The lead-up to the crossing of the Rubicon

KIM SEUNG-JUNG
The author is a professor of archaeology at the University of Toronto.

After former U.S. President Donald Trump was found guilty for the hush money scandal on May 30, the gap between Trump and Biden’s ratings is narrowing. According to a New York Times report, the difference was reduced to 1 percent from 3 percent before the jury verdict. But it is hard to predict how things will develop until the Nov. 5 presidential election. Moreover, there are rumors on social media that the verdict was a political conspiracy by the Democratic Party to bring down the Republican candidate. And it could backfire if the development makes Trump a martyr.

There are countless examples in human history of bringing down a political enemy by selectively applying laws, but it is hard to find another case as full of political conspiracies as ancient Rome. Especially, the middle of the first century BC, when Rome was transforming from a republic into an empire, was filled with a series of interesting events that no political thriller or action movie could match.

Considering the current situation of the United States, the story of Catiline, the predecessor of Julius Caesar, is especially intriguing. In 73 BC, he allegedly committed adultery with a Vestal Virgin, and a few years later, he became a praetor. Since then, he made several failed attempts at the consulship. Catiline united aristocrats who were not happy with the Senate and built political influence among the poor public, making a plan to overthrow the republic with an armed rebellion. But after Cicero, who was the consul at the time, gave the famous “Catilinarian orations” at the Senate, Catiline left Rome. In the following year, he was killed by the republic’s forces. Cicero was also sent to exile, as he had executed five conspirators who remained in Rome, without trial.

The Catilinarian conspiracy ended in failure, but it gave a way for Julius Caesar to cross the Rubicon and become a dictator some 10 years later. And this led the Roman Empire to take an irreversible path farther away from the republic.