Dante: Paradise Lost in Crete

The ancient holy island of Crete has a history that goes back thousands of years. It is a place where legends were made, Gods and Dante PurgatoryGoddesses born, Saints christened, and wars for rulership of the world fought. Both paradise found, and paradise lost.

Now a place in purgatory from the sins of their fathers. A people scattered amongst nations. Tribes kept in captivity.

Dante tells the story of Crete in Purgatorio, where he has a dream that he is on Mount Ida and is carried up to heaven by an eagle. Upon awakening, Dante finds that during his sleep he had been moved to the lowest part of the Mount that he called just below the Gate of Purgatory.

It is here, where the image with the allegory of the “old man” beneath Mount Ida from whom the three mythological rivers spring, and the statue of the Old Man of Crete who is made of gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay. The Old Man of Crete would be the Father of Zeus (Jupiter, Jove), and husband of Cybele (Rhea, Magna Mater), who is known in mythology as Father Time or Kronos (Saturn), and is the King of Crete. It was on Mount Ida, where Cybele raised her son the infant Jupiter secretly in the care of the priesthood of the Curetes (Priests of Jupiter, Pan), and by their frantic dancing and noise of cymbals concealed him from his father Saturn. (more…)

The Family of the Caesars From the City of Caere in Crete and Italy

The family of the Juli who were also known by the given name of the Caesars in ancient Rome had produced some of the most powerful people of the 6th Age. In fact, they were esteemed as Gods and had changed time, calendars and they in which the people under the rule of the Roman Empire would be ruled for generations to come. A family that would help build Rome into a world-wide Empire, and also conquer much of the world.

The history surrounding the family of the Caesars has been written about by many of the world’s best historians, and scholars over the last 2,000 years. But in all these books, articles and movies that tell of their history, they still do not indicate the city or cities where the first family of the Caesars had come from. In the course of my own research into the history of this family, I have found an ancient connection to a couple of cities that were once called Caere (Cere). It was in the cities of Caere where a people called the Cereithes had lived, and whose name may have also helped form the English word we know of today as Christian.

The original home and birthplace of the name of the Caesars I have found to be composed of two cities bearing the same name of Caere (Cere). This name of Caere is derived from the Greek word ‘Ares’ who the Romans identified this god as their God of war, Mars. He is represented as the son of Zeus (Jupiter) and Hera (Venus). (Homer Illiad v. 893, &c.; Hes. 921; Apollod. i. 3. § 1.) The God of the Roman Empire was Jove (Jupiter) who was known as Zeus in Greece and the Emperor became a son of Zeus who ruled by religion and war with the Roman Emperor as the God of War and Pontifex Maximus of religion.

Virgil had written this poem about Augustus and his family of the Caesars:

Turn, turn thine eyesIsee here thy race divine,
Behold thy own imperial Roman line:
Caesar, with all the Julian name survey;
See where the glorious ranks ascend to-day !—
This—this is he!—the chief so long foretold
To bless the land where Saturn ruled of old,
And give the Lernean realms a second age of gold!
The promised prince, Augustus the divine,
Of Caesar’s race, and Jove’s immortal line.

It was Augustus Caesar who was the race of Jupiter who had addressed to the gods Mars and Venus, progenitors of the Roman people (and patrons of Ovid’s poetry).

 

WHERE WAS THE HOMELAND AND CITIES OF THE CAESARS?

The city of Caere that may be the first original homeland which would be in ancient Greece on the island of Crete, and the other would be the second sister city that had come later to Italy. The original first city of Caere (Cere or Caeratus) was in ancient Greece on the Holy Island of Crete. A city we know of today as Knossus (Cnossus, Gnossus). A city I like to call the first true home to Gnosis and the Gnostics because after all, this is where we get the word we today call Gnosis. In historical times, this was the most powerful city in the world. The ancient city of Caere had got its name from a small river that had flowed beneath its walls called “Caeratus.” This river had run along side another river named Triton which took its name from the Son of Neptune. Mythological gods who all were born on Crete. An island known by many names.

This connection I have made between the Caesars and Crete makes more sense when you research Augustus Caesar’s grandfather, Atius Balbus who I believe was originally from Crete or it was simply his ancesteral homeland. Atius was said to be born in 100 BC in Roma, Italy, and later died along with his many ancestors who are buried on the Sacred Mountain of the Stone on the Holy Island of Crete.

The great 1st century geographer and historian, Strabo had written this about the city of Caere and river on the island of Crete;

There are several cities in Crete, but the greatest and most famous are three: Cnossus, Gortyna and Cydonia. The praises of Cnossus are p129hymned above the rest both by Homer, who calls it “great” and “the kingdom of Minos,”and by the later poets.

