{"id":38418,"date":"2019-12-13T20:04:27","date_gmt":"2019-12-14T04:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=38418"},"modified":"2019-12-13T20:04:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-14T04:04:27","slug":"everyday-erinyes-196","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/13\/everyday-erinyes-196\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #196"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/strong><\/span>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

As we get close to Christmas – and Impeachment is on the table – I thought it might be interesting to look at the Senate – no, not OUR Senate, but a Senate which existed around he same times as the events which (much later) became Christmas. Especially since, as long ago as that was, there are some lessons for us in the look back.
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What the Roman senate’s grovelling before emperors explains about GOP senators’ support for Trump<\/h1>\n
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks to the media with members of the Senate Republican leadership, Oct. 29, 2019.
\nAP\/Jacquelyn Martin<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Timothy Joseph<\/a>, College of the Holy Cross<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Unhinged leaders, dynastic intrigue, devastation and plunder: For 15 years I have been researching and teaching the ancient historian Tacitus<\/a>\u2019 works on the history of the Roman Empire. It has rarely been difficult to find echoes of the history he describes in current events.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not the first person to make this observation.<\/p>\n

In a letter dated Feb. 3, 1812, retired President John Adams wrote<\/a> to fellow retiree Thomas Jefferson about Tacitus and his fellow historian, Thucydides<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I read them,\u201d wrote Adams, \u201cI Seem to be only reading the History of my own Times and my own Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past three years the world depicted by Tacitus has seemed much more immediate. The U.S. political situation during the Trump presidency has led me to better appreciate the closeness of Tacitus\u2019 observations to our times.<\/p>\n

And while commentators have compared Trump with several<\/a> Roman emperors<\/a>, from Tiberius to Nero and Commodus<\/a>, the comparison that has struck me \u2013 and may be most meaningful \u2013 is between other elected officials in the U.S. and members of the Roman senate described by Tacitus.<\/p>\n

As Tacitus explores, the Roman senate declined<\/a> from a long-held position of authority under the Roman Republic to become a body almost wholly reliant on the whims of a given emperor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A modern statue of historian and senator Tacitus, outside the Austrian Parliament in Vienna.<\/span>
\nWikipedia, Pe-Jo photographer<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Erosion of senatorial sway<\/h2>\n

Tacitus (c. A.D. 55 – c. A.D. 120) was himself a Roman senator; his writing shows a particular interest in the conduct of senators.<\/p>\n

Prior to Tacitus\u2019 time, Rome had been a republic<\/a> (509-27 B.C.). In that system magistrates were elected and alternated annually. Those who had served in elected office entered the senate in perpetuity. This body was, in essence, a collective of hundreds of members of the political class, who deliberated and voted on domestic and foreign policy.<\/p>\n

During the period Tacitus writes about (A.D. 14-96), the Roman state remained a republic in name, with its institutions more or less intact. Yet one individual, the emperor \u2013 known as the princeps \u2013 held what were essentially emergency powers<\/a> over domestic and foreign affairs. So the \u201crepublic\u201d of this period was functionally an autocracy. This meant that government institutions other than the emperor had little power.<\/p>\n

So in the period Tacitus describes, senators still formally convened, gave impassioned speeches and debated issues of the day. But most often resolutions would go nowhere without the \u201cencouragement of the emperor,\u201d as the historian puts it in one passage<\/a>. The situation frequently left senators tongue-tied or, worse, \u201cstooping to the most abject supplication.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Their subservience could be seen in, for example, senatorial decrees<\/a> to celebrate military victories that had not occurred; or, after the emperor Nero snuffed out a plot against him, in the senatorial motion<\/a> to erect a Temple to the Divine Nero.<\/p>\n

Senatorial fealty to the emperor was perhaps most apparent in the proliferation of prosecutions of other Romans for perceived acts of treason against the emperor. From a successful prosecution a senator could win the favor of the emperor, along with untold riches. Tacitus considered this rash of self-serving prosecutions to be \u201cthe gravest of destructive forces\u201d<\/a> under the empire.<\/p>\n

Senatorial timidity<\/h2>\n

The writings of the senator-as-historian Tacitus continually explore this paradox of a republican system that was autocratic in practice, asking: What exactly had become of the senate\u2019s role? What did senators understand it to be? What type of governmental system was<\/em> this?<\/p>\n

A revealing moment about the long-term consequences of senatorial dread of a given emperor\u2019s whims takes place in Tacitus\u2019 account of senatorial debate in A.D. 70, soon after the death of the infamous Nero.<\/p>\n

