The Ancient Agonies of the Unelected OverLords

Rosalie Steward

The Abduction of the Sabine Women, by Poussin

They didn’t have a choice, those infant twins abandoned into the river Tiber. We can only imagine what their Mother went through. What feelings would have washed the womb of the infants, when the Royal Mother knew that her babies would be murdered at birth by her uncle? The Palace servants were ordered to drown the newborns in the Tiber, but the river was in flood that day, so the basket was left to be washed away.

It scars the infant brain – the terror of abandonment, the terror of starvation. Before the conscious mind can make sense of pain, the limbic brain, where emotional memories are stored, records a message – that life is full of fear and empty of love. Fate intervened in that time long ago, 700 years BC. The basket was washed onto the banks of the Tiber where the babies were found alive by a woodsman and raised as his own children.

By the time the twins were young men it was obvious to the common folk that they were of ‘noble’ birth. They were proud, they were bright and imaginative. They were also ambitious to be admired, they used cunning ways or force to seize the wealth of others, and they gathered youths around them to strengthen their power.

As they came of age the twins decided to start their own settlement, but only one of them could be the Chief. In the midst of a contest for supremacy Remus died at the hands of his twin, just as their own father had been killed by his brother. No sense of family, or traces of love or affection, stopped Romulus from striking the death blow in his battle for supremacy.

To give recognition to the Gods that had given him victory over his brother, Romulus ritually sacrificed a beast and dedicated it to the immortal Hercules. The new town by the Tiber was named after him. Rome. All those beneath him became his subjects. He laid down Laws and ordered twelve men to become his personal Attendants, to display his superiority to those around him. He created a Lordly class – the Patricians – with powers and responsibilities to make policies for those beneath them.

The new tribe raised defensive walls around their claimed territory, built dwellings and strengthened their numbers by taking in the runaways and rejected from other tribes. A few women were included in the number, but not enough for the men to have families and the tribe to have a future. Romulus sent representatives to all the tribes around them, assuring their Chiefs that Rome had a great future, inviting them to become allies, and asking them to allow intermarriage.

The approach by the new village of Rome was rejected by all its neighbours, making it clear that they were seen as ‘undesirables’, a threat, and unsuitable husbands for their women. Romulus directed his anger at this rejection into a plan to punish his neighbours, as well as to seize as many women as possible. He mobilised the village to host a celebration for the Consualia Festival in honour of Neptune. This time he sent out general invitations to all his neighbours to join the festivities.

Crowds flocked to Rome on the day. The visitors were shown the buildings, the layout of the town, the fortifications, and were offered refreshments at various dwellings. The moment for ceremony came. Mules and horses decorated with flowers were paraded around the grounds. Food and wine were laid out in celebration for the harvest of grain. At this point a signal was given and the able-bodied men burst into the crowd, seized all the young women and dragged them off. The Festival broke up in panic with the parents of the kidnapped women condemning the treachery of their hosts, and calling on the Gods to punish them.

Romulus addressed the shocked and fearful women, declaring that their parents were to blame for refusing to allow intermarriage. He assured them they would share in the fortunes of Rome, that they should give up any resentment and give their hearts to the men who had captured them. The men in turn added their deception to the outrage, stating that it was passionate love that had driven their offence. Whether the captured women believed this or not, they submitted to their captors and did what was expected of them – to bear children for Rome.

Several years passed and relatives of the kidnapped women rallied to attack Rome. Romulus himself killed their Chief and stripped him of his armour. The Roman fighters easily defeated the attackers, plundered their village and claimed their territories. Romulus carried out a ceremony to the God Jupiter by presenting the ‘spoils of honour’ – armour taken from the dead Chief – at a sacred site. He then shared the plunder amongst the fighters, raising his status as a warrior before his people, and adding to his reputation that the Gods were on his side.

The words and deeds of Romulus set the social foundation for what is still called the ‘greatest Empire in the world’ by its admirers. His last words in 716 BC are recorded as: ‘..tell the Romans that by Heaven’s will my Rome shall be the capital of the world. Let them learn to be soldiers. Let them know, and teach their children, that no power on earth can stand against Roman arms.”

