The Whore of Babylon

Why Rome is called the “Whore of Babylon” in Revelations?

by Bill Schaeffer

Legend has it that Rome was founded by refugees from the Trojan War.   In the Aeneid by Virgil we find Aeneas and the citizens of Troy forced to leave their homeland since it is destroyed by the Greeks. According to the prophecy, Aeneas is destined to found Rome and the Trojan descendants will build a powerful Roman country later on.

In the early days, circa 600 B.C.E., Rome was surrounded by the twelve cities of the Etruscan League.   The Etruscans were  a distinctly different people with their own language, customs, and culture.   As Rome grew in power, by 300 B.C.E., the Etruscan people were slowly absorbed into Roman life till little remained of their original culture.   To this day a few tombs, frescoes, and inscriptions survive, but their language and culture has been lost.  The alphabet is unique and has defied translation by modern scholars.

The Etruscans were known for their soothsaying ability and were frequently employed by the more practical Romans to divine the future.   The people of Rome, like most people of those times were very superstitious.   When an animal sacrifice was made on the altar in front of one of the temples, the entrails were checked for signs of future events.   Before battle a Roman general would release birds and their flight was observed to indicate whether it was a good day for a successful outcome.   Etruscans were frequently employed to interpret these signs.  Two Etruscan words that have survived to this day, being passed through Latin into English, are “auspicious” and “auger”; both relating to fortune telling.  

The Roman Senate itself was primarily convened to interpret these signs for the Roman people.    Unlike the Senate in the USA which passes laws, and collects money for large public works, the Roman Senate had no ability to fund large public works, or raise an army.   These were provided by influential private citizens for personal recognition.    The Roman Senate was primarily a religious institution to guide the Roman People and not a secular institution to form a code of law.

But where did these Etruscans come from?

Legend has it that the Etruscans migrated from Babylon.     After Babylon fell in 1600BC the refugees migrated to the Italian peninsula and by 800 BC a thriving Etruscan civilization was influential throughout the Mediterranean.

Babylon was known to have developed astrology and astronomy.   We still use their base 60 number system to this day when measuring time or the distance along an arc of a circle.   Furthermore, Babylon temples had sacred prostitutes whose time men could buy as a civic and religious duty.

Therefore,   Roman Religion was strongly influenced and controlled by the Etruscans who themselves were descended from the Babylonians.

The name Babylon also is related to the Tower of Babel in the Genesis.   It was the Babylonian practice to build ziggurats, or stepped pyramids for their temples.   These were symbolic mountains to get nearer to heaven, much like the stepped pyramids of the Mayans in the New World.    In the Bible, this is where God multiplied the tongues of man so they would disperse throughout the land.

By the first century AD, Rome was a modern cosmopolitan city with people from all over the known world living and working there.    The polyglot of languages must have reminded early Christians of the Genesis story of Babel.

So, because Roman religion was influenced and guided by Etruscan soothsayers, who themselves were descended from Babylonian fortune tellers who employed sacred prostitutes, Rome itself became know by the epithet “The Whore of Babylon.”

And now you know.

Copyright © 2006, 2014 William A. Schaeffer