The senator Curtius Montanus decries the culture of complacency and deference by senators toward emperors. Condemning their \u201cgreed of gain,\u201d he says<\/a> to his fellow senators, \u201cDo you think that Nero was the last of our masters? Those who survived the reigns of (earlier emperors) Tiberius and Caligula thought the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montanus\u2019 speech gets to the heart of the senate\u2019s uncertain status. Assertion of independence was possible, and Tacitus\u2019 works present a number of voices of senatorial independence. But many in the senate \u2013 aware of a given emperor\u2019s power to end their political lives and damage their fortunes \u2013 were happy to wait it out and hope for a more temperate successor.<\/p>\n

Tacitus attributes this very approach to the senator Eprius Marcellus, who managed to stay influential under a series of emperors. Marcellus, he writes, considered<\/a> the best plan \u201cto admire the past, but conform to the present; to pray for good emperors and tolerate whatever sort you got.\u201d Marcellus\u2019 conformity to his times came out most of all in his willingness to attack a given emperor\u2019s enemies. His skill in this pursuit earned him both prestige and wealth \u2013 until, according to the later historian Cassius Dio<\/a>, a successful prosecution against him spelled Marcellus\u2019 end.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, right, has shifted from a Trump critic to a Trump supporter. Here, he speaks at the White House, Nov. 6, 2019, as the president looks on.<\/span>
\nAP\/Patrick Semansky<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Relevance or acquiescence?<\/h2>\n

There are countless differences between the Roman and American political systems. But Marcellus\u2019 credo about \u201cconforming to the present\u201d and getting by in the face of a strong-willed executive has found resonances in the words and actions of U.S. senators of late.<\/p>\n

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said<\/a> earlier this year that his about-face \u2013 from staunch Trump critic to frequent defender<\/a> and now investigator<\/a> of the president\u2019s political rivals \u2013 reflects his concern \u201cto be relevant\u201d under changing political circumstances.<\/p>\n

This fall, when a constituent brought up the House\u2019s impeachment inquiry and asked Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, \u201cWhen are you guys going to say, \u2018Enough\u2019?,\u201d Ernst responded<\/a>, \u201cThe president is going to say what the president is going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

These comments are matched by more concrete demonstrations of the marginalizing of the Republican-led Senate. Trump has appointed<\/a> a number of acting secretaries, bypassing the usual Senate confirmation vote. He has circumvented Congress\u2019 power of the purse by using emergency powers to get money to build his border wall<\/a>. He has evaded the requirement for congressional approval of arms sales<\/a> to foreign states, and vetoed Congress\u2019 attempt to block the sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In June he asserted<\/a> that he does not need congressional support for war against Iran \u2013 much less to withdraw troops from northern Syria, as he did unilaterally this fall.<\/p>\n

While we may chalk up senatorial inaction \u2013 in the first or 21st century \u2013 to fear of an individual leader\u2019s powers, there is another underlying factor that may align political figures from these two periods: The rise of an autocrat was personally good for them.<\/p>\n

New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie recently described<\/a> this as the \u201csimplest explanation\u201d behind the motivations of many Republican lawmakers. He notes that their independence still emerges in, for example, opposition to the withdrawal from Syria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But since Trump has pushed for policies long wanted by Republicans, such as lower taxes on the wealthy and minimal regulations, as well as a conservative judiciary, Bouie asks, \u201cWhy would any of them stand against a president who has delivered on each count?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tacitus made a comparable diagnosis. Of the first princeps Augustus\u2019 emergence in the 30s and 20s B.C., he writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cSlowly he rose, dragging to himself the guardrails of the senate, magistrates, and laws \u2013 with no one opposing, since the fiercest had died in battle or through proscription, and the rest of the prominent men preferred the security of the present to the dangers of the past. The readier one was for servitude, the more he would be lifted up in wealth and in prestige\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The members of the political class that for hundreds of years had provided a guardrail for Rome\u2019s republican system now gained both financial prosperity and status from their cooperation with Augustus.<\/p>\n

This, Tacitus explains, is how autocracy comes about \u2013 and persists.<\/p>\n

Is this same process playing out in the U.S.? Is the history of our own times, as John Adams put it, replaying the era that Tacitus describes? Or will political figures in the U.S. \u2013 or the U.S. electoral process \u2013 respond to a growing autocracy in ways that the ancient Romans did not?\"The<\/p>\n

Timothy Joseph<\/a>, Associate Professor of Classics, College of the Holy Cross<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\nAlecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/strong><\/span>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>, thankfully, we are not quite there yet (not that the roman Senate got there overnight, of course.) We still have direct election of our Senators by the people, for specific terms. They may end up Senators for life, but must face reelections in order to make that happen (And thank Ceiling Cat for the Seventeenth Amendment!) But no one should be under the illusion that we couldn’t possibly get there.<\/p>\n

The Furies and I will be back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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