mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
the stake. Even an execution didn’t seem to dampen the ardor of wouldbe
political columnists, and the crowds outside of Olimpia’s back windows
never seemed to go away.
Next to Pasquino was Rome’s only post office. Here, before residents
picked up their mail, or before their mail was sent abroad, inspectors
opened letters and packages to search for heresy, libel, and treason.
They compared book titles with the ever-growing list on the Vatican’s
Index of Prohibited Books. Though usually, for the price of a scudo an
inspector would forget to look in a particular satchel.
Olimpia’s Rome was a far cry from that shining marble metropolis of
one million inhabitants under the Roman emperors. In the heady days
of Emperor Trajan, who reigned from a.d. 98 to 117, eleven aqueducts
pumped sparkling water to thirteen hundred fountains as well as countless
public baths, swimming pools, and gardens. Eight sturdy stone
bridges allowed pedestrians, horses, and carts laden with goods to cross
the Tiber. But when Emperor Constantine left town, everybody who
was anybody went with him, including almost all of the civil servants
who had kept Rome running.
In the fifth and sixth centuries, Goths, Vandals, and Lombards surrounded
the walls of Rome and cut the aqueducts, destroying most of
the city’s water supply. Swamps spread out over leaking pipes and became
home to malarial mosquitoes, which caused massive epidemics.
With no water, the famous Seven Hills were abandoned. For a thousand
years, almost all Romans huddled around the Tiber River for water.
The empty imperial edifices on the Seven Hills were raided for materials
to construct new buildings. Trees and vines covered what was left
of them. Cows grazed in the formerly splendid Roman Forum, which
became known as the Cow Field. The neglected Roman bridges collapsed
of their own accord or were swept away in floods, until only two
remained. By the twelfth century there were a mere thirty thousand
inhabitants.
In 1309 the popes left Rome for Avignon and through a series of
mishaps did not return for good until 1443. By this time wolves prowled
the streets, digging up the dead and maiming the living. Those who
[ 46 ]