Daughter’s Paper on Augustus-Good or Bad?

She got an A on this one.  For her Western Culture class. The question was whether he was overall  a hero or villain.

Augustus and Leadership

       From the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, fought to end the civil war that resulted from Julius Caesar’s death. In 31 BC Augustus defeated Marc Antony leaving him the sole ruler of Rome and it’s provinces. From this point forward Augustus sought to restore order and consolidate power. Under the circumstances of the times in which he lived Augustus did many great things as he created his position of Emperor and brought the provinces under his direct control. His achievements were many and it can be concluded that his mastery of Rome made him a hero to the Roman people.

          Upon Julius Caesar’s murder Rome fell into civil war. Three factions arose to take control. The first was a faction loyal to Brutus and Cassius- Julius Caesar’s murderers. A second was loyal Marc Antony, an associate of Julius Caesar. The third was loyal to Octavian, later to be known as Augustus, who was Julius Caesar’s nephew and adopted son. At first Marc Antony and Augustus joined forces and defeated the forces of Brutus and Cassius. Marc Antony and Augustus then fought each other, with Augustus being victorious and Marc Antony committing suicide. In 31 BC Augustus found himself facing the same problems that Julius Caesar had faced many years earlier.

          Augustus now needed to provide Rome a stable form of government. The Senate had always been the dominant political body in the Roman republic. So, Augustus chose to first work through the Senate while he re-established the bureaucracy needed to effectively administer the Empire. It was the Senate that re-named him from Octavian to Augustus. From this point on Augustus began the process of consolidating power by assuming the responsibilities of many previously separate offices. Some of these powers were given to him by the Senate, such as princeps (first citizen) others, such as pontifex maximus (supreme priest) he gave himself. While Augustus left the Senate as an important part of the political system in Rome itself, in the provinces Augustus took direct control. The slow methodical assumption of power led him to the role of Emperor.

          Augustus accomplished many good deeds and completed many good projects during his reign. In addition to maintaining peace in the Empire and some of its provinces such as Gaul and Spain he extended the frontiers of many of the provinces as well. “I restored peace to the Gallic and Spanish provinces and likewise to Germany, that is, to the entire region bounded by the Ocean form Gades to the mouth of the Elbe River. I caused peace to be restored in the Alps, from the region nearest to the Adriatic Sea as far as the Tuscan Sea, without undeservedly making war against people.”(pg 58 DWP) Augustus at times of need was generous enough to give his own money and other resources to the Empire to help maintain financial stability. “Four times I came to the assistance of the treasury with my own money, transferring to those in charge of the treasury 150,000,000 sesterces… I transferred out of my own patrimony 170,000,000 sesterces to the soldiers’ bonus fund… whenever the provincial taxes fell short, in the case sometimes of 100,000 persons and sometimes of many more I made up their tribute in grain and in money from my own grain stores and my own patrimony…”(pg 56-57 DWP). Augustus also built and repaired many important building and architectural projects. “I repaired the Capitol and the theater of Pompey with enormous expenditures on both works… I repaired the conduits of the aqueducts which were falling into ruin…I doubled the capacity of the aqueduct called Marcia  by admitting a new spring into its conduit…I reconstructed the Flaminian Way from the city as far as Ariminum, and also all the bridges…”(pg 57 DWP)  Augustus also sponsored many gladiatorial shows. These shows were important social gatherings and helped Romans establish their own identity. “ I gave gladiatorial show three times in my own name, and five times in the names of my sons or grandsons; at these shows 10,000 fought… Twice I presented…an exhibition of athletes invited from all parts of the world… Twenty-six times I provided for the people… hunting spectacles of African wild beasts in the circus of in the Forum or in the amphitheatres…” (pg 57 DWP) Perhaps most importantly Augustus maintained peace in Rome through his entire reign. “…while Augustus in the vigorous years of his life maintained his power that of his family and peace.”(pg 55 DWP)

          In our modern democratic world the word Emperor is very negative. However, many rulers, kings, emperors, czars accomplished great things during their rule that advanced their people and their civilization. Augustus was certainly an Emperor but he was one of those emperors who was worthy of some admiration. He created peace and prosperity without the brutality that was typical of the times in which he lived.

