
It was a time of decay and bloodshed, of strife and disorder. Of the times Livy stated:
“Of late years wealth has made us greedy, and self-indulgence has brought us, through every kind of sensual excess, to be, if I may so put it, in love with death both individual and collective.”
Anthony Everitt, Augustus, pg. 236
The old morals were lost in a morass of sin:
Among respectable opinion, there was a consensus about the failings of Rome’s ruling class: divorce was easy; young people were reluctant to marry; the birthrate appeared to be falling; sexual license was widespread; some rich men avoided a public career.
Anthony Everitt, Augustus, pg. 238
The solution? The coming of a longed-for deliverer. This inscription from the time sums it up: “Divine Augustus Caesar, Son of God, Savior of all the World.”
Indeed, a deliver was coming. Was coming in the very days of the rule of the reformer Caesar Augustus, but a deliver who would bring down the mountains and raise up the low places. A true savior of all mankind…Christ the King came on that first Advent.
Luke 2:1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.