Posted on 01/11/2016 10:28:02 AM PST by Starman417
Late last year I started listening to the History of Rome app. While functionally terrible, content wise it's quite good. Having been many years since I read Roman history, it's a welcome refresher for those things I've forgotten and an education for many more I never learned in the first place.
It's an extraordinary history, particularly the first 500 years when Rome was a republic. As I was listening I couldn't help but draw a few parallels between the Roman Republic and ours.
Slavery changed the face of the Roman Republic. Although slavery had been an element of Roman history from the beginning, during the Republic's 4th century it would fundamentally transform it. For most of the first 350 years of the Republic Rome was a somewhat egalitarian state where, although there were rich and poor, many of the lower classes were farmers who owned the land or worked it under contract for patrician owners. Beginning in the 2nd century BC after the Romans finally conquered Spain, North Africa and Greece the Legions began bringing home the vanquished foes en masse and putting them to work on the farms of patricians who were accumulating vast estates by buying out small farmers with tribute from vanquished lands or by simply taking them. As the numbers of slaves working the land skyrocketed, a similar number of free Romans were put out of work, many of whom migrated to the cities. This ever growing number of free Romans who could not provide for their families was a problem for the ruling class and free and subsidized grain programs were implemented. Indeed, in 123 BC Gaius Gracchus codified a law that set aside a given portion of the grain revenue be provided to citizens at a heavily subsidized rate.
So we have immigrants taking the jobs of citizens and many of the displaced ending up on the government dole... Sound familiar? Here in our Republic, according to Pew, 17% of American jobs are filled by immigrants, both illegal and illegal. That, according to an organization that consistently undercounts the number of illegal immigrants, equals 23.8 million jobs. This while there are 94 million American adults not in the workforce, and fully 34% of the population living in homes receiving welfare.
There is of course more... From its beginning the Roman Legions were populated by land owning citizen soldiers. By 100 BC when so many citizens had lost their land to the patricians the requirement for landowning was eliminated all together. As a result, an enormous number of men joined the Legions. And because it's never a good idea to have armed men standing around with nothing to do, Rome put them to work. It's no surprise then that during the last century BC Rome grew more than it had at any time in its history and faster than it would at any point during the Empire.
The Legionnaires were of course... government employees. And how do rulers deal with government employees? By promising them the moon and then taking whatever is necessary from the citizens to pay for it when the bill comes due… which is exactly what happened. Indeed, Julius Caesar made himself quite unpopular in Rome when he "redistributed" vast amounts of land and wealth from his enemies in Rome to his Legionnaires.
Finally there is the Cursus honorum, a law that laid out the sequences of public offices that a politician must follow over their career, including terms, frequency, limitations, and from 180 BC, the minimum ages necessary to fill each position. During the last century of the Republic the Cursus honorum was shredded as the Republic came to be dominated by competing cults of personalities around generals who increasingly ignored the law. Gaius Marius was one of the first to openly flout the Cursus's dictates and after him the floodgates opened, and by the time Julius Caesar and Augustus were finished, the Cursus wan't much of a suggestion, nevermind a law.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Well worth the read:
http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/the-lessons-of-the-roman-empire-for-america-today
One main feature of the transition from Roman republic to empire was the senate: changing from a body of real power to a rubber stamp for the emperor. Another feature was endless wars. Sound familiar?
” Indeed, in 123 BC Gaius Gracchus codified a law that set aside a given portion of the grain revenue be provided to citizens at a heavily subsidized rate”
For which he was rewared thusly ...
Gaius’ head was cut off, as Opimius had announced that whoever brought back the head would be paid its weight in gold. When the head measured an astonishing seventeen and two-thirds pounds, it was discovered that Septimuleius, who brought the head, committed fraud by removing the brain and pouring in molten lead and therefore received no reward at all. The bodies of Gaius, Fulvius and the three thousand supporters who also died were thrown into the Tiber, their property confiscated and sold to the public treasury. Appian adds that their homes were looted by their opponents.[21]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Gracchus#Death_of_Gaius_Gracchus_and_Fulvius_Flaccus
Slavery changed the face of the Roman Republic. Although slavery had been an element of Roman history from the beginning, during the Republic's 4th century it would fundamentally transform it. For most of the first 350 years of the Republic Rome was a somewhat egalitarian state where, although there were rich and poor, many of the lower classes were farmers who owned the land or worked it under contract for patrician owners. Beginning in the 2nd century BC after the Romans finally conquered Spain, North Africa and Greece the Legions began bringing home the vanquished foes en masse and putting them to work on the farms of patricians who were accumulating vast estates by buying out small farmers with tribute from vanquished lands or by simply taking them. As the numbers of slaves working the land skyrocketed, a similar number of free Romans were put out of work, many of whom migrated to the cities. This ever growing number of free Romans who could not provide for their families was a problem for the ruling class and free and subsidized grain programs were implemented. Indeed, in 123 BC Gaius Gracchus codified a law that set aside a given portion of the grain revenue be provided to citizens at a heavily subsidized rate.IOW, instead of emancipation of slaves, the aristocracy fostered dependence in order to maintain its grip on power.
The Legions also transitioned from mostly free Roman citizens to mostly auxilia, non-citizens and barbarians...
Very good! History always repeats itself...Goodbye United States of America, hello Empire. Will Obama be Der Fuhrer?
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