Rome and America: Comparing Two Imperial Superpowers

Introduction

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire is a source of fascination for both the general public and the scholarly world. From a European perspective, the fall of the Empire can be regarded as the end of the Classical world, as it brought about a decline in literacy, urbanism, and virtually all other indicators of civilization. Roman civilization is seen as the golden age of art, literature, and law — a period of flourishing culture and development. Both European and non-European societies have adopted Roman architectural, sculptural, and legal traditions. The Founding Fathers hoped that America would revive the virtues of ancient Rome and reinvent the Roman Empire under a new formula whose basis was the Constitution. By speaking of a rising American empire, they invoked the image of the Roman republic as an enduring model: an absolute superpower whose military, political, economic, and cultural dominance was incontestable.

Although the decline of the Roman Empire has been discussed and written about extensively, no scholar has ever been able to provide a definitive explanation, primarily because the demise of a state is a complex matter resulting from a myriad of factors. One cannot point to a single event or causative factor; rather, it is the cumulative power of several historical and political circumstances working together. There are also no reliable predictions about the future of America, or whether its fate will mirror that of Rome. Nonetheless, there are voices who claim America has already turned into a decadent Roman state, citing the percentage of illiterate citizens, increasing corruption, a high rate of illegal immigration, and a Congress that no longer serves the people but acts as a tool in the hands of the privileged.

Rome was founded as a farming village in the eighth century B.C. — more precisely in 753 B.C. — and endured twelve centuries of oscillations before its fall in the fifth century A.D. During its lifespan, the Roman Empire shifted from being a prosperous and even virtuous republic to a corrupt empire which eventually led to its dissolution. The first major historical account of the fate of the Roman Empire was written by historian Edward Gibbon and published in 1776 under the title The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Another historical account discussed in this paper is that of historian Peter Heather, specifically his book The Fall of the Roman Empire (2005). As for the parallel between modern America and Rome, this paper draws on the conclusions and assumptions put forth by Cullen Murphy in his book Are We Rome?

The date widely accepted for the fall of Rome is 476 A.D., when the Germanic leader Odoacer forced the last emperor of the Western Empire to abdicate. This is also the date adopted by the present paper. Nonetheless, many other crucial moments contributed to the decline and ultimate fall of the Roman Empire. Historians generally argue that it was a combination of factors — monetary trouble, moral and social decadence, and the rise of Christianity among them — that brought about the empire's demise.

The fall of Rome did not bring about the complete disappearance of classical elements of civilization, which persisted into later centuries. The notion of "classical" was defined by the Roman Empire, a dictatorship supported by military force that joined together peoples from three continents. Nonetheless, its attempt to forge a unified "classical" culture was ultimately unsuccessful, and the demise of the Empire brought about the shaping of new cultures formed from the "amalgam of classics with the reformed style of Judaism that became Christianity" (Potter: 4). Rome itself had changed dramatically between the year 400 and the age of Augustus, and these changes did not originate in the fifth century but trace back to the first two centuries of the empire's history, when the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean slowly disintegrated under the weight of growing Roman absolutism. By 305 A.D., the process of disintegration could no longer be reversed.

It was under Emperor Diocletian that ancient civilization was truly destroyed under the weight of unchecked development. Poverty and degradation deeply affected the population, which was forced to renounce its freedom in exchange for survival. Those not killed by famine were forced to become branded laborers in regimented state factories. The curtain of the Dark Ages was falling across the societies of Antiquity. This transitional period between Classical Roman Antiquity and the High Middle Ages was characterized by the absence of progress in literature, written history, building activity, and demographic growth. When the Dark Ages descended, they covered a paralyzed civilization in the East and a shattered one in the West, where poverty and ignorance had destroyed the once triumphant Western society. Currency became worthless, trade was virtually blocked, education was forgotten, and agriculture devastated. The military capacity of Rome was dramatically diminished, and the population was scarce, with a deserted countryside and empty urban centers. Waves of barbarian invasions followed — Arab and Viking conquests, the Crusades, and the devastations of the Turks and Mongols — which generated a severe fragmentation of the former empire's territory. This fragmentation eventually saw the re-emergence of an urban middle class in the decentralized successor states, enabling the resumption of cultural, intellectual, and economic evolution in the form of the Western Renaissance.

In 1963, during an address at American University in Washington D.C., President John F. Kennedy reinforced the idea that the United States was "not seeking a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war" (McChesney; Foster: 2004). His remarks were a response to criticism from Soviet texts on military strategy which claimed the U.S. was preparing "to unleash different kinds of war" including "preventative war" (Ibid.). Despite Kennedy's rejection of these claims, the notion of "Pax Americana" would become a justification for war used by those who portrayed the United States as a "benevolent Empire" (Ibid.). Today the Cold War is over and the Soviet Union has long disbanded, yet the United States is still regarded by many as an imperialist power that uses military force unilaterally for its own benefit. Comparisons between Imperial Rome and the Imperial United States, once largely the province of leftists or right-wing isolationists, have spread and gained more momentum than ever (Lind: 2002). These comparisons were further fueled by President George W. Bush's speech at West Point on June 2, 2002, in which he declared: "America has, and intends to keep, military strengths beyond challenge — thereby making the destabilizing arms races of other eras pointless — and limiting rivalries to trade and other pursuits of peace" (President G.W. Bush in Lind: 2002).

This paper does not examine the discourse of one particular administration, whether Democrat or Republican. Instead, it strives to illustrate how a certain image of American imperialism has been constructed both within the United States and around the world, irrespective of which administrations have been in office since the American Revolution. A global Pax Americana has given rise to serious controversy. There are those who support it, led by what Murphy calls "the triumphalist-in-chief" George W. Bush (Murphy: 127). There are those who strongly oppose it, denouncing America's military interventions and arguing that "its imperial need for secrecy, surveillance and social control, all in the name of national security, is corroding our republican institutions" (Ibid.). And there is a third category — Murphy's "in-between group" (Murphy: 128) — who argue that America should and could be an imperial superpower, but lacks sound practical judgment.

The thesis of this paper is that the history of the Roman Empire can be matched to that of the United States in terms of economy, political power, and aspirations. Present-day America is in many ways similar to fourth- or even fifth-century Rome, which poses one stringent yet logical question: Will America follow in the footsteps of ancient Rome and meet its demise in a similar fashion? Although this paper cannot definitively answer that question, it examines the current political, economic, social, and cultural situation in America and compares it to the circumstances leading to the fall of the Roman Empire.