In earlier times Cnossus was called Caeratus, bearing the same name as the river which flows past it. According to history, Minos was an excellent law‑giver, and also the first to gain the mastery of the sea; and he divided the island into three parts and founded a city in each part, Cnossus in the opposite the Peloponnesus. And it, too lies to the north. As Ephorus p131states, Minos was an emulator of a certain Rhadamanthys of early times, a man most just and bearing the same name as Minos’s brother, who is reputed to have been the first to civilise the island by establishing laws and by uniting cities under one city as metropolis by setting up constitutions, alleging that he brought from Zeus the several decrees which he promulgated.

Strabo goes on to allude to his ancestral bonds to Crete and the city of Gnossus by saying he himself was not an alien to these lands, but how by fate and war, he ultimately had to sever his connections to the island. A law that still stands to this day. Strabo had said; “The Caerites were held in much repute among the Hellenes for their bravery and integrity, and because, powerful though they were, they abstained from robbery.”

An interesting note about me is that I had my DNA tested a few years ago revealing I’m a Greek Hellene (Phoenician) on my father’s side, and I also feel connected to the family of the Caesars. An internal Gnosis of past knowledge that I have been verifying for several years now. Hence, as Plato had said, “All learning is remembering.”

According to Dionysius, the Romans were first engaged in hostilities with Caere under the reign of Tarquin the Elder, and subsequently under Servius Tullius, by whom a treaty was concluded between the two states. (III. 28.) Long after, when Rome had been taken by the Gauls, the Caerites rendered that city an important service by receiving their priests and vestals, and defeating the Gauls on their return through the Sabine country; on which occasion they recovered the gold with which Rome is said to have purchased its liberation n. In return for this assistance, the Romans requested the Caerites inadequately, as Strabo seems to hint, by declaring them the public guests of Rome, and admitting them, though not in full, to the rights enjoyed .by her citizens0. (Cf. Liv. V. 40. and 50. Val. Max. I.1. Aul. Gell. XVI. 13.)

Virgil, one of Rome’s greatest poets in the time of Julius Caesar had written this poem that I believe connects the Caesars to this town and also shows the nature of their roles as shepherds to their people;

“Not far from hence there stands a hilly town,
Of ancient building and of high renown,
Torn from the Tuscans by the Lydian race,
Who gave the name of Care to the place,
Once Agyllina called.”

“A greenwood shade, for long religion known,
Stands by the streams, that wash the Tuscan town,
Encompassed round with gloomy hills above,
Which add a holy horror to the grove:
The first inhabitants, of Grecian blood,
That sacred forest to Sylvanus vowed,
The guardian of their flocks and fields,—they pay
Their due devotions on his annual day.”

THE CAESARS FROM CAERE IN ITALY

In Italy, there was a city also called Caerite cera Digni,’] Caere (Cer- vetri) was a very ancient town of Etruria, about twenty-seven miles north of Rome. was a very ancient town of Etruria, about twenty-seven miles north of Rome. The remains of Caere are still to be traced about four miles from the sea, on a spot known to the people of the country by the name of Cerveteri. Aisium. It was called by the Greeks ‘AyuXXa. About A.u.c. 400, the people of Tarquinii having taken up arms against the Romans, the Caerites were accused of aiding them, and were threatened with punishment, but having asked pardon they obtained it at the expense of half their territory. The Romans, out of gratitude, are said to have conferred upon the Caerites the Roman franchise without the suffragium. The Caerites appear to have been the first body of Roman citizens who did not enjoy the sufferage. ; or on the retirement of the Gauls before the destruction of Rome, on which occasion they rendered important service.(3) According to Dionysins, the Caerites were engaged in war against the Romans under the elder Tarquin, who defeated them in a battle and laid waste their territory;

As it is said in John 19:15; “But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.” “They elected Caesar to be their king; by Caesar they were destroyed” (Lampe). Their theocracy fell by their mad rage against the perfect embodiment of the highest righteousness and purest love. “The kingdom of God, by the confession of its rulers, has become the kingdom of this world.”

SOURCES:

2. Cambro-Briton and General Celtic Repository, Volume 2

3. Quinti Horatii Flacci opera omnia, with a comm. by A.J. Macleane  By Quintus Horatius Flaccus

 

Pythagoras Initiated Into the Secret Mysteries on Crete

Pythagoras of Samos had lived from 570 to 490 BCE. He was an Ionian Greek who eventually became one of the most famous pythagoras cretephilosophers, mathematicians, Gnostics and brothers who has ever lived. He was the founder of a very popular religious movement called Pythagoreanism, and his followers were known as the Pythagoreans. The life and teachings of Pythagoras are still followed to this day. Especially amongst the Rosicrucians and Freemasons, who carry on his teachings to this very day.

