We welcome Michael Vlahos from Johns Hopkins University. But now we turn into our happy roles in Londinium in 90 A.D.. Michael is Germanicus and I am Gaius. We are philosophizing about the loss of the Republic, the rise of the Empire. It is 90 A.D., and Domitian is the semi-divine emperor that we do not speak of, whom we do not speak of, because politics.
We live in Londinium, a frontier town at the edge of the Roman Empire. The Roman army is here to secure what could be very dangerous. It's just 30 years since Boudica came through and burned down Londinium; it is the layer of ash that you build upon. However, not since then, many of the Roman tribes have made allies in some fashion with the Roman army. So it is not a hostile environment.
However, that allows us to philosophize about the strength of the empire in toto, chiefly on the basis of these new cults in town: Mithra from the east, Isis from Egypt, and Christianity from the eastern Mediterranean.
These are competitive cults that I worry about. Germanicus doesn't worry because he describes them to me. I worry because what's wrong with Roman patriotism? What's wrong with the might of Rome? Why the complaint?
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Londinium, 90AD