My Daughter’s Paper on Christianity

My daughter wrote this paper for her liberal arts western culture course we all had to take to get our Bachelors degree. She got an A- on it, so I was very proud of her. For anyone who might need such a paper, change a bunch of words and you should do pretty well.

The Progression of Christianity

Christianity truly began after the death, resurrection and assention into heaven of Jesus Christ. At this point, his many followers began spreading the religious teachings of Jesus according to their individual understanding of them. Eventually, these highly variable teaching would need to be sifted down to a few generally accepted sets of teachings that permitted the expansion of Christianity with a structured set of rules, beliefs and rituals. During the time between Jesus’ death and Christianity’s emergence as organized religion(s) many decisions needed to be made about which teachings were going to be accepted as orthodox and which teachings would be discarded as heretical.

During the last few years of Jesus’ life he spoke of his beliefs to thousands of people. As part of his teachings he would need to die and be resurrected and ascend into heaven as the Son of God. From the completion of these events his followers would also be saved. Jesus surrounded himself with a core of true believers- the twelve disciples, or apostles. Mary Magdalene was another true believer who would also influence Christian doctrine. While it is not believed that any of the apostles committed their teachings to writing during their lifetimes, their followers and perhaps the followers of the followers eventually wrote down the apostles teaching as it was taught to them. These “gospels” as they became to be known, as well as the teachings of Mary Magdalene and others, became the body of Christian teachings from which organized Christianity would emerge. Selecting  from  the various writings, interpretation of these writings, as well as the general distrust of the Christian movement by the establishment, both Roman and Jewish, were all issue that the Christians would need to address to emerge as a dominant religion in the Western world.

Simply surviving as a religion during the Roman times was a real challenge. Christianity began to be seen as a threat to the Roman order. Once Christians began to allow direct conversion to Christianity without becoming a Jew, separation from the Jewish tradition began. Unlike the Jews, the Christians openly encouraged and accepted outsiders into the faith. This made the Romans take notice. Because of certain Christian practices, such as not participating in Roman religious traditions, their talk of their “King”, their claims to eat the body and blood of Christ and their preaching about the “end of the world”, the Romans saw Christianity as an aberration and a real threat to the continuation of the Roman Empire. This resulted in a great deal of repression and persecution.

As the Christian movement expanded many written teachings became known and many conflicts arose between them, some minor and some major.                       “As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them. But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit.”(DWP pg 106)                                                                             “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him worshipped him; but some doubted.”(DWP pg 107) This conflict in where Christ appeared to the apostles remains today. Larger conflicts in doctrine were detailed and attempts made to address them in writings such as Irenaeus of Lyon’s Against Heresies and Tertullian’ Prescription Against Heretics.  Some differences were more philosophical such as whether Christ was of flesh or of spirit (a spirit appearing as a man). Others depicted completely conflicting descriptions of one of the central events of Christianity- the Crucifixion.                                                “Wherefore he suffered not, but a certain Simon, a Cyrenian, was impressed to bear his cross for him; and Simon was crucified in ignorance and error, having been transfigured by him, that men should suppose him to be Jesus, while Jesus himself took on the appearance of Simon and stood by and mocked them…” (DWP pg 111)                      “He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again from the dead.”(DWP pg 111)                      Christ could not have been both crucified and have someone crucified in his place. Clearly, both of these recounting could not remain in Christian doctrine without major conflict.

From Christianity’s birth to its emergence as a set of organized belief systems, Christianity faced many hurdles. These hurdles ranged from its initial fight for its very survival under the Romans to study of its many teachings that arose as Christianity spread and was committed to writing. Scholars poured over the many written works and tried to make rationally and spiritually driven decisions about which writings would be included moving forward- orthodox writings- and which writings would be discarded- heretical writings.  The heretical writings were no longer to be included in Christian teachings.