Alien Space Gods Of Ancient Greece and Rome (33 page)

Most Romans believed that
Romulus
did ascend to the skies in his physical body, a phenomenon we today associate with Spacemen.

If the true greatness of Kings is measured by their wisdom, benevolence, piety and pacifism, enhaloed by love for God and Man, then Numa Pompilius in early Rome was surely the greatest King who ever lived. The dream of a Philosopher-King dispensing beneficence to his people, inspiring men to cosmic truth, has long fascinated idealists searching to perfect society. Akhnaton, Solomon, Marcus Aurclius, all with profound compassion sought to establish a social order promoting universal justice and peace. The fault lay in their stars. The world was not ready. Numa Pompilius changed the whole nature of
Rome
by righteousness without arms or violence; his inspiration influences our own religion even today.

Numa was born significantly on the very day
Rome
was founded by
Romulus
, 21 April, 753BC; he lived in Cures, an important town of the Sabines. Unusual in that age of barbarism this young man studied self-discipline and wisdom devoting his leisure to contemplation serving the Gods. For a whole year after the disappearance of
Romulus
the various factions could not agree on any Roman as King, eventually with one accord they offered the throne to this shy philosopher now nearly forty. To the dismay of the delegates, Numa refused stating he lived to serve the Gods not citizens glorying in war. Only when persuaded by the augurs, finally convinced by the divine omen of a flight of birds over his veiled head as he prayed aloud before a vast and silent multitude, did Numa agree that it was the will of the Gods that he must rule
Rome
. First he disbanded the King's bodyguard scorning all protection, he reorganized the worship of Jupiter and laid the foundations of law changing the warlike mood of the citizens to gentleness and justice. Numa built the famous
temple
of
Janus
, whose doors were open in war, closed in peace; apart from two short periods, the doors were open from the end of Numa's reign until Augustus defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. He divided the year into twelve months; hitherto the year had only ten, November and December being the ninth and tenth as their names suggest; he also fixed public holidays. During the midwinter festival in honour of Saturn, noted for its sexual licence, Numa allowed the slaves a taste of freedom, for at this feast they were waited upon by their Masters, a custom honoured today in the British Army when officers serve Christmas dinner to their men. The early Church celebrated Christ's birth on 8th January until AD 330 then moved the date of Christmas to the Roman Saturnalia. Even the greatest philosophers look somewhat foolish attempting the impossible. Numa, exasperated by the frivolity of the fair sex, directed that women should be seen but not heard, neither must they meddle or gossip. Centuries of long-suffering husbands know just how he felt.

After his failure to silence women, Numa turned to the easier task of controlling lightning, where he met with success. The Ancients apparently inherited a psycho-science from some advanced civilisation and utilised natural electricity, sonic and possibly anti-gravity, techniques lost to us. The
Ark
of the Israelites appears to have been a highly-charged battery, the great Temples of Antiquity were protected by lightning-conductors. Initiates called down fire from heaven. Numa anticipated Benjamin Franklin in his experiments with lightning; his discoveries must have been spectacular for Tullus Hostilius tried to repeat them, like Amulius a century earlier the King must have used the wrong formula, a thunderbolt consumed Tullus and all his house.

Numa forbade the Romans to worship God by a graven image, the sacred shrine held no statues, the Deity could be conceived only by mind, a mystical conception of sublime significance. Sacrifices approached Pythagorean worship without bloodshed or costly ostentation. The
Temple
of
Vesta
with the sacred fire was built by Numa in the form of a. circle to represent the Earth, which he knew to be round. Later generations believed Numa was a disciple of Pythagoras forgetting he lived two centuries before the Sage from Samos, like Pythagoras Numa probably learned much of his philosophy from British Druids visiting Rome; unlike many ancient philosophers Numa did not seek wisdom in other lands; he would certainly study the secret teachings of the Etruscan soothsayers. The Romans believed Numa could call down Jupiter from the skies, snare demi-Gods with spring-water drugged with wine and honey, and converse with nymphs. Could Numa have been taught by Spacemen?

The few records extant from the seventh century BC suggest that Extraterrestrials were particularly active on Earth. In 670 BC the 'Angel of the Lord' annihilated the army of Sennacherib; in 660 BC 'Heavenly Deities' assisted the Japanese Emperor Jimmu against the Ainu; about 630 BC Zoroaster beheld 'God' amid fire, probably the radiance of a Spaceship, on Mount Sabalan; a few decades later Ezekiel beheld his famous Wheel.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus apparently confirms this space activity, writing of early
Rome
he makes a cryptic reference, ‘Higher up in the clouds two great armies marching.'

The Hosts of Heaven in Hebrew theology are generally imagined as spiritual Angels of Light contending against demonic Forces of Darkness, but even this esoteric vision is probably based on some actual conflict seen in the skies. It is relevant to note that the Second Book of Maccabees, Chapter V, records 'Horsemen running in the air' over Israel in 170 BC, a similar spectacle before the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 was reported by Josephus, also by Matthew of Paris, who gives a vivid description of two occasions in AD 1236 when there appeared in the skies over England and Ireland 'armed soldiers superbly although hostilely equipped.' Pliny states explicitly,

‘We are told that during the wars with the Cimbri (
North Germany
113-101 BC). Noises of clanging armour and the sounding of trumpets were heard from the sky and that the same thing has happened frequently both before then and later. In the consulship (103 BC) of Marius the inhabitants of Ameria and Tuder (now Todi) saw that spectacle of heavenly armies advancing from the East and the West to meet in battle, those from the West being routed.’

