Some Ramblings About Trump and the Fall of the Roman Empire

When I see stories like this in the Wall Street Journal, it reminds me of nothing more than the days I spent in my youth reading ancient Latin and Greek texts and absorbing the lessons the Classics have to offer the modern mind. Two weeks ago, the same impulse caused me to write “Nero is Still With Us.” There’s just something about Donald Trump that I equate with the more dysfunctional Roman emperors. I can certainly picture, for example, Caligula demanding that a ship named after Tiberius be kept from his sight.

The White House wanted the U.S. Navy to move “out of sight” a warship named for the late Sen. John McCain, a war hero who became a frequent target of President Trump’s ire, ahead of the president’s visit to Japan last week, according to an email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Of course, Trump is calling this Fake News, but we all know it’s true.

I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan. Nevertheless, @FLOTUS and I loved being with our great Military Men and Women – what a spectacular job they do!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2019

Perhaps it is unfair to the Julio-Claudian dynasty to compare even the worst of their emperors to the current American president. It feels less like we’re at the beginning of our empire than the end.  Tonight, I’m thinking of Petronius Maximus who was one of the last Roman Emperors of the West. He was responsible for the assassination of Valentinian III in March 455 CE, but things went badly for him once the foul deed was accomplished.

After gaining control of the palace, Maximus consolidated his hold on power by immediately marrying Licinia Eudoxia, the widow of Valentinian. She married him reluctantly, suspecting that he had been involved in the murder of her late husband; and indeed Maximus treated Valentinian III’s assassins with considerable favour. The eastern court at Constantinople refused to recognise his accession. To further secure his position Maximus quickly appointed Avitus as magister militum and sent him on a mission to Toulouse to gain the support of the Visigoths. He also proceeded to cancel the betrothal of Licinia’s daughter, Eudocia, to Huneric, the son of the Vandal king Geiseric, and marry her to his own son. Again he anticipated that this would further his and his family’s imperial credentials. This repudiation infuriated the Vandal king, who only needed the excuse of Licinia’s despairing appeal to the Vandal court to begin preparations for the invasion of Italy.

By May, within two months of Maximus gaining the throne, news reached Rome that Geiseric was sailing for Italy. As the news spread, panic gripped the city and many of its inhabitants took to flight. The Emperor, aware that Avitus had not yet returned with the expected Visigothic aid, decided that it was fruitless to mount a defence against the Vandals. So he attempted to organise his escape, urging the Senate to accompany him. However, in the panic, Petronius Maximus was abandoned by his bodyguard and entourage and left to fend for himself.

As Maximus rode out of the city on his own on 31 May 455, he was set upon by an angry mob, which stoned him to death. His body was mutilated and flung into the Tiber. He had reigned for only seventy-five days. His son from his first marriage, Palladius, who had held the title of Caesar between 17 March and 31 May, and who had married his stepsister Eudocia, was probably executed.

Thanks to the impetuous incompetence of Petronius Maximus, we now have the world “vandalism” to describe the wanton and purposeless destruction of property. But this sacking of Rome was just a precursor of the final collapse of the Western Empire in 476.

If you want to have some fun, you can peruse the list of Roman Emperors and see how each of them died. The majority of them were killed by their own armies or by the praetorian guard. Some died in battle and most of the rest were assassinated by family members, rivals, or conspirators of one type or another. It’s rare to see an emperor who died of natural causes. It makes one wonder why anyone ever aspired to that kind of power, especially when you consider that it was customary to kill all the close kin of a deposed emperor lest they seek vengeance or become pretenders to the throne.

The Founding Fathers of our country were steeped in this history, and they were all too familiar with the dynastic excesses and cruelties of the European monarchs of their own time. They did not want tyrants, but nor did they want their leaders disposed of by military coups and palace intrigues. They opposed the establishment of a standing army for a variety of reasons, one of which was that they could be used as an instrument of power to change the legitimately elected leadership. At the same time, Thomas Jefferson explained quite concisely in the Declaration of Independence that there are times when the leaders of a government must be removed from power:

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

One can doubt the wisdom of their solution, and I have said that “The Founding Fathers Screwed Up the Impeachment Process.” Yet, they did provide a process. They did not expect the American people to suffer while evils were sufferable. They did not want us to be subjected indefinitely to a long train of abuses and usurpations. They assured that we, through our elected representatives in Congress, could throw off a despotic or hopelessly capricious and incompetent president.  They even envisioned a possible president who had become corrupted by a foreign government. That’s why the Constitution says “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” That’s why treason and bribery are the two crimes expressly mentioned in the impeachment clauses of the Constitution. 

People take a lot of things for granted, and I think Americans often fail to appreciate that our freedoms and way of life are really quite tenuous.  We think our system can endure without any actual work or sacrifice or risk. People seem more likely to flee to Canada than put their own necks on the line. Politicians seem hesitant to exercise the only procedures we have for removing a dangerous and criminal leader. Republicans think people will respect the law and remain orderly even if the elections are transparently doctored in their favor through selective disenfranchisement or even the assistance of hostile foreign powers.

I think history teaches a different lesson. I think a quick look around the world should teach people to think again. People will not assent to unjust laws and phony elections unless their dissent is violently repressed. Militaries and intelligence agencies will not refrain from intervening in politics if the politicians can’t function competently on their own.

Trump claims that the Deep State is trying to take him out, but as Mueller tried to explain in his press appearance on Wednesday, it’s not the Deep State’s job in our Republic to take out a bad president. That doesn’t mean they or the military won’t get around to it eventually if the people through their representatives cannot stand up for themselves.  If history teaches us anything, it should teach us that despotic leaders don’t last long if they don’t keep the people who can wield violence contented with their rule.

How long will the military put up with things like this?

There were discussions within the U.S. military over the past week about how to handle the [USS John McCain], another U.S. official said. The ship is being repaired after a 2017 collision, and any ship undergoing such repair or maintenance would be difficult to move, officials said. A tarp was hung over the ship’s name ahead of the president’s trip, according to photos reviewed by the Journal, and sailors were directed to remove any coverings from the ship that bore its name. After the tarp was taken down, a barge was moved closer to the ship, obscuring its name. Navy officials acknowledge the barge was moved but said it was not moved to obscure the name of the ship. Sailors on the ship, who typically wear caps bearing its name, were given the day off during Mr. Trump’s visit, people familiar with the matter said.

In our system, the people have the responsibility to remove a president from office. We do this through our representatives. When our representatives don’t fulfill their role, the system collapses and the older and more common measures will be used.  It’s a two-way street. We ask our military leaders to stay out of politics and our military leaders ask us to make that possible for them.

What we’re doing as a country right now is destroying people’s faith in the integrity of our elections and the competency of our elected officials. We somehow think we can let this go on and people will stay docile and continue to maintain order.  There’s nothing in history that suggests that this is the case.

If people want to preserve this country, they need to understand their responsibility to act. We cannot assume that things will work themselves out. We have a president who resembles a weak, insecure and half-mad Roman emperor. Our inability to deal with this problem is a sure sign that we’re near the end of our run as a great power.