THE MASONIC CONNECTION TO PYTHAGORAS

Manly P. Hall had written about the importance of Pythagoras in Masonry in his book, “The Secret Teachings of all Ages;”

“Pythagoras’ teachings are of the most transcendental importance to Masons, inasmuch as they are the necessary fruit of his contact with the leading philosophers of the whole civilized world of his own day, and must represent that in which all were agreed, shorn of all weeds of controversy. Thus, the determined stand made by Pythagoras, in defense of pure monotheism, is sufficient evidence that the tradition to the effect that the unity of God was the supreme secret of all the ancient initiations is substantially correct.

The philosophical school of Pythagoras was, in a measure, also a series of initiations, for he caused his pupils to pass through a series of degrees and never permitted them personal contact with himself until they had reached the higher grades. According to his biographers, his degrees were three in number. The first, that of ‘Mathematicus,’ assuring his pupils proficiency in mathematics and geometry, which was then, as it would be now if Masonry were properly inculcated, the basis upon which all other knowledge was erected. Secondly, the degree of ‘Theoreticus,’ which dealt with superficial applications of the exact sciences, and, lastly, the degree of ‘Electus,’ which entitled the candidate to pass forward into the light of the fullest illumination which he was capable of absorbing. The pupils of the Pythagorean school were divided into ‘exoterici,’ or pupils in the outer grades, and ‘esoterici,’ after they had passed the third degree of initiation and were entitled to the secret wisdom. Silence, secrecy and unconditional obedience were cardinal principles of this great order.” (See Ancient Freemasonry.)

Crete aegean mapTHE INITIATION OF PYTHAGORAS

Pythagoras was simply the lover of wisdom. He had travelled extensively around the world in seek of the secret knowledge of various cultures, religions and orders, where he would be initiated into the secret mysteries of some of these orders. Not only did he travel into Egypt and Chaldaea, he also had traveled to learn from the Ancient Brotherhood that had resided on the Island now called Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. An island that I like to call, the “land of creation”; since after all, the name Crete means “to create.” A place also known throughout history as the Garden of Eden, Atlantis, Arcadia, the Holy Land, Land of Milk and Honey, and the Sacred Mountain of Zeus (Jove or Jupiter). Crete was where the Rule of Law under the mythical Minos had first began, and where the order for thousands of years had ruled both the land and sea.

In the 20th century book, The Pythagorean Sourcebook by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, he explains the initiation in Crete;

Going to Crete, Pythagoras besought initiation from the priests of Morgos, one of the Idaean Dactyli, by whom he was purified with the meteoritic thunder-stone. In the morning he lay stretched upon his face by the sea-side; at night, he lay beside a river, crowned with a black lamb’s wollen wreath. Descending into the Idaean cave, wrapped in black wool, he stayed there twentyseven days, according to custom; he sacrificed to zeus, and saw the throne which there is yearly made for him. On Zeus’s tomb, Pythagoras inscribed an epigram, “Pythagoras to Zeus,” which begins: “Zeus deceased here lies, whom men call Jove.”

Mount Ida Cave

It was here where Pythagoras had learned the laws of Minos and was initiated by the Ancient Priesthood of Jupiter (Amon) on the Sacred Mountain of Mount Ida (Zion), and in the same cave on Crete that the greatest of all Greek Gods, Zeus was educated and also hidden from his most vengeful father, known in mythology as Cronus and in science as Saturn.  This priesthood is the same one who had also initiated many other very famous people throughout history who had huge impacts on the world. People you may know, such as Alexander the Great who was initiated in the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, and Roman Emperors like Julius Caesar, and Augustus Caesar who would become the first Pontifex Maximus of this 6th Age, in which we are currently, in the year of 2014.

The Priesthood of Jupiter have been known by many names throughout history such as the the Priests of Pan, Luperci, Curetes (Kuretes), Corybantes, Dactyls, Cabiri, Telchines, Sea Peoples, Philistines, Nephilim, Boetians, Levites and Tribe of Benjamin. Strabo had written, that these are the names of the various groups that are often used interchangeably with one another. He also said in his book ‘Geography’, the connection between the Telchines, Curetes and the Corbanytes;

“Some say that, of the nine Telkhines (Telchines) who lived in Rhodes, those who accompanied Rhea to Krete (Crete) and ‘reared’ Zeus ‘in his youth’ were named Kouretes (Curetes); and thatKyrbas (Cyrbas), a comrade of these, who was the founder of Hierapytna, afforded a pretext to the Prasians for saying among the Rhodians that theKorybantes(Corybantes) were certain Daimones, sons of Athena and Helios (the Sun) [i.e. this was regarded as a lie].”

Plutarch had said, “that according to a divine nature and justice, the souls of virtuous men are advanced to the rank of daemons; and that from demons, if they are properly purified, they are exalted into gods, not by any political institution, but according to right reason.”

