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The Lessons of the Roman Empire for America Today J No. 917 Delivered September 26, 2005 December 19, 2005 The Lessons of the Roman Empire for America Today J. Rufus Fears, Ph.D. I am honored to give a lecture named after Russell Kirk, who told us to ponder the permanent things, Talking Points such as history and human nature. It is about human • The founders crafted our Constitution to nature and history that I want to speak to you this reflect the balanced constitution of the afternoon. Roman Republic, but they also understood, We are on patrol today in Iraq. Men and women of with the Romans, that no constitution would the United States armed forces in armored vehicles work unless it was vitalized by civic virtue: patrol the streets of Baghdad. They pass in the way of Patriotism must vitalize every constitution. so many who have come before them: the Egyptian • The founders hoped that, in America, we charioteers of Ramses II, the Macedonian phalanx of would see these virtues of ancient Rome, Alexander the Great, the Roman legionnaires of Cae- and they knew that under such a constitu- sar and Trajan, the Crusaders of Richard the Lion- tion the United States would grow into an Hearted, the legionnaires of Napoleon, the Camel empire. They hoped that Rome of the Corps of Lawrence of Arabia. republic would be our enduring model, but they feared that one day our model would All of these have come through the Middle East. be Rome of the Caesars. Many of them have come with the best of intentions, • The institutions of freedom are very difficult by their lights, to bring stability, even freedom to the to transfer. The Romans came to under- Middle East. All have passed away. The Middle East stand that freedom is not a universal value: has been the graveyard of empires. that people over and over again have cho- In the course of history, we have come to take up sen security, which is what the Roman that burden. We live in a time as momentous as that of Empire brought, over the awesome respon- sibilities of self-government. the American Revolution, the Civil War, the days after Pearl Harbor. In each of these watersheds in our his- tory, we have not only taken up the burden, but we have advanced the cause of freedom. This paper, in its entirety, can be found at: In the American Revolution, we saw to it that a www.heritage.org/research/politicalphilosophy/hl917.cfm nation could be established under liberty and law. In The Russell Kirk Memorial Lectures Produced by the B. Kenneth Simon the American Civil War, we purged ourselves of the Center for American Studies great evil of slavery so that we could go on and Published by The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE become a model for the world. In World War II and Washington, DC 20002–4999 (202) 546-4400 • heritage.org Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflect- ing the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress. No. 917 Delivered September 26, 2005 the Cold War that followed, we advanced the cause They were able to create this Constitution of freedom so that today, more people live in free- because they learned from history, and the history dom than at any other time in history. That is the that was most instructive for them was the history result of America bearing this burden. of the Roman world, the Roman Republic and the I think that September 11 is just as important a Roman Empire. They crafted our Constitution to date as Pearl Harbor, and we now advance into a reflect the balanced constitution of the Roman new and dangerous era. Think of Winston Churchill Republic, with the sovereignty of the people guided when he said how Britain set out across unknown by the wisdom of the Senate, with a powerful exec- seas, through uncharted waters towards unknown utive in the form of the commander in chief, the shores, guided only by the beacon of freedom. We consul. But they also understood, with the have another guide, and that is history and the les- Romans, that no constitution, however good on sons of history. For the founders of our country, his- paper, would work unless it was vitalized by civic tory was the most important single discipline that virtue, by the willingness of each individual to sub- every citizen of a free republic should study. ordinate his own good to the good of the commu- nity as a whole. To use an old-fashioned word, Historical Information vs. Historical patriotism must vitalize every constitution. Thought The founders hoped that, in America, we would I want to talk to you about historical thought. see these virtues of ancient Rome, and they knew There is a great deal of historical knowledge around that under such a constitution the United States today. We are awash with books on history, massive would grow into an empire. They already spoke of a biographies about historical figures. Information rising empire of America. They hoped that Rome of on history is much broader than ever before, but the republic would be our enduring model, but they there is very little historical thought across both feared, and rightly so, that one day, perhaps today, spectrums in the political world. our model would be Rome of the Caesars, Rome of As Lord Acton said, historical thought is far more the first and second centuries A.D. For Rome of the important than historical knowledge. Historical Caesars and the United States today are the only two thought is using the lessons of history to under- absolute superpowers that have existed in history. stand the present and to make decisions for the By an absolute superpower I mean a nation that is future. In other words, it was by using history as an dominant militarily, politically, economically, and analytical tool and making use of the lessons of his- culturally. The United States is absolutely dominant tory that our founders brought our Constitution militarily, politically, economically, and we dominate into being. the world culturally. We may never produce a Ponder the miracle of that Constitution. When it Beethoven or a Bach, a Goethe or a Shakespeare. was drafted, we were 13 little republics struggling That is not how our culture dominates. It is our along the eastern seaboard. When George Wash- music, our McDonald’s, our popular culture that ington wanted to go somewhere, he went exactly spreads all over the globe. Look at a terrorist. He will the same way that Cicero did: He walked, he sailed, be holding someone hostage while wearing sneak- he rode a horse. If he wanted to send a message, it ers, Mickey Mouse tee-shirt on, listening to terrible went the same way that Cicero sent one or Caesar music and dreaming of a McDonald’s when this is all sent one: by horse, by sail, by walking. over. That is how our culture rules the world. That same Constitution gives us liberty, law, and The Roman Empire: A Vast Superpower prosperity, though we are now the superpower of The Roman Empire of the first and second cen- the world. We could sit down right now, and with turies A.D. was just such a superpower. It stretched your laptop you could correspond with the Anti- from the moors of Scotland out to the Tigris and podes of Australia. We live in a world of technology Euphrates River valleys of Iraq today, and from the that would have amazed even Benjamin Franklin. North Seas of Germany to the sands of the Sahara. page 2 No. 917 Delivered September 26, 2005 If you were going to take a trip through the Roman chief—had evolved out of the executive power of Empire in the second century A.D., you would start the consul of the old republic, and the Roman off in the United Kingdom, cross over to Belgium and Empire of the first and second century A.D. brought Holland, through Germany and France, on down to forth a series of leaders with few equals in history. Switzerland and Austria, and to Hungry and Roma- Whenever you’re talking about Rome, you must nia and Bulgaria, down through what was Yugoslavia fight against the nonsense of a movie like Gladiator. and to Greece and then on to Turkey, through Syria, You must fight against the nonsense of this program Lebanon, into Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Egypt. We would called Rome, some degraded spectacle on HBO. pass on into Libya, into Tunisia, Algeria, and up into Morocco and then on up into Spain. Julius Caesar; Augustus; the grim and remorse- less Tiberius, who governed the provinces with If you were to take that journey today, even in fairness and justice; Vespasian; Titus, the darling of the day of the euro, you would need to change your the Roman people; Nerva; Trajan; Hadrian; Antoni- money at least a dozen times, you’d need a dozen nus Pius; and Marcus Aurelius—small wonder that visas, and there would be places you would not Gibbon, who knew the history of Rome, wrote that want to go. But in those days, one language—the if a person were to pick that one period in the his- language of Rome, Latin—carried you anywhere in tory of the human race when mankind was happi- that empire. Or it could be Greek, which was est, he would, without hesitation, take that period equally an official language of the empire.
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