GPD Officer Compares Situation to That Facing Roman Centurions

A GPD officer forwarded me the following essay.  The Centurions were the professional officers in ancient Rome's army.  The GPD officer did some comparing and contrasting:

As An Empire Crumbles

I have often wondered how the Roman Centurions felt when Rome was falling . Did they notice the lack of respect for authority? Did they wonder why so few people no longer showed respect to leaders, families and various institutions? After all, the Legions were being called in day in and day out to fix many problems they could not fix. There were too many problems and too few Centurions. But many days the problem might not have been the lack of man power.  Instead, it might have been a failure to use properly the resources at their disposal.

Nobody seemed to care anyway. After all, the Coliseum had three shows a day; and there were parties to attend in the center of the forum. People prayed to their various gods; and the plebes and slaves took care of most of the day-to-day work.

Since all roads led to Rome, did the streets begin to need repair?  I wonder if the Centurions ever noticed the pot holes in the road. I wonder if the Centurions ever thought to themselves, “How are people going to pay all these taxes the Empire has imposed?  It should not be a problem. After all, we are the greatest empire known to man."  Maybe the Centurions thought that Caesar would do what he always did to fix the problem-- raise taxes on the rich. The rich always had enough money to pay for new things, and when that did not work, Caesar would just seize someone’s land and property to pay off the debt.

I wonder if the Centurions noticed the crumbling of buildings not in the center of town, but all around town.  I imagine the Centurions had a few things on their mind each day.  Maybe there were food shortages, problems with gangs, those darn vandals and a crime or two to deal with. Even with a crucifixion or two of certain robbers, enemies of the state it still did not stop the rampant crime that seemed to grow with each and every day.

Why were the Centurions confused?  Maybe it was because the rules applied to some and not to others. It may have seemed some days that anyone could become a Centurion. The standards had slipped and even barbarians and people who were not citizens were being admitted to the Centurion and Legion ranks. The calls for service never seemed to end with the commanders and leaders saying, “Can you put down this dispute” and “Can you do something about that riot over there?” 

I can just envision two Roman Centurions complaining about the price of grain, and how it affected transportation; then again the horses they were using had been rode hard and put up wet so many times that the poor creatures were now practically useless. They were still using low grade metal swords and the Legions never seemed to have the money to upgrade the equipment they needed.  But they had a really neat bath house that had just been built for the privileged few.

Did the town criers' news always harp on how bad the Centurions were and how they violated some poor citizens rights?  Whenever you heard the latest news, it seemed the barbarians were just misunderstood.  And besides, the barbarians were more of a social group anyway. I wonder if the Centurions asked themselves, "How do we defend a country without having to use force sometimes?"  Do we shout nice Latin phrases at the barbarians?  After all defending an empire can be a brutal business, and sometimes someone has to make the tough decisions because they sure were not getting any direction from the government. The leaders and commanders were inefficient, and only looked after their own self-interests.  No one cared about the troops,and that was evident by the attitude of WIFMY (What’s In It For Me).  Did the centurions look over the vast landscape of the empire at the barbarian hordes approaching the city gates, and say to themselves "Today, we are going to die"?

Caesar and the Senate were fighting and scheming all the time; and the Centurions had to contend with corruption, and a society in decline. Maybe they were just looking for that day when they could retire to a farm somewhere, and not have to deal with the problems of the empire. Then again, maybe they were worried that they would not live that long-- and even if they did, the empire's treasures would be empty just like the many promises made each day by the Senate and by Caesar himself. 

Comments

[Beau D. Jackson]

"The King" and those like him would probably laugh and sneer at this, however, I see the analogy. It's true that "if we don't lean from the past we are doomed to repeat it" and repeating it, we are. Beau

[Abner Doon]

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.

The lie can be maintained only for such time
as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences."

Joseph Goebbels

[Brenda Bowers]

This applies so well to both the city and the nation. Our national security organizations are being treated as badly as our GPD. I am outraged and disgusted by the way the Obamanation traitors try to play down what is happening. The Fort Hood Massacre was just sort of thrown in as an after thought after giving a shout out! This latest one was one lone nut case and the “system worked” to stop it! And then the system didn't work and our leader won't have it anymore and everyone is going to shape up or ship out. Obama and his stooge AG. Eric Holder have reduced our intelligence agencies to sore thumbs out there on their own in the rest of the world. No one will give us any information for fear of it endangering their own agents. We are the laughingstock of the entire world for allowing terrorist to be tried for their crimes in our civilian courts and given the rights of American citizenship. Most countries just either execute these monsters or throw them in deep dark holes somewhere out of sight. Now these two have finally taken the final step in destroying the morale of our military by court marshalling Navy Seals for doing their jobs too well and actually capturing terrorist thugs. Soldiers don’t fight and therefore protect themselves as well when their morale is low. Our troops are hitting rock bottom because of Obama.

And every time I think it can’t get much worse the Chicago Thugs pull one more inanity out of their putrid little brains. BB

[Joe Guarino]

Brenda, there are some definite parallels between the way that the left and their accomplices in the MSM treat the military, and the way they treat the police. Thanks for the insightful comment.

[Joe Guarino]

Beau, Greensboro has been determined to repeat the mistakes made in lots of other places with regard to crime and police.

Abner, there are legitimate reasons why Bledsoe called GSBO the "city of the lie".

[Duck]

I say do as the Romans, their empire lasted well over 1000 years, and certainly had a more profound effect on civilization than North Carolina or the US.

[Duck]

Forgot, the Romans did not pay taxes. They gathered wealth by conquering other lands, and taking slaves. Their roads were repaired by these slaves, who usually died shortly thereafter due to exhaustion. Their army and security forces were mostly mercenaries or people who were conquered. It is nice when history comes forward, and later taints moralistic and out of context arguments, and the bricks just fall!

[Donovan]

Heard a City employee say today that if she was the police chief when Bob Morgan reinstated Blake she would have gone to the next Council meeting and chucked her badge at Morgan and told him to keep it. That type of action might help turn the tide agaisnt city management does nothing more than try to dodge lawsuits rather than fix problems. Seems like the legal department is giving bad advice.

[Joe Guarino]

Donovan, I think fear of lawsuits is only part of the problem. I think these people in city administration are ideologically sympathetic with the arguments the Pulpit Forum sets forth.

[Joe Guarino]

Duck, I am providing a link to the Wiki entry on the Roman Centurions you might find interesting. It is fairly impressive:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_(Roman_army)

I think the author of this piece was using some poetic license to make various points. In addition, I think the implication was that the author was referring to the final days of the Roman Empire, when things were deteriorating.

[Interested party]

What a shame that the officers have to feel this is true of the people that are supposed to be leading the department. Hopefully some people will be moved up that actually don't believe in WIFMY (whats in it for me). They believe in doing the right thing instead of going along just to advance their own interests. Of course we would have to have bosses who don't mind hearing a differing opinion. We will see soon

[Joe Guarino]

Interested party, I sincerely hope the entire command staff will be replaced, and replacements brought in from out of town, when we get our new chief.