CINCINNATI HISTORY, FOUNDING FATHERS, ANCIENT ROME

Progressives including professors, authors, politicians, and tearful citizens are analyzing the result of Donald Trump’s popular election in many shell-shocked ways. Today we’ll start in Ohio (not Spr

I’m getting over the initial devastation and am starting not only to analyze, but to start strategizing how we can save ourselves, the USA, and the world from Dump, Putin, Xi, Ding Dang Dong in No Korea, et al. There is a LOT to analyze and this is just one of many ways to evaluate the situation. Let’s start in Ohio, okay? Not what you think but first:

By a remarkable coincidence, Donald Dump’s addled VP elect had been talking about Ohio. Remember eating the cats and dogs there? Supposedly, Haitian refugees… well, the song says it best, but that’s not what I’m writing about today. Just an interesting coincidence.

   

What were they thinking back in 1776, before the strong leaders got together in Philadelphia and, during one short, hot summer of friction and argumentation, wrote our Constitution? That was in 1787, and I don’t think they had time to slowly, thoughtfully iron out the mechanism of democracy or election.

Why? Because the world had not seen a single national-scale democracy since the fall of the Roman Republic to the machinations of Julius Caesar (Dictator for Life) in 46 B.C.E. Mind you, the concept of Dictator was engrained in Roman history and law for half a millennium with severe restrictions, including a six month time limit, at the behest of the Senate in Rome, only in times of dire national need.

You’ve heard of Cincinnati, Ohio? See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio was founded in 1788 by European colonists, and given its permanent name Cincinnati around 1790. The name Cincinnati means ‘of Cincinnatus’ and was given in honor of a U.S. Revolutionary War commemorative society. Before we delve just one step deeper into the history, look at this list of members; it reads like a who’s who of the U.S. Revolution. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_original_members_of_the_Society_of_the_Cincinnati

The national list includes French aristocrats, among others, who supported George Washington’s, Thomas Jefferson’s (et al) war of liberation from Great Britain. Each of the original colonies or states seems to have had founding members on the list. So why ‘Cincinnati’, City of Cincinnatus?

The Founding/Framing Fathers were in many cases educated men (with educated wives) who well knew and understood the history of the world’s longest surviving republic and democracy, and the historical reasons for its collapse under pressure from ultra-wealthy oligarchs, military adventurers (like Julius Caesar), and cynical manipulators; all supported by a raging mob of city folk without proper, civilized leadership. On that last item, I quote the Torah, Proverbs 1, in which reasons are given for Solomon’s (and his court’s) compilation of the list of wise sayings: “…to provide guidance to the simple people.” More on this in a later article.

The ancient Romans had a way of not only telling their history for future generations, but of forming parables as it were for the nation to follow. One of these parables is about a (probably) true man named Cincinnatus, an exemplar of Roman virtue and patriotism. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Quinctius_Cincinnatus

As the Wikipedia article relates, and as we learn in modern History class, the Roman Republic in its early days was under attack from a nearby people called the Aequi.

After expelling their kings, who ruled about 753-509BCE, the Romans established a republic that would last for nearly 500 years. The Roman republic developed into a democracy (with many bumps and bruises and civil wars like ours). The Roman democracy began to fall apart after the Third Punic War (149-146 BCE), when Rome became the only surviving superpower in the Mediterranean after defeating and destroying Carthage and conquering Hellas (Greece). Sound familiar? The only surviving superpower (like the USA, after the fall of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact by 1991 CE)… rings a bell. Then the Roman state became a playground of ultra-wealthy zillionaires. In fact, I remember reading a list of history’s wealthiest persons some years ago on Forbes Magazine, and they actually included in the top ten the ancient Roman oligarch Crassus (a story in itself, for another day).

But early in the game, the Romans opted for balance, centrism, and moderation. There were endless checks and balances. Contrary to post-Roman lies and misinformation, the Romans were a highly moral nation; with, yes, some significant bumps in the road, like slavery and reckless billionaire exploitation; in fact they had huge corporations…not so much trade names as anonymous equity partnerships to fund a vast shipping fleet, 80,000 kilometers of first class, all-weather post roads and military highways, and lots more serving an estimated 150+ million people over a territory so vast that it broke apart into over 100 modern nations from the Scottish (Pictish) border to the Persian border, from almost the Baltic Sea to nearly the Equator in Africa.

Originally, however, Rome was a tiny state by the Tiber River, ruled by a carefully balanced, nuanced body of magistrates controlled by the Senate. Popular elections were held in the Forum area (originally) every year, since one of the founding principles of the republic was that no magistrate should serve too many consecutive terms (thus accreting unwarranted power). All the magistrates from the highest (Consul) to the lowest (Curator) required two men in office, each of whom had the power to VETO (“I forbid”) whatever the other one proposed for law. The only office with a single man in charge was that of Dictator, which would only be called into usage on rare occasions of dire national emergency. The office of Dictator is in fact what finally undid the Roman state by 46 BCE, when the unscrupulous Julius Caesar convinced a heavily corrupt Senate to name him Dictator for Life.

For example: if we had that system, the only time in the 20^th Century that the U.S. Republic would have designated a man as ‘dictator’ (literally ‘speaker’ or more forcefully, ‘giver of orders’) would have been when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

In time of dire, *existential* national emergency, the Roman Senate was lawfully empowered to name one man to assume total direction of government, except under Senate control, for not more than six months. Yes, the Senate at that time was still composed entirely of men from the wealthiest families (Patricians, literally ‘Fathers’), and the word Senate is derived from senex, ‘elderly’ or ‘elder’.

