![\"Roman](\"http:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/gps\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Roman-map-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From Caesar\u2019s Death to Jesus\u2019 Birth<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Scott Rohter, July 2012<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Alexander the Great, Ptolemy, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and\u00a0Caesar Augustus\u00a0all have something in common. \u00a0What is it that unites all of these\u00a0historic figures?… They all lived during\u00a0the few centuries\u00a0prior to\u00a0the birth of Jesus Christ. Many important\u00a0events took place during those years especially in the forty years between the death of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. and the birth of Jesus Christ\u00a0around 4 B.C.\u00a0N<\/span><\/span><\/span>o other time in human history is quite as significant. So many significant events\u00a0occurred\u00a0which\u00a0altered the course of human history in those four decades\u00a0between the murder of Caesar and the birth of the\u00a0Savior that you have to wonder if anybody alive\u00a0at the time\u00a0understood the\u00a0actual significance of the events they were witnessing. The\u00a0future of the\u00a0world was\u00a0being determined during these forty crucial years before Jesus’ birth<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0period between 44 B.C and 4 A.D was\u00a0such a pivotal time in the development of\u00a0western civilization that many of the world’s current troubles owe their origins back to decisions that were made during those years.\u00a0 In\u00a0the span of\u00a0one man\u2019s lifetime Rome’s emperor was murdered and\u00a0Rome was plunged into a\u00a0bloody civil war which lasted\u00a0for over ten years. It took Rome far away from its\u00a0Republican roots. The struggle for control of the Roman Empire\u00a0pitted one half of Roman society against the other half. The\u00a0battle for succession became a\u00a0 personal fight\u00a0between two\u00a0trusted allies of the late emperor. One of these men\u00a0was Julius Caesar\u2019s trusted military commander Mark Antony and the other man was his\u00a0nephew Octavian. Their fight to the death split Roman society into warring factions.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Mark Antony formed a strategic alliance with Cleopatra,\u00a0the Queen of Egypt\u00a0who was\u00a0the mother of\u00a0Caesar\u2019s\u00a0son and the presumptive heir to the\u00a0throne.\u00a0Cleopatra was the name of an entire dynasty of Egyptian Queens\u00a0that \u00a0were descendents of the Greeco-Macedonian rulers\u00a0who sat on the throne of Egypt since Ptolemy<\/span>. This particular queen was\u00a0 Cleopatra VII. Mark Antony fell in love with her and fathered three of her four sons. After Mark Anthony’s defeat at the hands of Octavian,\u00a0Cleopatra’s death by suicide in 30 B.C. ended the Ptolemaic dynasty. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n When\u00a0Alexander the Great\u2019s unexpectedly died and\u00a0 left no\u00a0instructions on how the vast territories he had conquered were supposed to be administered one of\u00a0his\u00a0generals, Ptolemy\u00a0took control of\u00a0Egypt and\u00a0finished building\u00a0the new capitol\u00a0which Alexander had\u00a0begun on the shores of the Mediterranean. He named the city Alexandria.\u00a0The city was built\u00a0on a grand scale\u00a0and it was\u00a0said to be the finest city of its time. Today it is still referred to in Arabic as El Iskandaria, the City of Alexander.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Ptolemy went on to found a dynasty of Greek-Macedonian rulers who ruled Egypt for\u00a0the next\u00a0three hundred years. The Ptolemaic\u00a0dynasty\u00a0ended with the death by suicide of its last Queen Cleopatra VII in 30 B.C.\u00a0\u00a0She was the Egyptian Queen who made\u00a0the alliance with\u00a0Mark Antony after Julius Caesar’s\u00a0assassination. She had four children, one by Julius Caesar and three by Mark Anthony.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n After a\u00a0family feud led to a full-fledged struggle for power between Cleopatra and\u00a0her\u00a0brother, Julius Caesar\u00a0intervened and restored her to her\u00a0throne, but for two years between 46 B.C. and 44 B.C. Cleopatra lived in Rome with Julius Caesar where she\u00a0gave birth to\u00a0her first\u00a0son. This child of Caesar and Cleopatra\u00a0was\u00a0always a\u00a0source of contention to Romans who did not want any child of\u00a0an Egyptian\u00a0Queen\u00a0to\u00a0rule\u00a0over\u00a0them so after Julius Caesar\u2019s death in 44 B.C. Cleopatra was\u00a0compelled to return to Egypt where she had her brother put to death to ensure that her son would become\u00a0the\u00a0uncontested ruler of Egypt.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Two years later in 42 B.C. Cleopatra\u00a0had a\u00a0fateful meeting with\u00a0Mark Antony in Tarsus\u00a0in\u00a0modern day Turkey.\u00a0Tarsus was the birthplace of\u00a0one of the world’s most influential writers and thinkers\u00a0, namely the Apostle Paul who is credited with writing much of the New Testament.\u00a0Paul was\u00a0one of the\u00a0principle leaders of\u00a0the\u00a0early Christian Church.\u00a0He was born\u00a0a less than thirty years after that fateful\u00a0meeting between Cleopatra and Mark Antony.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n According to legend when Mark Antony first met Cleopatra he immediately fell in love with her. Together they formed a\u00a0strategic\u00a0alliance to\u00a0oppose Octavian’s\u00a0attempts to rule Rome.