SPQR and the USA

Republics, being molded by the same sorts of people, have in many ways similar histories. Each is formed on the basis of self-government in rejection of an authoritative monarchy. Having the peace and prosperity of its citizens as its chief aim, Republics can do without the detrimental practice of constantly warring against its neighbors. The Roman and American Republics have enough historical similarities to make the observant reader look twice. Let us examine at a few of these similarities.

Founding

The city of Rome was founded on the edge of civilization, far from the center of Greek and Persian culture. Life was simple, and rustic virtues were held in high esteem. In 509 BC, the people of Rome threw out the hated Etruscan Monarchy and founded a republic based on a senate and a popular representative body of elected tribunes. From this point the city of Rome expanded and developed independently in the center of Italy. In 1776, the people of the American colonies, also at the edge of civilization, overthrew the monarchy of Great Britain and established its Republic based on a Constitution.

Trend of Isolationism

Early Romans liked to keep to themselves and ignored the politics of the outside world. In 387, the Romans were unexpectedly attacked by the Gauls of northern Italy. This rude awakening forced the Romans to pay attention to international politics and the started a program of alliances with their immediate neighbors. In 1941, the United States was attacked by the Imperial forces of Japan and pulled into the global conflict World War II. In each case, the republics were forced out of isolationism and into a more internationally assertive posture.

Rise to Superpower Status

After the sack of 387 Rome remained, for the most part, concerned with Italy and Sicily. They were dragged into a larger conflict when Carthage attacked Rome’s Sicilian ally. Rome and Carthage eventually had to fight a series of wars that culminated in the final destruction of Carthage and the complete domination of the Western Mediterranean  by Rome. In much the same way, World War II and the subsequent Cold War forced America into an even more powerful position in order to fight both its Axis and Soviet enemies.

Although three examples is a meager sampling of the many similarities of the two Republics, these cannot be ignored. Further examination of the early Roman Republic can only convince the reader that the parallel history of Rome can serve as a mirror with which to examine our own Republic. Perhaps we can indeed learn from both their mistakes and triumphs. If we ignore the similarities of the two republics we may suffer the consequences. For as it has been said, “Those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it.”

In 1415, a Czech priest named Jan Huss was condemned and burned at the stake for heresy against the Roman Catholic Church. Jan was, in fact, one of the first of the great Church reformers who stood up against corruption in the Church, what he saw as extra-Biblical practices, and church abuses. Before this time, heretical factions that were persecuted by the Church would eventually melt away, but in 15^th century Bohemia the story was different.

Jan Huss

When news of the death of Huss spread throughout Bohemia, the people were outraged. Huss had gained many followers, knights and common people alike, who were tired of Church abuses and the death of their leader meant naught but persecution for them, as well. Protests broke out and a radical event unfolded in the city of Prague when supporters of Huss, now called Hussites, took a burgomaster and some council members and threw them out the second story window of the town hall. This “Defenestration of Prague,” as it came to be known, sent a shock through Bohemia and Moravia that literally killed the Catholic King Wenceslas by way of a heart attack. This power vacuum gave the Hussites time to organize. With full knowledge that the Church wouldn’t sit idly by, the Hussites developed a spectacular war strategy. They came up with a war wagon system in which carts were drawn up in a defensive circle and hand gunners and pike men defended the circle from the protection of the armored wagons.  This strategy was particularly effective against the mounted cavalry of the late Middle Ages and the Hussites gained a fierce reputation for battle prowess.

Hussite wagon circle

When the Papal crusade arrived at Prague, the Hussites were forced to negotiate. However, once the Imperial armies withdrew, the Hussites continued to capture fortresses and consolidate their base.  Indeed, they would withstand three crusades led against them by the Germans and the Church. Despite the repeated attempts of their enemies, the Hussites were able to maintain nominal independence and worship in their own manner.

City of Prague

When the larger Protestant Reformation broke out, the Hussites continued their traditions and joined the larger movement as Protestants. Even to this day, the Czech people are proud of a heritage of standing up for your beliefs and resistance to outside control. Jan Huss and the succeeding Hussites were indeed a reformation before the Reformation.

