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Middle Ages Revisited by Alexander Del Mar This fine book, by a great scholar of History, goes into the nature of the worship commanded by the Roman emperors, their heinous deeds and the mutation of the Roman Empire into Roman Catholicism. Could it be that these personages were more that human? Is the time here at last, when real light can be thrown onto this kind of deification, which has perplexed the common historians for centuries? He planted an army of wives, concubines, slaves, and catamites in the Parthenon, which he “so polluted with his debaucheries that it appeared to be kept comparatively clean when he indulged himself only with such abandoned creatures as Lamia, Demo, and Antieyra.” He bestowed upon his principal wife the sacrilegious name of Dei-damia, or the Spouse of God. (p. 16) Carthage After the downfall of Carthage, Rome, whose dominion had hitherto been restricted to Italy and Greece, rapidly became a continental power. (p. 22) To keep together so vast an empire, to assimilate under one government such heterogeneous populations as had recently been brought under its sway; to command the respect of distant kings; to curb the ambi- tion and repress the avarice of proconsuls who had become mightier than kings; and to preserve the pri- vate fortunes that had been carved out of the dying republic; some greater elements of power and authority and some more efficacious means of subordination were required to be wielded at Rome that those which had failed in the hands of Sylla and Pompey. (p. 27) The additional powers and discipline which for these reasons were needed to maintain the ascendancy of Rome were found in the peculiar organization and privileges of the Sacred college and in the myster- ies of religion. These the ambitious and unscrupulous Caesar hastened to seize with the office of high- priest and the assumption of sacerdotal powers, which, in proportion as they exceeded the attributes of earthly kings, rivaled those of gods. To this discipline and subordination was added that moral influence which the church alone could wield, the influence of blind faith, of religious myths and superstition, the respect for ecclesiastical displeasure, the fear of committing sacrilege, and the dread of excommunica- tion and anathema. These are elements of power and government which no statesman in any age, can afford to despise, and which we may feel assured were not permitted to lie unused by so profound a pol- itician as Julius Caesar. (p. 28) Caesar was a master astrologer. He claimed decent from the goddess Maia. This is somewhat the same as the Egyptian Pharaohs who claimed to act for Maat. 246 Appendix B: Book Abstracts The Term “Saviour” Upon mounting the throne of Egypt Ptolemy assumed the surname of Soter, or Saviour. (p. 14) All the Ptolemies took this title. Macabees Revolt Caused by the Jews being forced by Antiochus IV to worship him as a god descended from Jupiter. Emperor Demetrius The Coming of Catholicism? Atlantis, Alien Visitation, and Genetic Manipulation