A Sorry State of Affairs

After the senate's failed attempt to prevent Octavian from entering Rome with an army, they scrambled to get out of the young Ceasar's way. After one final meeting with him, Cicero asked to be pardoned and began the run for his life. Octavian had allied himself with Antony in order to become Consul and the first on Antony's list for proscription was Cicero because of Cicero's lifelong crusade to discredit him.

As his servants hurried him along a secret path to the sea, not far from Formiae and one of his villa's, Cicero could hear the pursuit and told his servants to put down the litter. To the military Tribune he said, "There is nothing proper about what you are doing, but at least make sure you cut off my head properly." After slitting his throat, chopping at the head three times and some sawing they finally had it and Cicero was dead.

It took fifteen years before Octavian had the resources to take the Republic for himself, Antony and Cleopatra finally committing suicide after months of war, and in the end Octavian regretted letting Antony's hatred of Cicero lead to the murder of his teacher and mentor. It was the price Octavian had to pay to rule.

All of this is contrast to the politics of today. We have one more week of bullying and bitch-slapping and it will be over. Unfortunately none of the hopefuls will establish an empire to rival Rome's, none of them will rule the world, and in four years we'll do it all again. The winner will lie, cheat and steal and there will be more corruption and lies. Any one who doesn't believe that is naive and idealistic. "My man won't do it!" you say, but he will. History repeats itself again and again simply because we haven't developed the capacity to distinguish this year's bullshit from the last. I was recently called 'jaded' and 'defeatist' by a friend who couldn't sway me to vote his way, and I was tempted to reach for my sword, but then I considered that I would rather be surprised by a politician than let down one more time.