PYTHAGORAS AND HIS INITIATES

He [Pythagoras] gathered around him a small group of sincere disciples whom he instructed in the secret wisdom which had been revealed to him, and also in the fundamentals of occult mathematics, music, and astronomy, which he considered to be the triangular foundation of all the arts and sciences. — Manly P. Hall; The Secret Teachings of all Ages

phoenix cap stoneGNOSTIC WARRIOR CONCLUSION:

phoenix cap stoneMy research and travels have led me back to the original homeland of the Brotherhood, which is on the island of Crete. This conclusion is based on over three years of extensive work, communication, and science that backs up my research with real-life facts. These articles and my subsequent research on Crete are witness and testament to this truth and light I have brought forward to the Brotherhood at their request.

I believe Pythagoras is an ancient Greek ancestor of mine. The reason I state this, is NOT to claim divine right or to be on the same level as Pythagoras, but to write about truth. This information is not based on allusions of self grander, but on the science and of various physical characteristics.  This would relate to my comprehension of the secret mysteries, and the fact that I easily excel most people in the occult. There is also the science such as the white birthmark on my thigh, which Pythagoras also had, and the science of DNA tests that I had done in the past two years. My birthmarks and DNA all trace back to many of the same locations where Pythagoras had lived and traveled. These same places could also be where the current original government of the Great White Brotherhood via their various secret orders had first originated on the planet earth.

Notwithstanding attempts made to obliterate all records of the teachings of Pythagoras, fragments have survived which give clues to some of the simpler parts of his philosophy. The major secrets were never committed to writing, but were communicated orally to a few chosen disciples. These apparently dated not divulge their secrets to the profane, the result being that when death sealed their lips the arcana died with them. — Manly P. Hall; The Secret Teachings of all Ages

Or so they thought. The Phoenix arises and the arcana never dies……

Saint John of Crete

The Apostle John (4 BC – 100 AD) is said to have been born in the city of Ephesus. There are mentioned to be actual records of Saint John the ApostleJohn being arrested by the Emperor Domitian (reigned 81 -96 AD), and then being sent to the small island of Patmos where he had written the Book of Revelation. He was eventually released late in his life of exile from his prison on Patmos, and then returned back to his birthplace of Ephesus where he would convert many Jews to Christianity before his death. Saint John was also buried at Ephesus. A place, that I believe the original city was located on the Holy Island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea.

Today, the city of Ephesus is located in the Selçuk, İzmir Province, Turkey, but I have found that the original ancient city mentioned in the bible was actually on the island of Crete. It simply appears to me, that many of these very old cities were moved or were sister cities created, and that were models of the original ancient cities. This can be easily researched to connect the dots, by anyone who wishes to verify my words that I write in this article with the links to the sources that I provide.

in the early history of the Church, from St. John’s having been banished to it, and having there written his Apocalypse. The modem name is Patmo. 3. Liros lay to the southeast of Patmos. It was peopled from Miletus, and probably belonged to that city. Strabo gives its inhabitants a character for dishonesty. The modern name is Lero. 3. Calymna lay to the southeast of Leros. Ovid praises its honey. It is supposed to have belonged to the group which Homer calls Calydna. The modern name is Ctrfimno. 4. Cos, to the southeast, an island of some celebrity. It must have been inhabited at an early period, since Homer represents it as sending its warriors to the siege of Troy. It was subsequently colonized by a party of Dorians, and hence was always reckoned of Dorian origin, and obtained a place in the Triopian Pentapolis. Its chief city was also called Cos, without the walls of which was a celebrated temple of .Esculapius, containing two famous paintings of Apelles, the Antigonus and Venus Anadyomene. Augustus removed the latter to Rome, and remitted to the Coans, as a compensation for the loss, a tribute of one hundred talents. Cos was the birth-place not only of Apelles, but also of the celebrated physician Hippocrates. It was a very productive island, especially in wine, which vied with that of Lesbos and Chios. Cos was likewise celebrated for its purple dye, and for its manufacture of a species of transparent silk stuff, against the use of which by the Romans Juvenal so strongly inveighs. The modern name of the island is Stan-Co (A System of Ancient and Mediæval Geography for the Use of Schools and Colleges
By Charles Antho)

Crete aegean mapThere are many connections and clues tying the City of Ephesus to being located on Crete.

Besides the city of Ephesus being the birthplace and burial site of Saint John, it was also world-famous for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC). In Greek mythology, Artemis, who was also called Letois was the daughter of the Father of the Gods, Zeus (Jupiter); her mother was the Titan, Leto who was the goddess of motherhood, and with her children, a protectress of the young. Her brother was the God of Healing, Apollo.

In Crete, at the city of Dreros, Spyridon Marinatos uncovered an eighth-century post-Minoan hearth house temple, in which there were found three unique figures of Apollo, Artemis and Leto made of brass sheeting hammered over a shaped core (sphyrelata).

ArtemisHomer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: “Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals.” The Arcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter. She was also the protector and goddess of young men and or priesthood who were called the Curetes (Kuretes or Kouretes). The worship of Artemis had originated in Minoan Crete, where she was “goddess of mountains and hunting’, who was the “sweet maiden’ and “sweet virgin,” Britomartis (Βριτόμαρτις).