\u00a0Cleopatra was\u00a0the mother of Julius Caesar\u2019s son\u00a0who was the\u00a0rightful heir apparent to the Roman throne, but the Romans\u00a0did not want the son of an Egyptian Queen to rule over them.\u00a0That is how Julius Caesar’s trusted friend and military commander, Mark Anthony\u00a0came to vie for the throne.\u00a0He hoped to rule Rome jointly with Cleopatra after defeating\u00a0partisan forces\u00a0aligned with\u00a0Caesar’s nephew Octavian, but in order to do this he needed Cleopatra\u2019s\u00a0help . She furnished him with ships and grain to feed his soldiers and money to pay them in return for which\u00a0she\u00a0wanted\u00a0Egypt to play\u00a0a\u00a0more prominent\u00a0role in the Roman Empire. Her long term goal was\u00a0 the same as it always had been. She\u00a0wanted to unite Egypt and Rome. Whether she was\u00a0co-regent with Julius Caesar or Mark Anthony\u00a0didn’t\u00a0really make any difference.\u00a0Her\u00a0only goal was power.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The shrewd and\u00a0cunning Cleopatra\u00a0turned Mark Antony ‘s heart\u00a0away from his wife\u00a0which\u00a0was Octavian’s sister and\u00a0into\u00a0this strategic\u00a0alliance and\u00a0 personal relationship which ultimately led to both of their deaths by suicide. After their demise Octavian went on to rule Rome, but\u00a0at the moment they were\u00a0locked in a\u00a0bitter struggle for power over the future of Rome. The fact that Mark Antony left Octavian’s sister did nothing to\u00a0assuage the animosity that existed between the two rivals. The tensions\u00a0 between them eventually culminated in the battle of Actium in 31 B.C. where the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra were\u00a0defeated.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n After\u00a0learning of\u00a0false rumors that Cleopatra had died Mark Antony took his own life by the sword before the advancing legions of\u00a0Octavian’s soldiers, but just before his death he learned that Cleopatra was\u00a0actually still alive and his last request was to be taken to her where history records that he\u00a0died in her arms.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n With Mark Antony gone, the wily Cleopatra sought to entice\u00a0Octavian by offering herself to him in\u00a0the same way that she had done with Mark Antony and Julius Caesar before him. She sent emissaries and used her considerable charm to try to entice him into an alliance with her, but\u00a0all of her overtures were unsuccessful and\u00a0rather than\u00a0suffer humiliation at the hands of\u00a0her enemies drank poison and took her own life\u00a0before Octavian\u2019s\u00a0advancing armies could\u00a0reach her. It was ten days after Mark Antony had died.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n When Octavian\u00a0entered the royal\u00a0city and the palace in August of 30 B.C. he found\u00a0both Antony and Cleopatra dead, one by the sword and the other by poison\u00a0 The last\u00a0Queen\u00a0of Egypt was\u00a0just 39 years old at the time of her death.\u00a0It was 30 B.C., only a mere twenty five years before the birth of\u00a0Christ in\u00a0the little Jewish town of Bethlehem\u00a0a few hundred miles away.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0events of those forty years before Jesus was born in\u00a0Bethlehem of Judea\u00a0set the stage for even more cataclysmic upheavals during the next seventy years.\u00a0The Christ child\u00a0would grow into a man only to be\u00a0crucified by Roman soldiers, and his\u00a0death and\u00a0resurrection would give\u00a0rise to\u00a0one of the world\u2019s\u00a0great religions. The Jewish homeland would be\u00a0destroyed\u00a0by Roman Legions under the command of\u00a0Octavian’s successor,Titus in 70 AD and the million or so survivors would be scattered all over the\u00a0Greek and Roman world. In the absence of significant numbers of Jews in the Holy land the world stage was set for the\u00a0beginning\u00a0of another\u00a0religion which still troubles the world to this day. That religion is Islam<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The expulsion of the Jews from their homeland in 70 A.D. resulted in a worldwide Diaspora of millions of displaced persons and set the conditions\u00a0for the following world events.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 1)<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Spanish Inquisition in the 15<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup><\/span> Century\u00a0led to\u00a0the confiscation of Jewish\u00a0property by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain\u00a0which provided\u00a0 the finances to fund the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the New World.\u00a0His voyages\u00a0led to the discovery of America.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 2)<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The subsequent maritime competition between England and Spain for supremacy\u00a0of \u00a0the high seas\u00a0led to the\u00a0formation of the British Empire.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 3)<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The British Empire tried to keep the German Nation down which ultimately led to World War\u00a0I and World War II \u00a0and the Nazi Holocaust.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 4)<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A centuries long hostility\u00a0between Islam and the other two Abrahamic faiths\u00a0 has resulted in the current War on Terror.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n