History: Classics Have Their Uses

Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri's review of Lawless Republic: The Rise of Cicero and the Decline of Rome, Josiah Osgood, Basic Books, How a Republic falls (Engelsberg ideas) provides me with a good example of why we need to know history, even Ancient History. 

The book’s central concern is the relationship between law and political violence. For Osgood, the principal reason for the Republic’s fall was the dissolution of legal order: ‘Like other citizens in democratic societies, Romans struggled to balance a desire for security with respect for civil liberties.’ While this is true, a further dimension, particularly relevant to Cicero’s own lifetime, might have been explored: the knock-on effects of imperial expansion. As Machiavelli would later observe, libertas and imperium seldom co-exist. Eighteenth-century historians, too, recognised that the Senate’s authority had been weakened by the corruption stemming from conquest and colonial wealth. Maintaining a standing army to defend a far-flung empire required strongmen, and with Sulla and Caesar came a new kind of politics, one driven not by law but by loyalty, patronage, and power.

 Consider these headlines (do read the stories):

Eric Adams' case dismissal shows the importance of judicial independence under Trump (MSNBC)

‘Loser’: Musk endures wave of gloating on X after liberal judge wins Wisconsin race | Trump administration (The Guardian)

Outrage grows over Maryland man's mistaken deportation to El Salvador prison ( AP News)

Impeach the judges: Trump has to take the nuclear option to save US democracy (Telegraph UK)

Wide majority of Americans oppose impeaching judges who rule against Trump (CNN Politics)

Willkie follows Skadden and Paul Weiss to reach deal with Trump (The Lawyer)

Addressing Risks from Paul Weiss (The White House)

Human nature has not changed. How we govern our nature so that we can enjoy the fruits of civilization has evolved, but the reasons for knowing why choices were made comes from having read history. The Founders knew their history. They knew the faults of the Roman Republic, and of the other forms of governments because they knew their history.

Americans do not know their history, let alone that of others. We rely more on myth than history. The strength of myth has an expiration date. Time to wise up. No, it is past time.

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