412 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized BiographyAt the same time, a series of barbarian invasions by Carpians, Goths, Vandals, and Alamanni
occurred, supplemented by attacks from the Sassanid Persians in the east. The strength of the
empire was undermined by the runaway hyperinflation caused by many years of debasing the
coinage. This had started earlier under the Severan emperors who enlarged the army by one quarter
and doubled the base pay. As each new upstart barracks Emperor took power, they had to loot the
treasury and the merchant class to quickly raise the money needed to pay the expected “accession
bonus” to the troops, and this was often accomplished by clipping coins and minting new coinage
with more copper and lead. The easiest way to do so was by simply cutting the silver in coins and
adding less valuable metals. This total crisis of the empire is often thought of as marking the
transition between classical Greco-Roman civilization and late antiquity, or the beginning of the
dark ages. A relative stabilization of the empire was reached about 284 with the coming of
Diocletian, but then in such a way that guaranteed the final collapse a couple of centuries later.
The reforms of Diocletian boiled down to preserving a semblance of imperial power based on a
zero-growth totalitarian military autocracy that was doomed to an eventual collapse. One of the
main problems was that during the crisis of the third century, lawlessness, piracy, and brigandage
had expanded to such a scale that the Roman roads and the sea lanes of mare nostrum (the
Mediterranean) were no longer safe for merchants to travel, while the currency crisis made any
system of payments unstable and chaotic. Trade inside the empire had suffered a collapse from
which it would never recover. This led to tendencies towards local self-sufficiency, giving rise over
time to the manorial system, accompanied by the dominance of the feudal aristocracy who ruled
over a population of proto-serfs who had given up most of their liberty in exchange for food and
protection. In late Roman times these serfs became a half-free class of citizens known as coloni.
Even though a semblance of political unity was restored under Diocletian, dozens of important
cities in the western part of the empire had been largely destroyed, and their populations forced to
flee. Most of these cities would never recover for centuries to come. The atmosphere of general
insecurity is reflected by the city walls that had to be put up to defend important commercial
centers, including Rome itself.
ULPIAN: WHAT PLEASES THE PRINCE HAS THE FORCE OF LAW
For a sampling of the political mentality of these times, we can turn to the Roman jurist
Domitius Ulpianus (died 228), known as Ulpian. Ulpian was appointed by Septimius Severus to the
Council of State, and under Caracalla was master of the requests (magister libellorum). He was
driven out of office by Heliogabalus but brought back by Alexander, whom he served as chief
adviser. He was killed by the soldiers in 208 AD when he tried to crack down on some of the
abusive privileges enjoyed by the praetorian guard. Some of Ulpian’s sayings are simply edifying
propaganda of the hope and change variety such as his one-liner “Law is the art of the good and the
fair.” (Jus est ars boni et aequi.) Much more to the point is another saying which expresses the
spirit of every totalitarian regime down to the present day: “The sovereign is not bound by the
laws.” (Princeps legibus solutus est.) Bush believes that, and his fellow megalomaniac Obama
probably will lodge a similar claim. Another of Ulpian’s sayings captures some of the spirit of the
20th century dictators: “What pleases the prince has the force of law.” (Quo principi placuit legis
habet vigorem.)
All of these developments can be thought of as a result of the institutional and economic
processes which had been set in motion by the dynasty founded by Septimius Severus. If this phase
of Roman history can provide any insight into our own time, we may be facing a process of