Cincinnatus was a simple farmer, ploughing his field one day, when horsemen galloped urgently to his side. They informed him that the Senate in nearby Rome (then a small city of maybe 10,000 inhabitants) had ordered him to take charge and lead the army against an invading force of Aequi. Cincinnatus promptly rode off to Rome, took command, and beat the pants (or tunics) off the Aequi. He then did the thing he is eternally remembered for: he humbly returned to his farm, and resumed ploughing his fields. He did not attempt to seize power, become dictator for life, or steal vast amounts of wealth. He was the epitome of Roman virtue.

But the office of Dictator was a land mine, buried in Roman societal soil for centuries, from the founding of the Republic in 509 B.C.E. (after they expelled their king, Tarquin the Arrogant) to the gradual dissolution of practical democracy in favor of oligarchic tyranny by the wealthy in the last 150 years or so BCE.

The propensity toward oligarchy and tyranny had always been embedded in the subsoil of Roman governance. As a part of human nature, it forever lies embedded in all societies including our own. We see this at work with Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and now Trump and thousands of other wealthy manipulators and their political front-persons from Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott to Mitch McConnell and innumerable others. As I say, the office of Dictator was a landmine, which finally exploded (with finality) in 46 B.C.E. when Julius Caesar bullied the Roman Senate into naming him not just Dictator, but Dictator for life in effect.

The entire Senate was not entirely corrupt, maybe. Or some of the corrupt ones feared Caesar would steal their loot from them and become another Croesus or Crassus in history. Caesar’s reign lasted two years (46-44 BCE) until a group of traditionalist Senators stabbed him to death at a Senate meeting on the Ides (middle day) of March in 46 BCE.

Modern historians often state that the late Republic was ‘an empire in all but name.’ Fair enough. Some brave souls fought to preserve tradition, honor, honesty, patriotism… but they were not enough to overcome the forces of unlimited greed and cruelty.

Although the imperial (as we would call it) state under Octavian (Augustus) and later tyrants pretended to continue the idea of a republic, Rome was never again a democracy as it had been during the Republic.

Now think about that word: Republic. It means, essentially, res publica, ‘the public business’ or as you’ll hear the modern U.S. houses of Congress describe their work, “The people’s business.”

Much of our political language, as with sciences, comes from Greek and Latin.

* * *

The Founders of 1776 and Framers of 1787 were educated men.

Just think: in England, Edward Gibbon was writing and publishing his famous six books about the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon

What strikes me with such coincidental power is that the first volume was published in London in 1776, and the sixth/last volume was published in 1789.

In 1776, the Founding Fathers declared our independence from the English monarchy. By 1789, the United States had not only become an independent nation, but in that year, the last state (Rhode Island) ratified the U.S. Constitution, which was then officially the law of the land.

The Framers would have read all of that, understanding that the Roman Empire was in itself a perversion of the original Roman Republic which, as of 2024, is still the longest lasting democracy in world history. Ours has existed for just under 250 years at this point and maybe, under Donald Trump and his pack coyotes, will not last much longer unless the Cincinnati (plural of ‘Cincinnatus’) of this nation can lead us (peacefully, at the ballot box, if the corrupt billionaire Postmaster General Looie No Joy) has not destroyed our voting system soon); mind you, he was appointed by Donald Dump during his non-elected reign of 2016-2020.

The Founding/Framing Fathers of 1776-1789 incorporated an amazing degree of ancient Roman symbology and tradition into the architecture, toponymy (place names), and practices of our nation. The Framers were not filled with the lies and hate against Rome, preached by peasant priests and preachers throughout European and Eurocentric history. They looked through the tyranny of big religions and the goose-stepping of village religions, and saw the shining lessons of history. In fact, many considered themselves Deists or other free-thinking persuasions. I myself am a Free Thinker, beholden above all to the Golden Rule: Matthew 7:12, a direct quote from Leviticus 19:18, “Treat others as you wish them to treat you.” For me, that extends to all people everywhere, and to all creatures big and small, and to our Planet Earth herself (my brief personal aside, which should explain where I’m coming from).

That is what we must do if the United States is not to become the latest of many dictatorships and tyrannies (Caesar, Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and now Trump to mention just a few).

* * *

The City Fathers of Cincinnati, early on during the 1780s, gave the name Cincinnati to their city in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_the_Cincinnati

This was an organization of Revolutionary War veterans who wished to commemorate the idealism and sacrifices that led to the founding and forming of the United States.

My primary reason in mentioning all this is to not only share with you a wonderful part of U.S. history, but to demonstrate how the Fathers of our nation were well-educated, well-versed in history and philosophy, were in fact supreme exemplars of the Enlightenment Age that allowed people, for the first time in nearly two thousand years, to cast aside the dark smelly corruption of history’s medieval barons, and modern demagogues, and dare to establish a new democracy. By demagogues I mean the likes of Hitler, Lenin, and Mussolini, and today’s Putin, Xi, Donald Trump, Clarence Thomas, Mitch McConnell (lots more operating to destroy the republic and establish complete oligarchy and tyranny).

The Founders/Framers continue to throw ancient Rome and Athens before us as sacred icons to inform and guide us. That is why I will visit such history topics time and again.

Lets keep our many virtuous Cincinnati leaders (Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, plenty to go around) in the forefront of our thinking, and work to sink Donald Dump’s boat.

Thank you, until soon. JTC johntcullen.substack.com

MARA Make America Real Again

Sheep Heil!