Thus, [the destruction of] the ancient world, that first brilliant coming of European culture . . . was not due to . . . the Germanic tribes. But "only" to a thought out of Asia, that simple subtle thought, that had been there very long but which took the form the teacher Christ gave to it. ~Hermann Hesse
Romulus paced the paving stones
Of his basilica
Where once the pagan iudex had
Upheld the Roman law.
His eyes beneath the laurel wreath
Beheld the thorny Crown,
And from the Cross the King upon
The Emperor looked down.
Odovacar was at the gate
With Gothic puissantry,
For he would change the mild regime
Of Roman tyranny
For harsh barbaric willfulness
And freedom of the senses.
He stood in wait to storm the gate
And batter Rome's defenses.
But Rome had fallen from within,
No longer civilized.
The city's anarchy was with
An Emperor disguised.
No victory Odovacar
Would gain when he marched in,
For if there is no one to lose,
How can the victor win?
No longer suckled by the wolf,
This Romulus partook
Of Blood drawn from the Virgin's Son,
Shed when the temple shook.
The worship of the Jewish King
Had spread from East to West,
And trappings of a pagan court
Could not endure the test.
When Constantine in Three-Thirteen
Proclaimed the Christian free,
No outer change to Roman rule
Could saintly Helen see.
But underneath the golden scales
Of Jove's Iustitia
A new and shining city grew
That shunned draconic law.
When Romulus Augustulus
Was cast down from his throne,
The scales fell from the Roman eyes,
And soon it would be known
That Rome had been a chrysalis,
And what emerged therefrom
Was Rome again, but virtuous—
The blessèd Christendom.
T. G. 2/20/2026
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