Trajan desired to reflect "the spirit of the age" and produced a period of peace for some following the Dacian war. Pliny had taught him that "men learn better from examples" so generally he ruled less by fear. Trajan went along to get along according to the political wind of the Senate which allowed him to be viewed as a virtuous monarch according to the limited ethics of the autocracy which lacked the Logos of Christ. In letters with Pliny the Younger on how best to deal with the Christians he desired that they should continue their prosecution if merited, but not to accept anonymous or malicious accusations. Non-citizens who admitted to being Christians and refused to recant were to be executed "for obstinacy" but Citizens were sent to Rome for trial. What was the Christian conflict? It was legal charity provided by the alimenta that poisoned the people and killed Rome. It is the same thing killing the whole world.
Trajan or Caesar Nerva Traianus was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in present-day Spain on the 18th of September in the year 53 – c. and died 11 August 117. He was Roman emperor from 98 to 117.
He was also Declared optimus princeps ("best ruler") by the senate.
Trajan is remembered as one of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty due to his philanthropic rule and as a successful soldier-emperor who led the Roman Empire to attain its greatest territorial extent by the time of his death.
His popularity with the Senate came from his agreement with them but his popularity with the people came from the reform of the alimenta which was the social welfare run through the government temples. Those financed programs at the expense of the Dacians who were robbed of their gold, their freedom, and their lives were able to help the "orphans and poor children throughout Italy by providing cash, food and subsidized education". Over a half a million Dacians were sold as slaves, according to John Lydus.[1]
Robbing the Dacian would not be enough to buy his popularity. Money had been an issue since the days of Nero with his corruption and thievery. He rolled back the extreme devaluation of the silver denarii minted during the period surrounding Nero. He recalled some of the coin that minted before Nero's most drastic devaluation, but he still decreased the silver content of the denarius from 93.5% to 89.0%[2]
Together with the massive amounts of gold, silver, and the selling of slaves as human resources and his devaluation of the currency he acquired sufficient surety to jump start his alimenta reforms.
Medling with Moneta
Image of Nero Lugdunum sestertius loaned into circulation during the Roman Imperial period was commonly used to meet tax obligations. From Nero to Trajan the emeror was messing with the money supply through the temples of Moneta operated as mints. There are historians that blame the fall of Rome on this medling with the money which did cause inflation and contributed to the dearths that swept across the empire. it was the moral bankruptcy of the masses that proceeded the financial collapse. The alimenta was a Roman welfare program that existed from around 98 AD to 272 AD. It was probably introduced by Nerva and was later expanded by Trajan. In Nerva's government, that system of alimenta was a trusts or mammon designed to subsidise orphans and poor children with a cash income, food and subsidized education throughout Italy, but nowhere else. When Christ asked Philip as a test in John 6:5 where shall we get bread to feed these people? He uses the Greek word agorazó which is translated buy but actually means get ownership of. What was the Christian conflict? It was legal charity provided by the alimenta that killed Rome. It is the same thing killing the whole world.
But there was still one more tactic he would employ. The alimenta or the system it replaced in early Rome had originally relied upon the charity of the people. By this time it had become dependent upon a form of "mortgages" which secured Italian farms (fundi) which supplied funds through a form of property tax. Under Roman law those land owners who had land that was registered received a lump sum from the imperial treasury, and in return they were expected to repay an annual sum to support the funding of the alimenta.
Later, under Marcus Aurelius not only the land would be registered but the children would be mandatorily registered at birth.
Sense Christians would not apply to the alimenta for their welfare because that was a table at which they did not eat they did not register with it.
Ignatius of Antioch who had been a disciple of John the Apostle was sent to Trajan to be tried and executed. While Trajan had a moderate policy towards the Christians when the issue of money came up the conflict intensified.
Tessera made of lead and used in the welfare system of Rome.
Early Rome as a republic provided these benefits of society through free will offerings for centuries. Eventually people began to seek entitlements rather than rely on hope and charity alone.
