BY DR. JOSE MA. EDUARDO P. DACUDAO
27 BC – Octavian was bestowed the name of Augustus (meaning ‘holy’) Caesar by the Roman Senate and he formally established the Roman Empire.
Even during Sulla’s time, the Republican nature of Rome was weakening.
First, patronage politics had become rampant. A typical Senator had followers to whom he gave dole outs to. Votes were regularly bought. Senators desired to be in the Senate not because they viewed it as an opportunity to serve the Republic, but for personal benefit. They viewed political campaigns as capital investments. Many of the Roman citizens stopped seeing elections as a way of being heard in the government but as a chance to get money and dole outs from politicians. They wanted to be bought.
(Sounds familiar?)
Second and more importantly, Rome as a Unitarian polity had expanded to encompass most of Southern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Inside Rome itself, the government was Republican in nature. Outside the city, Rome was a dictator to its provinces. Nothing of great legal importance could happen in the Roman provinces without the approval of the City of Rome.
With unlimited political powers over her provinces, Rome naturally plundered them. As years passed, Rome the City demanded more and more taxes from her hapless provinces while providing less and less services and security. The priority was the security of Rome itself, which ironically became the target of power grabbers. For any new expenditure by the Roman state, new taxes in the provinces would be levied and old taxes raised. (That is why in the Bible, tax collectors were regarded as one of the greatest of sinners in what was then Israel, then a province of Rome.) For example, new roads in the capital city had to be built. What to do? Rome would simply plunder its provinces in the guise of legal taxation.
(Sounds familiar? Who do you think pays for all of Metro Manila’s highways, rails, and other infrastructure?)
Since there was no check on the capital city’s power, Rome historically just kept on milking her provinces of taxes until the peoples of the provinces hardly had any incentive to produce. What would be the use of producing a harvest if you knew that most of it would go to taxes? Better to go to Rome itself and receive free dole outs in the Coliseum during the gladiatorial games. Thus, economic production in the provinces would drop.
Rome would respond by seeking new territory to conquer and to plunder. Once it stopped expanding, its economy had a tendency to collapse.
Rome epitomized the problems of the huge Unitarian state. Such a state is invariably governed from a center, which grows more and more powerful and richer at the expense of its peripheries. The center becomes cannibalistic. With little or no check to its power, the center tends to drain its peripheries/provinces of money, goods, and services, through various mechanisms including legal tribute and taxation systems. (To be continued)/PN
