gave me the inspiration to write this thread. It might be a bit slow but here we go. This thread will be about emperor Augustus, formerly known as Octavianus. 1/
After Iulius Caesar was murdered a lot had happened in the Empire. Caesar had come close to solidifying his power with the support of the people who saw in him a brilliant strategist and a born leader. He also enjoyed a lot of support from the army because of his policies 2/
Caesar always stated that every one of his *veterani*, which is ofcourse a veteran. Was to be given a piece of land after the conquest of Gaul was over. The soldiers could live in peace and wouldn't be brought down like before because they could keep tending to their farm 3/
Here we can already see a problem which also hits us today. The big problem for farmers in Rome and the merchants who handled the markets was the latifundia. A latifundia could be seen as a mega farm in historical standards. On these farms worked slaves and impoverished farmers4/
Ofcourse the small farmers couldn't compete against the much bigger latifundia and because of the enormous quantity of food the latifundia produced, the prices could be very low. This was ofcourse a death blow to many poor farmers who only got their money from food 5/
So how did these latifundia come to exist? Now we are diving into some very dirty form of politics. Whenever there was a war, the citizens of Rome would be called upon and they had to fight. However?, when they left their farms were left unchecked most of the time.6/
The father and sons all went to war, so only the wives and daughters were left. There was a lot of physical hard work back at the farm and the women weren't able to keep the farm running without their husbands and sons because of the enormous amount of work. 7/
So they come home, after giving everything for Rome, many have died and have become disabled. The wounded veterans see the state of their farm and realize that they simply can't keep it. 8/
And in come the senators, the rich, the elite, the ancient mass corporations. "We will buy it from you" they say, "we will take great care of it." "However you do realize we can't give you a lot of money, if you ask too much there is thousands of other disabled veterans!"
And so the disabled veteran farmers were forced to sell their small companies to the senators and the elites. So how did those veterans survive? They became clientes (clients) to an elite Roman Patron. They did work for the patron, for example working the latifundia 10/
And in return they got grain with which they could bake bread and survive. In return they also had to give 1 more thing to their patron. The thing that makes us human: Their freedom to vote on whoever they wanted to. They were forced to vote for their patron every election.11/
If they didn't they could get fired or their patron senator wouldn't end up in the Senate. Both of those choices were terrible. If they got fired, they lost their source of grain, and if the senator wouldn't get chosen the senator would be poorer and that means less grain. 12/
This is also what happens a lot in our western societies nowadays. The average man with his small company gets pushed away by the mega corporations and are forced to work in one of the corporations because they have no choice.13/
So to round up this subject: There is a business in keeping people poor. As long as they're poor they are forced to work in your mega companies and if they don't then there will be a million more average Joe's to screw over.
Now this is the situation that Caesar played into. Free pieces of land after service in his army. Now people could finally be free after their "slavery".
The *Veterani* didn't get their land however. Why not? Because Caesar grew too popular, too powerful. He was stabbed by his fellow senators. And the people became angry. Now to shed the light on three curious figures.16/
The second triumvirate was formed to lead Rome to better times: Gaius Octavianus, Marcus Antonius and Marcus Aemilius Lepides. Now Gaius Octavianus had something that Marcus Antonius and Lepides didn't have. He had a name. Caesar's name.17/
Because Caesar didn't have any children he adopted his nephew to be his heir. So Octavianus could pride himself with the Caesar title. Caesar is a word that is now still used in Europe and Asia. Caesar is now used as in the German word "Kaiser" And the Russian word "Tsar"18/
Anyway, the other two men didn't see Octavianus as a problem. Marcus Antonius and Lepides both had a lot of connections and wealth, something Octavianus didn't have seen the fact that he came from the lower elite class.
While Octavianus was building a stable army and wealth in Dalmatia, at the coast of the Adriatic sea. Lepides was fighting a radically violent campaign against the parthes in modern day Iran. Marcus Antonius tried to win popularity using his relationship with Cleopatra20/
So as Jeb Bush would say: Octavianus was going slow but steady. After many campaigns in Syria the soldiers of Lepides desired to be at peace and joined the armies of Octavianus. Now Lepidus wasn't a problem anymore and with his new bigger army the only threat was Antonius.21/
Antonius made a vital mistake. He mistook his allies for friends. He gifted Cleopatra some parts of the Eastern Roman territories to Cleopatra and angers Rome with this. Cleopatra was labelled an enemy of the state and this was the chance for Octavianus.22/
Octavianus knew how to play this out. Antonius was a Roman ofcourse. But Octavianus showed the people of Rome that one who does such a thing, siding with a traitor, is a foreign enemy. At the Sea battle near Actium in the year 31B.C he destroyed the enemy fleets.23/
Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius committed suicide and Rome was whole again. Now there was great profit for Octavianus in waiting. Both his enemies destroyed themselves in their hunger for power. Which is a beautiful parallel for Trump and American politics.24/
Octavianus was hailed as a hero in Rome. When striving for his becoming of emperor, Octavianus got gifted with the title of "Augustus" which means "the great". So after long internal fighting Octavianus got the title of emperor. And now we are back in today's time.25/
Octavianus knew that there was more than physical wars. There are also mental and cultural wars. This is what Trump also realizes. Octavianus spent a lot of time on beautiful structures in Rome like the Ara Pacis, the peace altar in Rome.
Also the aquaducts, temples and bringing back the social problems in Rome, like promoting the traditional family to stop the massive influence of social problems. So to form a stable nation people first needed their faith back in Rome.
This is exactly what Trump is doing. Restoring faith in the military, promoting traditional family values, western culture and Christian religion. People get their faith back in America because America is uniting under a common cause again. Freedom and liberty for all. 28/
Because remember. Great empires are never destroyed from the outside. The destruction always comes from within. That is why all of these leftist groups are freaking out. They see that finally people are fighting back against their cultural takeover. 29/
So both Trump and Octavianus/Augustus were both very smart. People. They waited their turn and when they saw the moment was right, they came to power and started their internal changes. Trump is repairing America from the inside. Just like Augustus did.30/
This is the only way for western society to succeed again. Fighting back against harmful cultural changes from within, no fighting useless wars and bringing back faith in their country. Augustus was hated a lot in his early years because they did not like him.31/
Only now we see that Augustus actually saved the Roman empire from an internal collapse. In a few hundred years people will see Trump as the champion of the clientes. Because that is what he is. A hero for the common people. Destroying the latifundia and corrupt senators.32/
Well that's it folks. Credits to @Imperator_Rex3 for the subject and thanks to @ThomasWictor thomas for showing me how to make threads. Hope you all enjoyed it. And again thank you for the many followers. I truly see you all as friends.