Strabo notes she was venerated as Diktynna, only in western Crete in the region of Cydonia, where there was a Diktynnaion , or temple of Diktynna. “Oupis [Artemis], O queen, fairfaced Bringer of Light, thee too the Kretans name after that Nymph,” Callimachus says. “She passed her time in the company of Artemis, this being the reason why some men think Diktynna and Artemis are one and the same goddess,” Diodorus Siculus (5.76.3) suggested.

By Hellenistic and Roman times, Britomartis was given a genealogical setting that fitted her into a Classical context: “Britomartis, who is also called Diktynna, the myths relate, was born at Kaino in Crete of Zeus and Karme,[8] the daughter of Euboulos who was the son of Demeter; she invented the nets [diktya] which are used in hunting.”

The reason I relate these stories to you, is for reference to Greek mythology and is because this all takes place on the island of Crete. In addition, one of the best authorities on the subject would be Strabo who was a native from Crete. Hence, it only makes sense, that if Zeus was born on Crete and the legend has it that he was hidden in a cave on Mount Ida on the same island where he would father other Gods and Goddesses such as Artemis and Apollo, that these temples and the main home for them would be on the same holy land. It was only after the Romans had taken over Crete and the religion of the Greek Jews, that they would then change many of the names of these goddesses and Gods; where Artemis then, became known as “Diana of Ephesus” and her Temple from then on was called, “The Temple of Diana.”

Temple_of_ArtemisThe Temple of Artemis (Diana) was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In the 7th century BC, the old temple was destroyed by a flood. Its reconstruction began around 550 BC. under the Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes, at the expense of Croesus of Lydia: the project took 10 years to complete, only to be destroyed in an act of arson by Herostratus. It was later rebuilt in 268 AD., and the Temple was destroyed or damaged yet again in a raid by the Goths. In Greek and Roman historical tradition, the temple’s destruction coincided with the birth of Alexander the Great (around 20/21 July 356 BC). Plutarch remarked, that Artemis was too preoccupied with Alexander’s delivery to save her burning temple. (Wikpedia)

Antipater of Sidon of Crete from around 140 BC, had named six of the seven sites on his list—leaving out the lighthouse—, but was primarily in praise of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus:

I have gazed on the walls of impregnable Babylon along which chariots may race, and on the Zeus by the banks of the Alpheus, I have seen the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Helios, the great man-made mountains of the lofty pyramids, and the gigantic tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the sacred house of Artemis that towers to the clouds, the others were placed in the shade, for the sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus.

Greek Anthology IX.58

St. John had opposed a man in Ephesus named ‘Cerinthus,’ who was a Jewish Christian and the alleged Gnostic arch-heretic. Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia that are cited in the Book of Revelation. Hence, it was one of the most important religious centers of all the world at the time, and it would continue to be for many centuries, even after it was conquered by the Romans. The story of St. John, the Gnostic Cerinthus and his followers, I will write on in the near future.

Christianity in the city of Ephesus, was introduced in the 1st century AD by Paul the Apostle who visited Ephesus around 53 AD, where he spent three months teaching in a synagogue in an effort to bring the Greek Jews to accept union with the gentiles of Rome in Christianity, but he met with little success. For the next two years he stayed in Ephesus on Crete, where he appears to have made many converts.

One of his Gentile converts was actually a Roman Emperor by the name, Titus who would later become the companion of Paul Saint Paul and Titus holding Cretewho had appointed him Bishop of Crete after the siege of the City of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. Hence, the Roman Emperor Titus became master of the island of Crete after he had conquered the government and religion, where he then would be immortalized in the Catholic Church as Saint Titus forever thereafter.

Titus 1:5-9 – I (Paul) left you (Titus as minister) in Crete to set right matters which needed attention, and gave you instructions to appoint elders in every city. They were to be men of unquestioned integrity with only one wife, and with children brought up as Christians and not likely to be accused of loose living or law-breaking. To exercise spiritual oversight a man must be of unimpeachable virtue, for he is God’s agent in the affairs of his household. He must not be aggressive or hot-tempered or over-fond of wine; nor must he be violent or greedy for financial gain. On the contrary, he must be hospitable, a genuine lover of what is good, a man who is discreet, fair-minded, holy and self-controlled: a man who takes his stand on the orthodox faith, so that he can by sound teaching both stimulate faith and confute opposition.

Augustus as priestWhen Augustus Caesar became Roman Emperor in 27 BC, he made Ephesus the capital of proconsular Asia (which covered western Asia Minor) instead of Pergamum. He had built a city to his name nearby Ephesus called, Caesaria, which at the time of Paul was the seat of where, the then governor of Idaea or Judea (Tribe of Judah) had resided. The Cretans were called back then, the ‘Idaeans’ and according to Homer, one of their rulers was known as ‘Idomensus,’ the grandson of the ruler of Knossos. The children of Idomensus were, whom Homer had called the royal and warlike ‘Idomen,‘ and who we would know of today as the Judeans (Idaeans, Tribe of Judah). Ephesus then entered an era of prosperity, becoming both the seat of the governor and a major center of commerce.