Dare we emulate our Science-Fiction writers and speculate on the fantasy of rival space-fleets pursuing their battle in the skies of Earth? Our critics, who were not there to see them, would no doubt raise objections more bizarre than the spectacle suggested. Many centuries earlier the Ramayana and Mahabharata brilliantly described celestial wars in-the air above Old India.

The Etruscans and their contemporaries all over the Earth anxiously watched the skies, there must have been some overwhelming cause for their concern. The advent of the God, Tages, and the career of
Romulus
suggest celestial intervention in Ancient Italy. The report by Dionysius of Ilalicamassus concerning armies in the Roman skies may be more realistic then we imagine.

In 708 BC while
Rome
was ravaged by plague, an 'ancile' or bronze 'shield' is said to have fallen from heaven. Numa promptly inspired the suffering people, declaring that the Muses had told him the marvel was sent by the Gods, an omen signifying their protection of the City. To lessen the chances of theft, the King ordered his most expert craftsmen to fashion eleven exact replicas, these 'ancilia' were entrusted to the Salii, Priests of Mars, who carried them in religious processions to the chant of hymns and solemn dance.

The strange metal object from the skies was obviously manufactured and therefore not a meteorite, it cannot have come alone from space since it would have been incandesced and melted, the 'Thing' must have fallen from a low height otherwise its shape would have been greatly distorted on hitting the ground. Superstitious though the Romans were, such a highly practical and militant people would hardly worship an ordinary shield, standard equipment, any more than we would accept an oil-can as from a UFO if we could buy a similar one from Woolworth's; moreover the Romans must have firmly believed that the Gods actually were flying at that time in their sky and could drop something on the City.

Plutarch explains that the buckler was not round nor yet completely oval but had a curving indentation, the arms of which were bent back and united with each other at top and bottom; not knowing what it was the Romans called the thing a 'shield' which it partly resembled. Bronze plates do not fall from the sky unless someone drops them; the Romans never doubted the ancile's celestial origin, therefore they must have been fully conditioned to acknowledge Supermen flying over their City in solid aircraft, just as five hundred years later in 214 BC the citizens of Hadria were astonished to see in the sky 'an altar around which grouped the forms of men in white garments.'  

Today some wild tribe in the Amazon jungle may be dancing around their latest idol, an empty soup-tin flung from some Brazilian aeroplane. The Romans venerated the 'shield' as sent by the Gods. Surely the 'Thing' must have dropped from a Spaceship.

The early Romans believed the whole universe thrilled with life, like all primitive peoples they lived in a world steeped in magic, dominated by mysterious powers dwelling in earth, sea and sky, whose benevolence must be sought or malevolence averted by solemn propitiation with appropriate rites and sacrifice. The erudite Varro summarised popular belief stating that the universe was divided into two, 'Caelum', 'Sky', and 'Terra', 'Earth', the sky contained 'loca supera', 'upper places', those belonging to the Gods, the Earth comprised 'loca infera', lower places', those belonging to mankind.

The Romans were conscious of two aspects of existence, 'sacred' opposed to 'profane'; 'sacred' meaning neither good nor bad represented the world of the Gods, the Spacemen, in the sense that today 'royal' signifies the domain of our Queen and her family; 'profane' denoted the everyday world of mortal men. When the Gods descended to Earth, the hills, forests or temples they frequented became 'sacred', subject to taboos and approached only through the priests who jealously conserved this celestial 'apartheid' often to promote their own power. The Old Testament and ancient religions from
Britain
to Japan all agree that the places of the Gods were holy ground. When Spacemen land in our century it is certain that the Army will at once throw a cordon around the area with maximum security, the spot will be 'sacred' that is prohibited to civilians. Our theologians and mycologists ignorant of the inhabited universe proffer tortuous theories to explain the ancient awe for places 'where the Gods have trod' as some atavistic superstition, oblivious to the obvious fact that the reason why certain spots were sacred to the Gods was simply because the Gods had actually appeared there.

The Romans, like the peoples of Ancient India,
Mexico
and
Ireland
, believed in World Ages, cycles of civilisation. In 88 BC during the consulship of Sulla 'out of a cloudless and clear air there rang out the voice of a trumpet prolonging a shrill and dismal note, so that all were amazed at its loudness.'

The Etruscan priests said this prodigy foretokened a change of conditions and the advent of a New Age, they taught that there were eight Ages completely different from one another, each lasting a Great Year. Whenever one circuit has run out and another begins, a wonderful sign appears in earth or heaven, and it is clear from those versed in the signs that men of the New Age have come into the world. All things undergo great changes. The Senate took great notice of soothsayers. This belief may have prompted St. Matthew's unconfirmed assertion that a Great Star appeared at the birth of Jesus.