Any discussion about the Roman Empire — even under the "Christian" rule of Constantine — must include corruption, depravity, cruelty, and staggering abuses of human rights.
Father Jerry Fogerty, a Jesuit priest and professor of religious history at the University of Virginia, explained to our class that the difference between Roman Law and our Constitutional Law was our Constitution is based on God-given rights. These are rights that everyone has, even children, prisoners, and non-citizens. They are "self-evident" laws that are based on natural laws of civilized people.
Roman Law granted rights only to citizens. It's how Paul the Apostle got out of a sticky legal situation in the Book of Acts in the Bible. He "appealed to Caesar," meaning that he could claim rights as a citizen of Rome. Local law was used to persecute him, but he had an escape — albeit temporary — that allowed him to continue his ministry without the local officials mistreating him.
Right wing conservatives invoking the doctrine of Red Caesar mean to supplant the Constitution with a modern version of Roman autocracy. Their version of America would make the facist excesses of Nazi Germany and Russia look like a cake walk! With modern surveillance technology and nuclear weapons, it would resemble Palpatine's Empire more than any contemporary democracy we know today.
The U.S. would have more in common with Iran, North Korea, Russia, and the rogue dictatorships of Africa than our current allies like the U.K., France, Norway, Ukraine, and India.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/01/red-caesar-authoritarianism-republicans-extreme-right
