By: Jim Watkins | 12-17-2020 | News
Photo credit: Dreamstime

Is This Our Moment in Time?

Is this our moment in time? Here we are, and here is not that good for us. We are at the end of our Republic. The mechanism that controls our republican form of government has broken. It has been corroded by the corruption of a generation of greed. There is nothing new under the sun. Our ancestors have lived through these situations before. The longest-lived republic in history was the Rome. Almost 500 years of representative government. They were the proof of the democracy that the Greeks began. The metamorphosis of the Greek democracy into the Roman republic was a testament to the strength of this system.



There was substantial corruption that crept in over time. At a point it became a huge problem. Rome was bankrupt.

Rome was still a rich idea and community, but the nobility had stolen the wealth from the treasury. This came to a head in 89 BC.

There was a man named Sulla. He was a famous General and Consul of Rome. He came up with the solution to the bankruptcy dilemma. There really was only one solution that was tolerable to the rest of the nation. That was proscription.

Sulla was declared dictator and took charge of bringing Rome back from the edge. They had been pushed to the edge and teetered on anarchy.

The wealth of the corrupt families was confiscated by the state and those families were cast out of Rome, or executed. The Legions of Rome backed Sulla the Dictator and Rome was restored to a republic. Sulla willingly resigned as a dictator after the treasury, and the rule of law was restored.



It would be 40 more years before the next crisis of the Republic. This time, the Republic couldn’t stand. Rome fell into civil war.

Caesar conquered Gaul, and returned to Rome. He had already been Consul. Consul being the equivalent to a Roman president. He had been off building the Empire and spreading the Roman way of life. While he was away the corrupt families had crept back into Roman life. Draining the gains that Caesar had made for Rome by the acquisition of Gaul. This was not acceptable to Caesar. He was a man of the people, and he had to make a decision on what to do. He was commanding a strong army. Bringing that army back to Italy under arms was forbidden. We often here of crossing the Rubicon. The Rubicon is a river in northern Italy. This is the last point that a Roman legion could be on war footing. Crossing the Rubicon ready for war was a declaration of civil war.

This is what happened. The die is cast. It was the point of no return for Caesar and the Republic of Rome. The civil war that followed was fought across Italy, to Greece and ended in Egypt with the beheading of Pompeii. This is the history we know. The history we learn. The history books are written about. This is history.

Caesar and his army crossed to Greece in an effort to defeat Pompeii who had set up defenses there. Caesar burned his ships on the beaches of Greece. There was no turning back, and there was no surrender. Pompeii would either defeat Caesar or Caesar would defeat Pompeii.

Caesar and his army fought Pompeii with their backs to the sea. If they were defeated, they would die. They were fully committed. This commitment resulted in the defeat of Pompeii. Who fled across the Mediterranean to Egypt where he was beheaded.

Caesar become consul of Rome again, and establishing reform which set in place the foundations of a great empire.

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