The above cartoon was floating around the internet during the California wildfires of early 2025. Those fires are a tragedy, as is any loss of human life and natural disasters. Having gone through Australia’s “Black Summer” in early 2020, I feel for all my friends in California and hope they are OK.

That said, the cartoon above is emblematic of a common sentiment these days, railing against late-stage capitalism. “Late-stage” is never a pretty epithet, just like “late-stage cancer”. This, however, is not a political blog and I’m not about to turn this post into one. Instead, let’s bring up the bit of ancient history which the above cartoon (perhaps unknowingly) so perfectly alludes to.

Marcus Licinius Crassus is best known for being the richest man in Rome during his lifetime (1st century BCE). He formed the first triumvirate with Pompey and Caesar, and is both a driving force and symbolic of the rise of oligarchy that led to the collapse of the Roman Republic.

Then, like now, one doesn’t just become the richest man around by being nice and dealing fairly. Crassus, by all accounts, was a nasty piece of work. (And for those idolising Caesar: note he wasn’t any better, he just had better historians to write him up). During the Spartacus slave revolt, for example, Crassus led a legion against the rebel army. When his soldiers panicked and fled, he revived the archaic practice of decimation — one in ten soldiers, selected by random lots, was beaten to death by his comrades. What way to inspire morale with the survivors, when all you care about is results at any cost.

Crassus made his debut by backing Sulla, another ruthlessly ambitious dictator with the dubious honour of being the first Roman to march against his own city. Crassus’ family lost their fortune in the Marian proscriptions (declaring a person free to kill and confiscate their possessions) in the preceding years, so Crassus under Sulla rebuilt his wealth by executing proscriptions on Marius’ supporters. Fate is fickle.

That was just the start, and he wasn’t about to stop. Marcus Crassus was hungry for wealth and power, and would let nothing stand in his creative ways top acquire it. Although some of his fortune was was increased in traditional ways (anything from silver mines to slave trade), his next big leg up was in real estate deals of a particularly nasty kind. The kind that made me think about the cartoon above.

Rome, being densely populated, was a fire-hazard. Most people lived in high-rise apartment buildings (insulae), but even the rich had their mansions crammed together within the city boundary. We tend to think of Rome as marble edifices, but wood was the most common building material, certainly in Republican times. Cooking was done on open fires, the only way to have light at night was flame, and the Mediterranean is known for its lengthy dry summers. House fires were an almost a daily occurrence around Rome at the time. One little accident or even a stiff breeze, and whole neighbourhoods could go up in flames.

The Roman Republic didn’t have dedicated fire-fighters. It was Augusts who established the vigiles some decades later, with the primary job of public-service fire-fighting.

Enter Crassus. He owned many slaves, among whom he particularly favoured acquiring architects, builders, and fire-fighters. He bought burnt-out properties for the land value, and built new buildings. That wasn’t fast enough, though, so when a fire started he’d show up with a contingent of fire-fighters and stand idly by. When the owner or their neighbours would get desperate, he’d offer to buy their property at a fraction of its worth (but still somewhat better than just cinders), and only once the owners agreed to sell would he send his private fire-fighting force to fight the flames to rescue what they can.

(Side note: Colleen McCollough paints this scene particularly vividly in her Masters of Rome series, which I highly recommend for those interested in the period and the forces that shaped the transition from Republic to Empire).

Anyone wanting to draw conclusions between these ancient events and what happens in California with the Palisades fires, from private fire-fighting forces for the rich and famous to the fate of the whole republic when faced with unchecked capitalism and oligarchy, does so at their discretion. Just like the cartoonist above did.

What was the end of Crassus? In search of further personal glory (and gold), he sought to emulate Pompey and Caesar with military achievements. He mounted an expedition against the Parthian empire, and met their forces at Carrhae in modern day south-eastern Turkey. His legions were defeated by a numerically smaller Parthian force, and he eventually died in a post-battle scuffle. The Parthians, never ones to shy away from a cruel joke, poured molten gold down his throat as a symbol for his undying thirst for wealth and power.

---

Sorry. As I write this the Palisades fire is still raging, and the human drama is unfolding. Add that late-stage capitalism we see all around us, and it’s a depressing sight. I haven’t brought Crassus, Caesar, or Pompey to the world of Egretia, although In Victrix touches on the Milo/Pulcher rivalry that happened as both of them served those factions. I chose to have vigiles in Egretia much earlier for the increased social stability, and perhaps dampen the rise of self-serving oligarchs and the maintenance of republican spirit. The advantage of historical-fantasy is that I can ask “what if”, and paint a better version than reality actually was.

When I sat to write the novels, one of my goals was to focus on the daily lives of the little people, not the big events. There has been enough ink spilled in adoration of those notables, and not enough about the latter. I wanted the background for Felix to be Rome as the Romans saw it in daily lives. My readers, including three separate holders of History PhDs, have said I nailed it. If only I could nail teaching others the lessons of history just as easily, but it seems that one way or another, one can’t escape the cycles of history.