The Familial Exploits of the d’Hauteville Brothers

We are all familiar with the illustrious exploits of William, Duke of Normandy, who conquered the main Island of Britain in 1066. But before their conquest of England, the Normans had already established themselves as a dynamic and mobile force in 11th century Europe. One family in particular distinguished themselves as leaders, explorers and conquerors, they were the d’Hautevilles. The custom of primogeniture was not kind to the eleven younger sons of Tancred d’Hauteville. His petty estate was left to the eldest son and the younger brothers were obliged to look abroad in order to secure their fortune. The first to leave France was William, one of the older brothers. He was enticed by news that the Byzantine Empire was planning the recapture of the Island of Sicily. He took part in the campaign, leading a contingent of Normans to fight alongside the Byzantines. He proved himself in battle and gained the nickname Ironside for his massive strength. The exploits of William Ironside encouraged his brothers and other Normans to seek their fortunes in the central Mediterranean. Eventually Robert, called Guiscard for his craftiness, was able to conquer the whole of southern Italy with a capital at Naples. He harbored ambitions for the conquest of the Byzantine Empire itself, but was foiled in these plans when the Byzantines paid the Venetians to destroy his naval capacity. Despite this setback, the conquests continued. Upon the death of Robert Guiscard, his brother Roger attempted the conquest of Sicily. The aborted Byzantine campaign left the Island in chaos and ripe for conquest. Roger was able to subdue the island and was granted the title “King of the two Sicilies” by the Pope. Robert Guiscard’s son Bohomond found himself cheated out of an inheritance, so he continued the familial practice of conquest abroad. He ended up joining the first crusade to Jerusalem and in the process swore allegiance to the same Emperor his father had warred against. He eventually captured the Biblical city of Antioch and founded his own principality. Thus the d’Hautevilles had spread their legacy from Normandy to Sicily, Naples, Constantinople, and Antioch. It is a wonder that one family could have shaped the setting of Medieval Mediterranean politics, but they did. It is perhaps a testimony of the confusion of the times and a tribute to the Norman strength of arms. The legacy of the d’Hauteville brothers doesn’t directly affect us today, but Medieval Europe was certainly altered by their dynamic ambitions.

Florence, Birthplace of the Renaissance

The Mona Lisa, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Birth of Venus, Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise.  All these great works of art and architecture remind us of the Renaissance. Their forms and beauty speak of an older age when tradition was shaken off and ancient ideas were being reborn to form new thoughts. Surprisingly, these pieces all have one thing in common, which is Florence, Italy. Whether a native artist or architect, or a structure that still graces the city, Florence has left its mark on the Renaissance. Why Florence? What forces of nature or chance or Providence selected this city in the heart of Tuscany to be where greatness occurred?

The Gates of Paradise

Florence, like many of the other Italian city-states, benefited from the struggle between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. Neither faction could bear to see northern Italy in the other’s control, so the cities in Tuscany and the Po River Valley were able to develop independently.  They formed city-state republics not unlike the ancient Greek polis. Florence was, like the other cities, a textile and trade center. Raw materials came in from the east or north and then were processed by the skilled artisans and craftsmen into fashionable cloth, tools, etc. This economic climate fostered a banking industry that was controlled by a few powerful families. The wealthiest of these families, the Medici, was headed by one of the central political figures of the early Renaissance, Lorenzo deMedici. Lorenzo, in addition to having an interest in politics and finance, had an eye for the fine arts. He built an art studio in one of his palace and patronized some of the leading names of the age, such as da Vinci, Botticelli, and Michelangelo. It was to the patronage of Lorenzo and others like him that such great artists owed their gratitude.

 The crowning splendor of Florence is the orange dome that tops the Cathedral. At the time of its design, the dome was considered a mathematical impossibility, but its secret was mastered by the architect Brunelleschi. Compelled by the city authorities to solve the problem of the dome, Brunelleschi traveled south to study one of the Caesars’ lasting legacies, the Pantheon of Rome. Wrapped in mystery, the Pantheon taunted Brunelleschi to discover the secret of its design. Eventually, Brunelleschi determined that in order to construct a dome of this size, each layer had to be artificially propped up by wooden scaffolds until a keystone ring could be placed at the top to assume the stress. Once this was done, the stress of each layer could be handed down to the next and finally to the base. Although his competitors mocked his efforts, Brunelleschi’s solution was ingenious.

While the focus of the Renaissance eventually shifted to Rome, Florence remained proud of its achievements and its sons. The way that Michelangelo and da’Vinci changed art from two dimensional to three dimensional in both painting and sculpting broke the Medieval patterns and started a new path for future artists. Today, thousands flock to see the marvelous works that still grace the city, and Florence remains one of Italy’s most treasured centers of attraction.

Byzantium

Everyone has some concept of the Fall of Rome to the Germanic barbarians during the 5-6 centuries. But did the empire completely disappear? The answer is no. While the great cities of the west fell to ruin and their roads decayed and fell apart, in the East, the empire survived.

The Fall of the West

It was perhaps strategic intuition that compelled Constantine the Great to move the administration of the empire away from Rome to a small fishing village on the Bosporus Straits called Byzantium. The first thing Constantine did was change the city’s name to Constantinople. Situated on a peninsula, Constantinople was in an excellent position to defend itself from attack by the land. In the same way, the fact that it straddled two continents and controlled the trade route between two seas meant that it was a city destined for enormous wealth. It was around this city that the Eastern Roman Empire survived. While the barbarian hoards swept across the defenseless cities of the west, these same armies were continuously rebuffed by the double walls of Constantine’s city. This allowed the culture of the Romans to survive for a thousand years after Rome fell. To help historians differentiate the old Roman Empire from the Eastern, they called the Eastern Empire the Byzantine Empire after the original name of Constantinople. However, these Romans never forgot they were Romans. Even after the medieval kingdoms of the West had established themselves, the Byzantines called these invaders “Celts.” Despite their legacy, wealth, position, and influence, not even the Byzantine Empire could last forever.

