{"id":12141,"date":"2025-09-13T12:32:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T12:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=12141"},"modified":"2025-09-13T12:32:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T12:32:55","slug":"when-a-republic-becomes-an-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2025\/09\/when-a-republic-becomes-an-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"When a Republic Becomes an Empire\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two Notes: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. The section of the essay that directly pertains to American politics begins at the second header.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Gaius Marius was credited with the Marian reforms in the 19th century<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Ave, Imperator<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Why study the classics? Because, sometimes, we can see the authoritarian thread that extends the ancient world to the contemporary world.  In exploring the world of Caesar Augustus, we can better understand the world of Citizen Trump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In 27 BC, Gaius Octavianus\u2014known today as Octavian\u2014stood before the Roman Senate and renounced the extraordinary powers he had accumulated during years of civil war, a declaration that would define the next five centuries of Roman governance. He vowed to return power to the Senate and the Roman people, even claiming<\/a>\u2014according to Cassius Dio\u2014that although it was \u201cin [his] power to rule over [Rome] for life,\u201d he would relinquish \u201cabsolutely everything\u201d to prove he \u201cdesired no position of power.\u201d Elections and state magistracies responsible for apportioning administrative duties continued to exist, but nominally. The Republic, at least in name, was preserved; in substance, it was gone. Rome now functioned under the will of one man. Caesar Augustus, the first emperor, was born. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Surely such a tremendous upheaval of Rome\u2019s prior political order would have bred disorder and strife. Yet, to many, Caesar was Rome\u2019s destiny. Through extensive propaganda efforts<\/a>, most notably in Virgil\u2019s Aeneid, any attempts to reinstate effectual suffrage and other democratic practices were rendered obsolete. Virgil was hired to make Augustus look good.<\/p>\n\n\n

    \n
    \"\"<\/a>
    Virgil Reads the \u201cAeneid\u201d to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia, Jean Baptiste Joseph Wicar, c. 1790<\/em>
    Source: Art Institute of Chicago<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    Aeneid <\/em>casts Augustus as descended from the great Trojan hero Aeneas and the sovereign foretold by Jupiter to lead Rome. Virgil gives an ekphrastic description of Aeneas\u2019 shield, forged by the god Vulcan. On the shield is a tableau of Rome\u2019s past and present: from the twin founders, Romulus and Remus to the Augustan victory at the Battle of Actium. The naval battle is portrayed as not merely a human conflict, but a theomachy. The divinely ordained prince confronts Mark Antony, \u201cbacked by a foreigner\u2019s wealth and international forces,\u201d while Anubis and other foreign, \u201cmonstrous\u201d gods face Rome\u2019s Neptune and Venus. A triumphant Augustus stands at the center of the shield\u2014the Peaceful City finally realized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The epic poem then names and anoints its hero: \u201cHere is the man whose coming you so often here prophesied,\u201d Virgil writes, \u201cHere is Augustus Caesar, son of a god, the man who will bring back the golden years and extend Rome\u2019s empire.\u201d Thus, the populace jubilantly welcomed their consecrated ruler, certain that the age of Roman splendor had returned. <\/p>\n\n\n

    \n
    \"\"<\/a>
    The Shield of Aeneas<\/em>
    Source: Wikipedia<\/em>
    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    The promise to \u201crestore\u201d a lost golden age has been repeated through the centuries\u2014invoked by those claiming to be \u201cinheritors of Rome\u201d or to establish a \u201ckingdom of heaven,\u201d and even in modern political discourse. National renewal through a mythic past is like an opiate for the masses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But perhaps Augustus\u2019 rise was destined\u2014not by providence, but by the aggregate actions and decisions of political elites and popular assemblies alike. Augustus was not uniquely responsible for Rome\u2019s transformation. Scholars have studied the collapse of the Republic for centuries, and its eventual downfall was precipitated by a number of factors. For this analysis, I will examine those forces that share notable analogues with contemporary America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the late 2nd century BC, statesman and general Gaius Marius completely reformed the Roman military.<\/a> The most salient of his \u201cMarian reforms\u201d was to open military service to the capite censi<\/em>\u2014the landless poor. Facing a manpower shortage, Marius created Rome\u2019s first professional standing army. But, as the military continued to siphon recruits from the lower classes of Roman society, the \u201cloyalty of a Roman legion became much less about how much legal authority a general or official had\u201d and \u201cmuch more about who was providing that legion with its wages, plunder, and plots of farmland.\u201d The soldier\u2019s allegiance was to their commanding generals, not to the state of Rome.