Christus Troia Nova and Babylon the Great

Just as Juno was originally the personification of the lunar cycle, some ‘see in Aeneas vestiges of an archetypal sun god.’ The Apollo mission itself is named after the Greek sun god, Apollo, the Greek god most often identified with Christ. Even Aeneas’ earthly, feminine, veiled adversary, Dido, has a connection with the moon. As Philip Hardie et al notes, ‘Dido and Aeneas are coupled as Diana and Apollo by the famous similes at Aeneid 1.498-502 and 4.143-50.’ Diana, identified with the Greek god Artemis, ultimately incorporated Artemis’ connection to Selene, who was the personification of the moon. Thus, Dido appears to Aeneas in the underworld in the likeness of the moon (6.453).

The first transmission from the surface of the moon during the month named after the Roman emperor Julius Caesar were the electrifying words: ‘the Eagle has landed.’ Then, when an Eagle scout of Christus Troia Nova stepped out of the eagle wearing a spacesuit with a patch with the word APOLLO and an illustration of an eagle with an olive branch in its talons preparing to alight on the moon (the olive branch being one of the more common symbols of Christ) the symbolism could not be clearer: Reason and the light of Christ had triumphed.

Now we can see more clearly the divine revelation behind Virgil’s writings. The Fourth Eclogue, the so-called messianic eclogue includes the lines: ‘the reign of Saturn returns; now a new generation descends from Heaven on high’ (4.5-6). The Apollo astronauts symbolized a new generation of men. Actual pilots from the Age of Flight; citizens of the country that propelled the world into the Atomic Age, and living witnesses of the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the face of the Space Age, trailblazers and scouts able to reach into the cosmos; and, propelled to the moon on Saturn V rockets.

Landing during the month of July, itself named after Julius Caesar the man responsible for changing Rome from a republic to an empire, the astronauts inform the world: ‘the Eagle has landed.’ The orbiting command module, was piloted by Michael Collins, a Roman Catholic born in Rome. And just after they landed, Buzz Aldrin, an elder at Webster Presbyterian Church, performed Holy Communion. ‘In this sign conquer,’ and the moon was—by the largest Christian nation on earth. Symbolically, at that moment, the USA was truly Christus Troia Nova.

Commander AldEn, NEil ArmStrong, a new Aeneas and Eagle scout with his medals actually with him (and formerly of the Screaming Eagles air group in Korea), has the glory of Troy and Rome etched into his being. Born in the month of August (which itself is named after the first Roman emperor and the reigning emperor when Christ was born), this man who his mother had dedicated to Christ while in the womb, also represented America and its symbol the Eagle. This eagle scout stepped onto the moon from the Eagle—with a patch on his spacesuit showing an eagle gripping an olive branch in its talons—and voiced the iconic lines: ‘That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.’ Or, as Virgil foresaw of the never-ending glory of Rome: ‘Arms, man, and I sing.’

This moment also seems to be foretold in Ezra and Josephus. In his article ‘The Four Kingdoms of Daniel in the Early Mediaeval Apocalyptic Tradition,’ Lorenzo DiTommaso notes:

The loci classici here are the “Eagle Vision” of 4 Ezra 11–12 and Josephus, Ant. In the former, Ezra the seer is shown a vision of a great eagle, with three heads and multiple wings, which is identified as the fourth and final world-kingdom (11:39–40). The eagle, of course, is symbolic of Imperial Rome, and hence refers to the “new” final kingdom. The interpreting angel clarifies the exegetical update for the seer (and its intended audience): “This is the interpretation of this vision that you have seen: The eagle that you saw coming up from the sea is the fourth kingdom that appeared in a vision to your brother Daniel. But it was not explained to him as I now explain to you or have explained it” (12:10–12 nrsv, DiTomasso italics).

DiTommaso mentions ‘multiple wings’ above, but the precise number of wings in Ezra is twelve. This may be significant, as I note in the Epilogue.

The eagle coming up from the sea appears to be the Senecan prophecy of America surrounded by Ocean; while the iconic moon landing itself is a harbinger of the coming Return of Christ. The three eagles of Ezra could be interpreted as: (1) the ship that landed on the moon (the Eagle); (2) Commander Neil Armstrong—the person—who was an Eagle scout as a boy and as a man, a naval fighter pilot of the Screaming Eagles over Korea; and, (3) the Eagle as a symbol of the country/empire that landed on the moon, the USA, that is, the new Rome.

Finally, we should understand the moon landing as the highpoint of Christus Troia Nova or of Dante’s ‘that Rome of which Christ was Roman’ and Neil Armstrong as the epitome of the Trojan hero, something all Christians should strive to be. A new generation of man made possible by the age of flight; born in the prophesied New World; born of a Trojan father with roots going back to a Trojan king; born of a Christian mother who dedicated her son to Christ; born in a state geographically in the Americas and, thus, within the enclosed space of the Senecan prophecy of Rome; a state whose capitol, Columbus, is named after Christopher (bearing Christ) Columbus; a state that had become a state when the USA was still a new Roman Republic; Christus Troia Nova itself protected by a new Palladium; and, the legitimate and beloved son of devoted parents who themselves were also born in the new world, in the new, Christian Rome.