The end came for Byzantium in 1453 when, after numerous attempts, the Sultan Mahomet II conquered the city and renamed it Istanbul. Today it is Turkey’s largest city and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Even though it no longer serves the Caesars, Istanbul remains a city that straddles two continents and seems to bring together the two worlds of east and west, old and new. 

Ireland

Cold, remote and small, Ireland is a land where history abounds, but one which history has largely forgotten. As it lies on the fringes of the European continent, Ireland must strain to even gain mention. Indeed the island has been dominated by its western neighbor for nearly a millennium. But it was not always this way.

During the fall of the Roman Empire, Ireland remained untouched by the subsequent Germanic invasions that swept the continent and ravaged what was left of Rome’s imperial glory. Some Roman citizens even fled to Ireland’s shores, but some were taken there by force. One such captive, St. Patrick, would have a profound impact on not just Irish history, but European as well. St. Patrick was the main force in the conversion of the pagan tribes to Christianity. Once Ireland was united under the Christian faith, monasteries sprang up and supplied the forum for the last remaining news medium. One of the many practices at Irish monasteries was the transcribing of texts, sacred and secular. What they did was take old Roman texts that were written on papyri and transcribe them on parchment, which is made of animal skin. Parchment, unlike papyri, does not dissolve over a long period of time. Thus, the Irish monks were responsible for preserving many ancient documents that would have been lost simply to the detritus of time.

Yet this was not Ireland’s only legacy. Well before Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine to Kent to reconvert the pagan Angles and Saxons, Ireland was well on its way to completing the conversion of the tribes. When Latin and Irish (or Celtic) clerics met at the end of their missions, there was a union of the two churches. So although time seems to have passed that westward island on the edge of Europe, its relics and its people remain a testimony to the accomplishments of ages past.

Alexandria

In 332 BC, Alexander the Great liberated the land of Egypt from the Persian Empire. Compelled by the flattery of the Egyptian people and perhaps a sense of his own need for immortality, Alexander decided to leave a permanent legacy in Egypt: a city at the end of the Nile Delta. This city would naturally bear his name as had the many other cities he had started along his invasion route. While the Greek surveyors lined out the streets by spreading grains of wheat, local birds flocked to eat it up. Interpreting this as a bad omen, Alexander nearly gave up the project altogether, but his skillful soothsayers convinced him that the omen was not bad but good. They interpreted to him that the way the birds were fed by the seeds, so would millions be fed by this city. 

Indeed, the prophecy proved true. Although Alexander never lived to see the city completed, Alexandria and Egypt were passed on to Alexander’s friend and general, Ptolemy. Under Ptolemy and his successors, Alexandria grew and thrived. The streets were designed to be parallel with the winds from the Northern Mediterranean so that the city could breathe in fresh air during the long summers. Built on a natural harbor, Alexandria became the leading port city of the Eastern Mediterranean and even began to rival Punic Carthage in the West. A private investor built a great lighthouse to guide the ships coming into the new Harbor of the Pharaohs. The Ptolemy dynasty sponsored a state library to house all the records from the known world. This library came to be the greatest collection of scrolls and documents to that date and wouldn’t be equaled until the founding of the Vatican Library. Such a magnificent metropolis could not but help getting into the political arena. Although the Ptolemies were able to skillfully play off the various factions that were left in the wake of Alexander’s conquests, they were forced to reckon with a new rising power in the West.

When Rome defeated Carthage in the 3^rd Punic War, it was drawn into the politics of the East when it had to fight a number of defensive wars against the Greeks. When the King of Pergamum bequeathed his kingdom in Asia Minor to Rome, the Ptolemies recognized where the wind was blowing. In the 1^st century BC, Ptolemy XII asked Rome to mediate the succession of his throne. These events led to further entanglement between Rome and Egypt, because Ptomely’s successor was Cleopatra VII, who married Julius Caesar and later Marc Antony. Alexandria might have become the second capital of the Mediterranean world had its chance not been squandered by the star-eyed lovers Antony and Cleopatra. Once Caesar Augustus defeated Antony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium and incorporated Egypt into the Roman Empire, Alexandria became the second largest city next to Rome. Although it never dominated the political landscape, Alexandria continued to be a centre of learning, culture, and wealth. Ever a jewel to whomever possessed it, Alexandria passed from nation to nation but it continues to bear the name of its original founder.