In terms of being a military leader, Julius Caesar was about as effective as a glass axe when he first started out.
He blundered.
He miscalculated.
He made logistical errors that might very well have cost him his life, if only he’d been fighting a more capable enemy…
But he wasn’t.
Instead, he was fighting the Gauls, who, despite being fearsome warriors, were busy battling rival tribes within their own country. It was their lack of central organization that ultimately led to their demise.
Caesar was just lucky enough to be the guy in charge at the time. He was also ambitious enough to exploit an already vulnerable situation.
In spite of his shortcomings, the man who would one day rule over the most powerful nation in the world, realized that he was in a unique position–
After making liberal use of a laxed credit system to fund his political career, Caesar found himself in the kind of debt that would make even Robert Kiyosaki order a double.
That’s why, with nobody around to stop him, Caesar took to raiding villages and launching illegal military campaigns in Gaul, amassing enough money to ward off his creditors back in the Roman capital.
In order to cover up his corruption, he used his authority as Procuonsul to rewrite history as he saw fit.
Every report he sent back to Rome was steeped in as much pomp and flattery for himself as Queen Grimhilde’s mirror.
All was going along swimmingly until he finally came to the end of his term.
Not only was he about to be ordered back to Rome, but he was also on the verge of becoming a private citizen again, meaning he was going to lose his immunity from prosecution. As soon as that happened, all of his outstanding debt would also come due.
Well, rather than face his otherwise inevitable imprisonment, the up-and-coming dictator made one of the boldest moves in human history…
Crossing the Rubicon
For close to three hundred years, Rome was a republic, controlled by a Senate, kept in check by a Consul, who was elected by the citizens.
In order to preserve the people’s rule, and prevent the potential for a hostile takeover at the hands of a rogue general, Roman law required every leader to relinquish command of his army before entering into the city.
In the north, that border was the Rubicon river.
As history would later prove, when Caesar decided to take his army intact over that line, he effectively drove the first nail into the coffin of the Roman republic.
It would be his adopted son, Octavian, who would become Rome’s first Emperor as a result, and with him, the last flame of Roman freedom would die.
Fortunately for us, we can look back at history with a sense of disconnect.
It was another time.
Another place.
Someone else’s story written on a few pages in a dusty archive.
Current times afford us no such luxury.
We watch in real-time as The United States faces the same challenges as ancient Rome. Only with a modern take–
Billion-dollar ballrooms and multi-billion-dollar “slush funds.”
Bribery, extortion, political retribution, coverups and fraud.
Ungodly amounts of cash, crypto, stocks and bonds being passed along in exchange for political favors and blind loyalty…
Meanwhile, the wool gets pulled over the eyes of every “true believer” with the same self-proclaimed flattery that Caesar himself wrote into the lines of his reports to the capital.
It’s almost like watching Starship Troopers for its philosophical genius. How much sense does that make?
The only real question is if our own history is destined to repeat itself as faithfully as it did for the Romans.
Lest we forget, Julius Caesar ended up being stabbed to death by a mob of angry senators. Men who eventually grew tired of his bombastic dominance.
It wasn’t for any higher virtue, or to restore power to the people, though.
No.
Instead, it was to undo the castration of their own ambitions. To stop themselves from being cuckolds to a dictator who found pleasure sleeping with their wives.
I suspect we’ll see the same brand of reckoning take place in our own lifetimes.
Perhaps not in the form of togas or daggers, but by way of independent voters who have reached a fever pitch of frustration.
Those who seek the “radical center” that every human heart craves…
A return to balance.
Or will we see the rise of an “Octavian ‘Augustus’ Caesar,” who ended up succeeding where his father failed.
Augustus, after all, would learn to keep his ambitions hidden enough to give the Senate a sense of control. He would be a “quiet” ruler, with enough savvy to at least let the people believe they were still free.
I make no predictions here, aside from one–
The United States in on the brink of going through a transformation, as all empires throughout history eventually do.
Just as human beings are destined to be born, grow old, and die, so too are our institutions bound to the submit to laws of the natural world.
As G. Michael Hopf writes in Those Who Remain,
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
Are we a “nation in decline?”
Or will we write our own history, as the elders who willingly passed the torch to a new generation, better equipped to usher the future into existence?
Only time will tell.
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