Empires: Rome -The Background History Part One

To anyone reading this blog-thanks so much for bearing with me. I could not have been more clumsy with the way I have handled this series and should have had more of an outline of things drawn out, as far as what I wanted to accomplish with this blog. For a figure as pivotal as Julius Caesar, I should have had much more background on Roman history before introducing him in the Cleopatra series. The Roman Republic was never a true democracy where all were equal. Only slaves were truly equal in Roman society. Equality and freedom were very different things to Romans. The things that were dear to most Roman citizens in the Republic were competition to get wealth and status. One's success in life was measured by money and votes. The Republic was also a superpower. Its influence and extent was new in Western history. The history of Rome, I think is very telling, especially with regard to the United States-perhaps now more than ever, as we seem to be stumbling quite a bit and seem to have lost our way in regards to what we stand for and where we want to go. History, to me anyway, has this strange way of seeming so alien and utterly foreign-yet suddenly a person or an event or a series of events and a group of people will come along that cause me to examine historical events in a new light. I often find myself thinking, 'Yes this has happened before.'

Ronald Syme, the great Oxford classicist, saw parallels in the "Roman revolution" of the age of the Caesars and how it foretold the age of the fascist and communist dictators. There is a long tradition in people who study history of putting ancient Rome under the microscope. Perhaps this started with Machiavelli, who saw in the history of his native city of Florence and the namesake of its evil menace, Cesare Borgia, a certain repetition of history when he wrote, "Prudent men are wont to say-and this not rashly or without good ground-that he who would foresee what has to be should reflect on what has been, for everything that happens in the world at anytime has a genuine resemblance to what happened in ancient times."

Rome was also the first and until very recently, in historical terms the only republic to become a world power. When the Republic fell it had a rather garish, disturbing and yet at times heroic face. Only a short time after Rome became and empire, scribes and historians of that time could only ask longingly about what had happened. The time of the giants or "great men' had already begun to seem like a long ago golden age. Velleius Paterculus, the panegyrist of the Emperor Tiberius, wrote, "It seems an almost superfluous task, to draw attention to an age when men of such extraordinary character lived." More than 2,000 years after the death of the Republic maybe we can come to a better understanding of our modern 'age of empires' by taking a look at the astonishing cast of characters and events that make up most of what we can know about ancient Rome. I hope to be back soon with more about Julius Caesar and the background history of the world from which he came. I think for the next post or two I would like to break up this series with some posts that are still very relevant to our story and the overall purpose of this blog. I am actually quite happy with this new information and look forward to having the first post of the new series here tomorrow if nothing prevents me from posting it. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!