Ancient Civilizations

So with all I have to do this week, there's no way I should have picked up a book to read. But I was sick last week, and started one--oh, but it was a good one...and it's so good--I just had to start the second one after I finished the first.

For anyone who has read Francine Rivers books, you know what I'm talking about. The Mark of the Lion series is about ten years old. But they are amazing. They're set around Rome in about 70 A.D. and they follow the forturnes and trials of one slave girl, the family she serves and a gladiator she befriends. The characters are so lifelike that you want to cry for them and scream at them sometimes, and of course know what happens next in their lives.

I also find myself learning from them. Hadassah is the name of the slave girl--and her quiet persistant faith and witness is incredible. She has this peace and joy that is evident to all who know her. It always makes me wonder what people see when they look at me.

The other interesting thing about these books, is their depiction of Rome and the moral decay one could find there. Since the story includes a gladiator, there's much talk of the games, and the bloodlust of the Roman mob. And as you read, you are disgusted that people could be so cruel--but the more you read about the society they live in, the more you see how they could have come to putting so low a price on human life.

But then as you read, you find their morals sound eerily familiar. The idea that there is no absolute truth, and you need only to look out for your own happiness, and those traditionalists are all wrong, and we should live for today and get all we want and...

So I'm not one to sililoquize over the moral decay in America today, but something resonantes with me when I read these stories. The once great, invincible Roman empire crumbled. Scattered to the four winds. It makes one think.