According to Strabo, the city of Ephesus was second in importance and size only to Rome.

Double Headed Eagle Roman Empire

MORE FACTS CONNECTING SAINT JOHN AND THE CITY OF EPHESUS TO CRETE (Open Source)

Two decades later, the church at Ephesus was still important enough to be addressed by a letter written by Bishop Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians in the early 2nd century AD, that begins with, “Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church which is at Ephesus, in Asia, deservedly most happy, being blessed in the greatness and fullness of God the Father, and predestinated before the beginning of time, that it should be always for an enduring and unchangeable glory” (Letter to the Ephesians). The church at Ephesus had given their support for Ignatius, who was taken to Rome for execution.

A legend, which was first mentioned by Epiphanius of Salamis in the 4th century AD, purported that Mary may have spent the last years of her life in Ephesus. The Ephesians derived the argument from John’s presence in the city, and Jesus’ instructions to John to take care of Mary after his death. Epiphanius, however, was keen to point out that, while the Bible says John was leaving for Asia, it specifically does not say that Mary went with him. He later stated that she was buried in Jerusalem.

In the 3rd century, the emperor Constantine I rebuilt much of the city of Ephesus, and erected a new public bath. Constantine the Great frequently traveled to Nicomedia in Crete near Ephesus and had made this city his place of residence. He later died near his home in the year 337.’ Ephesus remained the most important city of the Byzantine Empire in Asia after Constantinople in the 5th and 6th centuries.

The Siege of Jerusalem and the Destruction of the Second Temple in Crete

The city of Knossos on the island of Crete, Greece has a deep history in helping create modern civilization, that many people Siege of Jerusalemare unaware of. The history I speak of goes back to approximately 1600 B.C. and had flourished until approximately 70 A.D. This is the time when I believe, that their old culture and religion was destroyed in the great Judean rebellion and siege of Jerusalem by the new comers on the world scene and who happened to be their Italian cousins, the Romans.

The destruction of the ancient Palace Temple (the Second Temple), the royal archives, and the entire city of Knossos had come at the orders of Roman Emperor, Nero who had sent Vespasian and his son Titus to Judea in order to subdue the Jewish nation in a massive invasion of the Holy Island of Crete in the year 67 A.D. Titus had served under his father on the island of Crete in the kingdom of Judaea (Greco-Egypt) during the First Jewish-Roman War. For winning this historic holy battle for the Romans, Titus would later become known as Saint Titus,  Bishop of Crete and companion to the Apostle Paul.

The greatest of ancient Greek epic poets, Homer had written in his most famous works, the Iliad and the Odyssey, that the city of Knossos is mentioned along with Phaestos as having magnificent temples. But it is the city of Knossos that he clearly identifies as the most dominant city of a rich and populous land. Homer had called it, “Broad Knossos,” in which he tells us of the maze.  In later times, archeologist, Sir Arthur Evans in the late 19th century would excavate the Temple at Knossos and change the name to the Minoans; he called the maze, the Labyrinth of the Minotaur Bull. Homer in the Odyssey sang: “One of the great islands of the world In midsea, in the wine-dark sea, is Crete, spacious and rich and populous.”(Hom. Od. XIX, 172ff). He also mentions, that rituals were held for the goddess Ilythyia in the cave of Amnisos.

Homer describes this period in history as an age that is called the “prehistoric period of Europe.” The Ages of the Old Law under the Old Testament before those of the Roman Catholic Church and the New Testament, in which the new law and religious customs of the 6th Age were born under the leadership of the first Roman Pope, Augustus Caesar. Hence, the law of Caesar. King Lucius, 2nd-century King of the Britons traditionally credited with introducing Christianity into Britain has said, “superior papal authority and dominion is derived from the law of the Caesars.”

knossos_king_throneBoth the Iliad and the Odyssey were highly venerated ancient books by the Greeks that became, what I believe are the historical blue prints that would help shape the writings of the bible. If you study this history that runs parallel to biblical history, you will discover that the city and palaces of Knossos on Crete appear to be the main administration centers for the Jews in the bible. This same location of the great palace of Knossos may actually be allegorically known in the bible as the “Second Temple of Solomon”; the city of Knossos would be known as the “City of David,”AKA the “City of Jerusalem” that was eventually destroyed by the Romans who were led by the Emperor Titus. This makes perfect reasonable sense, since both historical evidence and archeological science verifies the city of Knossos was the birthplace, to not only modern civilization, but it was also the home of many Cretan Kings, royal Jewish families and the first Fathers and Saints of the Catholic Church.

