("to be"), acting here as an auxiliary verb for the passive perfect tense. 2. Historical Context: The "Crucifixion" of the City
The theology of the time began to shift. Church Fathers like Augustine and Jerome wrote extensively about the "fall" of the earthly city (Babylon/Rome) in favor of the City of God. In this spiritual reimagining, the pagan Empire—the Rome of Nero, Caligula, and the persecutors—had to die so that Christian Rome could be born. The old, pagan Rome was metaphorically crucified; its old gods were dethroned, and its old values were nailed to the wood, sacrificed for a new era. romana crucifixa est
This was the historical Romana crucifixa est . The city that had crucified Spartacus, the city that had nailed St. Peter to a cross upside down, was now stripped, beaten, and exposed. The Sack of Rome by the Goths was viewed by contemporaries not just as a military defeat, but as a cosmic punishment. The once-mighty body of the Empire was stretched out, metaphorically nailed to the history books, left to bleed out its gold and its people. ("to be"), acting here as an auxiliary verb
But it was. And that is why the phrase haunts Roman law. Church Fathers like Augustine and Jerome wrote extensively