans 5:9-11, NLT)   To reconcile means to restore a relationship, or to renew a friendship. So this word presupposes an original relationship with God, which was broken, and that Christ recovered for us. Reconciliation is the opposite of alienation.   It's linked to justification in Romans 5:1: “Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” (NLT) Only after you have a right standing with God can you have peace through reconciliation.   Reconciliation is the fruit of justification. Peace is a synonym for, and a result of, reconciliation. It gives us peace and a personal relationship with God. According to Ephesians 2:13-18 it helps to bring us into peaceful and close relationships with those around us, especially those in the church.   How did this happen? According to 2 Cor. 5:18-22 it took place on the cross. “All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ's ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!" For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (NLT)   God was in Christ and together they reconciled us to them! God took the initiative, and reached out to us when we couldn't reach out to him!   Reconciliation is finished! All we have to do is accept it!   What Does All This Mean To Me?   The first thing that the cross assures us of is that God is not mad at you – ever!  His wrath's been placated by the cross. He's now free to love us completely and unconditionally because of the cross. We then should be free from fear (1 John 4:16-18).   The Death of False Guilt   False Guilt will die when we understand and take this to heart. False Guilt is feeling guilty over something that you shouldn't feel guilty about. If God has not condemned us how can we condemn ourselves?   And even if I am guilty the cross still rescues me! Justification teaches us that we are legally and morally in the clear – there's no reason to feel guilty. Reconciliation teaches us that God's not holding our sins against us- we have a restored relationship with Him! It also teaches us that we don't have the right to refuse to forgive someone God has forgiven!   This is the real answer to guilt – this and not psychology – holds the answers we need!   The cross says that God wants you! He paid an unbelievable price for you. This doesn't prove how wonderful you or I are – it proves how wonderful He is! He paid this price in spite of knowing, far better than we do, what terrible sinners we are!   And finally the cross teaches us that God's not going to give up on us! After everything He went through to propitiate His anger and to ransom us from sin – there's no way He's gonna quit on us now! (See 1 Peter 1:3-6)   Thank God for the Cross!   LINKS:   The Cross of Christ by John Stott - shorturl.at/GKZ56    

Another one for Rome

Summary: As we continue our series, "Prodigal Church" through 1 Corinthians, we see that the startup church has become rife with division. The One has turned into the Many, as they begin to lose their trust in God, and start to place it in leaders. Competing cliques are threatening to tear the church apart. How does God help them heal?Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in her neighborhood, churches, or donate to this ministry. Please visit mosaicboston.com.Morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic and if you knew or if you're visiting, welcome. We're so glad you're here. We'd love to connect with you. We do that officially through the connection card and the worship guide. If you fill it out legibly and then toss it, either toss it into the offering basket after or redeem it at the welcome center out front for a gift. If you give us your card, we will connect with you over the course of the week. Happy mother's day for all the moms in the house. Raise your hand if you are a mom and you're with us. We had more in the first servers. Please, let's give a round of applause. We love you. We know how much you... I know how much you sacrifice. My wife and I we have four.My wife is the champ, champ, champ, champ. Four times of a champ. I hear in the beginning we want to pray for the moms. We're going to pray for the Lord to empower and for the Lord to anoint. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the Great Father and you gave us parents and you entrust us to parents. Lord, we recognize that our parents are fallen, but they are to show us a glimpse of your love to us. We thank you for our moms, our mothers. We thank for the mothers here. We thank you for their love and they are the embodiment of love for many of us. They prove that true love entails sacrifice. They sacrifice their time and their health and they sacrifice much in order to raise us.We thank you for the moms in the house and we also pray a special prayer of blessing for those who perhaps have a mother who is ill. We pray for healing and we pray for grace. We pray for those whose mother perhaps has passed. I pray that you today comfort those who are grieving and we pray for those who long to be mothers and can't be. I pray Lord Jesus, be with them and satisfy the deepest desires of their heart and be with them. We pray for a special anointing upon our mothers, for your Holy Spirit to continue empower them to glorify you.We also pray for the preaching of the Holy word. I pray today. Show us Lord, that you call your church those who are called by your name to be united around the cross of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation for whosoever believes, and we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. E Pluribus Unum was the motto of the United States up until 1956 from the many one. The idea was lots of people from different countries, different nationalities, different races are coming together as a one United people.In 1956, the motto was changed to in God we trust because one of the things that we realized as a nation that unless we have a unifying faith, a unifying force around which to rally, we are now united and they said we need to trust in God as a nation. We need to put our hope in the Lord. With decades what we've seen is that we have come to this place where as we relinquished trust in God, faith in God, we actually become more and more divided. We today probably more fragmented as a society than ever along the lines of class, race, education, culture, economics, religion, politics, what have you. We have isolate ourselves in silos and echo chambers in which we recognize we can't have unity as a society. Maybe we can have unity in our echo chambers.What's the solution? How do we build a multicultural diverse nation? The solution has been presented that perhaps we need to reject any idea of truth. Let's become relativists to become an inclusive society. Let's get rid of truth that divides. Obviously, that's impossible because as soon as you've removed the idea of truth, what you're doing is replacing with a truth that perhaps is not a truth. Let's build an inclusive society, but we are going to exclude anyone who is non inclusive, doesn't work. We need something deeper, something stronger to unite us. Bridge that gap to bring down the walls and these strongest unifying force in the universe is God's love.Scripture doesn't say, "Let's start from the top and unite a nation, unite the people," says, "Let's start from the bottom. Let's start with the church. Let's start with local churches. Let's not even talk about unity amongst the universal church. Let's talk about the unity amongst the local church." If we as Christians, as believers, believe that the love of God is unifying, who are the believers in our lives with whom we are seeking to be unified? Who are the flesh and blood believers in our life whom we are seeking to love?We have an opportunity as a church that as fragmented as society gets, if we as a church are unified, it is the greatest apologetic that we have for the love of God. We say to the world, "Look at us. What else bring us together other than the love of God?" John 13:34 says, "This is a Christ words, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have commanded you. You also are to love one another by this, by your love amongst one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another."The church is important and this is why as Jesus Christ was raised, he said, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, son, the Holy spirit." Who does the baptizing? It's the church. You're baptized into the church. St. Paul is saved by Jesus Christ. After he is saved, he goes city to city, to city to plant churches. One of the churches that he plants is in a city called Corinth. This is our sermon series called Prodigal Church. As we're going through first Corinthians, why is it called Prodigal Church? Because this is a church that a little time after its founding had lost its way. The church was planted about 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.St. Paul goes into Corinth, spends 18 months there, builds up a core group, and then heads over to Ephesus. Then he hears that there has been division, and strife, and cliques in the church. He writes them this letter and as we read this letter, one of the things that we see is Corinth is not much different than Boston. I know a pastor who preached through a sermon series through 1st Corinthians, he's from California, he call it the 1st Californians, and I thought that was very appropriate. 