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Introduction to VAMPIRES OR GODS?
Ordering full text of VAMPIRES
OR GODS?
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars
by Suetonius
Modern Library translation by Joseph Cavorse
Copyright 1931
p 122, re Tiberius Caesar's ancestry
"The women also have records equally
diverse, since both the famous Claudias
belonged to that family: the one who drew the
ship freighted with things sacred to the
Idaean Mother of the Gods from the shoal in
the Tiber on which it was strangded, after
first publicly praying that it might yield to
her effors only if her chastity were beyond
question." [that is, Cybele, 204 B.C.]
Comment: here we have Cybele connected to four Roman emperors:
Tiberius
Gaius Caligula
Claudius
Nero
Since Caligula is now known to have survived his assasination and
to have become a vampire of much note, and since the Mary, Mother
of God (Jesus) of the Christian bible is almost certainly Cybele, we have
another connection between Caligula and Jesus, aside from the fact
that they were contemporaries.
Cybele - Mother of the Gods
from Julian, vol I, Loeb Classical Library (1913)
Julian (Flavius Claudiu Julianus) was the son of Julius
Constanius and thus nephew of the Emperor Constantine;
born at Constantinople in 331 A.D. Raised a Christian,
he prefered paganism and devoted himself to philosophy.
In 355 the emperor Constantius named him Ceasar and
governor of Gaul. Became emperor when Constantius died in
361. Restored freedom of religious worship and urged the
restoration of Greek/Roman religion. He died in battle
against Persia in 363.
Hymn to the Mother of the Gods
[443] "It was handed down by the Phrygians in very
ancient times, and was first taken over by the Greeks,
and not by any ordinary Greeks but by Athenians who had
learned by experience that they did wrong to jeer at one
who was celebrating the Mysteries of the Mother. For it
is said that they wantonly insulted and drove out Gallus,
on the ground that he was introducing a new cult, because
they did not understand what sort of goddess they had to
do with, and that she was that very Deo whom ehty
worship, and Rhea and Demeter too. Then followed the
wrath of the goddess and the propitiation of her wrath.
For the priestess of the Pythian god who guided the
Greeks in all noble conduct, bade them propitiate
thewrath of the Mother of the Gods. And so, we are told,
the Metroum was built, where the Athenians used to keep
all their state records.
After the Greeks the Romans took up the cult, when
the Pythian god had advised them in their turn to bring
the goddess from Phrygia as an ally for their war against
the Carthaginians. And perhaps there is no reason why I
should not insert here a brief account of what happened.
When they learned the response of the oracle, the
inhabitants of Rome, that city beloved of the gods, sent
an embassy to ask from the kings of Pergamon who then
ruled over Phrygia and from the Phygians themselves the
most holy statue of the Goddess. When they had received
it they rough back this sacred freight, putting it on a
broad cargo boat. Thus the statue crossed the Aegean and
Ionian Seas, and sailed round Sicily and over the
etruscan Sea, and so entered the mouth of the Tiber. The
people and the Senate with them poured out of the city,
and in front of all the others there came to meet her all
the priests and priestesses in their ancestral attire. In
excited suspense they gazed at the ship running before
the wind, and about her keel they discerned the foamy
wake as she cleft the waves. The people greeted the ship
as she sailed in and adored her from afar. But the
goddess, as she desired to show the Roman people that
they were not bringing a lifeless image from Phrygia, but
that what they had received from the Phrygians and were
now bringing home possessed greater and more divine
powers than any image, stayed the ship directly as it
touched the Tiber, as if suddenly rooted in mid-stream.
So they tried to tow her against the current, but she did
not follow. Then they tried to push her off, thinking
they had grounded on a shoal, but for all their efforts
she did not move. Then every possible device was brought
to bear, but in spite of all the ship remained immovable.
