Monk

♠
“As in a Greek city, the main aim of religious cult [in Rome] was to aid worldly success, not to save citizens from sin.”

-- The Classical World by Robin Lane Fox

xXx

♠
There have been rumblings, comments on the Net, voices on talk radio, arguing another alternative. That we owe the rest of the world nothing. That an effective response to terror is simply to start vaporizing cities, beginning with Tehran and working our way down until attacks cease. That, quite simply, the United States should transform itself into Rome.

... Fate is by definition unavoidable. Nations are often forced into roles they might not have chosen, the way Britain found itself an empire "in a fit of absentmindedness". For now, we - the Americans, despised and envied across the world -- still stumble along, doing the best we can, taking our licks and looking for solutions while living up to our image of ourselves. But the critics should be wary of screaming too loud, of conspiring too well, of undermining us too thoroughly. Because if they succeed, if they do get what they insist they want, then the result may well be something they never conceived, and it will be their desolation, and our peace.

-- J. R. Dunn for The American Thinker

"WE WILL LEAVE YOU A DESOLATION!" You can hear the Darth Vader voice.

Mr. Dunn gives us a new slant on America's parallels to ancient Rome. Usually, America is seen as being aligned with its last period of effetism and failure. In contrast, Mr. Dunn draws the idea of America being more like the much younger Rome, a Rome in its strong republican youth, a Rome that has yet to reach the end of its patience to become more of a power without conscience.

Naturally, I find it an interesting notion since I am keeping it for the record, but I wonder about the accuracy of this narrative. Although Monk has not succeeded very well in his studies of Rome, I never really sensed it to be a particularly restrained power, and I understood the fall from republican rule to be internal division. But, be that as it may, this is a colorful and provocative piece.

( Dunn essay )

xXx