The Rise of The Modern Global Power Elite
The Rise of the Modern Global Power Elite
Part I: Ambition & THE END OF CIVILITY
Before the Roman government became an Empire, led by a Emperor called ‘Caesar,’ it was a Republic. Back in the days of the Roman Republic, there were men called “Tribunes” who were elected by the people to represent the common man.
Tribunes had the power to veto laws passed by the Roman Senate, and the authority to enforce the right of Provocatio, which in theory was a guarantee of due process, and an early form of habeas corpus.
So, the Tribune functioned as a guarantor of the civil liberties of Roman citizens against arbitrary state power.
In 120 BC, Gaius Marius was elected a Roman Tribune of the plebeians (the people.) As a man of the people, he successfully passed a law in 119 BC that restricted the interference of the wealthy in Roman elections. This law alienated many of the wealthy families of Rome, and earned him the eternal resentment of many Roman Senators.
Marius was later elected Consul, which in the Roman Government was equivalent of Co-President, because it held executive authority over the entire government. As the Consul, and elected leader of the Roman Government, he earned the respect of his Roman troops by his conduct towards them, eating his meals with them, and proving that he was not afraid to share in any of their labors. Consequently, he was re-elected to the office of Consul an amazing six more times.
Marius’s former lieutenant, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, an ambitious man, was elected by the Roman Senate to be Consul, along with Marius.
But, in 88 BC, Rome’s eastern provinces in Greece were invaded. So, the Roman Senate had a choice to make, of which Consul to appoint to head up the army to go and defend the invaded Roman lands. The choice they made resulted in Rome’s first Civil War.
The wealthy and powerful members of the Senate, still resentful of Marius, passed over his experience and they dishonored him by choosing his younger former general, Sulla.
But that was not the end of the matter. A Tribune of the people vetoed that action by the Senate, and the Plebian Assembly voted and chose Marius instead.
Everyone could see there was a strong difference of opinion between the wealthy and powerful Roman Senators, and the common people.
Rather than try to negotiate the conflict, Sulla left Rome and he rode off to the army, where he tried to persuade the army to defy the People’s Assembly and to instead follow the rich and powerful Senate. It worked. The army, numbering six legions, not only agreed to follow Sulla, but they then stoned to death the representatives of the people’s Assembly that were present there. Then, Sulla became the first Roman to turn his army against Rome itself. Sulla invaded his own capital, Rome, and began the first Roman Civil War.
Marius tried to defend the city with a hastily raised force of mostly gladiators, but was soundly defeated and barely was able to flee with his life to Africa. Sulla, and his legions, then executed many of those who had opposed Sulla’s selection, and he had the Senate pass a death sentence on Marius. Sulla was then once again confirmed as the army’s true general by the Senate, and Sulla then rode off with the army to the war in Greece.
While Sulla was in Greece, fighting the war, back home in Rome, the surviving supporters of Marius, and the supporters of Sulla, took to fighting each other. Marius raised up an army in Africa and returned with it to Rome, where he joined the forces of one of his supporters, named Lucious Cornelius Cinna, and together they drove out the supporters of Sulla from Rome. It was a very bloody affair, and the heads of at least a dozen Roman nobles who had supported Sulla, were displayed publicly in the Forum.
Marius and Cinna, then issued orders called ‘proscriptions’ that entitled their surviving supporters to take the fortunes of those who had supported Sulla’s rebellion.
But Marius was 71 years old, and he died 1 month after returning to Rome. Cinna, was then was elected to two more Consulships before he died too, during a mutiny. It seems that some of Cinna’s supporters were keen to defend Rome, but not so keen to travel to Greece and fight Sulla. When Cinna tried to lead his army off into Greece, his army revolted.
So, when the forces of Sulla finished fighting the war in Greece, they returned to Italy in 83 BC, and began another Civil War. They were met by some opposing forces. But their leader, Gaius Marius the Younger, died defending a city east of Rome in Sulla’s path.
Returning to Rome triumphant, Sulla began a new reign of terror that dwarfed everything that came before. Thousands, including Senators, and other Roman nobles – anyone who had supported Marius, in any way, were outlawed and executed.