Anyway. If you wish to delve more into that other side of Rome, the one where people lived in before capitalistic oligarchs nearly destroyed it entirely, check out the free short stories and novels. Or, if you’d like something with a lighter taste, check out Jack’s stories about a modern day police-procedural (where the paranormal perpetrator gets their comeuppance) on the mailing-list archives.

---

BONUS LESSON!

Because clearly there are more lessons history can teach us — the hard way, it seems, as it’s repeating with alarming similarity. Apparently having a two-week gap between writing and publishing a post just leads to more history slapping you in the face.

During the Lupercalia (a fertility festival held mid February) of 44 BCE, Marc Anthony notoriously offered a ‘crown’ to Caesar.

Now, Caesar was entitled to wear the laurel wreath, the corona civica, for life in recognition of military achievements in his youth. What Anthony offered was a diadem, a type of headband, that was used as a symbol of kings in the ancient world.

According to the sources (Cicero and later historians like Plutarch and Suetonius) when Marc Anthony offered it the gesture was met with lacklustre response from the crowds, and Caesar refused. Anthony tried again, Caesar refused again, and the crowds cheered at the refusal.

You can read more about this incident in this excellent article on The Conversation, by Joanna Kenty, a historian and classicist. This isn’t quite the point I want to make here.

During Trump’s inauguration, Elon Musk performed a Nazi salute.

Apologists have been making offering three counter explanations: that it’s a ‘Roman salute,’ that it’s an ‘awkward gesture’ because he’s autistic, and that other politicians have done it.

The Roman salute thing is utter nonsense. Similar to the gladiatorial ‘thumbs down’, there are no contemporary descriptions in either text or art of any Roman salute, military or civilian. The gesture starts to appear in romantic artworks of the 18th century, and has very clearly been appropriated by fascist regimes during the early 20th century. Alison Morton (fellow writer of Roman-inspired fiction) does an excellent job of deconstructing that silly argument on her blog. There is no way that a modern, educated, western person would mistake that gesture.

Regarding the second explanation, that of autism, again see above re educated western people. There is just no way for people to claim that Musk is a genius with humanity’s interests in mind, while at the same time implying he’s been living in a cave and unable to understand fellow humans. Pick one.

As for other politicians, that is patently untrue when you watch the videos of them raising their hands to wave. The only kind of politicians in the past hundred years who made that particular gesture, were Nazis.

But what I’d like to draw your attention to, is the comment by made Cicero to Anthony:

Where did you get the crown? You didn’t just find it lying there, you brought it from home, a premeditated and carefully planned crime.

The implication is that the whole thing was planned and staged. Caesar, who was already a dictator for life at the time, wanted to gauge the public reception and, if the people weren’t welcoming, use his refusal to diffuse some of the grumbling about the fine distinction between “dictator for life” and “king.”

Apologists say that he didn’t need to do it as he already had all the power, and that it was purely Marc Anthony being highly emotional after running naked through the streets of Rome as part of the Lupercalia.

I, however, am with Cicero on that one. One does not simply walk (naked) to the Lupercalia carrying a crown.

Why is that relevant? Because the Trump and the US right have been implementing the fascist playbook, the one from the 1930’s which is based on the one from the 1st century BCE. This is how individuals grow in power and assume permanent power  over the state, which they have been adapting and using those strategies in the current environment.

My guess would be that that gesture was planned just as much, in order to signal their followers (“dog whistling”) and test the reception of how far and fast can they go with the fascist agenda. You can sprinkle as much plausible deniability on it as you wish, but as a student of history I can assure you that the rise of oligarchs and fascism go together, and that history sure is rhyming just now.

Caesar was assassinated exactly a month after these events, and Augustus has learned his lesson and was careful to stay away from symbols while maintaining real power as an oligarch. In the 20th century, we all know where UK and US plausible deniability in the face of the rise of Hitler and Mussolini led the world. This time it might be tech billionaires more than real-estate moguls like Crassus, and the streets might be virtual on social media, but there is no denying the similarity.

---

Ooof. Again with history and fiction colliding with current events. I know mine is but a small voice, and this blog won’t really affect anyone or change their minds, won’t change the rise of fascism and modern antisemitism (both outright like Musk’s comments, but also “left-wing antisemitism” that denies Israel’s right to defend it’s citizens; there’s a fine line between criticising the Israeli government to telling it to sit back and do nothing, which is simply outsourcing killing Jews).

I also know, from history, that this won’t be a process of years but of decades, and has in fact been going on since the 1960’s and 70’s. While it is accelerating, we still have some interesting times ahead of us as we watch the decline and fall of the current empires. I merely do what I can, speak out about the injustice when I see it, and hope we’ll survive the process and whatever follows.

Seems that even writing escapist fantasy isn’t quite enough, but if you do need a break then just buy my books. I’m too tired for sophisticated book marketing, but I know if you do you’ll be cheering us both up.