89. The Revolution

Russia built its empire.

Revolution rumors flowed in Europe.

Newton,

Hobbes,

Locke,

Milton,

Many others looked at the world, thinking of it in different ways.

The American colonies got rich.

New agriculture increased food production.

Music reached its height as Mozart played.

Beethoven, Hayden and many others.

New ideas.

New art.

New thoughts

Caused the flames to rise.

From the ancient past

Athens with its small flame.

The flame of freedom.

It split and spread into Rome.

Stayed hidden in the Dark Ages.

Resurrected and grew.

It reached across the sea to the colonies of the New World.

Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams,

Many other disciples of freedom

Fanned the flames of descent.

The flames of revolution.

The fires grew

To the drumbeat of war.

Swiftly, the fire spread

Through Europe

Into the other colonies.

They took their destiny from their brutish king.

Breaking the chains of taxation

Making themselves representatives.

The eagle flew from the nest.

Others wanted the chance to fly.

The fires of freedom spread across the world

Burning out of control.

It spread through the minds and hearts of people

Many got burned

Meeting the scorching blade of the guillotine.

A French republic was formed

But, as with the first European Republic,

It didn’t last.

71. Prologue III

With the death of Rome and her son
The world passed onto a new age.
Greece gave us democracy.
Rome gave us republic.
Philosophy and science
Made the world real.
Thousand year empires disappear
Into the ancient dust and ruins of the past.
Religious service
Turned cathedrals gothic
As they threw out old gods
In place of saints and symbols.
Dynasties pass
As Ozymandias statues of Zeus and Athena wear and erode.
Slowly eaten away by acidic rain.
Leaders rise up then they fall
Only to bring in new ones.
“King of kings am I,” the dragon said.
Then came a Greek
Saying “He is dead.”
“King of kings am I,” The Greek one said.
That all changed
With Rome’s crown on her head.
“Queen of Queens, am I,” Rome herself once said.
Now, with Caesar,
She rests her head.
No one worships these forgotten gods.
They play on in fantasy
As ghosts of bygone times.
I wish to stay to play with them
But the muse begs me to push on.
Future pages await.
There are new Ozymandiases to behold
Otherwise they’ll remain unwritten.

63. The Steps to Empire

With Carthage defeated

Rome was now an unstoppable force on the world stage.

She grew rich and fat with decadence

But still retained her Republican machine.

Soon people started getting greedy.

They became too ambitious

For the Republic to survive.

The Gracchi of Rome Came to power

Under the guise of helping the lower class.

Men who fight and die for Italy

Enjoy nothing but air and light.

The first of the Gracchi broke tradition

On tribunal entrance

They killed him for it

Rolling up their togas

Taking out their clubs.

Murder found a place in politics.

The second did the same

Bringing horse riders

To judge corruption.

“No man who rides a horse will ever judge me!”

Said the senators to the Gracchi.

“Take all measures necessary to defend the republic.”

The second of the Gracchi died.

Rome faced more problems.

Her blue gown of republic

Slowly withered

Eaten by factions of moths.

Ripped by large thorny dictators.

Marius seized power by force

But gave it up when the war was over.

Sulla took advantage of civil and foreign war

Forsaking tradition

He staged a coup

Giving birth to the proconsulate

But retired

Because of a prophecy of death.

Generals came

Seeking power and might

Ruling the people as their king

But, as Pompey said to Sulla,

People worship the rising, not the setting sun.

Pompey’s sun rose

After Spartacus died

And the pirates left the sea.

He sent his woman, Rome,

To eat Anatolia and Syria.

As a present to his powerful wife,

He gave her Jerusalem’s treasures.

60. The First Punic War

“Poor Dido!”

Carthage cried.

Our beautiful queen

Has died.

It was Aeneas

Who rejected her.

His descendants must pay.

Carthage looked up

At the growing Rome

Seeing that she wants the island of Sicily

“We will take it for ourselves,”

Carthage said.

You took our beautiful queen away

We’ll take the island.

Rome sent her men

Securing the island

Just as Carthage did the same.

Mercenaries,

Fleets of ships,

Legions clashed

For the beautiful island

To the south of her land.

Carthage’s navy had Rome cornered

But adapting well

The white republic

Built her ships

Overcoming Carthage in the end.

Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica

All fell to Rome’s might.