Their entitlement programs date back to 122 B.C.. Tribune Gaius Gracchus instituted lex frumentaria, a law that ordered Rome’s government to supply its citizens with allotments of cheaply priced grain. He also instituted reforms which dealt with the judiciary system including an attempt to bar corrupt judges through the opinion of the people. He also reformed military service, and forbade the draft of boys under the age of seventeen and more all with the intent of improving morale and to win the political support of soldiers, allies, and poor voters.
These early forms of welfare continued under Trajan, who implemented a social welfare system called “alimenta” to help feed, clothe and educate orphans and poor children. Other items including corn, oil, wine, bread and pork were eventually added to the list of price-controlled goods, which may have been collected with tokens called “tesserae.”
This tesserae was one of the earliest forms of an EBT welfare card. Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that allows state welfare departments to issue benefits via a magnetically encoded payment card, used in the United States and the United Kingdom like Rome did with their Tesserae.. It identified you as a eligible recipient. These systems take their toll on freedom an society. They are not really free.
Psalms 69:22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
Romans 11:9 And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:
These generous handouts helped Roman emperors win favor with the public, but some historians have argued that they also contributed to Rome’s economic decline to say nothing of the degeneration of character of the people.
"Augustus (the first Emperor) was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom."[3]
The temples not only housed government records, private contracts but were also the place for birth registration. This was to insure your eligibility for benefits from such welfare programs like annona and alimenta.[4]The temples of Rome were public buildings offering benefits, first by free will offerings but eventually by compelled offerings.
The Pharisees, who were also fond of mindless rituals with great swelling words of vanity delivered the people into systems of forced sacrifice. They lifted the people up with guarantees of salvation through being the children of Abraham and being God's people while they picked the flesh from their bones through systems of Corban that made the word of God to none effect. Modern Christendom is not much different. They profess Christ with their lips but they do not serve one another by faith and charity, much less hope and love.
Taking a Sabbath, a day of rest, can be very beneficial. Wives cook on Friday... And take a humble rest upon the Sabbath with their family. Some read the Bible, listen to music, fall asleep with a good book on their chest, just take a rest. This can be physically important especially for those who live working lives. A Sabbath allows the body to catch up on its cleansing efforts of the flesh and likely the Spirit... It is offered to us to restore us after our week of labor and work.
"And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:" (Mark 2:27)
The alimenta was a social safety net programs in the form of social welfare for the people including the youth.
It provided general funds, as well as food and subsidized education.
Roman welfare program that existed from around 98 AD to 272 AD.
The program was supported out of the spoils or "booty" of the Dacian Wars and by a combination of estate taxes and some left over philanthropy, used sometimes to bribe the votes of the people.
According to most modern historians, including Nerva biographers Nathan Elkins and John Grainger, it was initiated by emperor Nerva and expanded by Trajan.
The Alimenta was next to the Temple of Juno Moneta the mint, on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. The Temple of Saturn, in the Forum Romanum, served as the treasury and registry of birth records.
Nahum supposedly preached during the reign of King Manesseh, an evil kings in Judah’s long history. Not only did the king need to learn the lessons of being a good king and the people needed to repent of their idolatry[5] in a nation that had completely turned its back on The Way of God. So, this would mean Nahum was written near the end of the Assyrian Empire, and its capital city, Nineveh.[6] Like Amos he did so in a vivid poetic style.
The Church was already the Lawful Church established by Christ. Emperors like Trajan who said in letter to Pliny states, “These people [christians] must not be hunted out.” and Hadrian[7] had advised against abuse of Christians knowing they had a right to follow The Way of Christ.
Persecution of Christians was more often the result of provincial regulations, called mandata, rather than Empirical decrees, decreta. But it is clear that public policy and the structure of the Roman system came into conflict with Christian practices and beliefs. Persecution of Christians under Emperors like Antoninus Pius was uncommon and advised against under Trajan and Hadrian.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus had been a priest at the sacrificial altars of Roman service and was an eager patriot. He had a logical mind, but his stoic philosophy was tempered with gentleness and benevolence, by making it subordinate to a love of mankind. His ‘Meditations’ is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty. It has been praised for its “exquisite accent and its infinite tenderness” and “saintliness” being called the “gospel of his life”. They have been compared by J. S. Mill in his Utility of Religion to the Sermon on the Mount. Like many of the emperors of Rome, he was loved by the people. Yet, with all his benevolence, administered justice, and reforms, he often mistrusted the Christians who he subjected to systematic and official persecution.