I have found connections that also tie ancient Crete to ancient Judea and the Judaeans. The Cretans were called back then, the ‘Idaeans’ and according to Homer, one of their rulers was known as ‘Idomensus,’ the grandson of the ruler of Knossos. Idomensus was said to have fought side by side with the Achaeans against the Trojans in the Trojan War. The children of Idomensus were, whom Homer had called the royal and warlike ‘Idomen,‘ and who we would know of today as the Judeans (Idaeans, Tribe of Judah).

They were named after the mountain on Crete called Mount Ida where their God Zeus was hidden in a cave by his mother, Mount Idathe Greek Titaness Rhea who then placed the infant Zeus in the care of the priesthood of the Curetes (Kuretes). These priests Strabo had written, were also known as the Corybantes, Dactyls, Cabiri, and Telchines which are names that are often used interchangeably with one another. This cave of Zeus sits just above the Plain of Nida on Mount Ida, to the southwest of Knossos. The mother of Zeus was also known in Latin as “Mater Idaea (Idaean Mother).” The name Mount Ida is where the Tribe of Judah had received their name, “the ‘Idaeans,” which is just an earlier spelling of the Judaeans. The reason for this spelling, is because at the time the letter ‘j’ was simply not used.

The Tribe of Judah is where we get the  word Jew which is a derivative of the word Judah, referring to a descendant of the Kingdom of Judah, and a Jew was a word that the Romans had used in propaganda to apply to the followers of the old religions and pagan rites of their ancestors that had conflicted with the state approved Roman religion. The Biblical Judah (in Hebrew: Yehuda) is the original name of the Tribe of Judah, which is traditionally symbolized by a lion. (Wikipedia) In a previous article I had written, The First Jews of Crete, I had detailed some of my research into the Crete, Judaea and Jerusalem connections and where many of the world’s greatest historians call these people from Crete, the Idaeans.

Roman Senator and historian, Cornelius Tacitus (110 A.D.) had written that the Jews often traveled to Crete to celebrate the festival of Pentecost in Jerusalem and that they eventually were exiled from the island when Saturn was driven from his throne by the violence of Jupiter. The Cretans are called Idaeans, and then Judieans who eventually became fugitives from the island and who then settled on the nearest coast of Africa in the remotest corner of Libya. In, The Works of Tacitus, he explains the relationship with Crete, the Jewish people and the exodus from the island of Crete to the coast of Africa in Libya.

The Jews, we are told, escaping from the island of Crete, at the time when Saturn was driven from his throne by the violence of Jupiter, settled in the extreme parts of Libya. Their name is adduced as – a proof. Ida, it is alleged, is a well-known mountain in Crete: the neighboring Idaeans, by an addition to the name to adapt it to the language of barbarians, are ordinarily called Judieans. Some say that the population, overflowing throughout Egypt, in the reign of Isis, was relieved by emigration into the neighboring countries, under the conduct of Hierosolymus and Juda. Many state that they are the progeny of the Ethiopians) who were impelled by fear and detestation to change their abode in the reign of King Cepheus.

The Umbrian connection of Royal Republic of Rome to the Royal Jewish Families of Crete

The reason that I stated in the first paragraph that the Romans were cousins to the Greek Jews from Crete, is because for hundreds of years before the beginning of the Roman Republic Italy was populated by a group of these people. One of these tribes was known as the Umbrians (AKA – Ombrii, Gomerians, Cimmerians, Cymry, Kymry, Cumri, Cumbri, Cimbri, Humbri, and the Celtic people) who had settled in the Tuscany area of Italy, approximately 1,500-500 years before the building of Rome. The Umbrians who historians, Dionysius, Pliny, Florus, and others have written that they were the most ancient people of Italy. Pliny had said “the Greeks had called them the people of the thunderstorm because they “survived the deluge.” This would be the same tribe that had descended from the royal Jewish families of Crete.

Based on various key marriages of the Umbrians in Rome, some of these chosen Jewish families had sons who had risen to the highest honors in the Roman state. Some of whom would become Rome’s first emperors and who we can easily trace their ancestors to the island of Crete. One of these Italian Umbrians was named Nerva (Latin: Marcus Cocceius Nerva Caesar Augustus; 8 November, 30 AD – 27 January, 98 AD), who became the thirteenth Roman Emperor from 96 to 98. Emperor Nerva was born at Narnia, in Umbria, A.D. 27 according to Eutropius (8, 1), or A.D. 32 according to Dio Cassius (68, 4) and he had family who had come from Crete. Another highly venerated Roman Emperor with connection to the Umbrians and family ties to Crete, would happen to be the same man who would lead the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple on Crete. His name I mentioned above, Roman Emperor Titus who would later become a Saint in the Church.

