Digna Vox in a Lawless World: Lessons from a Falling Empire

Learning from the Ancient Roman Empire

Digna vox maiestate regnantis legibus alligatum se principem profiteri: adeo de auctoritate iuris nostra pendet auctoritas. Et re vera maius imperio est submittere legibus principatum. et oraculo praesentis edicti quod nobis licere non patimur indicamus.

It is a statement worthy of the majesty of a reigning prince for him to profess to be subject to the laws; for our authority is dependent upon that of the law. And, indeed, it is the greatest attribute of imperial power for the sovereign to be subject to the laws. By this present edict we forbid others to do what we do not permit ourselves.

Imperatores Theodosius, Valentinianus - 429 AD

In a previous post, I said that the term that describes how we feel nowadays is “powerless.” Now, I would add “stunned.” What’s going on, exactly? Who won, and who lost in the recent confrontation between the US/Israel and Iran? What is going on in Ukraine? What’s happening in Gaza? Why this global disaster?

The answers you can read in the media are egregious examples of the concept that ‘those who know, don’t speak, and those who speak, don’t know.” What we can say for sure is that our leaders are claiming the right of making war against anyone, anywhere, anytime, using any means they deem necessary. Such a thing called the “international law” does not exist anymore, assuming that it ever existed.

But for everything that exists, there are reasons for it to exists and, as usual, the history of the Roman Empire gives us a good view of the trajectory of a social system moving toward rapid ruin called the “Seneca Cliff.” The late stages of the Roman Empire saw the rise of powerful “God-Emperors,” larger-than-life figures who claimed absolute power over the lives of their subjects.

There was a reason why the Roman Empire evolved in this direction: a strong central power is a necessity for all declining societies. If the Emperor has absolute power, he has an interest in keeping the warlords at bay and focusing all the available resources on keeping the Empire together.

The problem is that not everybody agrees that a certain person is — or should be — the emperor. That may lead to even more squabbles, unless some strong reason can be found that the current Emperor is there for good reasons. The simplest idea is that he is a God or, at least, he is favored by the Gods. Hence, the terms “Godking” or “God-Emperor”

The Romans toyed with this idea already with Augustus (27 BC-19 AD); the idea grew with Gaius (better known as Caligula) (37-41 AD), who was said to be mad enough to believe that he really was a God — although it is more likely that he was consciously playing that role. But things entered high gear during the third century AD, when a combination of factors made the situation dramatic. The Roman mine production of precious metals collapsed, the economy collapsed, too, and the once powerful Roman military system showed ominous signs of decadence. The political system became little more than a continuous struggle among oligarchs and warlords.

The result was an attempt to forcefully promote the divine nature of the Emperor. Two Emperors, Decius (249 – 251) and Valerian (253 – 260), tried to strong-arm the Romans into making public sacrifices to the emperor, with death punishment for those who didn’t comply.

It was a disaster. The Christians refused, with some of their leaders preferring martyrdom to compliance. Even worse, both Decius and Valerian suffered disastrous defeats in battle. Decius was killed on the field, Valerian was humiliated by the Persian Emperor Shapur 1st and said to have been forced to become a stool for him when he climbed on his horse. These events badly punctured the idea of the divine nature of emperors.

Emperor Constantine (306- 337 AD) converted to Christianity, but still loved to present himself as a sun god. But, slowly, with the ongoing decline, it became clear that an all-powerful God Emperor was a burden for the state and that he needed to be controlled in some way. The culminating point was in 429 AD, when Empress Galla Placidia enacted the “Digna Vox” edict (actually in the name of her son, Valentinian III, but he was only 10 years old at that time). The edict explicitly said that the Emperor had to obey the laws just as everybody else.

The Digna Vox was the culmination of a political project that involved reining in the absolute power of Emperors, using Christianity as the backbone of the legal system. The idea was not unlike the later Islamic “Sharia,” although the Digna Vox enacted it in legal rather than religious terms. It worked because, afterward, there was no more need for an Emperor in the Western Roman Empire, which moved into a more sustainable structure that we call today the “Middle Ages.”

It is fascinating how closely we are following the path of the old Roman Empire toward its dissolution. We are going much faster along the way to the bottom of the Seneca Cliff, but we are going there anyway. The recent events in the Middle East show that we are in the “God Emperor” phase that the Roman Empire experienced during the 2nd-4th century AD.

Donald Trump theoretically derives his power from the popular vote, but that’s rapidly becoming an irrelevant factor in Western politics. Now, as always in history, emperors can rule only on the basis of their military prestige. They need to demonstrate the favor of the Gods by being winners— see how George W. Bush presented himself as a military pilot after the invasion of Iraq. Trump is a skilled manipulator, and he is presenting the strikes on Iran as a personal victory. Whether the strikes were actually as effective as claimed is not so important. Trump seems to be smart enough that he won’t engage in wars that he can’t claim to have won.

So, what are we going to see in the future? Most likely, on the wave of Trump’s apparent success, we are going to see an effort to move further onward into the “God Emperor” stage, giving more and more power to the big man at the top. Strictly speaking, by ordering the strikes on Iran, Trump was committing a crime in terms of the current US and international laws. But who has the power to punish him for that? AOC? Sure, then, why not by Santa Claus? Evidently, in our situation, power justifies itself.

After Trump, and even during the rest of Trump’s term, the future hinges on military and political developments. New military technologies are turning the whole military apparatus of the Western Empire into little more than scrap metal. Then, the rise of the BRICs is a political challenge to Western hegemony. It is true that we can say that the BRICs were defeated, in the sense that they were unable to make a united stand against the West. But that may change in the future. It is well known that people learn from defeat much more than from victories, especially those victories that are more propaganda than reality. Finally, AIs are hovering over the whole mess, promising to become a crucial factor in determining who rules the planet.

So, it is possible that, in the near future, a modern equivalent of King Shapur I of Persia could inflict such a humiliating defeat on the Western Godking that the idea of a divine emperor will fade away forever, replaced by an equivalent of the “Digna Vox” that would state that no single person can decide to start a war on his whim alone.

Then, what could replace it? Right now, we don’t seem to have anything that can counteract the raw power of our rulers. Environmentalism has been a nearly complete failure, just as has the reliance on international treaties and agreements. But something new could arise. Think that, at the height of the Roman Empire, nobody could imagine that the mighty Empire would one day be ruled by a sect of lunatics who believed that God was the son of a carpenter. But so moves history, and what’s unthinkable today, is the obvious truth tomorrow. Something good might come out all of a sudden out of some remote place in ways and terms that, today, we can’t even imagine, just as long ago Christianity came out of a remote and unimportant place called “Nazareth.”

And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. John 1:46