Pirates of the Mediterranean
IN the autumn of 68 B.C. the world’s only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome’s port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped.
The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention from modern historians. But history is mutable. An event that was merely a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty. One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.
Consider the parallels. The perpetrators of this spectacular assault were not in the pay of any foreign power: no nation would have dared to attack Rome so provocatively. They were, rather, the disaffected of the earth: “The ruined men of all nations,” in the words of the great 19th-century German historian Theodor Mommsen, “a piratical state with a peculiar esprit de corps.”
Like Al Qaeda, these pirates were loosely organized, but able to spread a disproportionate amount of fear among citizens who had believed themselves immune from attack. To quote Mommsen again: “The Latin husbandman, the traveler on the Appian highway, the genteel bathing visitor at the terrestrial paradise of Baiae were no longer secure of their property or their life for a single moment.”
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Source: NY Times: Pirates of the Mediterranean
A very interesting read noting the parallels between Rome of the first century and the United States of today. Interesting, but I hope, ultimately wrong.
Wikipedia article on Lex Gabinia, the law passed giving General Pompey basically unlimited power to pursue pirates in the mediterranean.
That is pretty interesting. It’ll take a good deal more change before the US is in a similar position to that of Rome under Pompey, but I suppose we are slightly headed in that direction. Like the Romans, the change in our government towards further executive power seems to come from the citizens’ williness to compromise rights when they think it will make them safer. Upon reaching that point, things can be a somewhat slippery slope. I think there is a “sunlight” (or something) clause written into the patriot act so it will be interesting to see when/if the patriot act is let expired.
Good comments. I think the US will be fine…at least we don’t drink out of lead cups.