{"id":34476,"date":"2016-06-23T02:58:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T08:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=34476"},"modified":"2016-06-23T04:02:05","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T10:02:05","slug":"even-deeper-back-in-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/06\/even-deeper-back-in-time.html","title":{"rendered":"Even deeper back in time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The Antonine Wall (which is also occasionally called the Severan Wall), further to the north, was a considerably less impressive affair, built mostly out of turf, and was only functional for two brief periods. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coming over from Holy Island, Lindisfarne, to Cumbria yesterday, we chose a slower road in order to visit Hadrian\u2019s Wall \u2014 another area of Britain that I\u2019ve long wanted to see but that, in more\u00a0trips to the United Kingdom than I can count, extending over the better part of five\u00a0decades, I never have.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hadrian's<\/a>
A remaining portion of Hadrian\u2019s Wall \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Roman emperor Hadrian, who also left his indelible mark on Jerusalem (which he severely damaged\u00a0during the Second Jewish Revolt, barring Jews from entering it and renaming it Aelia Capitolina<\/em>) and in his famous villa outside of Rome, did a cost-benefit analysis and concluded that the price of conquering the entire island, including the potential expense of continued war,\u00a0couldn\u2019t be justified by the relatively low income to be derived from\u00a0its poor, cold, savage, and underdeveloped northern parts. \u00a0So he built a wall \u2014 across what one might term a \u201cnarrow neck of land\u201d \u2014 in order\u00a0to protect Roman Britain from the militant barbarians above it. \u00a0(The presence of Roman civilization in what is now England is, of course, one of the principal reasons that England is distinct from Scotland to the north\u00a0and from Wales \u2014 and Ireland \u2014 to the west. \u00a0The pre-Roman Celts were pushed into those areas, remaining undomesticated and relatively un-Romanized.) \u00a0Hadrian\u2019s Wall marked the northern border of the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Housesteads,<\/a>
Ruins of the Roman commander\u2019s headquarters at what is now called \u201cHousesteads,\u201d along Hadrian\u2019s Wall. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The wall was originally something like fifteen feet high and several feet wide \u2014 most of it has long since been exploited over nearly two millennia to build roads and homes and churches and to enclose sheep pastures with solid stone fences \u2014 and it was studded with sizable forts and small garrisons at regular intervals.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We also dropped in to see the archaeological area at Vindolanda, but unfortunately didn\u2019t have time to go in, and, before that, to visit the remains of the Mithraic temple at Carrawburgh \u00a0(ancient Brocolitia). \u00a0Mithraism, a faith that derived from Iran and that was especially popular among Roman soldiers, is a fascinating topic in and of itself.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Carrawburgh's<\/a>
The Brocolitia Mithraeum at Carrawburgh (Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some material from a classic old book by Franz Cumont called The Mysteries of Mithra<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heavens were divided into seven spheres, each of which was conjoined with a planet. A sort of ladder, composed of eight superimposed gates, the first seven of which were constructed of different metals, was the symbolic suggestion in the temples, of the road to be followed to reach the supreme region of the fixed stars. To pass from one story to the next, each time the wayfarer had to enter a gate guarded by an angel of Ormazd [or Ahura Mazda]. The initiates alone, to whom the appropriate formulas had been taught, knew how to appease these inexorable guardians.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other words, there were certain things that had to be done and said when one reached these barriers, in order to enter into the presence of the god, or to mark off each heaven from the one before it:<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

\u201cAs the soul traversed these different zones, it rid itself, as one would of garments, of the passions and faculties that it had received in its descent to the earth. [There is an idea of preexistence here, of course; the soul is\u00a0just going back to where it\u00a0came from.] It abandoned to the Moon its vital and nutritive energy, to Mercury its desires, to Venus its wicked appetites, to the Sun its intellectual capacities, to Mars its love of war, to Jupiter its ambitious dreams, to Saturn its inclinations. It was naked, stripped of every vice and every sensibility, when it penetrated the eighth heaven to enjoy there, as an essence supreme, and in the eternal light that bathed the gods, beatitude without end.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Mithra, the protector of truth, that presided over the judgment of the soul after its decease. It was he, the mediator, that served as a guide to his faithful ones in their courageous ascent to the empyrean; he was the celestial father that received them in his resplendent mansion, like children who had returned from a distant voyage.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So it was fun to walk across a sheep paddock and into the remnants of an ancient Mithraeum, built by and for ancient Roman soldiers stationed at Hadrian\u2019s Wall.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The central \u201cmyth\u201d of Mithraism involves the god Mithra\u2019s victory over a bull, which symbolizes the triumph of the Sun and of life and light. \u00a0A local man with whom we spoke says that this lingers on the names of taverns, inns, and public houses in the vicinity of Hadrian\u2019s Wall. \u00a0We didn\u2019t get a chance to do a survey, of course, but he says that a disproportionate share of them are named with some variant of The Bull<\/em> or The Sun<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Brockwood Hall, Cumbria, England<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Coming over from Holy Island, Lindisfarne, to Cumbria yesterday, we chose a slower road in order to visit Hadrian\u2019s Wall \u2014 another area of Britain that I\u2019ve long wanted to see but that, in more\u00a0trips to the United Kingdom than I can count, extending over the better part of five\u00a0decades, I never have. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nEven deeper back in time<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Coming over from Holy Island, Lindisfarne, to Cumbria yesterday, we chose a slower road in order to visit Hadrian's Wall -- another area of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/06\/even-deeper-back-in-time.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Even deeper back in time\" \/>\n<meta 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