The citizenry was offended and terrified. The economy went into shock and debts were called in en masse, further aggravating the political and existential crises in the country. The cost of food skyrocketed, people were desperate, insulted, hungry, and angry, and severe retaliation was demanded by almost the entire population.
It was decided among the Senate that broad military authority should be given to a group of individuals, or rather to the most effective military commander and a huge staff of his choosing, and that the criminals should be pursued across the known world and punished for their insolence towards civilization.
The man, and his retinue, were to be granted the complete sovereign authority of the nation, to make treaties, to declare wars, to exact tribute and reach economic settlements, and to command any resource of the state.
Rome was dependent on slaves, slaves whose labor was not merely a necessity but also a kind of household commodity and luxury. While slave labor was used to work large farming estates, an almost equal number of slaves were employed in the sex trade, or by specialty, as gourmet chefs, cooks, doctors, accountants, clerks, etc...
So while punishment and suppression of the anarchic pirates was demanded by nearly every politician and citizen alike, it was also tacitly understood that it was the pirates who transported and coordinated the slave trade, and since many Senators and businessmen were enriched by the industry, the complete destruction of the pirates was a false goal, in that those with economic and political power within the society largely depended on the existence of the industry to preserve their power and pacify the population by providing them with a more comfortable way of living.
So instead of destroying every last pirate and slave-trader, which would be ridiculous, an agreement was reached with the pirates and they were placed under greater control by Roman businessmen and local magistrates, who coordinated legal protection for them as long as they kept their marauding within acceptable limits, and continued to keep the slave trade open. So instead of enacting justice, the governing class, and the business interests, sought to preserve their own power and comfort.
In the midst of this crisis, or rather, as this false crisis was reaching a satisfactory political conclusion and the flow of goods and slaves was once again safe, a new enemy was identified by the great general and his staff, an enemy who had supported the pirates in their attack and unlike them possessed a nation which threatened Roman military dominance in the region.
Once again, the emergency powers that were granted to the general to orchestrate the charade war against the pirates, were extended to fight the new war against the state-based enemy, an evil, demonized leader who threatened the interests of Roman businessmen in the region, and had coordinated a massacre of them before. He was surrounded and provoked and the monied interests within the administration eventually succeeded in breaking his power.
Roman tax collectors and businessmen flocked to the region, and the treasury swelled. Life returned back to normal and Rome appeared to be safe from all external enemies, only she had wrecked her own Constitution.
During the course of the war against Mithridates, the evil Eastern despot, a few private individuals had followed in the wake of the great general, looking for ways to aggrandize themselves in the midst of the corruption and chaos. Anytime an individual or a small minority is granted all the supreme powers of government, it can be certain that the most ambitious and grasping people will surround them in hopes of gaining their favor and sharing in the exercise of undisputed power. Even those who would undermine their rule.
Under these circumstances, a private individual raised a private army, largely on credit, and carried out a few raids against settlements in the region, largely to extort the population, but also in accord with the general remaking of the region.
That individual's name was Gaius Julius Caesar. And less than 30 years later, after countless businessman and ambitious politicians had grasped for the criminal powers of the perverted Republic, and massacred their enemies at home and abroad, his death signified the end of self-rule, civics, and moral civilization in the West for nearly two thousand years.
I know that the comparisons to Rome are frequent nowadays, and that most of the time they are spoken out of admiration for the military, cultural and economic dominance of the world's sole superpower. But it's worth noting that the destruction of Republican government and citizen's rights, and the descent of the Roman world into complete anarchy, was essentially a suicide, consented to by a democratic majority, and inspired by fear.
Rome had wrestled with many issues that we confront today, such as the enfranchisement of non-traditional citizens, rampant corruption among businessmen around the world, bribery and fraud at elections, and the perpetuation of a large, aggressive and professional military force, which had only recently been instituted in place of a citizen army.
As soon as Rome's military was professionalized, and soldiers did not fight in order to gain a land pension upon retirement, but in order to jockey for position within the military establishment and industry, a professional group of violent mercenaries was always available for a price, and their loyalties were often transferred between the highest bidders.
Rome also transformed itself economically and morally after acquiring territory, taxes and riches in the East. Merchants were largely under-represented within the Republican government, and only landowning businessmen were allowed access to what we would consider government agencies and courts.
But once a majority of business was based on speculation and trade in Eastern commodities, the perpetuation of the slave trade, and most of the large farming estates had been consolidated under a small group, the only way that wealth could be distributed among the business and financial elites was through more expansion, more war, or by the occasional massacre and dispossession of rivals by the politically empowered. During the shakeup following the war against the pirates, businessmen were essentially allowed to have their own courts and thus, were allowed to self-regulate, so that another means of acquiring resources and wealth was to bring false charges against another businessman, even though corruption and fraud were widespread, and purchase the services of a good lawyer.
How many of us can look at this brief history of an Empire trying to preserve it's Republican origins and not see more than just a few similarities?
Rampant corruption by a monied elite dedicated to the preservation of aggressive enemies of the state, private mercenary armies and the seemingly permanent establishment of violent men dedicated to perpetual warfare and domestic security services for the wealthy, a temporary emergency used by politicians to consolidate power and secure resources, surely, these are all things which we should consider, things which the Founders of the country, and almost every person involved with public service within this country was aware of up until the middle of the last century.
There are very substantial lessons to be learned from the history of the last Republican Empire that claimed dominion over the world, lessons that we should keep in mind as we approach this next election.
Trading one corrupt, ambitious, and selfish leader for another, who would simply seek to privately aggrandize an opposing group of manipulative, money-hungry interests at the expense of our Constitution and civil liberties, is not a great solution to the problems that our society faces.
Unless the criminality and irregularity of this administration is recorded by history and admitted by whichever administration succeeds it, we will have crossed a threshold on the way to sheer despotism and will further realize tyranny with a distinctly imperial character.
And as the current administration gets ready to "leave office," but not power, since it is clear that they determine policy by acting both within and outside of our elected government, we should pay particular attention to the possibility that they will ratchet up the current conflict in Central Asia and the Middle East, and try to lay the seeds for a crisis which will allow them to take political power once again.
I can't help but think that the current leaders of this administration, like the war-hungry, grasping, Roman mercenaries and militants who preceded them, are taking great care to make sure that their industry of intrigue, sabotage, espionage, murder and extortion, will be safe from the designs of a popular government.
That being said, it is clear that democrats must demand transparency within the government, must demand free and fair publicly-funded elections, and must demand the retraction of the Cold War military forces, as well as a calculated redeployment of our armed forces so that we are protected at home instead of provoking nations and people around the world. The courts must repair and clarify the damages that have been unleashed on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and the criminal leaders of this administration must be tried in the criminal courts, or the court of public opinion, so that men and women who share their designs will never be allowed near the controls of our government again.
Our unwillingness to confront the realities of a Post-Cold War epoch has cost us dearly, and if we are to regain any of our rights and liberties as defined by the Constitution and exercised by U.S. citizens for nearly 200 years, we must consider ending the many national emergencies that have been declared since the end of the second World War, or else we will face perpetual emergency and find ourselves without a nation.
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