Here is an old image below of the church companions, Saint Paul and Saint Titus holding the Holy See of Crete in their hands, symbolizing their dual governorship of this region via the Holy Roman and Byzantine Empires.

Saint Paul and Titus holding Crete

The grandmother of Titus was Vespasia Polla (also known as Vespasia Pollia, born c. 15 BC, fl 1st century AD) who was a descendant of the Cretans through the Umbrians of Italy. Like Emperor Nerva, she was also from the town of Narnia. Polla’s husband was named Titus Flavius Sabinus and he was a customs official and banker in the province of Asia, where he was honored with statues dedicated “To an Honest Tax-gatherer.” They were the mother and father of the Roman emperor Vespasian, and grandparents to the emperor Domitian. (Wikipedia)

These facts are just the beginning of the strong connections between early Rome and ancient Crete.

Polla’s eldest son was named, Titus Flavius T. f. T. n. Sabinus (AD 8–20 December 69 AD). He served as a legate under Aulus Plautius in Britain, along with his brother, Vespasian. He afterwards governed Moesia for seven years. Her youngest son, Vespasian had served as tribunus militum in Thrace, and was quaestor in Crete and Cyrene. A quaestor was a type of public official in the “cursus honorum” system who supervised the financial affairs of the state and conducted audits. In other words, he collected tribute in the form of taxes from his cousins for the Roman Empire. (Wikipedia)

In addition to these Jewish ties, the grandson of Vespasia Polla, Saint Titus had also had a controversial relationship with the Jewish queen Berenice. Berenice was a member of the Herodian Dynasty that ruled the Roman province of Judaea from the island of Crete between 39 BC and 92 AD. As I mentioned above, Crete was part of Judaea, and based on archaeological evidence and many historians, it was also home to the main city or cities that had governed this entire region with their Navy. Berenice was the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I and a sister of King Herod Agrippa II.

Jesus Gives Keys to St PeterBerenice was also a client ruler of the parts of the Roman Empire, which is said to be modern-day Syria. The family court of Berenice was at Caesarea in Cappadocia and the city was named in honor of Augustus Caesar. Cappadocia is Latin for Crete, and most history surrounding the city of Augustus, Caesarea will often state that this city is in the province of Cappadocia. Caesarea is the precise location or near where it is written Saint Longinus, the Roman soldier pierced Jesus Christ in his side with a lance, the “Holy Lance.” Saint Longinus was said to have been baptized by the apostles of Crete, where he then became a monk who had converted many people to Christianity on the island, and he was eventually martyred under Octavius Augustus Caesar.

According to the Acts of the Apostles, Caesarea was first introduced to Christianity when Peter the apostle baptized Cornelius the Centurion, his household, and his soldiers. (Wikipedia) It is also the birthplace of Saint Basil the Elder and the grandmother of Saint Basil the Great, Saint Macrina the Elder  and St. Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea and Doctor of the Church was born and served the church in Crete.

Caesarea from this point forward was the seat of the Roman prefect and “administrative capital” of the region beginning in 6 A.D. In the Acts of the Apostles, records that during this time, in 60, Paul of Tarsus appeared before this family court at Caesarea. (Wikipedia) Paul or Saul of Tarsus in no other than Paul the Apostle or Saint Paul who had lived on the beautiful island of Crete for two years. Paul is considered one of the most important apostles of our age and he had also founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe.

My research shows that the main battle in this war was fought on and/or surrounding this very island. It was after the destruction of the Second Temple and Palaces in 70 A.D.,  that some of the Jewish Cretan kings and families of ancient Greece would become tributaries to Rome where they would still maintain part of their royal status, but more along the lines of Dukes and Templars from this point forward. With this new structure of government, this city and their plan had rose again into a much greater power than before and that still lasts to this very day.

After all, at the time, there was not one place in the world that had so many Greek Jews and royal Jewish families, as there was on this island of Crete. The 1st century Jewish-Roman Historian, Flavius Josephus had married a woman from a royal family on Crete who became his 4th wife and bore him two sons. Roman Emperor Titus would Siege Jerusalem and then destroy the Second Temple in Crete in the First Jewish-Roman War. For winning this war, from this point forward, he would become St. Titus the Apostle,  an early Christian leader, and a companion of Saint Paul.

Therefor, it only makes perfect sense to reason that this island of Crete which is named after the Greek word for creation, Kri-ti  is the birthplace to the first Gnostic Cities that gave the world many new inventions. This island would also be the stronghold of the ancient Jews who would at one time be formidable foes to Rome and then later would join them as allies under the banner of Christianity via the Universal Church, that we know today as the Catholic Church of the both the Roman and Byzantine Empires (Greece and Russia) with the Orthodox Church under the symbol of the Double Headed Eagle.

“The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has conquered.”

SOURCES:

All information is linked to in yellow and or is open source information from non-copyrighted material that can be easily verified via the internet search engines with some work and a lot of Gnosis.

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