1st Bostonian is very similar. Human nature has not changed and one of the things that we see is that St. Paul writes this letter, all these problems are problems of vitality. The problems in the church, the problems of division, the problems of sexual morality, the problems with doc, they're all problems because the brand new church with the Holy spirit is moving and people are getting saved and what people are realizing is we are very different.We would not be together otherwise. Then St. Paul says, now I want to remind you, the very same thing that saved you is the very same thing that can unify you and that's the gospel. We're going to frame up our time by looking at 1 Corinthians 1: 10-17 then we'll read some excerpts from chapters for chapters two and three would you look at the text with me. By the way, I don't always ask you to open up a Bible with me or an app today will be helpful because I am going to read some texts that will not be on the screen. 1st Corinthians 1:10, I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same judgment for it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that you are quarreling among you, my brothers.What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or, "I follow Apollos," or, "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized. None of you except Crispus and Gaius so that no one may say that they were Baptist and baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of Stefanus. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptize anyone else for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. This is the reading of God's Holy and narrate and fallible authoritative word. May you write these eternal truths upon our hearts.We'll frame up our time with three points. Pride divides, humility unites, and mission cements. Pride divides. Point one, St. Paul is an Ephesus preaching the gospel. He hears from Chloe's people. Who's Chloe? Most likely Chloe is a gospel patron. She's a woman who's probably a business lady, a leader in the community. How do we know that? While she has people, and usually if you have people, if you say to someone, "Let your people call my people," that means you are most likely affluent. Chloe's people here that the church in Corinth isn't doing well. It's being fractured that. These people in the church are polarizing around their favorite teachers or perhaps people who baptize them. Why would they do that? They live in a city center. They live in a place of sophistication and excellence, a place of ideas, a place where people obsess over success and the way that you primarily find success in Corinth at this time is through eloquence.Whatever your ideas are, it doesn't matter. The center of your ideas doesn't matter. It's all about the form. That's what matters more than anything. Self-promotion, reputation. You do it through eloquence. Here, they start to polarize teachers. They start to make teachers more important. They're far more important than the substance because what is the substance? The substance is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that God is Holy. We are sinners. The only way that we can be reconciled with God is by faith in Jesus Christ, son of God, son of man who was crucified for us, raised on the third day.Now, they recognize this sounds crazy to all of our friends, so let's not talk about that. Let's instead talk about our teachers. Let's talk about how smart our teachers are, how educated our teachers are. Come listen to this teacher. He's got this idea. Don't worry about the idea first, focus on the eloquence. Really articulate lots of degrees. Listen to that guy. What happens is they formed these personality cults. The first personality cult, the first team is team Paul. I'm on Paul's team. We love Paul. Paul letters to Christ. He's the church planner. He's the founder. He's an apostle. He saw Jesus Christ with his very eyes. We are the Paul people, loyal to the good old days in the good old ways, and it's not just the substance that made Paul effective. It was the form. We need to focus on the form.Let's dress the way Paul dressed. How did Paul dress? I don't know, but let's just imagine, very simple guy, brown robes with the rope for a bell. Let's dress like Paul. We know Paul was bald. Let's shave the top of our heads. Let's do that. That sounds like a good idea. We know Paul had a uni brow. We do. This is historical evidence. He wasn't the greatest looking guy. Let's grow uni brows. Let's be like St. Paul. Let's focus on Oregon music. Let's focus on singing only hymns. It's the form that matters, not the substance. Then there's the other group. There's team Apollos. Apollos is different. He's younger. Slick is more eloquent, more educated, trendier. He's a better spokesman for a place like Corinth. He doesn't wear a brown robe. He wears skinny jeans with suede shoes, a deep V-neck T-shirt that goes down to his knees with a leather jacket, perfectly trim beard, and he gets a haircut every week to look slick. He walks around with a hand mic on the stage. He's not a pocket passer like pastor Jan.Now, he's mobile quarterback and he doesn't say, "Jesus. Jesus." He says, "Jesus." He doesn't say, "I'm." He grunts. That's Apollo. We love Apollos. Apollos connects better with the culture. I'm on team Apollos, I love his neck tattoo and the Hebrew tats. That's our guy. Then there's team Cephas. Cephas is Aramaic makes for Peter. Peter and his wife had visited Corinth and they had brought the gospel to affirm and strengthen and encourage the believers there. Then all of a sudden people said, "Why are we falling Paul and Apollos? Let's follow the guy who spent three years with Jesus Christ. He saw the resurrected Christ, he had breakfast with the resurrected Christ. That's our guy. More than that, he's the first Pope. We definitely got to be with him."Then there's the people who are like, "I'm sick of these teams," and they pull the ultimate Jesus Duke. I'm on team Jesus and it sounds good. They got the best name, but these are the worst of all the groups because what they're doing is they're saying, "We don't need the church. We don't need apostles. We don't need the disciples. We don't need accountability or spiritual authority. All we need is Jesus Christ. We don't need scripture. We don't need any of that. We don't need denominations. We're above that. We don't need brands, labels, badges."Obviously, what happens when you start saying we're nondenominational is you become another denomination called nondenominationalism. That's team Jesus. Now, the question is why are they divided? What has divided them? It's the teachers, but it's not the teachers really. The teachers... if you got them all in the room Apollos, Cephas, and St. Paul and Jesus, they would say, "No, no, no. What are you guys doing?" The messenger means nothing. It's all about the message. The power's in the message. We are to be united, not divided. It wasn't the teachers that divided them. It was something else. It was their own sinful pride. It was their own egos. That's why Paul emphasize the word I. "I'm with Paul. I'm with Apollos, I'm with team Cephas." Why? Why do they do that? Well, pride always finds a pretext even in church.Why are we drawn to celebrity worship? Why is that even a thing when we know in of ourselves that there's something missing? There's a glory missing in us. What we do is we take our name and we try to attach it to a greater name. By doing so, we try to gain some glory from the greater name and live vicariously through them. It's more than that. It's because I'm with this teacher. I can push this teacher's agenda and ultimately the agenda changes. What you're doing is you start pushing your own agenda, agenda Paul, agenda Apollos, agenda Cephas, and you start to forget that it's not about us. These divisions are not the issue, they are symptoms of something else. Then that's something else is that they didn't realize that the power isn't in the person. It's not in the form.The power is in the gospel itself and this is point two. It's the gospel alone that unites us by humbling us. Humility unites. St. Paul analyzes the idea here in verse 13, he says, "It's Christ divided." It's a rhetorical question. Of course, now you can't chop up Jesus Christ and get a Relic for each person in the room. Was Paul crucified? Of course, not. Were you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course, not. You were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ who was crucified for you, who is united and apart from a whole Christ, you don't have a Christ.Jesus has everything and the best teachers keep pointing you to Christ. It's not about me. It's not about the preacher. It's not about the messenger. It's about Christ. Focus on Christ. That's what he's saying. Why mess around the cubic zirconium when you can have diamonds? Why eat a hot dog when you can have a rib eye? Why focus on a picture of the Himalayas when you can enjoy the real thing? Why you focus on messenger of Jesus Christ when you have access to Christ? Don't focus on the leaders Jesus. Focus on the Jesus who uses the leaders. By focusing on Christ, that's where we have power to advance his kingdom. Not through one person, but each of us working together.What's the solution to the problem of division? It's the humbling power of the cross to heal division. That's what he points into verse 17. Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Did Paul think baptism was important? Of course, when he met Jesus Christ on road Damascus, he was blind and for three days he fasted and prayed. Then before eating, he gets baptized. Baptism was that important. He would preach the gospel and baptize, but he says, "It's not the beginning. It's not the foundation and it's not what's most important. Baptism doesn't save. What does save?" He says, "The preaching of the gospel, not with words of eloquent wisdom."By the way, I had a professor of Greek Dr. David Alan Black at seminary who said by the way, when Paul here is talking about, "I am not coming with eloquence," St. Paul was one of the most brilliant people I've ever lived, writes one of the most beautiful paragraphs in all of scripture. But what he's saying is, "I'm not relying on eloquence or education. I'm not relying on myself. I'm relying on the power of God, which is in the gospel as applied by spirit, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." When we rely on our means, on our abilities, we lose power.For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God. Baptism doesn't save us as a sign of salvation like a wedding ring is a sign of wedding vows and baptism is important. If you as a believer have not been baptized, we would love to help you take that next step. We're actually holding a baptism seminar soon and we're holding four baptisms at the end of the service. We would love to have you join us and celebrate the baptisms, but baptism are their testimony of what's happening in the inside that we're saved by grace through faith. There's power not in the baptism, not in liturgy, not in sacraments, not in ritual form, not in preachers, not in missionaries. The power is in the cross. He says, "There's power in the cross."Now, this is shocking to the first century reader and this is one of the reasons why they wanted to divert attention from the cross to the teachers. Why? Because it's hard for us to appreciate what the cross symbolized in the first century. We use crosses as jewelry, as decorations. We put it on our church buildings and in our stained glass. It's clean, it's safe, it's sanitized. It's inoffensive before the first century listener to the reader. Cross was a bloody symbol of executing a criminal, shame covered, device for torturing. It was scandalous.St. Paul here says, "At the center of the gospel, at the center of our faith is a Christ who is insulted, mocked, ridiculed, scorned, derided, parodied, caricature, hung up on a Roman cross by nails like a piece of meat, and then speared to see if it was done." The Roman order, Cicero says, "The very word cross should be far removed, not only from the person of a Roman citizen, but from his thoughts, his eyes, and his ears." It was so vulgar, crude, gruesome that it was shocking to hear anyone say the word cross in polite society.Martin Hengel, the German historian theologian, he came up with a very important study on the crucifixion in the ancient world, and he tried to find every single reference for the cross in the ancient world. He says that they were few and far between. Why? Because sophisticated people were so ashamed of crucifixion that having witnessed it, they had the deepest visceral aversion against it. I guessed even saying the word. Hengel writes, "For the men of the ancient world, Greeks, Romans, Barbarians, and Jews, the cross was not just a matter of indifference, just any kind of death. It was an utterly offensive affair, obscene, in the original sense of the word."Why would you worship a criminal? Why would you worship someone who was crucified. Graffito was discovered in third century by archeologists when they excavated quarters of Imperial pages at the Palatine Hill in Rome, and it's an inscription in stone and most likely the work of a child and the child drew this in stone and he drew someone on a cross with the body of a man and the head of a donkey and underneath it says, "Alexamenos worships his God." It was an object of mockery.How in the world do you expect us sophisticated people to believe that God's son is dying on a cross? There's nothing cool about a cross, there's nothing sophisticated urbane suave about a cross. It's an instrument capital punishment, maximize both pain and shame. It's the electric chair of the time just took hours. It's the gallows, it's the guillotine. St. Paul says, "This is what has power to change us. This right here, when we look at the cross and see the son of God dying for our sins, this has power to uproot the ego and the pride that's making the world a miserable place, the pride of our hearts."When we see the son of God crucified, bearing condemnation, not just physical pain, but wrath of God that we deserve drinking from the cup of God's wrath and drinking it down to the drugs. We deserve that wrath. We deserve that curse because we... And this is what the cross says, "We are wretched sinners. We don't just make mistakes. We are wretched, wicked sinners." That's what it takes for our sins to be atone for the cross. Uncomfortable to look at, uncomfortable to think about, but that's what it takes and that's what God was willing to take.You are much worse than you think you are as am I, but you are more dearly loved than you can ever imagine. That's what the cross shows, the Holiness of God and His love coming together, His justice and His mercy coalescing inextricably. We are sinners, selfish, and disobedient, and unkind by nature. We don't live in a way that pleases God. We actually are indifferent toward God. He is irrelevant to us. We could utterly care less of God and His interest, His commandments, what His will is of His Holiness, of His purity.All of that sin demands a wage. It provokes the Holy wrath of God and His justice. Now, that brings us to an epic dilemma. What's the epic dilemma of an epic proportion? How can we stand before a Holy God? How can we ever be reconciled with God? How can we ever tone for our sins? Scripture says we can do nothing. There's nothing that we can do. If for the rest of our lives we live pristine lives, which we possibly can, we can't pay for our sins. Then the good news of Jesus Christ comes in. You can't do anything to save yourself. He has done everything to save you and all you need to do, all we need to do is believe in him, trust in him, call upon him, and he saves us. He saves us in this life and then gives us life, joy, and satisfaction for ever. But it all starts here at the cross. Him, son of God, hanging there for us, pouring out his love to the last drop.We see the utmost demonstration of God's power and His wisdom, and His love as He conquers Satan. So, sin and death. This is the crux of human history, the crux of Holy scripture, the crux of our lives, a crucified savior dying excruciating pain. Therefore, we as believers are called to live what kind of life? Christ made the way of the cross, the way of life. We are to live lives of humility. Christ though being God made himself a servant, taking the form of a human being crucified. This is the way of life we are to live a cruciform life, a life of humility, and sacrifice, and service.Therefore, why does St. Paul do this? Is it whole big ideas be united as Christians? Because at the foot of the cross, the ground is level. We are all washed with the same blood, united by God's love. Then the question arises, we don't have a cross. Where's the cross? We don't even have relics of the cross. Where is it? If there's power in the cross, why don't we have a cross? Well, Christ didn't remain on the cross. That's why the cross is power. Christ was buried and he was raised on the third day. That's why I actually have a problem with crucifixes in churches where Jesus Christ is still hanging on the cross. He's not there. He rose. He's in heaven, seated at the right hand of God the father.If the power is in the cross, we don't have the cross. Then where's the power? St. Paul continues, verse 18, "For the word of the cross, God infuses a word of the cross preaching about the cross with this power. The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it's the power of God." For it's written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where's the one who was wise? Where is the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks. Christ's the power of God and the wisdom of God for the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. You ever share the gospel with someone like friends, colleagues, roommates? I'm talking about like here, 2019 you share the gospel and you're like, "Let me tell you what I believe. So God created the world. We sinned against Him. He's Holy, we deserve damnation, but He loving sent his son, Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man. Born of a Virgin in Bethlehem first century and lived the perfect life. The life we're supposed to live, died, was crucified. The son of God was crucified. God died on the cross, was raised on the third day."What does that matter? You just believe in that. Just believe in that and all of your sins wiped away. I stand up here and as I preach, I'm like, "You think I'm nuts? This is crazy." Sometimes I'm like, "Maybe it's just a little." It's a wholly sounded crazy. It has wholly sounded crazy. From the very beginning, it sounded ludicrous. It sounded... St. Paul says, "That's the power. There's power in speaking of the cross." God uses that as a means. Why? Why does He use that as the means to save