The record of persecution of Christians under Marcus’ loving, tender, and dutiful public service was greater than any other period of Roman history. What was wrong with Christians? Religious freedom was guaranteed in the Roman constitution. No Christian was persecuted for singing in Church, praising the Lord, or believing in Jesus. It is what that belief changed in the Christian outlook and activities that brought them under suspicion, if not outright conflict with Roman policies. Their independence and success could make aspiring world dictators or Emperors nervous. But their efficient system of self governance absolutely terrified them.
Christians were bound together in a system of unity, strength, and efficiency that often alarmed those governing a central power bound by pride, pomp, and pricey beneficence. The Christian community was not interested in the benefits of the authoritarian State. Independent responsibility, a duty to love their neighbor, and a trust in God and His kingdom at hand took all their application, attention, and allegiance.
Marcus Aurelius
His Meditations were full of wise sayings of the stoics but he delivered destruction and death to thousands of people. The greatest disservice to a man is to give him the power to rule.
In his youth through adoption, he was close to Emperor Hadrian. Hadrian and the Christians is a publication that must excite curiosity about this emperor whose reign is widely considered to be one of peace, prosperity, and religious tolerance.
Hadrian like Trajan had a policy toward the Christians that they should not be sought or hunted. But they continued to persecute them through prosecution for specific offenses. One of the common indictments was their consistent refusal to swear oaths. Hadrian laid down the regulation for the judges of the courts that accusers of Christians had to bear the burden of proof for their denunciations or be punished for calumnia.[8]
Quintus Licinius Silvanus Granianus, had enquired of Hadrian how to handle legal cases where some inhabitants were accusing their neighbors of being Christians through "informers or mere clamor". Gaius Minicius Fundanus was the recipient of that imperial edict from Hadrian about conducting trials of Christians which stated that merely being a Christian was not enough for action against them to be taken, they must also have committed some illegal act.[9]
"This order of Hadrian was attached by the Christian apologist Justin Martyr to the end of his First Apology, 155 AD. The Sanctuary of the Three Gauls had been established by Augustus in the late 1st century BC at Lugdunum (Lyons, France). The persecution in Lyons[10] started as an unofficial movement to ostracize Christians from public markets, but eventually Christians were arrested, tried in the forum, and subsequently imprisoned and even condemned to various punishments: fed to the beasts, torture, and the poor living conditions of imprisonment. Accusations of atheism[11], incest, and even cannibalism were used to justify the Christian conflict.
↑Moses I. Finley, ed., Classical Slavery, London: Routledge, 2014, ISBN 0-7146-3320-8, p. 122
↑The silver weight dropped from 3.04 grams to 2.88 grams.
↑Chapter 3, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon.
↑ These was a welfare programs in the form of social welfare for the people including the youth.
It provided general funds, as well as food and subsidized education. Roman welfare program that existed from around 98 AD to 272 AD. According to most modern historians, including Nerva biographers Nathan Elkins and John Grainger, it was initiated by emperor Nerva and expanded by Trajan. The Aliamenta was next to the Temple of Juno Moneta the mint, on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. The Temple of Saturn, in the Forum Romanum, served as the treasury and registry of birth records.. See Temples.
1 Corinthians 5:10 "Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat."
↑III. Message of the book: Nahum single–mindedly proclaims the destruction and doom of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital.