Thereupon the crowd's suspicion fell on that maiden
who had been consecrated to the most sacred office of
priestess, and they accused Claudia of not having kept
herself stainless and pure for the goddess. Wherefore
they said that the goddess was angry and was plainly
declaring her wrath. For by this time the thing seemed to
all to be supernatural. Now at first Claudia was filled
with shame at the mere name of the thing and the
suspicion; so very far was she from such shameless and
lawless behavior. But when she saw that the charge
against her was gaining strength, she took off her girdle
and fastened it about the prow of the ship and, like one
divinely inspired, had all stand aside. Then she besought
the goddess not to suffer her to be implicated in unjust
slanders. Next she cried aloud, commanding: `O Goddess
Mother, if I am pure follow me!' And lo, she not only
made the ship move, but even towed her for some distance
up stream.
Two things, I think, the goddess showed the Romans
on that day: First that the freight from Phrygia had
great value, in fact was priceless, and that this was no
work of men's hands but was truly divine; not lifeless
clay but a thing possessed of life and divine powers.
This, I say, was one thing that the goddess showed them.
And the other was that no one of the citizens could be
good or bad and she not know thereof. Moreover the war of
the Romans against the Carthaginians forthwith took a
favourable turn, so that the third war was waged only for
the walls of Carthage itself.
As for this narrative, though some will think it
incredible and wholly unworthy of a philosopher or a
theologian, nevertheless let it here be related. For
besides the fact that it is commonly recorded by most
historians, it has been preserved too on bronze statures
in mighty Rome, beloved of the gods.þ
[479] Attis immortal due to castration:
In fact the myth does not say that the Mother of the
Gods was hostile to Attis after his castration... but
forever is Attis the servant and charioteer of the
Mother; forever he yearns passionately towards
generation; and forever he cuts short his unlimited
course throught the cause whose limits are fixed, even
the cause of the forms.
[487] Julian's initiation:
For all things I am grateful to the Mother of the
Gods., and for this among the rest, that she did not
disregard me when I wandered as it were in darkness. For
first she bade me cut off no part indeed of my body, but
by the aid fo the intelligbile cause [Attis] that
subsists prior to our souls, all that was superfluous and
vain in the impulses and motions of my own soul.
notes on:
THE HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO
by William H. Prescott
1843
General Impressions: The native americans did not think Cortes was
Quetzalcoatl, but many thought that he was a representative of Q.
This despite his erection of Christian shrines and destruction of
pagan ones; because Cortes did not deny it. However, there is no
record of his destruction of Q.'s temples or monuments.
What is remarkable about C. and his followers and their
conquest, as opposed to the popular perception, is that it is not
wholly attributable to their superior weaponry. After suffering
military defeat in the Aztec capital, they abandoned their
artillery, muskets, and even their crossbows. Yet these few dozen
men defeated an Aztec army of tens of thousands only a few days
later.
Cortes himself was wounded on an almost daily basis; several
instances of severe wounds are recorded.
On this basis he, and some of his cohorts, are prime
candidates for being vampires.
re Quetzalcoatl: only gives a short general impression, but gives
good footnotes (#6 in Chapter III):
Codex Vaticanus, Pl. 15, and Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Part
2, Pl2, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vols. I., VI. þþ Sahagun, Hist. de
Nueva Espana, lib. 3 cap. 3,4,13,14 þþ Torquemada, Monarch. Ind.,
lib 6, cap. 24 þþ Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap.I þþ
Gomara, Cronica de la Nueva Espana, cap 22, ap. Barcia,
Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales, (Madrid, 1749)
tom II.
Book 2, Ch. I:
Conversion to Christianity in Cuba, from whence Cortes came: "One
chief, indeed, named Hatuey ...was condemned by Velasquez to be
burned alive. It was he who made that memorable reply, more
eloquent than a volume of invective. When urged at the stake to
embrace Christianity, that his should might find admission into
heaven, he inquired if the white men would go there. On being
answered n the affirmative, he exclaimed `Then I will not be a
Christian; for I would not go again to a place where I must find
men so cruel!'"