people? The Jews, he said demand signs and the Jewish people were waiting for Messiah who's victorious Messiah, kind of like Moses to come with a greater Exodus.For them, they couldn't believe that Messiah would come and he would die. He would sacrifice himself on a cross. They rejected that a crucified Messiah was an oxymoron. Reject that. The Greeks demanded wisdom or here in the original, it's Sophia because the Greek saying antiquity, they were the most cultured unlike the Barbarians. One of the greatest civilizations astound the world with their progress, and they were all about philosophy and reasons.For them, a crucified Messiah is nonsensical. It's ridiculous. They demand that God proved that He exists on their terms. That's the problem. When we stand pridefully over God and say, "God, give me evidence of your existence, but make sure that it aligns with my preconceived notions, my predetermined ideas of God." God never does that. God never reveals himself in a way that would actually stoke your pride. He will never do that. He has to reveal himself in a way that will approve the thing that is ruining your life, which is ego, hubris, pride. He sends his son to die on a cross for our sins, and he says, "That's the greatest power. That's the greatest wisdom."The word of the cross is folly. It says the Greek word is Moria. We get the word moron or moronic from it and he says, "This right here, it seems foolish. It seems like it doesn't make any sense. Why would anyone believe in this?" Then as it's proclaimed, as it's preached, God turns on the lights, turns on the lights, regenerates our heart, gives the gift of belief, gives the gift of repentance, makes you a Christian, and then you stand back and say, "What just happened? I believe that. I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, that he is my Lord and my savior."You didn't get to that place because you're smarter than other people. You didn't get to that place because you are more noble or more moral. No. You got to that place because God opened your heart. That's what St. Paul actually focuses on here is that we are so lost. We're not... Scripture says we are dead in our sins, that we can do absolutely nothing. Not one little bitty thing to save ourselves, whether that lost our hearts or that hard, and we are that spiritually blind and that's spiritually deaf.Therefore, it's not just the gospel that saves us. It's God's spirit who gives us the gift of faith and repentance and faith in the gospel that saves us. You see this in 1 Corinthians 1:23, "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called." Called by whom? Those who are called by God, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and wisdom of God. You thought that the gospel was folly and then all of a sudden you're on team Jesus and you're like, "This is the greatest thing ever. God died for me." Why? What made the difference? He says, "It's God's calling."Here's why I say this for two reasons. Reason number one is you can't be saved unless God saves you. Scripture's absolutely clear about that and sometimes we view salvation as a choice, plan B, this is the escape route used in emergency. Essentially what we're saying is whenever I want, whenever I choose, I will believe in Jesus and I will be saved. But for now, I'm fine. It's good to know that there's fire insurance and St. Paul says, "No, no, no, no, no, no. Let me explain just how lost you are." Look at at the end of chapter 1:26 for example. If you don't have the copy you just listen. Look how often he talks about calling and God choosing for consider your calling. Brothers, not many of you wise were according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing, things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God all because of Him.You are in Christ Jesus and because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Now, Christian, why do you believe? It made sense to me. Why did it make sense to you? Well, I realized I was sinner. Why did you realize you are a sinner? I don't know. One day just lights came on. Why did the lights... I just keep going down that path and then you get to a point where you said, "God saved me. I don't know. God saved me." Now, it was it because He saw that you were going to be a better person, that you were going to serve. No, nothing. God, why do you love me? "Because I chose to love you." That's the answer of... And by the way, that deep down inside we need to hear that. We long to hear that.My wife... we've been almost married 13 years. She asked me just randomly, I'm eating dinner and she's like, "Do you love me?" "Yeah, I told you." You're like, "This has happened." like, "Why do you love me?" "I know that's a trick question. We've already played this game. It is because you're beautiful." "What happens when I'm not beautiful." "You will always be beautiful because you're intelligent." Well, show me. You said you only love me for my intelligence. You only love me for my comedy. You only love me for my humor. You only love me..." Deep down inside what we want to hear is, "You love me, for me." That's the doctrine of salvation that begins with the doctrine of election. Most glorious doctrines of all scripture. God loves you for you. There's nothing. There was nothing in you. He just chooses to love you, not because you're going to be lovely, but because He is loving. That's why He chooses to reveal himself.2 Corinthians 2:9, "But as it is written, what no eye has seen. No ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him." These things God has revealed to us through the spirit, for the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. No one's ever figured out a way to God. It's only by the spirit revealing the truth. If you're not a Christian, you can't take it just whenever you want. You got to take it when the Lord is extending it to you. There's no guarantee that He will continue extending it to you until the moment that you die. Sometimes He does and it must be revealed to you and taught to you by the Holy spirit.So question, are you a Christian? If your response is, "I'm trying," most likely, then you're not. You're either in or you're out. Scripture's clear. If you're on the way to the room, you're not in the room. If you're on the way to Christianity, you're not in. As Yoda says, the great theologian do or not do, there is no try. Do believe, be a Christian, accept this call and the moment that you accept this call God will say to you, "I called you first and to humble you for the rest of eternity."Here's just an illustration to help you wrap your head around this. Imagine in a house, a group of men are playing cards, playing poker. There's a lot of money on the table and they hear the fire alarm go off because there's a fire on the roof. Now, if they're just a run out, someone's going to get the pot. We're going to lose the pot of money. So they keep playing and what they say to themselves is, "The fires on the roof. We're in the first floor it's okay, we're fine. Let's keep playing. Finish the game. Let's see who gets the money. And also, we have a key to get out the door's locked. We have a key to get out whenever we want." Then someone at the table realize that the key doesn't work from the inside, it works from the outside.Someone on the outside has to open the door. At that moment when they realize that they're absolutely helpless, they can't save themselves, they run to the door, they start knocking and they start pleading. They start calling out, "Somebody save us." That is the natural condition of a person apart from God. That to be safe, to be a child of God, to become a Christian, to have eternal life, we have to call out to God, cry out to God, plead with Him, "God save me. God, give me psych. God, soften my heart." It's not in my control. Finding the truth isn't in my power. It's all upon... all depends on God.Call upon the Lord while he is near. That's the point, and we don't do the walk down the aisle. You don't have to bow your head, and close your eyes, raise your hand in your heart. All you need to do is repent of sin, believe in Christ. Christ that you see on the cross dying for my sins, my Lord, my savior. Then for the Christian, the practical application here is you have no room for boasting. You have no right to look at another person and say, "I'm better than them." Not at another Christian, not at a non-Christian.Why are you a Christian? Because God's saved you, solely day of Gloria to God be all the glory. Every single Christian is a walking resurrection. Some people say, "I don't see miracles as much as we did in the book of Acts and in the gospel. Where are the miracles?" Every single Christian is a walking miracle. God saved you. Now, why does St. Paul write this about unity, about the cross, about the power of the gospel? Because it matters for the advancement of the Kingdom of God, for the mission of God. This is point three that mission cements and cements Christians together.The goal of everything he's writing here is for Christians to realize if there's divisions amongst us in the church that is going to keep us from being as effective as we possibly can to be used as God, as much as we possibly can be used by God. That's why he says in 1 Corinthians 1:10, he says, "I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, that there be no divisions among you