Read an Excerpt
The Book of Emperors
By Henry A. Myers West Virginia University Press
Copyright © 2013 West Virginia University Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-935978-87-9
CHAPTER 1
Rome's Founding: Gods for Each Day of the Week and the Bells that Warned of Revolt
In his opening chapter, the author establishes pagan worship as reflecting the woefully inadequate religion that Christianity would replace. Medieval Christians did not altogether deny the existence of the deities worshipped by pagans in ancient times, but they reduced them to the status of devils or demons, reserving the term "god" for the one true God. No written sources survive with anything like the author's details of Roman worship. Probably he is elaborating on material from early Christian attacks on Rome's pagan gods passed down in sermons. What he calls the Rotunda is the Pantheon with its large dome, where the Romans kept statues of gods worshiped throughout their empire. In 609, Pope Boniface IV purified and consecrated it as the Rotunda of Saint Mary and the Martyrs. The Venerable Bede's eighth-century "Sermon for All Saints' Day," which contains a full account of this consecration, was frequently copied in its original Latin. An Old Saxon translation of it survives from the ninth century, and it was easily accessible to interested clerics throughout Europe. The Mirabilia Romae, collections of past and present wonders in Rome, which contain the story of the statues and warning bells, circulated widely in many versions in the twelfth century.
Long ago in heathen times, people everywhere worshipped unclean idols. With no exceptions the heathens had to honor them and pray to them exactly as their kings decreed. Rome with its magnificent buildings and displays was already exalted in the eyes of the world back then. Two powerful brothers were the founders: one was named Romulus, the other Remus, and eventually all the lands came to serve them in awe. Three hundred Senators rendered them service in council and spread their fame. They saw to it that everything decided on at Rome was proclaimed throughout the lands. Roman power grew to be really great.
Since the ancient Romans had no fear of the true God, they wrought seven idols — I am telling you this exactly as it was — to honor the seven days of the week. If a man broke any of their laws of worship, they would throw him into the river and let it carry him away, or they would burn him to death at the stake. Laws like this spread from Rome to govern all the peoples of the earth. They knew nothing of the true God.
When Sunday came the whole city of Rome would do everything you can think of to honor that day's god. The ones they considered wisest of their leading men would carry a thing made like a wheel with burning lights all around the city. Owî! How greatly they glorified that god! Nobody among them dared to wish that he might see that god with mortal eyes. In this way, they honored the Sun, that he might grant light and joy to them.
After this, on Monday, they would all hurry to bring offerings for the love of the Moon with vessels of burning oil. They would light up their vessels in all the streets of Rome. The Romans did this in hopes that the Moon would be merciful to them and give them nights to their liking. In all the city of Rome, no noble youth or maiden over seven years of age was excused from making offerings there. If people found out that some of the maidens were no longer virgins, they sacrificed them to Apollo. They never returned. This was the way they had to honor the Moon.
Then after Monday, just like I am telling you, over the whole city of Rome all the knights would arm themselves with helmets and hauberks. With swords and shields in their hands they put on magnificent tournaments in honor of Tuesday's god and rode their horses in races. The ladies would gather to watch the splendid games that they put on in honor of the god of war. The Romans believed that if this god favored them they would be sure of victory. They were also convinced that no one in this world could injure them as long as they had this god's protection.
Wednesday they established as their market day, and very early in the morning people from the countryside streamed into the city. On a very high pedestal stood a monstrous idol, which they called their Merchant. According to their custom, Romans would sacrifice to him a part of whatever they should buy or sell from each other, so that he would cause them and their trade to prosper.
On Thursday, as I will tell you now, they had their greatest celebration of all, and men and women alike would hurry to it. It was held in a most magnificent temple, from which gold gleamed everywhere. [Its roof was a complete artificial heaven, with] rain flowing in pipes through its nine choir galleries. Around the temple stood one hundred archers, just to add to the splendor of the place. Thursday's god was named Jupiter and he was supposed to be highly exalted. I want to tell you of a great wonder. In front of his statue incense burned with no fire and gave off smoke and fragrance, but it was never consumed, and there was always as much of it as there had been at the beginning. The Romans set this up to present a great wonder in his honor.
