Sunday, January 24, 2010
Caesar Said It
"Since we have come to the place, it does not appear to be foreign to our subject to lay before the reader an account of the manners of Gaul and Germany, and wherein these nations differ from each other. In Gaul there are factions not only in all the states, and in all the cantons and their divisions, but almost in each family, and of these factions those are the leaders who are considered according to their judgment to possess the greatest influence, upon whose will and determination the management of all affairs and measures depends. And that seems to have been instituted in ancient times with this view, that no one of the common people should be in want of support against one more powerful; for, none [of those leaders] suffers his party to be oppressed and defrauded, and if he do otherwise, he has no influence among his party. This same policy exists throughout the whole of Gaul; for all the states are divided into two factions." -- Caius Julius Caesar, 58BCE
Available at University of Virginia online library (click the title of this post); taken from Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars: with the Supplementary Books attributed to Hirtius; Including the Alexandrian, African and Spanish Wars.
Julius Caesar
Translator W. A. McDevitte Translator W. S. Bohn
1st Edition.
Harper & Brothers
New York
1869 Harper's New Classical Library
I draw some conclusions from that quote from Caesar. For one thing, he was a pretty good writer. Beyond that, apparently we use a Gallic political system in this country. In Gaul I imagine that there were liberals and conservatives, with the aim being that neither ever really get the upper hand. Caesar actually liked this two-faction system, as he called it, enough to write about it. Mostly Caesar didn't like much but Caesar, but this Gallic invention was one of the exceptions.
Before somebody gets all bent out of shape about the "Damned French," I need to point out that the Franks (French) moved into Gaul four-hundred years after Caesar wrote his Commentaries, and that the Gauls were more closely related to the Welsh, Irish and Scots than to the Franks. The two-party system was a Celtic invention, actually.
Now in the USA we see the truth of what Caesar wrote. When one faction (party) gets too powerful the people restore some sort of balance. Recently, that election in Massachusetts, which should have been a shoe-in for the Democrat, instead became a referendum on unbalanced party power and hey, shazam, no more supermajority in the Senate. For the same reason that Obama got in last year (too many people not feeling like they were being heard) Obama got a new headache this year. And on we go. For the record, the winner will serve exactly one term. Massachusetts is what it is, after all.
Of course, it is amusing to watch the Democrats scurry about, I'll give it that. Will Rogers said it: "I'm not a member of an organized political party. I'm a Democrat." Yep. I imagine that Caesar would be amused.
Steve
Available at University of Virginia online library (click the title of this post); taken from Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars: with the Supplementary Books attributed to Hirtius; Including the Alexandrian, African and Spanish Wars.
Julius Caesar
Translator W. A. McDevitte Translator W. S. Bohn
1st Edition.
Harper & Brothers
New York
1869 Harper's New Classical Library
I draw some conclusions from that quote from Caesar. For one thing, he was a pretty good writer. Beyond that, apparently we use a Gallic political system in this country. In Gaul I imagine that there were liberals and conservatives, with the aim being that neither ever really get the upper hand. Caesar actually liked this two-faction system, as he called it, enough to write about it. Mostly Caesar didn't like much but Caesar, but this Gallic invention was one of the exceptions.
Before somebody gets all bent out of shape about the "Damned French," I need to point out that the Franks (French) moved into Gaul four-hundred years after Caesar wrote his Commentaries, and that the Gauls were more closely related to the Welsh, Irish and Scots than to the Franks. The two-party system was a Celtic invention, actually.
Now in the USA we see the truth of what Caesar wrote. When one faction (party) gets too powerful the people restore some sort of balance. Recently, that election in Massachusetts, which should have been a shoe-in for the Democrat, instead became a referendum on unbalanced party power and hey, shazam, no more supermajority in the Senate. For the same reason that Obama got in last year (too many people not feeling like they were being heard) Obama got a new headache this year. And on we go. For the record, the winner will serve exactly one term. Massachusetts is what it is, after all.
Of course, it is amusing to watch the Democrats scurry about, I'll give it that. Will Rogers said it: "I'm not a member of an organized political party. I'm a Democrat." Yep. I imagine that Caesar would be amused.
Steve
Labels: Politics