Book 5, ch. iii
During the retreat from Mexico City, at the final breach in the
causeway across the lake where so many of the Spaniards and their
Tlasclan allies were slaughtered, Alvarado & his troops were in
great trouble, in the rearguard. A. had several wounds, yet he was
the last to retreat across the gap. "Alvarado stood on the brink
for a moment, hesitating what to do. Unhorsed as he was, to throw
himself into the water, in the face of the hostile canoes that now
swarmed around the opening, afforded but a desperate chance of
safety. He had but a second for thought. He was a man of powerful
frame, and despair gave him unnatural energy. Setting his long
lance firmly on the wreck which strewed the bottom of the lake, he
sprung forward with all his might, and cleared the wide gap at a
leap! Aztecs and Tlascalans gazed in stupid amazement, exclaiming,
as they beheld the incredible feat, `This is truly the Tonatiuh þþ
the Child of the Sun.'"
Book 5, ch. iv
It was at the battle of Otumba that the Spaniards fought the Aztecs
without benefit of cannon, musket, or crossbow; even having lost
most of their armor. They had perhaps 500 soldiers, including 23
calvary on severely wounded horses, plus perhaps an additional 500
Tlasclan allies. The Aztecs, inferior in armament only in that
they had no steel swords, numbered at least 100,000, yet eventually
fled in panic.
Book 5, endnote
The two original stories on which most of the history of the
conquest depends are those of Francisco Lopez de Gomara, who was
not a participant, but was Cortes's chaplain after his return to
Spain, and of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, born poor, a lifetime
soldier, who was in the pre-Cortez expeditions to Mexico, as well.
Book 6, Chapter 2 (last paragraph)
At Villa Rica, 3 ships of reinforcements also brought "a Dominican
friar, who brought a quantity of pontifical bulls, offering
indulgences to those engaged in war against the infidel. The
soldiers were not slow to fortify themselves with the good graces
of the church; and the worthy father, after driving a prosperous
traffic with his spiritual wares, had the satisfaction to return
home, at the end of a few months, well freighted, in exchange, with
the more substantial treasures of the Indies."
Book 7, Chapter 4
"It was a resurrection of the dead, so industriously had the
reports of his death been circulated, and so generally believed.
It was reported that Cortes was killed in the morasses of Chiapas.
This was so reliably believed that funeral ceremonies were made in
his honor; his property was seized to pay his debts; and ran the
government in his place.
Some notes on Christians, heretics, & other vampire-
related material from
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
by Edward Gibbon
Chapter 49
Discussion of the introduction of icons into the
Christian church. They had no record of the features of
Christ, Mary or the Apostles, but this was remedied by
the alleged correspondence of Christ with Abgarus in
Syria, with an impression of his face in linen given the
city of Edessa and a promise it would never be captured.
However, this linen was hidden for five hundred years,
hence the lack of earlier records.
Chapter 50
The Chollyridian heretics in Arabia in the 7th century
"invested the Virgin Mary with the name and honours of a
goddess." [Footnote: Hottinger, Hist. Orient. P. 225-
228]. The Collyridian heresy was carried from Thrace to
Arabia by some women, and the name was borrowed from the
Collyridiss, or cake, which they offered to the goddess.
This example, that of Beryllus bishop of Bostra (Eueb.
Hist. Eccles. 1. vi.c.33), and several others, may excuse
the reproach, Arabia haeresewn ferax.
The Koran incorporates apocryphal gospels, and thus the
immaculate conception of the virgin Mary, which the
Catholic Church then borrowed. The Arabian Gnostics
taught Mohammed that Jesus was a prophet, not a god, and
that the texts had been misconstrued by the Church.
Chapter 51
Conquest of Bosra was a good example of the triumph of
Moslem arms over Christian superstition.