One temple at Rome, which made the whole city more magnificent, was built to honor Lady Venus, so that praise of her would be greater. All those who lived unchastely or were habitual fornicators were received there with honor, whether they were rich or poor. But if pure maidens or young men came along, they dared not pray there if they valued their lives, lest all sorts of evil things befall them, for the goddess had no love for them.
Then for Saturday, there was a lordly temple called the Rotunda. Its god was named Saturn, and it eventually served to honor all the devils. Whenever the Romans had finished praying in it to their hearts' content, they would hurry out into the open fields. Their shouts would echo loudly as they jousted on their horses and jumped or danced or sang. The man who won more praise and honors there than the rest had all the more reason to worship at that temple. The Book tells us that good Saint Boniface, a most great and holy man, consecrated that same temple to Almighty God, and then also to honor Saint Mary and all God's saints.
At the time when that most holy man ascended the throne at Rome as the fourth pope after Saint Gregory, he was plagued with worry that such impiety still remained under him. He sent for all the good Christians he knew everywhere in Rome. They clothed themselves in sackcloth and came barefoot to join him in large numbers. At the head of the procession, he approached the temple door and began the service of consecration. As he dedicated the house to the true God, the devils burst out of the building from above, some of them plunging into the abyss below. There is still a record of all this today at Rome.
Now let us pick up again where we left the story before. The Romans enjoyed the greatest respect, for neither on land nor sea could any people defend themselves against them and avoid becoming obedient to them and thus subjects of Rome.
The Romans commanded the people of all lands they had conquered to cast bronze statues for them. Above these statues representing all their territories, the ingenious Romans hung golden bells. As a result, the Romans were able to keep just as close a check on dangerous activities in their provinces as if every deed were done in Rome itself. Whenever any land would do the least thing opposing Roman interests, its bell would ring on the spot without the touch of any human hand. Quickly, through drawing lots, the Romans would choose a noble lord and give him the honor of re-conquering the rebellious territory, to win it back for them.
It happened one day that the Senate was sitting in session when suddenly the members looked up, for a bell was ringing. They jumped from their seats and rushed over to where they could read the letters on the bell. Then they stared at each other, greatly surprised at what had happened, for they saw clearly that the German people had risen against them!
CHAPTER 2
Julius Caesar
In modern times no Romans are counted as emperors before Augustus Caesar, in whose name the Roman Senate put an end to the old Republic's checks on monarchical power in 27 BC, thus inaugurating the Empire; however, a medieval historian did not feel similarly bound. Finding in ancient chronicles several early military commanders with broad political powers who were called imperator, he might introduce Lucullus and Pompey as the first emperors, as did the Chronicle of Fredegar, a seventh-century Frankish work, on the basis of the 300-years-older Chronicle by Eusebius and Jerome. More likely, however, if interested in Roman antiquities he would be decisively influenced to begin the succession of emperors with Julius Caesar by the widely available work of Orosius, possibly influenced by Suetonius, who in the early fifth century had presented Julius as a particularly capable and heroic figure.
As a committed partisan protagonist of the Holy Roman Empire, our author doubtless desired to begin his stories of emperors with a dramatic and imposing subject. It is not that he would have found Augustus Caesar lacking in this respect, but the general tendency of medieval writers to begin with Julius was reinforced for him by the ease with which Julius could be credibly related to German history. Two of his sources had already pointed in this direction. He derives a section of his account of Julius Caesar's exploits in Germany from distinctly feudal references to one of the Gallic Wars in a local Latin history of Trier or Trèves. This city had been an important Roman outpost, and its surviving Roman ruins, such as the Black Arch (Porta Nigra) and the ancient amphitheater, which remain even to this day, reminded medieval Germans of the past history of Roman power in Germany. Our author's story of Julius Caesar is the first of only two parts in the Book of Emperors in which sequences of more than a few lines are taken from a surviving German-language source. By far the largest sections of Caesar's struggles with the German tribes, almost the whole lengthy episode of his battle against Pompey (historically the Battle of Pharsalus in southwestern Thessaly) and all but a fraction of Daniel's vision with its interpretation come from the Annolied, a poetical presentation of the life of Bishop Anno of Cologne, which antedates the Book of Emperors by roughly half a century. In the Annolied, a long sketch of Julius Caesar and a very short one of Augustus are part of a summation of world history since the Creation, which gradually narrows its focus to Cologne and Bishop Anno. Where the Annolied, naturally enough, discusses Daniel and his prediction of a succession of world empires before proceeding to Roman history, our author presents the prophet's vision as a flashback, to show its fulfillment under Julius Caesar. In so doing, he tampers more than a little with the symbolic animals. The Annolied had made the dreadful beast with ten horns (Dan. 7:7–8) into a boar, signifying the fierce freedom of the Roman Empire, out of which the eleventh horn was to grow. The Annolied, however, was faithful to the tradition of Christian scholarship since Saint Jerome, which had seen the eleventh horn as the antichrist, while our author has no intention of letting the antichrist spring from his beloved Roman Empire. He thus grafts the evil eleventh horn onto a different beast, and the unencumbered boar, symbolizing Julius, will appear on the Roman banner in several later chapters to inspire fighters for the empire.
