In the home of my parents stood an antique bookcase with ornate glass doors, and I remember as a child seeing on one of the shelves Edward Gibbon’s classic work “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”Whether my parents had ever actually read this work, I do not know. Just as it was fashionable at that time to display a large gold-edged Bible in the living room, so also many homes were proud to have Gibbon’s work in view. If anyone in the family had read Gibbon’s work, it was probably my mother who was an avid reader. Be that as it may, on special occasions, when the extended family would gather, there would sometimes be talk about the future of our country and speculation about the parallels between Rome and the United States. In all such discussions, the focus was inevitably on the so-called “fall of Rome”, which occurred in the year 476 AD. As I said, these were family gatherings, not academic debates, and the details were of no concern to anyone. The fact, for instance, that 476 AD is a somewhat arbitrary date, and that the “fall” was a historical process rather than an instantaneous event–these details did not comport well with a festive dinner.
It is not, however, my desire to prolong a description of my childhood experiences, but rather to suggest that the comparison between the “fall” of Rome and the future of the United States is quite beside the point. A much more interesting parallel is to be found between the present state of the US and the disintegration of the Roman Republic in the late first century BC–an event to which Cicero was an eyewitness. The Romans never admitted that the Republic had been destroyed and that they had established an Empire in its place through military conquests. But that is exactly what happened. With the rise of Octavian (Augustus Caesar) in 27 BC, the old Roman Republic with its system of government and participation of the citizens came to an end. Octavian retained the traditional forms of government, but they were emptied of all meaning and power. Without claiming the title, Octavian ruled as an emperor and was regarded as such by the people of Rome. Cicero lived in the last days of the Roman Republic and until his assassination in 43 BC, he wrote with untiring passion about what he was observing; he was deeply saddened by what he saw, but he could not alter the course of events.
So what actually led to the disintegration of the Roman Republic? It would lend credibility to the hawkish members of Congress if it could be established that the welfare programs of Rome were its downfall. No doubt, the social programs in Rome became a serious problem. In the late second century BC, there was an influx of the poor from the countryside into the city of Rome; farmers who had once been self-supporting became desperate and crowded into the capitol city in hope of gaining assistance. Rome responded by establishing grain subsidies for the poor, but with time, the population of the poor swelled and the treasury of Rome was drained. If we were to stop at this point, we might well make a case for the damaging effect of welfare programs on society in general, but the historical truth is more complicated than I have suggested. The poverty of the countryside farmers was–and historians are in agreement on this point–the direct result of the military expansion of Rome far beyond its borders. The upper class of Roman society reaped extraordinary financial gain from the wars, and the lowest levels of society such as the farmers fell into poverty. Does any of this sound familiar? Perpetual war waged far beyond national borders, an expansion of military force around the world, a widening gap between the wealthy and the poor at home, a yearly increase of people falling into poverty, a desperate need for subsidies so that the poor can survive etc.
So I invite my readers to consider the parallels between the disintegration of the Roman Republic and the State of our Nation. Long before Rome fell, its Republic had been destroyed, and by the time that Rome actually did fall, no one could remember how great the Republic had been. In the early second century AD, the Roman satirist Juvenalis lamented the fate of Rome and wrote: “How pathetic its people have become! The citizens of Rome, who were once engaged in political discourse and in political and societal decision-making, now content themselves with ‘panis et circus’ (bread and circus). They know nothing of politics and are satisfied to eat and to be entertained by sports.” Were Juvenalis living today, he would surely write in his satirical manner: “Who needs to worry about the future of our nation when there’s a Cody’s Roadhouse down the street and good football game on TV?” But perhaps we are not to that point yet. After all, the President did speak in his State of the Union Address about “the enduring power of our moral example”, and according to the morning reports, his speech attracted a few more viewers than American Idol!
Villager Jack E. Brush is a regular contributor to Villages-News.com. Learn more about his book, “Citizens of the Broken Compass,” HERE
