Paternalism in Ancient Rome

Elemental to all relationships in Rome was that of the “patronus” to “cliens”, or patron to client.   Harry Potter fans will recognize the “patronus” as the spell which produces an animal form who is the protector of the individual.  The job of the patron is to take care of the client.  The clients are those dependent on this “pater”.  In return, they offer services, protection, and notoriety, for a Roman patron is judged largely by how many people he can attach to himself.  Certain Latin words reveal this relationship.  “Pater”, father, which gives us the words “paternal” and “paternalism” also described the social group best known for its old wealth based on property: the patricians. Generosity is a social expectation with tangible benefits for both parties. Generosity is also a means to manipulate the populace.  It is this tendency which caused many on the Roman right to fear the potential and actual demagoguery of the Roman left. 

For instance, most textbooks treat the Gracchi brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, as reformers who paid in blood for their innovations.  They were idealists raised on Greek notions.  They came from a very wealthy and well-connected family, but they both managed to upset the established order in such a way that they caused a violent reaction.  The far left reading canonizes these martyrs as dying for the dreams of the oppressed proletariat.  The reading on the far right is that they were using the plebian class to consolidate power for themselves as individuals, thereby attempting to establish themselves as “reges”, or kings, the dirtiest slander in the Roman political lexicon.  

100 years after the rise of the Gracchi and the class war that they epitomized, Rome had disintegrated. Several civil wars rent the Republic.  Finally, the youth Octavian, took all things to himself, while appearing to maintain freedom.  Rome traded freedom for security. 

Rome fought for 100 years this collapse of political freedom.  How long will Americans, in this technological age, this age of terrorism, globalization, and depression, withstand the forces that threaten freedom, both within and without?  Can we even recognize the massive movements against freedom for what they are or we as blind to these political realities as the plebians in the street begging the presidential “patronus” for new kitchens, gasoline in the tank, and for release from duties cleaning floors at McDonald’s?