As dictator, Sulla severely weakened the Tribunes of the people. He took away their main power of veto, and made it illegal for them to bring laws before the Concilium Plebis without the Senate's consent. Sulla took all power away from the people, and he gave all authority, other than his own, to the wealthy Roman Senators who had supported him. That was essentially the end of the Republic, and the birth of the Empire.
Part II: Control & MONEY
Money, money, money! You know, some people fight a war for honor and principal, and other people fight a war for wealth and money. Well, those latter people – they are the ones who won the Roman Civil War.
Money began as coins. Coins largely began with the Greeks. By 500 BC each Greek city-state was minting its own coins. But, this ‘money’ still traded based on the metal content and quality. In fact, the city-state of Sparta specifically minted some coins made of iron - to discourage foreign trade.
But, with the advent of the Roman Republic, and then the Empire, the minting of money all became consolidated and centralized. Money became standardized, and as the Empire grew, it became more of a global currency.
The minting of all high value coins was first centralized to the city of Rome during the Republic, and it was completed during the very early centuries of the Empire. Roman historian, Dio Cassius, expressed Roman thinking when he wrote: "None of the cities should be allowed to have its own separate coinage or a system of weights and measures; they should all be required to use ours."
Part III: Avarice & THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WHOLE WORLD
Marcus Licinius Crassus, (115BC – 53BC) was the youngest son of Publius Licinius Crassus who was called ‘Dives.’ He was a very wealthy and powerful man. Daddy ‘Dives’ was elected Roman Consul (or Co-President of the Roman Government) in 97 BC. So, his daddy was President of the entire country - while Crassus was still a teenager. Crassus and his father were huge supporters of Sulla, and they opposed Marius.
After Sulla took charge of the army and rode off to Greece, Daddy ‘Dives’ and a brother were killed, or killed themselves to evade capture, during the purges of Marius and Cinna in December 87 BC when they took Rome, after Sulla had left. Not only were they killed, but their family fortune was confiscated during the Marius-Cinna proscriptions.
Crassus, the youngest son, however, remained alive. That’s because he was one of Sulla’s generals, and so he traveled with Sulla and the army. So Crassus was in Greece when his family in Rome was killed and all their stuff taken away.
Maybe young Crassus was given the position of General because of his powerful daddy, but Crassus proved to be worthy of the office. After Sulla returned to Italy in 82 BC, Crassus brought a decisive victory to Sulla’s forces at Colline Gate. After the battle, those leaders who fought against Crassus were all decapitated and their heads were sent to the army of Gaius Marius the Younger, which caused many of those planning on defending Rome, and the Republic, to give up and flee.
When the victorious Sulla returned to Rome, he wrote proscriptions that ensured that his supporters could confiscate and recover all their lost fortunes from the fortunes of the wealthy supporters of the defeated Marius and Cinna. Crassus made a large part of his wealth from these proscriptions, notably the proscription of one man whose name was not initially on the list of those proscribed, but was added by Crassus, who coveted the man's fortune.
There are many examples of what sort of a guy Crassus was. For instance, Crassus was a relative to Licinia, a Vestal Virgin, who owned a lovely villa in the suburbs, that Crassus wanted to acquire on the cheap. Roman Historian Plutarch says: “ . . . he was forever hovering about the woman and paying his court to her, until he fell under the abominable suspicion. And in a way it was his avarice that absolved him from the charge of corrupting the vestal, and he was acquitted by the judges. But he did not let Licinia go until he had acquired her property."
Lol. His avarice was so great, and well known, that nobody believed Crassus really loved the woman. . . They all agreed that Crassus just wanted to get her land. So Crassus was absolved of charges of corrupting a Vestal Virgin…. What a guy! . . .
Crassus acquired lots of land and houses, especially those of proscribed citizens. But most of Crassus' wealth, came from his ownership of slaves. Many of his slaves worked in silver mines.
Crassus employed a group of private firemen and he became famous for his acquisition of burning houses. Whenever there was a fire, Crassus would arrive and purchase the property on fire, along with the surrounding buildings on the cheap. Then, after this ‘fire sale,’ he would have his army of 500 ‘clients’ and slaves put the fire out before there was much further damage done. Crassus used the old Roman method of firefighting -- which meant destroying the burning building to stop the fire from spreading. But after each fire, Crassus would often own the land where it happened, plus all of the neighboring properties.
