Rome has historically been called “The City of Seven Hills.” When visiting Rome today it is impossible to see any evidence of the “seven hills,” as the city has expanded over the millennia and is currently a sprawling sea of modern buildings and concrete.
Hence, I am using photos of Pompeii – an ancient Roman city from the exact same time period as ancient Rome – as a way to imagine what ancient Rome probably might have looked like during the time the Apostle Paul was there … and during the time when God had the Apostle Paul write a letter to the early Christians living in ancient Rome.
The Civic Forum was the heart of the daily life of Rome (and in these photos, of Pompeii) and was the focal point of all the main public buildings related to urban administration and justice, trade and commerce – such as markets. It was also the main cult site of the city.
In this photo of Pompeii’s forum, you can see Mt. Vesuvius to the north.
Turning around and looking south, you can see the hills surrounding the city.
Even though this is Pompeii, as you look at the wide-open space of the forum and see the hills in the distance, it is easy to imagine what it might have looked like to have been in ancient Rome.
The forum was the place of law and justice for the city. As the Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the early Christians living in ancient Rome (penning what God told him to write) he had much to say about law.
Additionally, the culture of ancient Rome was one in which slavery was accepted as completely “normal.” It is estimated that 25-40% of the population of ancient Rome were slaves. Slaves were used to turn the grindstones in the bakery mills. Slaves were used to tread the dirty clothes in the laundry vats. Slaves were used to build temples and public buildings.
Slaves were used to build the roadways.
With this in mind, it is interesting to read God’s letter to the early Christians living in ancient Rome:
“For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
“But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
“Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life.”
– Romans 6:14-22