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The full ramifications of the Marian reforms became clear when Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a lieutenant of Marius, launched a coup d’\u00e9tat in 88 BC and marched on Rome. Never before had a Roman army attacked the city of Rome itself. After six years of civil war, Sulla assumed supreme power in 82 BC. Though his dictatorship was short-lived\u2014he resigned in 79 BC and the Republic was temporarily restored\u2014Sulla set a new precedent that may have irrevocably impaired Rome\u2019s republican future. He had demonstrated that an autocrat could be installed using martial force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A few decades later, the die was cast. The Roman scholar Cicero records that the general Pompey, a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Sulla, once quipped of his mentor\u2019s insurrection, \u201cIf Sulla could, why can\u2019t I?\u201d Though Pompey never managed to make his musings a reality, his greatest adversary\u2014Julius Caesar, the maternal great uncle and adoptive father of Augustus\u2014did. In January of 49 BC, Caesar famously marched his legions across the Rubicon into Rome, igniting a series of civil wars that ended with him becoming \u201cdictator for life\u201d in 44 BC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Caesar was assassinated only months later, and Rome once again descended into turmoil. What originally was a successful attempt to remove a tyrant became a catalyst for further civil war and unrest. The entrenched influence of tribal politics and populist rhetoric had corroded the Republic to an irreparable degree, and the Roman populace yearned for structure and security. When Gaius Octavianus emerged from the chaos, presenting himself as the sole guarantor of peace and stability, Rome\u2019s disillusionment with republican governance evolved into acquiescence for a new imperial order. Augustus\u2019 ascent to the curule throne was all but inevitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Those About To Die<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThere is nothing I dread so much, as a division of the Republic into two great Parties, each arranged under its Leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political Evil, under our Constitution,\u201d wrote John Adams, the second President of the United States, in a letter<\/a> to Jonathon Jackson in 1780.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Though 21st century America doesn\u2019t have legions of soldiers sworn to individual generals like Marian Rome, factionalism manifests itself in a different way: as two massive political parties, just as Adams feared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    According to Pew Research<\/a>, Republicans and Democrats are more ideologically divided now than at any other point in modern history. Most concerning\u2014and most reminiscent of the late Roman Republic\u2014is the shift in loyalty from the United States as a whole to political parties and their leaders. Members of the opposing party are no longer perceived as fellow countrymen, but as mortal enemies\u2014legislatively, culturally, and even morally\u2014who must be defeated and silenced to preserve the sanctity of the nation. The pursuit for constructive governance succumbs to the struggle for partisan dominance. As Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, succinctly puts it, this is \u201cthe hyper-partisanship that paralyzes our politics and governance.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Several factors contribute to America\u2019s heightening divisions. According to Duverger\u2019s Law<\/a> in political science, the first-past-the-post, winner-take-all voting system along with single-member districts encourages the rise of two dominant political parties over time. Third party movements struggle to gain traction, necessitating voters to choose between two main \u201coptions.\u201d Gerrymandering further exacerbates polarization by creating \u201csafe\u201d districts where only one party wins. Elected officials have little incentive to appeal to a broad range of voters, instead catering to the most fringe parts of their constituencies\u2014and being rewarded for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What I believe the most pertinent source of polarization within contemporary America, however, is the growing extremism and hostility found at both ends of the political spectrum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The rhetoric and the policy priorities of the current Democratic Party\u2014particularly its emphasis on radically advancing social equality, addressing climate change and pursuing expansive economic reforms\u2014are only resonant with the goals and desires of a small, specific portion of the electorate. While some of these issues are undeniably crucial to create a more just society, the general populace lacks either the capacity or interest to act on them. By channeling disproportionate attention and resources toward these narrow voter blocs, Democratic leadership unintentionally weakens its own ability to build the broad coalitions necessary to enact lasting reforms and effectively counter the ascendant right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Former Democratic U.S. Representative Adam Smith told the New Yorker<\/a> that, while he stands in firm opposition to Donald Trump\u2019s agenda, he feels \u201calone in his own party.\u201d He believes that there is too much focus on \u201cidentity, the evils of capitalism, and concepts like \u2018settler colonialism\u2019\u201d instead of on more immediate problems in people\u2019s everyday lives.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    According to AP News<\/a>, in the gubernatorial elections happening in Virginia and New Jersey, Democratic candidates are distancing themselves from \u201ctheir party\u2019s far left wing\u2014and its most divisive people and priorities.