Jul 20, 2008 20:00
Here's a treat for connoisseurs of historical recurrence. The most powerful nation on Earth is going through a rough patch, fiercely unpopular abroad. Its armies are having trouble suppressing an insurgency on the banks of the Tigris, and the ruling oligarchy – in hock to vested interests and oil fortunes – doesn't know what to do about it. But this is AD117, not 2008, and the oil is extra virgin not black crude. Trajan is seriously ill and the empire is in crisis. Fortunately, a new incumbency is on the horizon, headed by a man who plans to pull the legions out of Mesopotamia. And, as it happens, he's the scion of an oil family, too: Publius Aelius Hadrianus, Trajan's named successor and, according to Dan Snow, in Hadrian, "one of the greatest Roman emperors of all time". The parallels between then and now will only go so far, of course. Hadrian's withdrawal from Mesopotamia caused some mutterings in Rome, so he quelled domestic uncertainty by declaring an amnesty on 900 million sesterces in back tax as well as doling out six gold coins to every citizen, a fiscal programme that I don't suppose will be available to the next president of the United States.
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