Chapter 54
"In the profession of Christianity the variety of
national characters may be clearly distinguished. The
natives of Syria and Egypt abandoned their lives to lazy
and contemplative devotion: Rome again aspired to the
dominion of the world; and the wit of the lively and
loquacious Greeks was consumed in the disputes of
metaphysical theology."
The Paulicians were started by Constantine
(Sylvanus), in Mananalis near Samosata [7th century?]. He
received a true copy of the New Testament, which was
hidden by the Orthodox clergy. He attached himself with
particular devotion to the writings of Paul. Early
followers formed assemblies in Armenia and Cappadocia.
Constantine attacked the fables that had grown around
Christianity. They believed images to be non-holy, and
miraculous relics to be mere bone. The greek orthodox
martyred Sylvanus. 150 years, then rounded up by
Justinian the Second and burned. Survivors persecuted on
and off, notably by Theodora, who claims to have killed
100,000. In ninth-century the Paulicians were powerful
enough, Under Chrysocheir, to fight the emperor, but
eventually lost sank into the historic background. Some
survived near Mount Haemus, but very degenerate and not
knowing their history.
Chapter 55 (near end)
Orthodox tried long to convert the Russians. Final
overall success after Olga, who followed her husband Igor
on the Russian throne, was baptized in Constantinople.
Despite her efforts, most stayed with the old religion.
Her grandson Wolodomir was a zealous pagan, but desired
a Christian princess bride. "The edict of Wolodomir had
proclaimed that all who should refuse the rites of
baptism would be treated as the enemies of god and their
prince." Lithuania was the last state in Europe to
convert to C., in the fourteenth century.
Chapter 56
Alexander the Third, Eastern Emperor, declared the final
separation of the churches and the empires of the East
and West.
Chapter 60
In the seventh century the synods of Spain improved
or corrupted the Nicene Creed on the Trinity: they added
the word filioque, so that the Holy Ghost proceeded from
both the Father and the Son, not just the Father, as the
Greek Orthodox church upheld.
Other points of difference: Greek priests marry
except for bishops; the Greeks allow leavened bread for
communion; the Latins abstained from strangled food;
fasted on Saturdays; permitted eating milk and cheese the
first weak of lent; let monks eat meat; used animal
grease instead of vegetable oil for sacred ointments;
holy chrism in baptism reserved to episcopal order;
bishops wore rings; priests shaved their beards, and
baptized by single immersion.
Chapter 61
John, or Joannice, or Calo-John, was the revolted
chief of the Bulgarians and Wallachians during the Latin
rule of Constantinople. He was Catholic, and a Latin ally
against the Greeks. But the Count of Flanders snubbed
him, and he turned to support the Greeks. When Henry, the
emperor's brother, had transported his troops beyond the
Hellespont, they revolted, murdering the scant Latin
garrisons. Calo-John enlisted 14,000 comans from Scythia
(who drank the blood of their captives and sacrificed
Christians to their gods). Baldwin did not wait to join
with Henry, but marched on the rebels in Adrianople. The
Comans pretended to flee before a calvary charge, but
then turned on the heavily-armored Franks. The emperor
was made prisoner, and died in prison.
Chapter 66
During the papacy of Eugenius IV, after the conflicts
between Avignon and Rome, to heal the schism synods were
convened at Pisa and Constance. They established the
authority of the general counsel above the Pope. Such
assemblies were to be held at regular intervals. Eugenius
eluded one such assembly, but the bishops called one at
Basil, which threatened to depose him unless he admitted
to their authority, which he did (in a bull). They
assumed the government of Avignon, annulled the
alienation of the sacred patrimony, and protected Rome
from new taxes. Eugenius used the pretext of reuniting
the Greek and Catholic churches to re-impose his power:
"and with some indulgence of forgery and theft, a
surreptitious decree was procured, which transferred the
synod, with its own consent, to that Italian city"
[Ferrara, where Eugenius regained power]