All historical writing, even the most honest, is unconsciously subjective, since every age is bound, in spite of itself, to make the dead perform whatever tricks it finds necessary for its own peace of mind.
- Carl Lotus Becker
In spite of that cautionary codicil Cicero’s Tenant believes fervently in the ‘cycles of history’. In our ‘age’ the Fall of the American Republic is the paramount geo political variable that will stamp our time. The upheaval from this momentous event will reverberate political, economic and military tremors across the globe. How do we analyze this transition? CT’s approach will be to examine this tumultuous event through the prism of comparative histories.
Many current historians and ‘talking heads’ have likened the world’s present geopolitical state to that of classical times, “The Thucydides Trap”, as written by the Athenian historian, Thucydides (c.460-c.410 BC). In his account ancient Sparta, akin to China in our modern analogy, in the late fifth century BC was the upcoming competing power to the Athenian confederacy. In this analogy, Athens, the status quo traditional power, is America. The wars between Sparta and the Athenian state, especially the Sicilian War 1 (415-413 BC) profoundly weakened both ‘superpowers’ which eventually led them to becoming ‘smaller’, fragmented Empires. They weakened to the point that they both became vulnerable to other smaller powers. Seventy some odd years later King Philip II (382-336) of Macedon became the supreme power in all Greece. And ten years after that Phillip’s son, Alexander III, named the Great (356-323), would rule all of Greece, all of Western Asia and a bit of modern north western India.
CT doesn’t believe the Thucydides trap is the appropriate classical superpower analogy for our times. China, the world, are not challenging America as much as America is falling apart internally under its own weight: militarily, politically,culturally, economically and spiritually.
The historical analogy CT believes matches the current geo political situation is found in the late Roman Republic (110-49 BC) 2 coupled with in the analogy what I term, “The Late American Republic”(1913-present) 3. When Roman Imperators/Generals from Marius to Sulla to Pompey, to Caesar became so rich, so powerful, much like American corporate interests/American political system at present. These substantial interests have transnational assets which leverage the ‘host’ country to achieve wealth, power and control for their own benefit rather than for the benefit the host country.
To examine this idea let’s start at the beginning, in ancient Italy. According to historian Tenney Frank (1876-1939),
About two thousand years before Christ , various Indo-European tribes began to push their way across the Alpine mountains into the Mediterranean countries. They were apparently, a tall, well-built, fair haired race closely related to the ancestors of the modern Celts, Germans and Anglo-Saxons.
Romulus and Remus, suckled by a wolf, were, historically, Rome’s founders in 753 BC. At any rate, by around 600 BC when the first walls of Rome were erected around the city the Romans were the subjects of the Etruscan Kings who had invaded the Romans from their lands to north.”4
The Etruscan Kings 5 were oppressive rulers. The last Etruscan King, Tarqinius Superbus (?-died 495 BC ),was vanquished by Lucinius Junius Brutus (545-509 BC; first consul of Rome 509: the forefather, ancestor of the Marcus Junius Brutus ((85-42 BC)),the”et tu Brute,” assassin of Caesar’s time.) is sometimes attributed as the inventor of crucifixion. Whether Superbus invented the cross as well as its concurrent torture or not he certainly used crucifixion to torment his enemies and some Roman citizens he claimed were traitors. It didn’t help matters that Superbus’s son, Sextus Tarquinus raped Lucretia (died 510 BC) who committed suicide after the act as any honourable Roman matron of the time would have done. This sexual exploitation was the spark that began the Roman rebellion against the Tarquins (Tarquin means, “King”) and Etruscan rule. This rape has been celebrated in art 6 for over 2,500 years depicting steadfast Roman honour as well as release from tyranny both individually (suicide) and as a nation city State.
After Brutus deposed and exiled Superbus the Romans never had a King (Emperor) reign over them for almost five hundred years. The early Romans, over many years, developed their Republican political structure where no single man, family or faction could dominate Roman politics; though, of course, Roman aristocrats commanded the majority of political power while the plebians-the common Roman citizens- had as their political representation the Tribunes and the Assembly while the aristocrats had the Roman Senate..
In the same political vein early Americans overthrew a foreign King, George III (lived 1738-1820, ruled 1760-1820) of England, and adopted, modeled classical Roman Republican political structures and ideals which they memorialized in their Constitution and Articles of Confederation.
In part two of this series CT will examine the similarities with early American and early Roman political structures, political values and social mores.
Footnotes:
[1^]: Sicily was blessed with extremely fertile soil because of its historic volcanic activity. Ash released from volcanoes contains iron, cobalt, nitrogen, boron inter alia that enrich soil. In this fashion Sicily became the grain ‘breadbasket’ for Italy, Rome. This agricultural bounty was a large geo political prize for the competing Empires in the Sicilian War.
During time of Augustus’ reign (36 BC – 14 AD) ,Augustus switched Rome’s primary source of grain from Sicily to Egypt. By this time Sicily’s soil had been become exhausted after centuries of over cultivation.
Cato the Elder (234-149 BC), a prominent Roman Senator, army officer, Censor [^7] and farmer wrote a treatise on how to rotate crops so the soil did not erode or become barren. Cato’s, ‘De Agricultura’ is the earliest complete Latin prose that is currently extant. Apparently this sensible agricultural policy was ignored in much of Italy and Sicily as both country’s soils became exhausted, less fertile in the next 200 or so years. In Europe, 1,700 years later, many noble landowners employed Cato’s agricultural techniques to enhance, lengthen their own landholdings.[2^]: CT nominated 107 BC as the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic as that was the year that Gaius Marius (157-86 BC), a celebrated General, became Roman consul for the first time. In all Marius was ‘elected’ consul seven times. Marius’s military reforms along with his subsequent practice of compensating his soldiers directly by his own purse rather than from the Roman state Treasury set the stage for later Generals such as Sulla, Crassus, Pompey and Caesar to challenge the Roman Republican political system of checks and balances. [3^]: CT nominates the year 1913 as the period when the ‘Late American Republic’ began as in that year Senators were no longer elected by State sitting legislatures but were elected by the popular vote making America less a Republic and a more Democratic nation.
As well, on December 24, 1913 the Federal Reserve Bank became law. This institution further weakened Republican ideals.
Finally, in 1917 a temporary funding measure was introduced into America law because of WW1 war spending. The appropriation was called ‘income tax’ which led to further destruction of Republican values.[4^]: Tenney, Frank, “A History of Rome”, 1929, Henry Holt and Company, New York, New York. [5^]” Etruscans were from further north of Italy, from modern Tuscany. For more information about the Etruscan history. [6^]: There are many paintings depicting Lucretia’s rape: Rembrandt, Titian, Botticelli, Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Durer among others. My favourite is, the Venetian Tintoretto’s, “Tarquin and Lucretia,” 1580. [7^]: The censor was a magistrate in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government’s finances.