\u201d Instead, their campaigns focus on \u201crising costs and the economy under President Donald Trump\u2019s leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Meanwhile, the Republican Party seems to have coalesced under one man and his populist platform. Trump himself has said in his book, \u201cThink BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life,\u201d \u201cThere is nothing I value more than loyalty.\u201d His longtime advisor, Roger Stone, clarified to Politico<\/a> that, to the president, loyalty means \u201csupport Donald Trump in anything he says and does.\u201d Biographer Tim O\u2019Brien adds, \u201cIt\u2019s not allegiance to the flag or allegiance to the country\u2014it\u2019s allegiance to Trump.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The ancient historian Tim Elliot draws striking parallels between Trump and Julius Caesar in his Politico article<\/a>, \u201cAmerica Is Eerily Retracing Rome\u2019s Steps to a Fall.\u201d Elliot says that the consulship of Julius Caesar dispelled Romans\u2019 of the notion that their Republican system could withstand one person\u2019s audacious actions, just as Trump\u2019s presidency has \u201creconfigured the boundaries of acceptability in modern U.S. politics, revealing cracks in the ability of institutions to withstand the creep of authoritarianism.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When Caesar \u201cdeclared that there was nothing to gain by engaging politically with his opponents, and instead addressed his loyal followers directly, he embarked on a political arms race that drew the battle lines of an internal conflict that consumed Rome for a generation.\u201d He spoke \u201cdirectly to the people, railing against traditional elites, complaining about noncitizens taking jobs and encouraging violence.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Trump operates similarly by rallying his base and shunning bipartisan governance. In September 2024, he declined to participate in a second debate with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, telling ABC News<\/a>,\u201cWhen you win, you don\u2019t really necessarily have to do it a second time.\u201d He communicates with his supporters within the \u201ccontio\u201d of social media, flooding feeds with a constant stream of inflammatory messages. He deems his opponents as traitorous and politics as a battle between good and evil, morality and immorality and the holy and the heretical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In his March 4 address<\/a> to Congress, Trump declared regarding his 2024 assasination attempt, \u201cI was saved by God to make America great again.\u201d With these words, he presents himself as yet another \u201cdivinely chosen\u201d leader, and implies that opposing him is tantamount to defying God\u2019s will\u2014remarkably similar to how Augustus is depicted in the Aeneid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Finally, Elliot states, Caesar\u2019s image was fraught with scandal, but this somehow bolstered his appeal. Trump benefits from a similar phenomenon\u2014his legal troubles or personal controversies seem only to galvanize his adherents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In a 2024 interview with GB News<\/a>, the conservative political commentator Michael Knowles asserted that, \u201cThe FBI and the DOJ colluded with Democrats to cook up a bunch of fake information with a fake dossier to illegally spy on the Trump campaign.\u201d He went on to argue that attempts to apply conventional logic or reason to the legal cases and controversies surrounding Trump were inherently futile, adding, \u201cWe have to recognize it\u2019s not a prosecution but a persecution. The verdict is already in. Trump is guilty and they have to ostracize him to St. Helena.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Both this narrative of supposed persecution and his brazen, provocative conduct reinforce Trump\u2019s populist image and allegiance with the masses. He is the embattled outsider, confronting a corrupt elite that seeks to destroy him\u2014and therefore, the common man. Trump\u2019s supporters have grown weary of the aristocratic comportment and rhetorical sophistication of political figures such as Roosevelt, who epitomize a distant and unresponsive governing class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Elliot remarks, \u201cCaesar\u2019s image was mired in what his opposition always felt would be his downfall; his braggadocio (boastful or arrogant behavior), his hostility toward political opponents, a history of financial, political and sexual irregularities. And yet, the more outrageously he behaved, the more devoted his followers became.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Suffice to say, America\u2019s collective goals and purpose are fraying. As one party radicalizes, the other is incentivized to respond in kind. The middle ground erodes, leaving many politically vagrant yet forced to take a side. The Democratic Party demands stringent ideological conformity, whilst the Republican Party demands utmost loyalty to Donald Trump. As Cicero said of the late Roman Republic, America stands \u201cdivided in two.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

    \n
    \"\"<\/a>
    The Shield of Aeneas<\/em>
    Source: Wikipedia<\/em>
