When one nation identifies itself as pre-eminent amongst others the temptation to rank it alongside various comparable predecessors is too great to resist. The United States is an empire of contradictions, uncertainty, and controversy and most importantly is entangled in a relentless struggle for legitimation. This final attribute is perhaps what confirms its place in the canon of great civilisations throughout the history of mankind: an only barely concealed attempt to authenticate itself in the mould of past leaders poorly veiled under an idealistic hubris.
Manifested in the forms of kingdom, republic and empire the success of Rome is surely the benchmark by which all subsequent powers are judged. Idealised and glorified to the point of absurdity - the duration and power of this force is both magnificent and at the same time terrible: the enslavement of the known world and destruction of all resistance in the name of an ideal. Rome itself as an empirical phenomenon is an unimportant factor in the accumulation of status as world conqueror: the bastard offspring of Hellenic culture, Etruscan tradition and wandering nomads on the Italian peninsula; the amalgamation of outcasts, criminals and homeless drifters into a concept of citizenship and belonging which remained for over a thousand years. The essence of Rome as we know it is as the most powerful and enduring force to which the world has ever borne witness.
In spite of a plethora of failings and an almost ceaseless internal struggle over power, constitution and what Rome itself actually represented the era of Pax Romanum is a suggestion that under one ruler the world can more or less know peace. Dare one wonder if this could be replicated, on the condition that a sufficiently similar clone of the Roman Empire itself could be found? Or would it be that the world to which peace must be brought is too different from the one overseen by the men on the Palatine Hill.
Maybe it is more prudent to examine first whether the tool at our disposal remains the same for the job of world peace (for the U.S. read, ‘world police’). America is without doubt the product of a mesh of established nations and cultures, and has struggled with the teething pains of independence – from the Euro-envy of the characters in The Age of Innocence and The Great Gatsby to the almost comical lengths undertaken to construct faux- Classical structures upon Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. The really deeply engrained similarities between the Romans and the Americans however lie in the concept that citizenship itself entails a responsibility to a set of morals held by some mythical character- where the Romans had Romulus as the noble founder of their culture America repeatedly makes use of it’s ‘Founding Fathers’ to find in their own near history worthy examples to follow.
And what of world influence? It would be easy to suggest that through some other manifestation of control such as capitalist dominance and military ascendency the modern Americans are following in the footsteps of the great Roman tradition of conquest. The real measure of influence can be seen as the global desire to be incorporated (no matter how well disguised) into the leading society. The city of Rome throughout the Republic (and deteriorating ever after) was at best poor: racked by disease and fires, constantly in envy and awe of cities such as Athens and Alexandria and the home to murderous and exploitative. In spite of this Rome was undoubtedly the place to be – officers would be terrified of any posting which would render their services unto some provincial backwater, everybody knew that things were happening in the capital: the fate of the world was being decided in the city of Rome. And now? Any real examination of the United States reveals a nation racked by debt, internal struggle between ideologies and religion and race and one could go on indefinitely… however it is difficult to dispute that the American lifestyle has permeated the deep places of the globe. People drive American cars, wear American clothes, watch American movies, adopt American idioms – but at the same time are fully conscious of the fact that the much-fantasised ‘American Dream’ is thoroughly unattainable.
Any smartass can quote Steinbeck and Fitzgerald in relation to the lack of American Dreams being realised– any man on the street can see that Americans have no national health service. Any smartass will tell you about the struggle between Pompey Magnus and Julius Caesar for ascendency in post-Republican Rome and any man on the street can see that his friend stabbed the first emperor to death.
“Not because I loved Caesar less, but because I loved Rome more”
Similarities established. Now for the task of bringing peace to Earth: the Pax Romanum occurred after a period in which world dominance was wrested from various individual states – the territories surrounding the Mediterranean sea were bent over the imperial knee and beaten into submission with the iron Roman legion, through a process of dependency and tribute control was gradually attained over vast swathes of land by wanton conquest. Vendettas were continued – the most obvious against the Carthaginians, less famously against provincial kings such as Mithridates, all in the name of upholding the notion of Rome and grandly establishing the great works of it’s genius across the known world. So far America is several stages behind in this process – but perhaps is in an accelerated rate of accumulation of the kudos of ‘arriving’ at true greatness. Having successfully shaken off the mother nation of England, overcoming a civil war intact, establishing a strong constitution with the desperate fear of too much power resting in the hands of one man, meddling in the affairs of global politics and winning great wealth and respect from other countries, getting involved in wars against peoples who pose little or no direct risk to themselves under the pretence of protecting American values internationally…
What next then? How does the most powerful empire in the world exert itself pacifically over its younger sibling nations? For this perhaps we can look at the various methods employed by the Romans and subsequent big fish. The Romans hugely enjoyed constructing temples (to Gods and culture) for the enjoyment of it’s citizens, it enforced the law fiercely and most importantly preserved the infallibility of the eternal dream of Rome – the ‘Roman Dream’ never died and still keeps people up at night in the twenty first century.
Charlemagne chose religion as the most important factor to be maintained and honoured during the Carolingian regime – something that could never truly be defeated but yet still gave moral advice and set an example. Religion was used throughout the Middle Ages to ‘enforce’ peace upon others under the flag of liberation from the spiritual wasteland of heresy/paganism. If we turn our heads to the right we see the Ottoman Turks using a combination of bureaucratic intelligence and religious fervour to conquer and maintain peace – and under Darius and his ilk the Persians before them used Zoroastrian ideas to ‘liberate’ people from ‘the Lie’. What do all these empires have in common in their implementation of peace? They all needed to destroy in order to create.
Put down the white flag. In this nuclear age we daren’t consider the possibility of a ‘serious’ world power with nuclear potential actually engaging in combat with someone whom might merit the use of it. The world reaction to the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings was enough to show not just the Americans that military might and ostentation no longer cuts the mustard if one truly wants to defeat people (and not just eradicate them). The Americans must be subtler – they must carefully ensure that their own senate of capitalist leaders remains in power and isn’t overthrown by some great general on his return from Gallic conquest and glory. One by one the neighbouring lands must bow to the greater power and understand that to unify or die is their very real predicament. The events since 2008 show how the seemingly limitless trajectory of American ascendency has been transformed into trillion-dollar debt and the risk of national bankruptcy. The American people have a notion of Americanism and are proud of it however don’t contribute very much in the way of direct financial support – post-Imperial England saw the rise of the welfare state, the post-Imperial shell of Rome in the form of Constantinople became an excessively proud but modest entity.
They woke up from the dream of global hegemony. Could the same happen to the USA? As with all the great leading societies in world history the zenith has been short and overlooked due to the unrealistic belief in constant and exponential growth. The twentieth century saw Wilson, Roosevelt, Kennedy and Nixon, Bush Jnr. and now Obama shape how the world developed and its constituent parts interacted – could it be that the real pax Americanum has passed us by whilst we were waiting expectantly to see what would happen next?
As with the empires aforementioned so it has been with past Presidents – the attempt at gracious integration into a society no longer familiar to them under the blanket term ‘elder statesmen’ has proved difficult. The challenge for any empire lies in the afterlife – the maintenance of grace and command of respect from others as it steps aside to let the new ascendant take over the alpha role. The most that can be hoped of a dominant empire is that the rise is not too bloody, the reign is not too uncomfortable, and the decline and fall leaves intact something beautiful.