but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment." That's a high calling, same mind, same judgment. He uses the word united, which is a very interesting word. It's the same word that's used when fishermen take nets and there's holes. They fix the net, they knit it together. What he's saying is, "I want you to be united, not just for the sake of being united. I want you to be united around the cross of Jesus Christ, around the gospel of God so that you can be as effective as possible in being fishers of men." The phrase that Jesus Christ use, same mind, same judgment.He's not saying, "Find the lowest common denominator that will unite you." He says, "No, focus on the gospel. That alone will unite." Don't pretend that you don't really believe what the scriptures teach. It's not superficial verbal consensus. It's not absolute tolerance of all perspectives. No, it's the truth of Jesus Christ and we are to rally around that truth. Many pursue unity for the sake of unity. The only way to do that is to say, "Let's get rid of doctrine. Let's get rid of distinctives. Let's get rid of convictions." What happens is all you do is you replace Christian doctrine with your own doctrine.After a while, you realize that the only thing really uniting us, it doesn't have the power to unite us. We see this in churches as churches progress from rejecting the Bible, rejecting the gospel, rejecting the doctrines of Christianity. They get to a point where it's like, "What's even uniting us?" Oxygen. We all breathe oxygen. That's about it. Then what happens as they close down, they lost the power. They're unified, not in spite of truth, but by truth. I don't know if you heard the phrase, if two people think the same way, one of them is unnecessary. Usually, it's like people use that phrase at a wedding and they're like, "Look, you guys are going to have different opinions on things and you will enrich each other with a value of differing opinions and et cetera, et cetera."The idea is that total agreement is boring and that phrase only works when it comes to taste, not truth. If you guys don't agree on what gravity is or don't agree about the most fundamental truth in the universe, there's going to be issues. I don't like that phrase because the Holy Trinity is in perfect agreement. Does that mean one of them is unnecessary? In heaven, we are going to be in total agreement with God and here God says, "I want Christians to be absolute unity about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Psalm 133:1 says, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity."Now this unity, once Christians are united around the cross of Jesus Christ, it's a unity that necessarily divides. The gospel is the most inclusive truth, everybody's welcome. But once people reject the gospel, reject Christ, it does exclude. This is 1 Corinthians 11:18-19 St. Paul says, "For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions, same word that we use in our texts. In 110 schismata among you and I believe in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized."Now, there shouldn't be schismata, you should be unified as a church. But when you're unified as a church, it's clear who's in and who's not in and why the St. Paul said, because he expects some disunity in the visible church because some people who profess Christ are not really Christians. He says, "Make sure that whoever is in, is truly a believer because the very worst thing that you can do to someone who is not a Christian, is to name them a Christian and then they don't seek God."Paul wasn't afraid of conflict. He fought for the truth. This is one of the reasons why he'd go to cities and riots would start and he would keep getting beaten. He was actually stoned and in one city, stoned with little rocks, not the way we use the word. Here's why? Because he kept telling people the truth, the truth of the gospel. Why did he keep telling people the truth? It's the only thing that can save them. I say this to safe to us. Many of us, we fear people more than we fear God. We are motivated by people's opinions more than we are motivated by God's opinion over us.Therefore, we're afraid to tell people truth. We tell people about joy in Christ, we tell people about satisfaction, we tell people about heaven, and we tell people about purpose. All of that is fine as long as we don't tone down the truth, as long as we don't de emphasize what God is telling us to lead with front and center. The gospel cannot be accommodated to culture. As soon as we do that, it loses all of its power. We are to tell people about a cross, we are to tell people about condemnation, and wrath, and a place called hell, and the penalty for sin, bad news. Then get to the good news which makes the good news glorious.Now, that's a lot of pressure and I want to end with 1 Corinthians 3:4-7 which kind of helps us recognize that it doesn't depend on us, which frees us to then share the gospel. Look at 1 Corinthians 3:4, For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos." Are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each. He says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth."He says, "The people, Apollos, Paul, Cephas not that big of a deal." He actually says, "They're nothing." What that does is it tells the other Christians that as God used them, He can use you because the power isn't in them. The power flows through them. They are nothing. God is everything and you don't have to do all of the work. I love this section because it takes the pressure off of me to save a person. He says, "Some person needs to just sow the seeds of the gospel. Another person needs to work the ground, pull out the weeds. Another person needs to do the watering."But ultimately who saves the person? It's God. That means you don't have to be the guy with th A frame next to Fenway that says, "Turn or burn." You don't have to do that. You don't have to give people million dollar tracks especially way... My wife said, "Don't share this example." I was at a wedding yesterday sitting next to the guy who is... This is what he does. He gives people... he hands the waitress one of those million dollar tracks that looks like a $20 bill. I thought he was giving her a 20 I was like, "Yeah, that guy's generous." Then she looks at it and she's like, "What is this?" Because it's not $1 billion. It fake. It looks like... He's like, "It's better than $20." This is the way you get eternal life. Oh man, I see you guys so mad.The way I view evangelism is, you pray for opportunities. If God gives you an opportunity, sow a seed, water it a little, share about God. Don't be afraid to talk about the cross because God uses all of that to help people meet Jesus. The more that we as a community boldly fearlessly share the gospel with people for as much as God, God gives us opportunity. God uses that for His glory. May the word of the cross continue to be our rallying cry at Mosaic Boston. May the word of the cross unite our hearts and our minds in perfect unity. My God, this is my prayer. May God unleash His power as we speak the word of the cross. Amen.Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you that you are on the move here in the city, that you are miraculously saving people, miraculously claiming people to yourself. We know that there are many more of your people here in the city, so I pray, use us powerfully, boldly, fearlessly, winsomely, lovingly to help people meet the God who died on a cross for our sin and was resurrected on the third day. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

In this episode of Latin, Dr. Fleming discusses the accusative case, as well as the supine. Please use these texts as necessary to follow along: Romanum imperium, quo neque ab exordio ullum fere minus neque incrementis toto orbe amplius humana potest memoria recordari, a Romulo exordium habet, qui Reae Silviae, Vestalis virginis, filius et, quantum putatus est, Martis cum Remo fratre uno partu editus est. Is cum inter pastores latrocinaretur, decem et octo annos natus urbem exiguam in Palatino monte constituit XI Kal. Maias, Olympaids sextae anno terto, post Troiaie excidium, ut qui plurimum minimumque tradunt, anno trecentesimo nonagesimo quarto. THE Roman empire, than which the memory of man can recall scarcely any one smaller in its commencement, or greater in its progress throughout the world, had its origin from Romulus; who, being the son of a vestal virgin, and, as was supposed, of Mars, was brought forth at one birth with his brother Remus. While leading a predatory life among the shepherds, he founded, when he was eighteen years of age, a small city on the Palatine Hill, on the 21st day of April, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad, and the three hundred and ninety-fourth after the destruction of Troy. In nomine Patris, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Sancte Michaël Archangele, defende nos in proelio; contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen. Original Air Date: October 7, 2016 Show Run Time: 31 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner Episode page: https://fleming.foundation/2016/10/latin-episode-6/ The Fleming Foundation Presents Latin: https://fleming.foundation/category/podcasts/lat/ Subscribe: https://fleming.foundation/membership-signup/ The Fleming Foundation Presents Latin℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2016. All Rights are Reserved.