Unconscious terror and the agonising pain of abandonment laid the first social cornerstone of the fledgling Empire – ‘force of arms’. The endless fight for survival drowns out underlying distress and becomes a way of life rather than a necessary defensive effort. The moths to the flame of Empire continue this priority.

Nameless sorrow from the absence of love laid the next cornerstone – ‘supreme power’. The insatiable pursuit of ever greater power occupies the chasm of vulnerability left by the absence of love. Even if sincere love approaches, it cannot be recognised or received by the disabled empathic capacity.

The combined undercurrents of terror and sorrow impact upon the ability to make sense of the world within and the world without. The whims of the Gods were already well developed when Romulus made his sacrifices to Hercules and Jupiter in the first years of Rome. He seized upon the victory over his brother as proof that he had won ‘Divine Favour’ and this became the third cornerstone of the Empire.

The final cornerstone was ‘human sacrifice’. The functioning human empathy naturally restrains lethal action once any direct threat has been contained. The disabling of empathy allows all cruelties to be conceived and condoned: to placate or appeal to the Gods, to achieve military goals, to exact revenge, to punish the non-compliant, to ‘send a message’ to those who might consider resisting imperial power, or simply for entertainment. The crumbling ruins of the Colosseum remain a silent witness to the enthusiasm of Ancient Rome for the sacrifice of animal or human life as entertainment.

The tragic fruits of ancient agonies have cultivated the belief, that remains popular to this day, that ‘war is inevitable’, that human nature is naturally violent and self-serving, and that domination and abuse of power is imprinted into human DNA. The military accounts of Empire and grand battles are well recorded. However, the frontline combatants are commanded and employed to carry out mass murder for the political, territorial or philosophical objectives of the Overlords, rather than having a personal motivation. They are human sacrifices as well.

The examples of extended peaceful relations between tribes, societies, cultures and nations don’t generally get held up as natural human orientations. In 2023 the Agonised Overlords continue to invest in advancing methods for human sacrifice, from more refined nuclear weapons to the emerging fields of bio-weaponry and a ‘space force’.

Human empathy still flourishes in populations where infants are born into the ‘bonds of love’. They experience the presence of trust, of connection and understanding, are allowed the freedom to grow into their unique identity and have a sense of meaning that goes beyond a daily struggle for survival. The connection to their own feelings, and those around them, remain intact.

The tragedy for the Overlords is that they are more likely to be born into the atmosphere of a Strategic Relationship Alliance. Within the Relationship Alliance there is minimal trust, loveless transactions, the expectation of compliance to Rules, and the aspiration to achieve recognition and reward from their tribe. These conditions of upbringing and socialisation require an ‘empathy bypass’, and shape the perceptions of the Overlords. They refer to the ‘Theatre of War’, while the empathic refer to war as a ‘senseless killing-field’.

The Overlords have no experience of Trust between peoples, so the endless competition for the most powerful weapons is seen as a logical necessity for survival. The empathic are bewildered by what they see as the senseless pursuit of weaponry. They imagine how the diversion of those social resources could unleash a modern ‘renaissance’ of co-operation and creativity that would address our mutual issues and generate shared abundance.

Re-activating the capacity for human empathy is not impossible, but it requires a preparedness for allowing all suffering – that which is stored within the individual person, as well as the suffering they may have inflicted upon others – to be experienced. Understandably, this is a ‘road less travelled’.

Empathy, creativity and genius do not emerge from instruction or Artificial Intelligence. They are innate to humanity and either flourish or are crushed, depending on the conditions. All it would take to initiate an ‘empathy evolution’ would be for our ‘human family’ to become aware of the practices that serve to shut them down, and adopt instead the practices that allow them to strengthen.

Rosalie Steward is a 67 year old community activist, historical storyteller, musician and gardener. She has been employed in Government Agencies, on Industrial sites, in Political offices, and for 15 years carried out Family Violence intervention programmes for men and women. She is committed to working for world peace using the skills of empathy.

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