In the previous article, we explored how Ancient Greece was favored by Heaven with the gift of philosophy, a tool through which men of good will and profound spirits intuited distant shades of the Holy Trinity. The Trinity reaches out to man the way the sunlight shines on windows; the clarity with which one receives its light depends on the cleanness of the glass. As magnificent as Ancient Greece was, philosophy by itself is never enough to receive that fullness of light.
Not long after the death of Alexander the Great, greed led to piracy, and piracy across the Adriatic Sea brought the wrath of Rome to Ancient Greece. Nevertheless, it is not man who has the last word, but the Maker of man. While Greece and Rome fought for power, God brought about from their struggle the fusion of Greek and Roman intellect, a union that would create the necessary cultural and anthropological conditions for humanity to receive the Word become Flesh.
Veritas: The Roman Agent of Truth
The Romans, like the Greeks before them, had an established system of truth. Unlike them, however, who used the slow unveiling of Alethia, the Romans used the exercise of Veritas, which was much more executive in nature. It was the measurement, quantification, and classification of the object or concept examined. Veritas was used in the legal system, as well as in the signing of contracts. It was the core of Roman Law. Later, the implementation of Veritas would be paramount for the development of knowledge, discovery, and science.
Nonetheless, the concept of Veritas, straightforward as it was, had its mystic within itself, as it was supported by the virtues of gravitas (responsibility and deep earnestness); severitas (self-control and gravity); and virtus (strength and honesty). The exercise of these virtues was a part of the “Via Romana,” or Roman way, which would thereafter provide a fortified road for the message of Christ to reach the human heart.
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a Roman philosopher, lawyer, statesman, and the very personification of the Via Romana. Cicero was born into a prosperous family, but not patrician. Therefore, in order to be someone, he had to rise from his station in life to the very top—something that was nearly impossible in the Roman world. But enter the heights of Rome he did, and he is remembered as the greatest orator in Roman history. Further, Cicero translated the greatest works of Greek philosophy into Latin and became a sage in the field.
The great philosopher, based on the works of Plato and Aristotle, argued that the core of all nobility of action stems from four pillars: prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. These four virtues became the core of the Roman spirit and slowly began sowing seeds in well-meaning hearts across the empire. In future times, St. Ambrose would give them the name of “Cardinal Virtues,” and these human virtues would be a nest for the sacred theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
Seneca
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-65 AC) was born in Cordoba, Spain, into a wealthy family. His father was a teacher of rhetoric and a writer, the two subjects that would sculpt his life. Seneca served in Roman politics, and in AD 41 he was falsely accused of adultery and sent into exile in Corsica, where he spent eight difficult years. After this time of trial, he was recalled into service as a tutor of the young son of Emperor Claudius, Nero, who would later accuse him falsely of forming a conspiracy against his life and sentence him to death.
Seneca is reported to have died bravely, to the extent of having consoled his loved ones prior to his execution and asking them to use the philosophy he taught them, so that they may overcome the moment with dignity.
Throughout his extensive writings, Seneca taught the Roman people to live in the present with a domesticated heart, grounded in the common good, to take misgivings of any kind with serenity, and to acknowledge with peace the fact that we will die. In essence, a partial formula for sainthood.
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (70 BC-19 BC) was born in Andes, Italy, during the days of the consulship of Pompey. His father was a man of simple origins who overcame the limitations of his condition by both marrying beyond his station and making good investments with the fortune that came with his new reality. Despite belonging to another class, or perhaps because of it, he made sure that, unlike himself, his son Virgil obtained a good education which eventually put the young man in the dwellings of the titans of Roman society. During his studies, Virgil was noticed and patronized, and as a result, he was able to dedicate himself solely to the craft of wordsmithing.
Nevertheless, the glance of God always separates those whom He blesses, and He shares with them the cross of His Divine Son. In the year 41 BC, after the Battle of Philippi, Octavian expropriated lands across Northern Italy in order to pay the veterans that had marched with him. One of these lands were those of Virgil’s father.
The loss of the estate brought about ruin to the family and wounded Virgil deeply. Yet, the coming of winter is but a prophecy of spring, and so it was out of his profound pain that Virgil brought about the most staggering prophecy of the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. In his Fourth Eclogue, Virgil writes of a boy of divine race, whose office will be to bring the world back to the age of gold, free reality from the snake and the poison plant, and restore universal harmony.
It is likely that Virgil did not know what he was writing, or perhaps his conscious mind directed his pen elsewhere, but his soul, by the grace of God, knew that he was writing about our Lord and Savior, who indeed came to earth only a few decades later.
The Stage for Salvation
In previous parts of this article, we have studied the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, explored the concept of Semina Verbi, and analyzed the indirect clues that the Trine God left in the Greco-Roman mind. In the next and last part, we will examine the direct action of the Holy Trinity in the Jewish world and how God prepared Israel to receive the Incarnate Word.
Editor’s Note: This article is part of a CE original series on the Beauty of the Holy Trinity. Click here for more.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