    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    We Salute You!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, one might ask, what if Augustus is the answer? Would it truly be so terrible to unite America under one leader? After all, Rome entered its famed Pax Romana under Augustus, a golden age of peace, prosperity and stability that lasted for two centuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The classical historian Honor Cargill Martin says in a New York Times guest essay<\/a>, \u201cThe ascendant right wing loves ancient Rome.\u201d Certain right-wing thinkers, such as Curtis Yarvin, believe than an \u201cAmerican Caesar\u201d is a \u201cguarantee of \u2018cultural peace.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Consider Steve Bannon, who believes that the \u201cRoman virtues of manliness and service to the state\u201d collapsed \u201cunder the pressure of barbarian immigration and sensual excess among the elite.\u201d Or Elon Musk, who declared in a 2024 podcast that \u201cRome fell because the Romans stopped making Romans.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Per this narrative, America now is like Rome then\u2014a once-great civilization rotting from internal weakness and political dysfunction, in need of a bold leader to revive its days of glory. But did Julius or Augustus Caesar truly \u201csave\u201d Rome? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In A History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell identifies the two main types of theory as to the origin of government. The first is that power derives from a divine or inherent \u201cright\u201d to rule, and the other sees government as legitimized by a social contract or agreement among the people. The American founding was firmly in the latter camp; the United States fully rejected monarchy and built a democratic republic created by and made up of \u201cWe the People.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Caesarism\u2014defined by authoritarian, populist form of governance where a single, ostensibly ordained ruler assumes supreme authority\u2014is fundamentally at odds with the republican ideals that both this nation and the Roman Republic were founded on. Such a system would also conflict directly with other libertarian right-wing values like limited government and individual liberty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Marvin argues that, apart from the problem of comparing a modern pluralistic democracy with a pre-Christian, pre-capitalist Mediterranean empire, the notion that we need an \u201cAmerican Caesar\u201d rests on a mythical understanding of Rome\u2019s history. Archeological evidence has discredited \u201cthe idea that there was a consistent pattern of population decline in the late republic.\u201d What the \u201cright has captured is a tradition established by the Romans themselves\u201d\u2014an \u201cuncanny hall of populist mirrors that reflects millenniums-old contortions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As aforementioned, Caesar and Augustus fashioned and circulated propaganda about decline and renewal. \u201cIt is the promise to make America great again that has carried Mr. Trump to two victories, just as the promise of restoration carried Augustus through five decades of autocracy,\u201d Marvin contends. \u201cThe American people, Mr. Trump suggests, are intrinsically suited to triumph. Their natural greatness is simply in need of revival.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The truth is, a perfect and benevolent philosopher-king is a Platonian fantasy. As John Stuart Mill argues in \u201cConsiderations on Representative Government,\u201d \u201cabsolute power, in the hands of an eminent individual, would ensure a virtuous and intelligent performance of all the duties of government\u201d only if the ruler was \u201cnot merely a good monarch, but an all-seeing one.\u201d He must be \u201cat all times informed correctly, in considerable detail, of the conduct and working of every branch of administration, in every district of the country.\u201d Mill believes rightly that the \u201cfaculties and energies required for performing this task in any supportable manner\u201d are so extraordinary that \u201cthe good despot whom we are supposing can hardly be imagined as consenting to undertake it.\u201d Furthermore, when this supposed \u201cperfect leader\u201d falters or dies, there is no guarantee of a successor with equal wisdom or virtue. Herein lies the cardinal flaw with authoritarian systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    According to Elliot, \u201cRomans had assumed their Republic could weather the threat of iconoclastic populism, that their norms were sacrosanct, that their system couldn\u2019t be brought down.\u201d Americans today hold a similar belief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After all, no armies are marching on the Capitol. At least, no armies in uniform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But if Trump could, why can\u2019t I? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Two Notes:  Ave, Imperator Why study the classics? Because, sometimes, we can see the authoritarian thread that extends the ancient world to the contemporary world.  In exploring the world of Caesar Augustus, we can better understand the world of Citizen Trump.  In 27 BC, Gaius Octavianus\u2014known today as Octavian\u2014stood before the Roman Senate and renounced the extraordinary powers he had accumulated during years of civil war, a declaration that would define the next five centuries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":358,"featured_media":12146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[318,320],"tags":[],"coauthors":[630],"class_list":["post-12141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-12-at-9.32.12-AM-e1757684488999.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12147,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12141\/revisions\/12147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12141"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}