Mrs Vache Folle and I have been watching DVDs of the HBO series “Rome”. If you can live with some considerable historical inaccuracy, it’s an entertaining series. The set design and costumes are fantastic, and the producers have tried to be true to Roman culture of the late Republic.
The Julio-Claudian gangsters that started the Empire and destroyed the Republic kept the corpse of the Republic around for many years to lend themselves some kind of “legitimacy”. There was still a Senate to legislate, albeit as long as the legislation pleased the Emperors. There were still Republican offices of tribune and consul and such like, albeit filled with Imperial lackeys.
I am reminded of the times we live in now. In the US, we keep the Constitution under glass and appeal to it often. Some folks keep little pocket sized Constitutions on their persons, presumably so they can wipe their arses with it in the case of politicians. But the Constitution has lost its meaning. The US government does not remotely resemble what the founders designed.
Of course, the Roman Republic was ripe for corruption. It seemed to function mainly to maintain the patrician class’ privileges and wealth, and the Julio-Claudians used their popularity with ordinary people to secure and maintain power and cow the Senate. Likewise, the American electorate has acquiesced in and supports the massive federal governmental apparatus we now enjoy. Ordinary folks have voted for tyranny consistently, believing in politicians’ promises of a New Deal, a Great Society, and a New World Order.
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