IV. Nineveh: “The ancient capital of Assyria. First mentioned in Genesis. The country was also called the land of Nimrod by Micah. Balaam prophesied the captivity of Israel by Assyria, and Asaph sings of their alliance with Moab. Jonah was sent to the city about 800 B.C. and Nahum devotes the whole of his book to “the burden of Nineveh,”... Isaiah says that Sennacherib resided in the city; and it was probably the scene of his death, while worshipping in the temple of Nisroch, his god. The last notice of it is by Zephaniah, B.C. 630. Assyria is alluded to as having been destroyed, according to prophesy by Ezekiel, and Jeremiah omits it from the catalogue of all nations. The city is not mentioned in the inscriptions of the Persian dynasty. Herodotus passed very near, if not over, the site of the city, about 200 years after its destruction, but does not mention it, except as having once been there. Xenophon, with his 10,000 Greeks, encamped near the site (B.C. 401) but does not mention its name, although he describes the mounds as they appear now. Alexander marched over the very place and won a great victory at Arbela, in sight of it, but his historians make no note of it. The Emperor Claudius planted a colony there and restored the name Nineve. Tacitus calls it Ninos when taken by Meherdates. On the coins of Trajan it is Ninus and on those of Maximinus it is Niniva; Claudeopolis being added on both coins. Many relics of the Romans have been found; vases, sculptures, figures in bronze and marble, terra-cottas, and coins. The site was again deserted when Heraclius gained a victory over the Persians, A.D. 627. The Arabs named their fort, on the east bank of the Tigris, Ninawi (A.D. 637). The accounts of its immense extent are various and not very reliable. Diodorus Siculus says the dimensions were (according as we estimate his figures, from 32 to 60, or even) 74 miles in circuit. The walls were 100 feet high and wide enough for 3 chariots to drive abreast, flanked by 1500 towers, each 200 feet high (accounts which have not yet been verified). Layard says: ‘If we take the 4 great mounds of Nimrud, Koyunjik, Khorsabad, and Karamles as the corners of a square, it will be found to agree pretty accurately with the 60 miles of Jerodotus, which make the three days’ journey of Jonah.’ Within this space there are many mounds and remains of pottery, bricks, etc. The name of Nineveh is found on the Egyptian monuments of the date of Thothmes III, about 1400 B.C.” (Smith’s Bible Dictionary). Lesson 86: Nahum
↑“Quintus Licinus Silvanus Granianus, Pro-consul of Asia, ... showed how unjust it was to condemn Christians on the strength of vague rumours, which were the fruit of popular imagination, without being able to convict them of any distinct crime, except that of their Christian profession.” History of the Origins of Christianity. Book VI. The Reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. (A.D. 117-161), CHAPT III. The Relative tolerance of Hadrian – The First Apologist.
"I received a letter from your illustrious predecessor Serenus Gratianus, and I do not wish to leave his inquiry unanswered, so that innocent men are not troubled and false accusers seize occasion for robbery.If the provincials are clearly willing to appear in person to substantiate suits against Christians, if, that is, they come themselves before your judgment seat to prefer their accusations, I do not forbid them to prosecute. But I do not permit them to make mere entreaties, and protestations. Justice demands that if any one wishes to bring an accusation, you should make due legal enquiry into the charge.
If such an accusation is brought and it be proved that the accused men have done anything illegal, you will punish them as their misdeeds deserve. But, in Heaven's name, take the very greatest care that if a man prosecute any one of these men by way of false accusation you visit the accuser, as his wickedness deserves, with severer penalties." – Hadrian, Rescript To Minicius Fundanus, Governor of Asia (124 AD).
↑Defamation, calumny, vilification, or traducement is the communication of a false statement that, depending on the law of the country, harms the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation.
↑Also that "slanderous attacks" against Christians were not to be tolerated and should be punished.
↑"The more the early Christians reflected on the life and message of their rabbi-messiah, and the more they tried to live the way of the gospel, the harder they collided with the state and its hopes and dreams, militaries and market. In fact, Christians in those first few hundred years were called atheists because they no longer believed in the Roman gospel; they no longer had any faith in the state as savior of the world." Jesus for President Pack: Politics for Ordinary Radicals; Shane Claiborne; Section III: When the Empire Got Baptized; p141.
