By the first decade after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, Rome had arrived at a crossroads in its history. In 27 B.C.E., Octavian, who was to be henceforth known as 'Augustus', established the principate thereby ceding sovereignty - at least superficially - to the people..
Over the next thirty years, Augustus reorganized the army, expanded the frontiers of the Empire, overcame a severe grain shortage (22 B.C.E.), improved the lot of the poor by increasing the amount of free public bread rations, designed and implemented a new and more efficient administrative system, presided over the greatest age of Roman literary achievement and made 'free speech' (with some exceptions) the standard of his reign.
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Beneath the veneer of order and progress, however, acute problems continued to plague Rome and the rule of its reputed great leader. In 9 A.C.E., Publius Quinctilius Varus, a military commander assigned to contain the Germanic tribes to the north, achieved historical infamy by allowing himself to be duped in negotiations with the enemy and subsequently allowed three of his legions to be utterly destroyed in an ambush inside the Teutoburg Forest. Augustus, a septuagenarian by that time, could only offer anguish and resignation in response to the greatest single military defeat in Roman history.
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Aside from problems with the peoples beyond the Danube, previously conquered tribes around the Adriatic and the Mediterranean were showing new signs of resistance and revolt as well. To defend the honor of Rome, new armies for new campaigns were raised at considerable expense. When Augustus announced a 'death tax' to fund the 'defense' of the Empire, the privileged classes decried the measure and seemed ready to challenge the state. In response, Augustus made a concise statement on the need for additional revenue and threatened to raise property taxes if the Senate and their allies refused to comply. As a property tax would have been more costly and widespread, the 'death tax' met with no further displays of public recalcitrance.
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Overall, acquiescence to the 'death tax' was a small concession by a noble class that had only increased its wealth and privileges over the previous century. On one side, a small elite controlled a vast majority of the wealth of the state. On the other, the largest mass of citizens - perhaps 80% - had either stagnated economically or were becoming poorer.
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Indeed, the seeds of the fall of the Rome seem to have been sown. In needing to spend a preponderant share of its wealth to retain its Empire, the state was becoming economically, politically and perhaps morally bankrupt. As the largest share of citizens lived in cramped apartments barely able to eke out a living, the real stakeholders in the regime, consisting of a hereditary elite and a few rich merchants, lived ostentatiously in extravagant villas and enjoyed all the luxuries of the era. Perhaps Rome can be said to have become an 'aristocratic plutocracy' by the end of the reign of Augustus in 14 A.C.E..
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Unlike in the days of the Republic prior Julius Caesar (100-44B.C.E.), power ultimately rested in the hands of the head of state (Augustus) and his handpicked henchmen. As citizens found themselves almost entirely closed off from local, regional and national politics, they turned their attention elsewhere - either to the raw pursuit of pleasure or to sporting events (i.e. chariot races and gladiatorial contests). Hence, the pursuit of Empire by military means ultimately collapsed the Empire from within.
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As the United States has often been referred to as 'The New Rome', a few unsettling parallels exist between the Rome of the Augustan era and today. After almost a decade of maintaining large armies in Iraq and Afghanistan and hundreds of military bases around the world, the US has now reached truly catastrophic levels of debt. President Obama, who wants to allow the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 (which favored the wealthiest members of society and repealed the 'Death Tax'), is facing stiff resistance from corporations and conservatives. Meanwhile, reform of the entitlement system (i.e. Social Security and Medicare) is all but untouchable as most citizens reject any diminution of future payouts completely out of hand. Left unresolved, these intractable problems will eventually lead to a national crisis on par with the Great Depression of the 1930s. Something - or someone -simply has to give.
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Similar to Augustan Rome, the disparity of wealth in the US may be at its highest peak ever in the current recession (or 'semi-depression' more accurately). As half of America lines up to buy an iPAD and watch three professional basketball players on the same team sign contracts for more than $100 million each on their cable TV channel, another half of America goes to bed jobless, underemployed, semi-literate and possibly homeless and malnourished.
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Is the United States on the same perilous path as ancient Rome before 'the fall'? While impossible to fully ascertain, signs of economic, political and ethical decay are evident, and it will take more than a charismatic politician waving a sign saying 'Change' to right the American ship.
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(Photo: A fallen Roman statue)
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J Roquen