Reviewers faulted Caldwell for her strident political observations in this book, and for loading those observations too heavily with contemporary implications. Luke, some said, is portrayed more like a twentieth-century agnostic than a first-century Greek proto-Christian. That Caldwell takes her mission as social critic seriously is seen in her ironic "disclaimer" to this book: "Any resemblance between ancient Rome and the United States of America and/or Russia is purely historical and not a coincidence." The evils of ancient Rome are all here for their instructive relevance to twentieth-century America: sensual Hollywood-style orgies, Caesars who place themselves above the law, crushing taxes, occupying troops in lands where Romans are detested, cajolery, bribery, and the soft perfumed bodies of men who should be hardened soldiers.