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Thread: Sign of the Times, Ancient and Modern

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    Administrator Mark (Star Mariner)'s Avatar
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    Default Sign of the Times, Ancient and Modern

    As a keen reader of history, particularly ancient history, I often consider ancient Rome, its triumphant rise to Republic and Empire and subsequent spectacular fall. If it teaches you anything, it's that the old adage is true: there is nothing new under the sun. People are people, humans are humans, and cycles repeat.

    When I think about Roman history, it seems to me that a lot of what the world is experiencing now also occurred in Roman times (and far worse). Invasion, rebellion, and catastrophe were frequent callers on your average Roman citizen. Political treachery and turmoil spanned the entire seven hundred years of Rome. There was of course the divide in the distribution of wealth, which was far wider back then. Endemic corruption in high places was legendary. The social, political, and religious divide was also just as provocative and hostile (plebs vs elites). The rabid manipulation of public opinion is not a modern invention - the Roman elites used it against the people to great effect.

    As we fawn over our celebrities, so did the Romans acclaim gladiators and generals as a cut above the rest. Some Emperors were even deified in their own lifetimes. And in Rome, like today, there was unbelievable injustice, oppression and cruelty; vice, perversion and decadence galore. And the terrible stories we hear today of symbolism, cults and ritual magic were commonplace in Roman times as well, and paedophilia was disturbingly common.

    Take Tiberius, the successor of Augustus. He was rarely even in Rome during his reign as Emperor, spending most of his time, particularly in the later years, holding court at his private luxury resort on Capri, where he surrounded himself with naked children (who he called his 'little minnows'). Suetonius describes the 'secret orgies' and extreme depravities that he engaged in; how children of both sexes, specially selected for their 'expertise in deviant intercourse', would 'copulate before him in triple unions to excite his flagging passions', or, how 'unweaned babies he would put to his organ as though to the breast.'

    Tiberius would end his days neglecting the duties of Empire to frolic around the pool with his minnows under the Capri sun, feasting and raping, and entertaining dignitaries. Anyone who dared displease him was thrown from the summit to the sea hundreds of feet below, even children. It was like the Epstein Island of the First Century. The ruins of his palace remain, and it has become a popular, perhaps slightly macabre, tourist attraction.



    Tiberius was a terrible role-model for a leader, so it's little wonder that his successor, a certain Caligula, was his protégé...

    Where ancient Rome serves as a fairly close and certainly convenient metaphor for the modern West, there are of course stark differences. One is obviously technology and the applied sciences, particularly in the area of medicine, which makes life for us common people so much easier than it was back then. Secondly, the existence (today) of a relatively well-off middle-class. In ancient Rome, you were either very rich, or very poor, either kicking back in a villa or living in a slum. Yet those slum-dwellers considered themselves quite well-off, because beneath the plebs were the slaves, of which there were millions and millions.

    If you were very lucky (well sort of), and found yourselves as one of the landed gentry – being sort of a middle class – having your own plot to farm for instance, you were confronted with an unfortunate caveat: a legal obligation to enlist in the army and defend the Empire in its many wars, overseas and at home. If you were male, you had no choice but to go to war, or else die. As a Roman soldier, you could be marching for 20 hours a day with a hundred pounds of gear on your back. If you weren't marching, or fighting, you were probably building walls, towers, barracks, and bridges. If you were maimed in action, your medicare consisted of little better than a bucket of water and a sponge, or perhaps a hacksaw with a block of wood between your teeth as an anaesthetic. You could be away from your family for years and years, if you actually lived long enough to see your home again. You were only released when the campaign you were fighting was over, which could cover the tenure of multiple Emperors. And if you wanted a farm and a home to return to, you had better have made sure to own a few slaves to keep things running while you were away.

    By comparison, we have it very very easy. We in the west probably have the easiest life 'common people' have ever enjoyed in the entirety of recorded history, but I'm quite sure that most people rarely consider this as they go about their daily lives (as challenging as they are, all things being relative).

    Yet we are still essentially Rome. And Rome was Greece, and Greece was Atlantis. Cycles repeat. If you're looking for other modern parallels take Tiberius Gracchus as an example (a different Tiberius to the aforementioned Emperor).