In this episode of Latin, Dr. Fleming discusses the ablative case, as well as the 4th Declension. Please use these texts as necessary to follow along: Romanum imperium, quo neque ab exordio ullum fere minus neque incrementis toto orbe amplius humana potest memoria recordari, a Romulo exordium habet, qui Reae Silviae, Vestalis virginis, filius et, quantum putatus est, Martis cum Remo fratre uno partu editus est. Is cum inter pastores latrocinaretur, decem et octo annos natus urbem exiguam in Palatino monte constituit XI Kal. Maias, Olympaids sextae anno terto, post Troiaie excidium, ut qui plurimum minimumque tradunt, anno trecentesimo nonagesimo quarto. THE Roman empire, than which the memory of man can recall scarcely any one smaller in its commencement, or greater in its progress throughout the world, had its origin from Romulus; who, being the son of a vestal virgin, and, as was supposed, of Mars, was brought forth at one birth with his brother Remus. While leading a predatory life among the shepherds, he founded, when he was eighteen years of age, a small city on the Palatine Hill, on the 21st day of April, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad, and the three hundred and ninety-fourth after the destruction of Troy. In nomine Patris, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Sancte Michaël Archangele, defende nos in proelio; contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen. Original Air Date: September 26, 2016 Show Run Time: 37 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner Episode page: https://fleming.foundation/2016/09/latin-episode-5/ The Fleming Foundation Presents Latin: https://fleming.foundation/category/podcasts/lat/ Subscribe: https://fleming.foundation/membership-signup/ The Fleming Foundation Presents Latin℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2016. All Rights are Reserved.

¡#EnModoAvión llega a la Ciudad Eterna! #Roma nos enamora y nos invita a unirnos a las hordas de turistas para recorrer sus ruinas y callejones. Encontramos secretos escondidos, nos mojamos en la lluvia y aprendimos que para conocer Roma “no basta una vida”. ¡Vení a recorrerla con nosotros! Glosario #EnModoAvion
 * Fontana di Trevi * Panteon * Barrio Trastevere, Freni e Frizioni y La Botticella * Vaticano y Capilla Sixtina * Castillo de San Angelo
 * Corte Suprema * Mausoleo de Augusto * Plaza del Popolo * Plaza España y Antico Caffé Greco. 
 * Coliseo * Foro Romano
 * Palatine Hill * Monumento Vitorio Emanuele II Lo que vimos * Thor Ragnarok —————— #viajeros #podcast #podcasteros #podcastdeviaje #podcastenespañol #turistas #nomadasdigitales #digitalnomad #viajeroslatinos #argentinosporelmundo #wanderlust #ondemand #podcasting

Summary of today's show: On a day without much news from the College of Cardinals, Scot Landry took the opportunity to take part of the Station Church tradition and visit the Basilica of Ss. Cosmas and Damian for Mass and then to interview Worcester seminarian Donato Infante, Fr. Norman Tanner, SJ, and Br. Mark McBride, TOR, in which he learned about the twin doctors to whom the church is dedicated and the fact that Masses have been celebrated there every day since 525AD. Then Scot spoke to Terry Donilon, Cardinal Seán's spokesman, about how the media is covering the interregnum and especially letting the world get to know Cardinal Seán. And finally, he talks to a group of pilgrims from St. John's Seminary's Master of Arts in Ministry program who are following in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II from Poland to Italy. Listen to the show: Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: Today's host(s): Scot Landry Today's guest(s): Donato Infante, Fr. Norman Tanner, Br. Mark McBride, Terry Donilon, Fr. Chris O'Connor, Mary Jo Kriz, Aldona Lingertat, Beth Joyce Links from today's show: Today's topics: LIVE from Rome: Station Church of Ss. Cosmas and Damian; Seminarian and Priest; Cardinal Seán's spokesman; Pilgrims from Boston 1st segment: Scot Landry welcomed everyone to the show. It's been a slow news day thus far in Rome as the cardinals are in a silent period. So instead Scot participated in the ancient Roman tradition during Lent of visiting the station churches. This practice dates to the fourth century and involves visiting 40 different churches in Rome during the 40 days of Lent. Each morning priests and seminarians from the North American College lead English-speaking pilgrims in Rome to the station church for Mass at 7am. George and Scot met with a group of about 50 seminarians at 6:15am at the bottom on the Janiculum hill and made the 35 minute walk to the basilica of Sts. Cosmas and Damian. It's next the Roman Forum. The journey along the streets is silent by rule of the seminary. It's moving to walk through the quiet streets of Rome at that hour and see most of the seminarians praying the Rosary. Today, there were about 40 concelebrating priests, 60 seminarians and 60 others in this small, but beautiful basilica, which was consecrated a church in the year 535. There has been a Mass there everyday since. Then played of the sounds of chant from the Mass. 2nd segment: Scot was joined by seminarian from the Diocese of Worcester, Donato Infante. Donato said the tradition of the station churches began in the early centuries of Christianity where the Bishop of Rome visited each of the churches of his diocese during Lent. Sometime in history the tradition stopped in the 1970s, the North American College revived tradition and other colleges in the city started doing the same. Scot noted that nobody spoke while walking from the NAC. Donato said the faculty explicitly encourages them to take the walk as a time to pray to make it a pilgrimage to the churches. Scot asked him what he likes about the station churches. Donato said many of the churches are beautiful and have the tombs of many of the saints in the Roman Canon of the Mass. To go to their tombs is a wonderful pilgrimage and a great way to celebrate Lent. Others who attend are priests on sabbatical at the Casa Santa Mariae and faculty and students at universities in Rome. Scot asked if he has a favorite church. Donato said San Clemente is his favorite because of the mosaic in the apse that is very old. He said a quarter of the seminarians go more than a couple of times per week, most go occasionally and they all go on Ash Wednesday to Santa Sabina as that's the required community Mass. More music and prayer from the Mass is now played. 3rd segment: Scot now welcomed Fr. Norman Tanner, a professor at the Gregorian University from Great Britain. Scot asked about the number of churches in Rome and their significance. Fr. Tanner said it's a very ancient custom and Rome has 40 ancient churches which are station churches. Fr. Tanner said the 7am Mass is a perfect time to get in before their first 8:30am Mass. Scot asked about Saints Cosmas and Damian. He said they were martyrs of the early church and are mentioned in the 1st Eucharistic Prayer. They were both medical doctors and surgeons. Scot asked about the Gregorian. Fr. Tanner said many of the NAC seminarians and newly ordained study there. It was founded in 1554, two years before the death of St. Ignatius and it's been a work of the Society of Jesus. There are about 2,500 students from almost all countries of the world. Fr. Tanner said as a church historian it's a unique privilege to be in Rome. The history of the Church helps in the study for the priesthood to understand the Christians of the past, like Cosmas and Damian. More prayer from the Mass. 4th segment: Scot welcomes Br. Mark McBride, who works at St. Cosmas and Damian Basilica. He asked him how today compared to the Sunday liturgies. Brother said it's not a parish church and so serve tourists and those with devotion to Cosmas and Damian. This day in Lent is special for the church. It has special Masses, including a special Mass in the evening with their titular cardinal. They have had English, German, and French groups come in for Mass and then their principal Mass would be in the evening at which the relics of the saints would be exposed for veneration. Scot said many people might not know much about those saints. Br. McBride said they were doctors in Syria and martyred in 313 AD. People who admired them had great devotion to them and built two major basilicas for them, one in Rome and one in Constantinople. When Constantinople fell, so did the church. So the one in Rome is the remaining sanctuary. The two were twin brothers and they received no money for their services. When questioned by the Romans why they didn't charge for their services, they said they did it for the Lord and so were martyred. In later centuries, people came to the basilica to pray for cures from their ailments. People from the East still come, many