The goals of Project 2025 appear to be taken from the pages of history. Trump and his acolytes are the ignoble emperors such as Caligula, Nero, and Commodus. The GOP supporting Trump is the modern-day equivalent of the Roman Senate.
According to tradition, Rome's founder, Romulus, created the first 100-member Senate as an advisory body to the sovereign. However, very little is known about its role in Rome's early history as a monarchy. In the early Republic, the body likely began as an advisory board to magistrates and grew in power as retired magistrates joined it.
The Senate
The Senate of the Roman Empire was a political institution in the ancient Roman Empire. After the fall of the Roman Republic, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the Roman Senate to the Roman Emperor. Beginning with the first emperor, Augustus, the Emperor, and the Senate were technically two co-equal branches of government. In practice, however, the actual authority of the imperial Senate was negligible, as the Emperor held the true power of the state. As such, membership in the Senate became sought after by individuals seeking prestige and social standing rather than actual authority.
In the early days, a relative term depending on when you were born, life was very different; it has always been that way. Each generation thinks they’re getting screwed and blames the last generation, who they believe had it made but are responsible for modern ills.
Life In Ancient Rome
I want to examine life in BC or BCE in terms of our society. BC is a self-serving Christian term that suggests nothing of value existed before the birth of Jesus. No wonder the Jews and other ancient religions resent Christians.
Specifically, I’ll look at Rome. In ancient Rome - in the final century of BCE - before you know who was born, poverty was horrendous. The Roman Empire was built on the backs of its citizens, people often ignored by history: Greeks, Syrians, Jews, North Africans, Spaniards, Gauls, and Britons. They were the working class, the laborers.
At its height, ancient Rome may have had one million inhabitants, 300,000 of whom were desperately poor. Ramshackle tenements were overcrowded and extremely dangerous, and residents constantly feared fire and collapse. The Tiber River was also susceptible to flooding in some areas.
Most wealthy residents—those who didn't live in villas outside the city—lived in a Domus - The size of a Domus could range from a tiny house to a luxurious mansion. In some cases, one domus took up an entire city block, while more commonly, up to 8 domus per insula (city block). In Rome, these homes were usually located near the imperial palace on Palatine Hill.
Whether rich or poor, the family was the fundamental social unit throughout the empire. From the Republic's early days, paterfamilias - the male head of the household- had the power of life and death over all family members. He could reject children if they were disfigured or if he questioned their paternity, if he had more than one daughter already, or merely if he felt so inclined. He could also sell any of his children into slavery.
Over time, this extreme, almost all-powerful control over one's family (patria potestas) would diminish. The home was the domain of the wife. While initially restricted from appearing in public, she ran the household and often saw to the children's education until a tutor could be found. By the end of the Republic, she was even permitted to sit with her husband at dinner, go to the baths, but not at the same time as the men, and attend the theater and games. Later, women could be seen working as bakers, pharmacists, and shopkeepers, and, legally, women's rights improved; for example, divorce proceedings could be initiated by either the husband or wife.
A Roman resident's diet and housing depended on his or her housing, on one's economic status. For many of the poor, this meant waiting for the grain to be allotted monthly. While the wealthy enjoyed imported spices in their meals, reclined on pillows, and were served by slaves, many of the extremely poor or homeless ate rancid cereal or gruel (the lack of a quality diet caused many to suffer from malnutrition). To others, the daily diet consisted of cereals, bread, vegetables, and olive oil; meat was far too expensive for the average budget, although it sometimes became available after a sacrifice to the gods (as only the internal organs were used in a sacrifice). Wine was the standard drink, but water was available at the public fountains for the poor.
Daily life in a Roman city utterly depended on one's economic status. The city, however, remained a mixture of wealth and poverty, often existing side by side. The wealthy benefited from slave labor, whether it was heating the water at the baths, serving them their evening meal, or educating their children.
On the other hand, the poor had no access to education, lived in run-down tenements, and sometimes lived off the city's charity. Historians still argue about the empire's fall—was it religion or the influx of barbarians? However, some point to the city's poor —the squalor, rise of the unemployed, and increase in disease and crime—as a contributing factor to the Western empire's eventual demise.
The Emperors
The Roman Empire had 77 different emperors from 27 BC to 476 AD.
The first one hundred years of Roman Emperors and their historical traits.
Augustus - a period of peace and prosperity in Rome.
Tiberius - reclusive and often controversial rule.
Caligula - extravagance, cruelty, and erratic behavior.
Claudius - underestimated emperor known for his administrative reforms.
Nero - infamous emperor remembered for his cruelty and persecution of Christians.
Galba - short-lived emperor whose rule ended in rebellion.
Otho – Ruled briefly during the Year of the Four Emperors.
Aulus Vitellius - short-lived emperor during the Year of the Four Emperors.
Vespasian – Known for stabilizing the empire and beginning the construction of the Colosseum.
Titus – Famous for his role in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and for completing the Colosseum.
Domitian - autocratic rule and harsh policies.
Nerva – Initiated the period of the “Five Good Emperors.”
Trajan – Celebrated for his military conquests and expansion of the empire.
It should be noted that of the thirteen emperors listed, only three or four are remembered as good guys, reminding us of Voltaire’s quote:
The renowned French writer and philosopher Voltaire once stated, "The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.”
I nor anyone would suggest changing our government through violence. At the same time, history tells us to be vigilant to tyrants who would reduce our lives to a pile of feces.
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To summarize the GOP vision for our nation, they want to empower the rich, marginalize the poor, and keep them on their knees by stripping them of social services, remove the rights of women, and relocate them to homes to raise children, cook, and clean.
The thinking that governed the Roman Empire’s approach to governing is codified in religious texts, including ancient Jewish writings, the Bible, and, subsequently, the Quran. The mindset is ancient, from a time when people were scientifically and socially ignorant.
Many of the fundamentalist Christians currently influencing Trump and policy are living in the past, socially speaking.
> The information about Ancient Rome is excerpted from several historical site, a few of which are listed below.
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/77/the-roman-domus/
https://www.worldhistory.org/Roman_Senate/
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/637/roman-daily-life/
https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/year-7/daily-life-in-ancient-rome/
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