St. Thomas in affirming that the Birth of Christ took place at the time which was most fitting—convenientissimo tempore—supports one of his arguments with the fact that the governance of a single ruler, the Emperor Augustus, had given the world that most mighty peace—maxima pax fuit in mundo—in which Christ, Himself chose to be born. That temporal peace was instinct with tranquil expectancy. Men who looked to Jerusalem and to Rome as their Mother Cities were filled with hope: for the Jew, now under the Pax Romana, the lines of prophecy and portent were swiftly converging upon Bethlehem. Rome herself, so lately racked with civil strife, was ready to turn from bloodshed and proscriptions as ‘from a horrible nightmare, and to apply all her energies to reconstruction, and even to hail, in the Pax Augusta, the dawn of the new Golden Age.’

Ultima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas;
magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo,
jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna,
jam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto.

Now hath the last age come, foretold by the Sibyl of Cumae;
Mightily now upriseth a new millenial epoch.
Justice the Maid comes back, and the ancient glory of Saturn;
New is the seed of man sent down from heavenly places.

Her power was at its zenith, her most brilliant writers expressed for her the standards of human virtue and justice which were fitting her for iter true destiny.