In recording Caesar's death, the author notes the number of years he reigned. Possibly he relied on a list of rulers with their dates of the type sometimes copied in the introductory part of monastery annals. In any event, he continues to make the same kind of note as he records each emperor's death with only two exceptions. Individually his reign dates are often reasonably accurate: the five years that Caesar ruled would have been reckoned originally from 49 BC, when he crossed the Rubicon in order to claim sole political power, to his murder in 44 BC. The idea that Caesar's remains were buried at the top of a high column is probably based on a Mirabilia account that Caesar's ashes were buried in the great obelisk now outside Saint Peter's Cathedral.
For their leader the bold Romans chose a daring hero, whose many good claims to fame are in the Book. Chanting songs of highest praise for the young hero, they sent him to Germany. They clearly saw in him a man of steadfast mind and a true warrior in every way.
The Romans entrusted thirty thousand well-equipped warriors to the leadership of Julius. Besides these, Julius the commander engaged thirty thousand more at his own expense, because he had learned to know the Germans' strength in battle in his earlier experience in their country, for his home had been in Germany before. Thus he realized that he had no hope of victory with the forces originally given him.
Julius was a resourceful knight. In no time at all he prepared himself and the forces that were to follow him. He turned toward the Swabians and showed them no mercy. Swabia was then the domain of a very daring hero named Brennus, who rode against him with an army.
The Book tells us that Brennus fought three hours with Julius in battle in the open. They slashed wounds in all directions and bloodied many a shield rim. The Swabians defended their land well until kind-hearted Julius offered to negotiate with them. They yielded their land to his gracious suzerainty. He then ordered his tent pitched on a mountain called Swevo; it is from Mount Swevo that the inhabitants are called Swabians. They are a people whose advice is good, and they understand a great deal of the art of speaking. They frequently set out to distinguish themselves as warriors, ever ready and eager for battle, but Julius conquered them even in their full force.
The Swabians advised Julius to invade the Bavarians, within whose land lived many a warrior. Boimund was their Duke, and his brother's name was Ingram. Very quickly they summoned their men. Many young knights lost no time in joining them, wearing helmets and coats of mail. They defended themselves furiously and fought a full-scale battle with Julius. Neither before nor since have so many fine heroes fallen, or else the heathen books are lying to us. Owî! What good fighters the Bavarians were! A marvel that can be read about in the heathen books is the Noricus ensis — which means "Bavarian sword." The strength of this sword stood the Bavarians in good stead, for they could strike it all the way through an enemy's helmet.
The Bavarian people came from Armenia, where Noah left the Ark and received the olive branch from the dove. Signs of the Ark still remain in the mountains there, which are called Ararat. Julius had to pay a high price in blood for the victory he won from the Bavarians.
The fury of the Saxons caused him grief aplenty. One reads that they were originally the men of the fabled Alexander, who met his end in Babylonia. Afterwards four of his men who wanted to become kings divided his lands and treasure. The others lost themselves sailing for distant lands, until part of them landed with their fleet near the Elbe River, where the long knives that many of the warriors there carried and with which they defeated the Thuringians were called "sahs" in the local language. The Saxons entered negotiations with those natives in bad faith and then broke the peace they had agreed to. They are still called Saxons — Sahsen — from their sharp knives.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Book of Emperors by Henry A. Myers. Copyright © 2013 West Virginia University Press. Excerpted by permission of West Virginia University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