from Russia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the crypt. The church was a part of a former Roman library built in 77 AD. It was used that way until 525 when the library was given to Pope Felix who converted it to a church. Pope Gregory the Great in the 600s had a major devotion to the saints there and to the Madonna della Salute, Our Lady of Good Health, which is also in the church. Mass has been said in the church every day since 525. Only a few other churches can boast such longevity. Scot said the relics of Ss. Cosmas and Damian are in the lower church. Br. McBride noted that the lower church or Crypt Church was not the lower level at first, but was ground level in the 6th century. In the 1600s, the basilica was cut horizontally which made it two churches. The lower church contained the relics of the saints as brought back to Rome by Pope Gregory. Scot said Br. McBride is originally from the San Francisco area. He asked him what led him to become a Franciscan and how did he come to Rome. Br. McBride said as a child he had a great devotion to the Franciscans, especially after studying the life of St. Francis. The pastor of his parish spoke of the TOR, Third Order Regular, Franciscans and he sought them out. He is not a priest, but a consecrated religious. From there he worked in their high school in the Philadelphia archdiocese for 20 years, then worked as provincial treasurer in the United States. From there he became general treasurer of the whole order which is headquartered at Ss. Cosmas and Damian. Since coming to Rome, he has been made superior of the friary which has friars from around the world. He said many Americans will know the TORs because they sponsor Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio and St. Francis College in Loreto, Pennsylvania. They also have parishes in Florida and Texas. Living in Rome is at times it's an incredible feeling to the point it's not even believable. To live at the church where St. Francis must have once prayed is incredible. The feeling of being in a room where millions of prayers have been offered is sometimes hard to even believe. You almost sense in the air that this is ancient. This is hard for Americans to grasp. The doorknobs of the church were made in 1400, centuries before America was founded. The choir stalls are from the 1600s. But because it looks so nice, it's hard to imagine they're so old. It makes him feel Catholic, a religion that knows no nationality, no single background. Scot asked how being situated right by the Colosseum and Forum impact the number of visitors who come to the church or the experience of praying there. Fr. McBride said they are in the Ancient District of Rome, at the feet of the Palatine Hill. That's where Rome was founded and became the center of the world for hundreds of years. Because it's ancient and you can see the development of peoples from all the oldest periods of Rome, all blending together. To be there at the church, you are at the point of convergence of all those periods of time. In the church it's the same, kneeling and praying in a place that goes back to a time before Christianity. When it was a library, it was a place dedicated to medicine and there is a sense of continuity, a sense of ever-old, ever-young. Today, they're looking at making the basilica a center for bioethics to continue that idea. Scot asked Br. McBride's perspective on the papal transition today. He said the ancient basilica reminds us that this isn't the first conclave. He describes this moment as a time of grace. Christ has promised us a Church. We believe what the cardinals are doing is no accident. We believe whoever the cardinals choose will be the successor of Peter. The Church isn't a museum. It lives and renews itself, renews itself with a new leader. Br. McBride said they don't have favorites in the conclave, but they would of course love to see a Franciscan pope. They're waiting to see how the Holy Spirit works through the choice that is made. The new Pope is elected for a reason. He compared the interregnum to Lent and awaiting Easter. More prayer from the Mass. 5th segment: Scot Landry, reporting now from the Borgo Pio near the Vatican, welcomes Terry Donilon, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, to the show. Scot asked Terry what Rome is like now in this anticipation. Terry said it feels like a celebration waiting to happen. There have been long lines waiting to get into St. Peter's, people milling about in the Square, attending the Holy Hour last night with the cardinals. He gets a sense that people are in an anticipatory state. Scot noted Cardinal Seán did a lot of media interviews earlier this week and the American cardinals gained praise from around the world for their transparency. But as of yesterday there won't be further press conferences as the cardinals decided not to speak. He asked Terry what the cardinal's key themes were. Terry said the cardinal felt it would be good to take the time in the Congregations to assess the other cardinals so when conclave began he knew who he would vote for. The cardinal was very aware of the immense decision he and the other cardinals would be about to make. The cardinal is in a deep prayerful state right now to prepare for that. Scot said more than 5,000 journalists have already been credentialed, including most from Boston. Why are they coming? Terry said Boston is a heavily Catholic community and the local news recognizes that this is important to the 1.8 million Catholics in the archdiocese. It's an opportunity to see this rare transition in the Church. All the major networks and affiliates and newspapers are present and have invaded Rome. Scot said many in the media were complimenting the American cardinals on how they were more open about process and other items they could talk about. That seems to be different from the culture of the Church in the rest of the world. Terry said the US Church believes in transparency. The cardinal finds an opportunity to talk to the people back in Boston. The rest of the world is slow to pick up on that. He also noted that the rest of the Church in the world hasn't reached the same level of the use of digital media and technology. There isn't a diocese in the world that brought the same level of expertise and assets to communicate back to the people in the archdiocese. The cardinal said before he left Boston that there is a responsibility to report back to the people what can be reported. It's unfortunate that the level of communication has changed but there were reports in the Italian press that made a lot of people take pause, although it wasn't anything that came from the American cardinals. Scot asked Terry his impression of the city, things you might not see elsewhere. Scot noted that the city rises late in the morning. He added that a lot of people come to visit St. Peter's and it's one of the best people-watching spots in the world. Terry said you see lots of priests and religious in great numbers walking the streets, seeing religious photos and items on display everywhere and clear signs that people are proud of their Catholic faith. He notes that many people speak English and he feels that more people speak English now than when he was in Rome in the late 90s. Terry said the story is building toward the conclave. The media is analyzing the top contenders for pope, although the college of cardinals has a way of surprising us. He said he's working to bring a Boston flair and focus top the coverage back home. It's a major story and recognition of the pope's influence on world affairs. Scot said the three main questions he gets from people when they know he's from Boston are: When's the conclave going to start? Who does he think the next pope will be? Does Cardinal Seán have a chance? What other questions are Terry getting? Terry said people want to know who Cardinal Seán really is. He's given the world a glimpse of who he really is. In Boston, he's well known, but the outside world is getting a glimpse of him and of the Archdiocese of Boston. Terry thinks the world is getting a chance to celebrate the hard work that has been done in Boston by the priests, religious, and laity of the archdiocese. People think Cardinal Seán is interesting because he stands out from the other cardinals and has had an influence through his work in the sexual abuse crisis but also his emphasis on the New Evangelization. Terry said no one realistically thinks Cardinal Seán will be elected despite his qualifications and when he returns home after being celebrated so much, it will be a little surreal. At the worst, it opens the eyes of the world that the cardinals and bishops in America are doing good work on behalf of the Church and may open the door for a future American cardinal being elected pope. 