HOUSTON BAR FOUNDATION

Tacitus: Through the Past Darkly

By WILLIAM K. KROGER

Deliberations and debates, from Austin to Washington, rage as to the present character and future direction of important civic institutions and rights. Our national government has begun arguments over the next Supreme Court justice. The Supreme Court in turn recently issued many important decisions on issues ranging from government takings to the death penalty. Closer to home, the Texas Legislature continues deliberations over the funding of our public schools, as well as salary levels for judges.
Within our profession, the State Bar of Texas, under the stalwart leadership of Kelly Frels and Eduardo Rodriguez, has urged the ABA House of Delegates to pass a resolution condemning unjustified criticisms and attacks regarding the justice system. The Houston Bar Association, through the direction of HBA President Randy Sorrels, has dedicated this year to emphasizing the importance of jury service. James Sales continues yeoman’s work in leading the Texas Access to Justice Commission in its fight to open more fully the justice system to the poor. Many more examples could be given.
We should not weigh lightly the important role that must be played by citizens, and especially lawyers, in speaking out on issues that affect our civil rights and shape our important governmental bodies. Without an active citizenry, even Great Powers can collapse into a morass of decadence, corruption, and economic and social decay. This is the great theme of Tacitus’ The Annals of Imperial Rome,1 written nineteen hundred years ago. It is a shame that Tacitus is not read much outside of select western civilization courses. The founding fathers of our country considered Tacitus to be one of the greatest moral writers of history, and with good reason. In clear prose, Tacitus documented the frightening consequences of civic changes, originally wrought by Caesar and Augustus, that transformed a Roman Republic, governed by laws and elected officials, into an Empire ruled by unscrupulous dictators.
As a result of these changes, the Roman Senate, the judicial system, and the army became completely subservient to the emperors. While this worked when the emperors had some integrity (like Augustus), it became disastrous when the emperors became incompetent (Tiberius), weak (Claudius), and horrific (Nero).
Nero was a monster. Tacitus grimly reported Nero’s many crimes. Nero killed his mother, his half-brother, his teacher (the Senator Seneca), and beheaded his first wife. When Rome burned, he offered up Christians as scapegoats and entertained the crowds by putting them in public contests with wild animals. He mocked all societal norms, at one point staging a mock wedding party and playing the bride. When his newborn baby died, he declared the child a god to be worshipped with a temple and priest.
Nero regularly used the court system and the Senate to add legitimacy to numerous executions or, as Tacitus put grimly, to “enforce suicides.” There were no heroes. Most went along, and even used the corruption of the times for personal gain. A revolt among certain elites collapsed when its leaders turned each other in; only a slave woman kept silent as her limbs were pulled apart. The few with integrity who did resist were quickly killed. Tacitus observed that “every reader about that epoch . . . can assume that the gods were thanked every time the emperor ordered a banishment or murder; and conversely, that happenings once regarded joyfully were now treated as national disasters.”
Nero eventually committed suicide. Rome carried on for several hundred years until it was finally sacked and burned. But the seeds of its destruction – its lack of respect for laws, democracy, and civil rights – were planted in these early years. Tacitus makes this clear.
We fortunately find ourselves in comparatively better times. However, much needs to be done to improve our judicial system. And so, we are blessed with lawyers like those mentioned, and countless other volunteers across the Bar, who find the time to help address these problems and speak out with intelligence, compassion, and integrity. Tacitus would say that such people are rare and special, and essential to a democracy like ours.

1. While there are many translations of Tacitus, I enjoy best the translation by Professor Michael Grant. It is easily available in paperback. Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome (trans. by Michael Grant, Penguin Classics 1971).

William K. Kroger is a partner in the law firm of Baker Botts L.L.P. He is the 2005 chair of the Houston Bar Foundation.

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