ROME AND BRITAIN

Hokitika Guardian, 31 December 1927, Page 4

ROME AND BRITAIN

This "Sulla Fur Fortunate,” is a, fascinating hook, says an exchange, for the anti or gives ns a picture of Home as vivid as a new arrival might give i:f London, and he makes t lie politics of the Imperial City live, and shows us the play of parties and the ii’flueue.’ exercised lit great men. Tiiose of us. the great majority, who cannot road the classics in the original. will gather a clearer idea of rlieir attractions than can commonly he obtained fr.:■ the works of scholars. Air Baker, the author, has endeavoured to do justice to the Gracchi, to Marius, and to Julius Caesar, hut he has dom> so as a matter of conscience, and not from any sympathy with these dead bonnes. Sulla is the man who appeals to him, and certainly Sulla

lias a definite fascination, though it may he hard to describe. He was christened “Hie Fortunate” during his lifetime, and his record contains many instances of what can only bo described as luck. Men, however, do “nor reach such a commanding position a.s he occupied without innate qualities, and one at least of these we can recognise in the readiness with which he took risks and seized opportunities, while his apparent freedom from ambition was another quality which . helped to smooth his path. He re- | semhled the late Duke of Devonshire in his confidence and willingness to j damn the consequences. But nl- I though, we may accept the author’s i estimate of Sulla, it is more difficult | to accept the reason he gives for writ- / ing his life at the present time. Air Baker looks on history as a cycle, in which monarchy, aristocracy, oli-

garchy. and democracy follow each other in due sequence lie looks on democracy as having anything hut a firm scat, and points to Ttaly, to Spain and Russia as examnles of dictatorship which should give a fresh interest to tiic life of Sulla. whose political work was done as a Dictator. Mr Baker may he right; it is never safe to prophesy, but certainly there is little indication of any likelihood of a dictatorship in the politics of Western Europe, of the United States, or of the British Dominions. The times of which Ah' Baker writes are full of lessons for us, but we can scarcely agree with the particular one which he has selected. Rome was ruined by the Punic wars, for all sources of authority in the State had

been weakened or destroyed. The fear of invasion from Gaul led Marius L» form a professional army, an example copied by Sulla and others. In the absence of any competition, the army was supremo within the State. This was of itself enough to occupy the best brains Borne, but at the time when this urgent problem demanded settlement arose, for Rome was of the City a inl^fl^^^Hfc^on. -r i t nece;- * ", . ,i‘ : r /. V-^'^Bedents ~.s'i'• : /> t ~.s'i '• : /> * '’■> ’ time * vA’y 'iLT V"’ 7f\or; F; “Xg lßc.

same difficulties that confronted Sulla, and Caesar. The island kingdom' has become a world State. Distances are immensely greater, but the means of transport and of communication have proportionately increased. Shall we discover statesmen who can wekl together the Empire, or shall we drift apart in mere ineffectiveness? Those are some of the thoughts which are stirred by Air Baker’s moving pages. There is no tendency which can he perceived towards any surrender of power to a Dictator; there is, however, something of the same difficulty that troubled Imperial Rome. There are plenty of active, busy, bustling men of affairs ; there is a dearth of men of vision and foresight. Ihe statesman of to-day is buried under a. mountain of detail, and lacks the opportunity of protracted campaigns in Gaul or Syria, with their long leisure of winter quarters. To lead of the doings of these men fills us with a certain involuntary admiration, but a stronger feeling is that of thankfulness that our lot is cast in a world which has known two thousand years of Christianity, and six or -seven hundred years of civilisation.