6th segment: Scot, reporting from outside St. Peter's Square, welcomed a pilgrimage group from the Master of Arts in Ministry program at St. John's Seminary, including Fr. Chris O'Connor, Mary Jo Kriz, and Beth Joyce. He asked Mary Jo about the first part of their trip in Poland and what people should see on a pilgrimage there. She said Our Lady of Czestochowa was great but everything there, especially the people whose faith shines through in their daily life. The Divine Mercy chapel was perhaps the best. Scot noted they are tracing the footsteps of Pope John Paul II. He asked Fr. Chris where else they have visited. Fr. Chris said they went to Auschwitz, where even there they saw a glimmer of hope in the tomb of St. Maximilian Kolbe. You feel John Paul's presence in the city of Krakow, where he was born. He said there are more than 6,000 public statues of John Paul throughout Poland. You can feel his presence in that country. Scot asked Beth about the great faith of the people of Poland under oppression. He asked her about these salt mines in which the people had carved cavernous churches underground complete with altars and statues. Beth said the common people went down deep in to the earth to carve these beautiful reminders of our Lord. She said it shows the faith that permeates Poland. Scot asked Aldona Lingertat about their itinerary in Rome for the days that they are there. She said today they were going on a walking tour of Rome, including Mass in St. Peter's. They walked throughout the basilica and in the afternoon for the Scavi tour. The next day they were to go to Assisi, ending with Vespers in the chapel of San Damiano. On Friday, they were to visit the basilicas and more of the city, plus Mass at the tomb of Pope John Paul II. She's been to Rome three times. Her favorite part is being steeped in the faith all around her in Rome. Scot noted that it's Beth's third trip to Rome, but the first time since her son started studying at the North American College. He asked her how it's different this time. She said came at Christmas to see her son and it's a great blessing that he's studying in Rome for the priesthood. Scot said Cardinal Seán says that vocations are everyone's business. He asked Beth what she did in her household that helped plant the seed for her son Kevin. When she realized her faith is a gift, she wanted to share it and wanted to communicate it to her child. She said the lives of the saints are great to share with them from a very early age because they were real people and they made it look possible to follow Jesus. Scot noted that originally the pilgrimage was to be at the General Audience, so he asked Aldona what it was like to be in Rome during the sede vacante. Aldona said the Vatican Post Office issues a special stamp during the sede vacante and she bought some for herself. These will be very rare. She was interviewed by Italian TV when she bought them. It's a unique moment in time and the Holy Spirit is at work. She said her hope is that the new pope will be holy, prayerful and humble like our two previous popes. Also someone who is strong and courageous. Scot asked Fr. Chris what he hopes people take away from these pilgrimages to Rome. He said the long tradition and history of preaching the Gospel and proclaiming Christ Jesus. There is a hopefulness in the sede vacante with the knowledge of the continuity of the Church.

Professor Kleiner discusses the increasing size of Roman architecture in the second and third centuries A.D. as an example of a "bigger is better" philosophy. She begins with an overview of tomb architecture, a genre that, in Rome as in Ostia, embraced the aesthetic of exposed brick as a facing for the exteriors of buildings. Interiors of second-century tombs, Professor Kleiner reveals, encompass two primary groups -- those that are decorated with painted stucco and those embellished primarily with architectural elements. After a discussion of the Temple of the Divine Antoninus Pius and Faustina and its post-antique afterlife as the Church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda, Professor Kleiner introduces the Severan dynasty as it ushers in the third century. She focuses first on the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum, the earliest surviving triple-bayed arch in Rome. She next presents the so-called Septizodium, a lively baroque-style facade for Domitian’s Palace on the Palatine Hill. The lecture concludes with the colossal Baths of Caracalla, which awed the public by their size and by a decorative program that assimilated the emperor Caracalla to the hero Hercules.

Professor Kleiner investigates the major architectural commissions of the emperor Domitian, the last Flavian emperor. She begins with the Arch of Titus, erected after Titus' death by his brother Domitian on land previously occupied by Nero's Domus Transitoria. The Arch celebrated Titus' greatest accomplishment--the Flavian victory in the Jewish Wars--and may have served as Titus' tomb. Professor Kleiner also discusses the Stadium of Domitian, the shape of which is preserved in Rome’s Piazza Navona. Her major focus is the vast Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill designed by the architect Rabirius and featuring Domitian as dominus et deus (lord and god). Constructed from brick-faced concrete and revetted with multicolored imported marbles, this structure was divided into public and private wings, and was so magnificent that it served as the urban residence of all subsequent Roman emperors. The lecture concludes with the so-called Forum Transitorium, a narrow forum begun by Domitian and finished by his successor Nerva, which features a temple to Domitian's patron goddess Minerva and a series of decorative columnar bays that create a lively in-and-out undulation that heralds the beginning of a "baroque" phase in Roman architecture.

Professor Kleiner discusses the increasing size of Roman architecture in the second and third centuries A.D. as an example of a "bigger is better" philosophy. She begins with an overview of tomb architecture, a genre that, in Rome as in Ostia, embraced the aesthetic of exposed brick as a facing for the exteriors of buildings. Interiors of second-century tombs, Professor Kleiner reveals, encompass two primary groups -- those that are decorated with painted stucco and those embellished primarily with architectural elements. After a discussion of the Temple of the Divine Antoninus Pius and Faustina and its post-antique afterlife as the Church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda, Professor Kleiner introduces the Severan dynasty as it ushers in the third century. She focuses first on the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum, the earliest surviving triple-bayed arch in Rome. She next presents the so-called Septizodium, a lively baroque-style facade for Domitian’s Palace on the Palatine Hill. The lecture concludes with the colossal Baths of Caracalla, which awed the public by their size and by a decorative program that assimilated the emperor Caracalla to the hero Hercules.

Professor Kleiner investigates the major architectural commissions of the emperor Domitian, the last Flavian emperor. She begins with the Arch of Titus, erected after Titus' death by his brother Domitian on land previously occupied by Nero's Domus Transitoria. The Arch celebrated Titus' greatest accomplishment--the Flavian victory in the Jewish Wars--and may have served as Titus' tomb. Professor Kleiner also discusses the Stadium of Domitian, the shape of which is preserved in Rome’s Piazza Navona. Her major focus is the vast Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill designed by the architect Rabirius and featuring Domitian as dominus et deus (lord and god). Constructed from brick-faced concrete and revetted with multicolored imported marbles, this structure was divided into public and private wings, and was so magnificent that it served as the urban residence of all subsequent Roman emperors. The lecture concludes with the so-called Forum Transitorium, a narrow forum begun by Domitian and finished by his successor Nerva, which features a temple to Domitian's patron goddess Minerva and a series of decorative columnar bays that create a lively in-and-out undulation that heralds the beginning of a "baroque" phase in Roman architecture.

This video explores several monumental buildings in Imperial Rome, notably, the Imperial palaces of Rome.

This video explores several monumental buildings in Imperial Rome, notably, the Imperial palaces of Rome.

Transcript -- This video explores several monumental buildings in Imperial Rome, notably, the Imperial palaces of Rome.

Transcript -- This video explores several monumental buildings in Imperial Rome, notably, the Imperial palaces of Rome.