Romanitas

We're introducing a new framework on today's show.

And we only have time to really kind of touch on this, but the framework is Romanitas.

And Romanitas is the pre-Christian culture of the city of Rome.

which was baptized by Saints Peter and Paul.

The structure of the New Testament is Romanitas because it is a journey.

The book of Acts is a journey to Rome, a journey from Jerusalem to Rome with Saints Peter and Paul.

And the first epistle is Rome to the Romans.

And then the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ is the mystical union of Rome the cities of Jerusalem and Rome, even the exegetical tradition puts these two cities together in the fall of Babylon and the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And of course, the, these small towns are building amphitheaters, which is the biggest building in any town.

It's an incredibly expensive way of showing the local elite's commitment to the new order, how Roman they are, their commitment to Romanitas.

There's a great expression by the late Keith Hopkins, who, uh, professor at Cambridge.

In the Roman world, uh, the amphitheater would loom over a town in the same way the c- great cathedrals did in medieval towns in Europe.

And in our era, you know, we know the demands of our own era specifically, but every era has needed that, whether it's recognized it or not.

So, now, at the same time, Paul is a symbol of Romanness, which is probably not what a pope of this era seems likely to feel the need to emphasize, right? But it's there, and, you know, the world is very strange and has taken some strange turns in the last hundred years.

Well, I mean, it just keeps taking strange turns because of the world, and it will continue to do so.

So the idea of the Pope needing to, like, assert his Roman-ness, you know, it could come up.

Okay.

But this quote, our opening quote, is from an article entitled Romanitas and the Latin Language by one J.N. Adams.

This comes from the Classical Quarterly from back in May of 2003.

This

I didn't look into this.

Is this actually the claim that the Serbians will make to their, uh, Romanness, or is it because of some grant that XYZ pope or patriarch in 1000 AD?

No, it's more because of the Orthodox.

No-