America and Rome

How many times has the US been compared to Rome?

Thousands … millions?

The focus is primarily on the aspect of “Empire” since American influence extends far beyond the boundaries of ancient Rome.  To many, influence – cultural or political – is trotted out as the same thing as establishing an empire. But make no mistake, the Roman Empire was not spread through culture but by the invasion of Roman armies that was followed by Roman plunder, the appointment of Roman governors and the imposition of Roman taxes. There was no such thing as Roman foreign aid.

What is interesting to a historian is that while America is not imposing Roman rule, Roman morals are rapidly being adopted by America.

Of course no-fault divorce was not a Roman invention but a Roman practice.

So was the adoption of adults into other families, primarily for financial reasons.

There were no Roman laws against abortion; in fact, the Roman father had a perfect right to kill his children if they displeased him, giving late-term abortions a new meaning (post-birth abortion?) that is sure to be upheld as a Constitutional right by the Ninth Circuit, if not the Supreme Court, in the near future.

Homosexuality was not high on the Roman acceptance list but neither was it illegal. In fact, a number of Roman emperors and dictators (Lucius Cornelius Sulla) had male lovers. Colleen McCullough has a wonderful series of novels (referred to as the “Masters of Rome”) depicting life in Rome near the end of the Republic and the beginning of Imperial rule depicting with accuracy the manners and morals of that time and place.

We are reminded that there really is nothing new under the sun. The practices, morals and laws that our Liberal friends believe are new and groundbreaking are nothing more than a reversion to some of the most ancient cultural attributes that western civilization outgrew - for a time.  A mere 50 years ago who knew that Roman morals would make a comeback instead of being discarded as part of a cruder, ruder pagan time.