So by the time of Sulla's death in 79 BC, Marcus Licinius Crassus had become a powerful figure in Roman politics, on account of his great wealth. Like his father before him, he was nicknamed ‘Dives,’ meaning "rich."
Crassus reportedly owned more than 200,000,000 sestertii at the height of his fortune. He is still ranked among the Top Ten Most Wealthy Individuals EVER, in the history of the world.
Crassus' significance in world history, though, stems more from his financial and political support of young Julius Caesar. With Marius and his election reforms all gone, the wealthy could meddle again in politics. And it was the support of Crassus and his massive wealth that allowed Julius Caesar to embark on his political career, which resulted in the birth of The Roman Empire.
Before that, though, Crassus and his wealth were involved in another major conflict. It was a conflict that cemented a lasting foundation for the Empire. In 73 BC, some of Crassus’s slaves revolted, led by a man named Spartacus. The Senate did not initially take the slave rebellion very seriously, until it became clear that Rome itself was under threat. Crassus however, as Rome’s largest slave owner, had been feeling the pain much more personally in his wallet. Many of his slaves left and joined the rebellion.
Spartacus and the rebellious slaves actually defeated several regular Roman legions that the Senate sent against them. After which, Crassus offered to hire, equip, train, and lead new troops, at his own expense, to end the slave rebellion. The Roman Senate took him up on his offer.
It didn’t go so well at first. Initially, Crassus had trouble both anticipating Spartacus as he moved around Italy and inspiring his new mercenary army to fight hard. To resolve his army’s lack of inspiration, Crassus employed something later called ‘decimation,’ of any of his forces that retreated from battle or lost. This meant that every tenth man in his army would be murdered by him as punishment for their lack of inspired fighting. This tactic, while effectively inspiring the surviving members of his army, did not win him any love from his soldiers, or respect from the Roman people.
Crassus got tired of chasing Spartacus all over Italy with his uninspired mercenary troops. So Crassus tried to trap Spartacus in southern Italy, - by building a huge wall across the entire boot of Italy. Yes. Really.
But Spartacus broke out. This cat-and-mouse game continued until Roman armies led by Pompey and Varro Lucullus were recalled back to Italy by the Senate to help out. How embarrassing for Crassus! But Crassus surely hated all the money he was losing from his escaped slaves - even more.
When the returning armies were about to land, Spartacus decided he had to attack and fight, rather than be trapped between three Roman armies, two of them experienced overseas. But Crassus was still a capable General, even with a mediocre mercenary army. Spartacus and his army of former slaves were beaten decisively by Crassus. It was a total defeat, and Crassus captured 6,000 of his former slaves alive. Spartacus himself was killed in the battle.
Crassus, however, was not happy or satisfied. To celebrate his victory, Crassus had his 6,000 captured former slaves crucified along the Via Appia (the Appian Way), Rome’s main road. Under his orders, the bodies of the slaves were not taken down afterwards. They remained rotting along miles and miles of Rome's main road as an object lesson to all other slaves that might consider revolting, or leaving Crassus in the future.
Doing things like Crassus, - has ever since been referred to as being ‘crass.’
Summation
lets review: Global Power Elite
we see from the beginning:
They control the money,
by which they gain wealth and power,
which they use to back ambitious and selfish men,
who rule, and take away the rights of the people.
They don't win gracefully, and they have no mercy,
and there is never enough to satisfy them.
Isn't real history fun?
Did that boost up your faith in the humanity of man and his innate inner goodness? No? Well it didn't do that for me either. It made me think - that I might always be safer in the hands of God, than the hands of my fellow men.
Money = the freedom to do things. It is power. More money, increases your choices and it boosts your impact. Like alchohol, too much of it loosens your inhibitions, and then your real true self is revealed.
Money can and has boosted and encouraged man's inhumanity to man, no different than alchohol. It is said 'Power corrupts,' and absolute power - like too much booze, has always corrupted absolutely.
It is a strong drink, money and power, that can easily lead a man to become arrogant, base, and abusive.
(C) RLMcCormick
