Something for the weekend. From those endlessly talented folks at History for Music Lovers, Viva Roma No. V to the tune of Mambo No. 5.
Civis Romanus sum said Saint Paul, or its Greek equivalent, and even while Christians were savagely persecuted by the Roman Empire many of them remarked about what a wonder in human affairs it was.
Tertuallian, Christian Apologetics
Saint Augustine, living in the twilight of the Roman Empire in the West, with savage Vandals besieging Hippo at the time of his death, in his City of God raised the eyes of men to the imperishable City of God, while also yet acknowledging that God was the cause of the rise of the Roman Empire, along with the traditional Roman virtues:
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Empires are out of favor in our time, but the Roman Empire, with all its crimes, blood and woe, united many peoples into one nation for centuries and brought the Pax Romana, with its roads, common culture, Roman law, trade and a dream of unity that has inspired the ignoble, Mussolini and the noble, Dante, alike. Perhaps this scene from the Life of Brian is at least partially true: