Ancient Rome/Deep state

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Group.png Ancient Rome/Deep state
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HeadquartersAncient Rome
The Ancient Roman Deep State.

See also the Italian Deep state

The Ancient Roman Deep State used the Pretorian Guard.[1]

History

192 and 193

“Commodus, like a number of other late Roman emperors and like Donald Trump was incompetent and consumed by his own vanity. He commissioned innumerable statues of himself as Hercules and had little interest in governance. He used his position as head of state to make himself the star of his own ongoing public show. He fought, victoriously, as a gladiator in the arena in fixed bouts. Power for Commodus, as it is for Trump, was primarily about catering to his bottomless narcissism, hedonism and lust for wealth. He sold public offices to the ancient equivalents of Betsy DeVos and Steve Mnuchin. He orchestrated a vast kleptocracy.”
Chris Hedges (2017)  [1]

In 192, the Ancient Roman deep state had Commodus strangled in his bath in a vain effort to halt the growing chaos and sudden decline of the Roman Empire. He was replaced by Pertinox, who tried to reign in the power of the Pretorian Guard, so they had him assassinated and auctioned off the emperorship off to the highest bidder, who was later also assassinated. The Roman Empire had 5 emperors in 193.[1]

Policy

Juvenal, a Roman poet of the late first and early second century AD coined the phrase "Bread and circuses" (panem et circenses) as a metonymic phrase to describe the distractions offered by the Ancient Roman government.


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