The year is 33 AD (CE), although the Empire does not know it yet.
A depressed and paranoid Emperor Tiberius has lost both his sons and betrayed the love of his life, his first wife, for a throne he never wanted. He has retreated to his country house in Capri, from where he orders the executions of his political rivals in Rome.
Tiberius has been joined in Capri by his adopted grandson Caligula, the only surviving man in Caligula’s mother’s family—all of whom Tiberius had destroyed after a political feud. Caligula has insinuated himself into Tiberius’s good graces and waits for him to die, having secured Tiberius’s nomination as his successor. Once crowned Emperor, Caligula launches into his own political persecutions, drains the treasury, seizes property, insults and offends virtually all the elites of Rome, and creates dozens of new taxes. Although relatively popular with the people, he is assassinated by Praetorians four years into his reign.
Meanwhile, in one of Rome’s lesser colonies, a Palestinian peasant is executed for rejecting “all of the kingdoms of this world” and juxtaposing against it another kingdom—a model of community—that ostensibly exists elsewhere. Indifferent to the revolutionary aims of some of his co-religionists, he also insists that humans “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Having thus alienated both his own people’s authorities and the authorities of the Empire, he is publicly tortured and crucified as a warning to others.
The Empire eventually falls, but only after turning toward the veneration of this prophet of another kingdom with his strange account of authority and power.
NSmolenskiFan
npub1qq…y354d
2024-04-01 07:19:05
Author Public Key
npub1qqqqqqx2crupn0c6pfsv3y0wkxfe97v0n82gpy95l6sv55fuazlqfy354dPublished at
2024-04-01 07:19:05Event JSON
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"content": "The year is 33 AD (CE), although the Empire does not know it yet.\n\nA depressed and paranoid Emperor Tiberius has lost both his sons and betrayed the love of his life, his first wife, for a throne he never wanted. He has retreated to his country house in Capri, from where he orders the executions of his political rivals in Rome. \n\nTiberius has been joined in Capri by his adopted grandson Caligula, the only surviving man in Caligula’s mother’s family—all of whom Tiberius had destroyed after a political feud. Caligula has insinuated himself into Tiberius’s good graces and waits for him to die, having secured Tiberius’s nomination as his successor. Once crowned Emperor, Caligula launches into his own political persecutions, drains the treasury, seizes property, insults and offends virtually all the elites of Rome, and creates dozens of new taxes. Although relatively popular with the people, he is assassinated by Praetorians four years into his reign.\n\nMeanwhile, in one of Rome’s lesser colonies, a Palestinian peasant is executed for rejecting “all of the kingdoms of this world” and juxtaposing against it another kingdom—a model of community—that ostensibly exists elsewhere. Indifferent to the revolutionary aims of some of his co-religionists, he also insists that humans “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Having thus alienated both his own people’s authorities and the authorities of the Empire, he is publicly tortured and crucified as a warning to others.\n\nThe Empire eventually falls, but only after turning toward the veneration of this prophet of another kingdom with his strange account of authority and power.",
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}