    This Tiberius lived in the 2nd century BC. He came from a rich and illustrious family. His father had been consul, and his mother was the daughter of Scipio, a star campaigner against the Carthaginians in the Punic wars. All set for a glittering political career Tiberius somewhat bucked the typical career path of the wealthy and connected political class by becoming a champion of the common people. Moved by the plight of the poor and disadvantaged he became a populist of the old school variety, wanting to give something back to the suffering multitudes. He tabled a radical reform bill that would effectively transfer land owned by the aristocracy of Rome back to the common people, a revolutionary and unheard of idea, but according to the constitution it's what the common folk were legally entitled to. He also campaigned for shortening military service, extending the conditions of Roman citizenship, and restraining senatorial privileges (so often open to corruption and abuse). These populist reforms were exceedingly popular on the streets of Rome, and he won a very large following. But there was a catch. His proposals stirred up a fury in the rich senatorial class. With their holdings at stake, their very status, not to mention their grip on the levers of power (Rome was still a Republic at this point), they initiated a series of smear campaigns against Tiberius. In broad strokes they sent their crows into the streets and turned the mob against him. They accused Tiberius of merely paying lip service to the plebs; he didn't care about them at all, he was doing it only to glorify his own name. They went so far as to accuse him of trying to elevate himself to the position of Dictator.

    By the time Tiberius stood for re-election to the tribunate, he was fearing for his life. Night after night his supporters stood guard outside his house armed with pikes and clubs. On the day of the election it all came to a head. A ruckus broke out at the Capitol, certain agent provocateurs were in attendance. A disturbance turned into a riot, and long story short, Tiberius ended up being bludgeoned to death.

    One could be forgiven for drawing certain parallels between these unfortunate events surrounding Tiberius and a certain recent President – minus the assassination of course. But it goes to show, public opinion is exceedingly pliant, that much hasn't changed. 21st century, or 2nd century BC, there really is nothing new under the sun.

    Another thing hasn't changed: the mob. The mob of Rome was fabled for its rebellions. There exists a mob today of course, and it is no less vociferous. But violence is abhorrent in all its manifestation, mob rule very much included. It never solved a darn thing, certainly not in the long term. But it is simply human nature to rise up when the chips are down. Today's mob may perhaps be armed more with mobile phones than pitchforks, but the power they wield, when channelled in the right way and the right direction, is no less potent or effective. But there lies the chief struggle: in what direction should such energies be focused? So many do not even know what is up or down anymore. The confusion of the meta-narrative has 'the mob' at such cross-purposes that it's too busy looking here and not there, and fighting amongst itself, rather than against 'toga-wearing elites'. And perhaps that is by design, a kind of coup de grace stratagem (deployed against us) straight out of the Art of War.

    The seven centuries of Rome is one long but fascinating tale of glory and triumph, tragedy and treachery. And over the last couple of hundred years the West has become almost the mirror image of it. The many parallels should serve as a warning, but also teach us that we should take nothing for granted. We do have a pretty sweet deal compared to history. We enjoy so much that they did not. Chief among them, perhaps, is choice. In Rome, where you found yourself was, by and large, where you were going to live out your life. Whatever your circumstances were you were probably stuck with them. Another thing on our side is education, and the tools, in theory, to access information and inform ourselves. Romans had merely official statements, state sanctioned literature (if you could read), and the word on the street to live by. And what streets they were. Most of Rome's population lived in squalid tenement blocks in oppressive, narrow streets where sewage flowed. They had access to relatively clean water however, thanks to the aqueducts, but the general welfare was primitive compared to today's standards – there were no building codes for one, and little in the way of fire safety, and so Rome burned to the ground many times. The people had their numerous (violent) games and spectacles to keep them entertained (and distracted), as do we, but many lived in an atmosphere of constant fear. Unless you were well-off your diet was relatively poor, and your hygiene probably worse. Life was noisy, filthy, and dangerous. The people had very few rights, and often died young. Barbarity was a close neighbour, pestilence a constant companion, and not a single soul enjoyed any of the myriad technological, and certainly medical, comforts and conveniences the vast majority of us take for granted each and every day.

    As bad as Ancient Rome was, it was actually as good it was going to get for a very long time. After the fall of the Roman Empire followed the Dark Ages and nearly a thousand years of chaos, hardship and war. When the West falls, as it almost certainly shall one day, and perhaps sooner rather than later, one wonders what will follow it this time.

    So on the one hand, life today is very different, and very much better, than it has been in history…but only on the surface. I suppose the overriding purpose of my ramble here, in contrasting the past with what is happening today, was to argue that, all things being equal, very little has actually changed.

    I wonder what other parallels people can come with. I suppose one could quite easily compare cancel culture with the Spanish Inquisition for example...
    "When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
    ~ Jimi Hendrix

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    United States Avalon Member Mike's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sign of the Times, Ancient and Modern


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    Avalon Member I am B's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sign of the Times, Ancient and Modern

    As in nature, everything from the macro to the microcosm forms a cycle, a spiral that moves forward while repeats. Oswald Spengler couldn't have been more right.


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