"THE SENATE AND PEOPLE OF ROME"

Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (New York & London: Liveright, 2015) ("Ancient Rome is important. To ignore the Romans is not just to turn a blind eye to the distant past. Rome still helps to define the way we understand our world and think about ourselves, from high theory to low comedy. After 2,000 years, it continues to underpin Western culture and politics, what we write and how we see the world, and our place in it." Id. at 15. [Note: However, it is a arrogant misunderstanding, on our part, if not a joke, for us to think or characterize the United States as the "new" Rome.] "The rebellions that we know about were not the work of high-principled, or narrow-minded, nationalists. Getting rid of the Romans was never the same as an independence movement in the modern sense. Nor were they driven by an excluded underclass or religious zealotry. Religion often confirmed the aspirations of the rebels and provided unifying rituals and symbols--from the messianic hopes of the Jews to the human sacrifices reputedly carried out by Arminius in the Teutoburg Forest--but rebellions were not specifically religious uprisings. They were usually led by the provincial aristocracy and were a sign that the relationship of collusion between the local elites and the Roman authorities had broken down. To put it another way, they were the price the Romans paid for their dependence on collaboration. Rebellions were usually sparked by some isolated inflammatory or offensive act on the part of the Romans which c upset the delicate balance." Id. at 512-513.).