Blackwater: The New
Praetorian Guard
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De Facto
Praetorian Guard for
Theocon
Establishment
Blackwater has become
a de facto Praetorian Guard
for the theocon establishment. Its
leadership is rabid Roman Catholic,
and enthusiastically supports the
Evangelical/Catholic alliance.
Blackwater is tied incredibly closely
to the highest levels of government
– the White House and Congress.
Blackwater is the new Praetorian
Guard.
In Ancient
Rome, the Praetorian
Guard
Controlled the Empire
In ancient
Rome, the Praetorian Guard controlled
the empire. Sixteen thousand
men in the Praetorian Guard
controlled the known world. Blackwater’s
Praetorian Guard has 25,000 men to
control the world. Edward
Gibbon, author of The Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire writes
of the Roman Praetorian Guard.
“…an hundred
thousand well-disciplined soldiers
will command, with despotic sway, ten
millions of subjects; and a body of
ten or fifteen thousand guards will
strike terror into most numerous
populace that ever crowded the
streets of an immense capital.
Praetorian
Bands Used to Protect
Sovereign, Awe
the Senate, Crush
First Motions
of Rebellion
“The
Praetorian bands, whose licentious
fury was the first symptom and cause
of the decline of the Roman empire, scarcely
amounted to the last mentioned
number. [They were originally
nine or ten thousand men(for
Tactius and Dion are not agreed upon
the subject), divided into as many
cohorts. Vitellius increased them to sixteen
thousand, ands as far as we
can learn from inscriptions; they
never afterwards sank much below that
number. [See Lipsisus de magnitudine
Romana, i. 4.] They derived
their institution from Augustus. That
crafty tyrant, sensible that laws
might colour, but that arms
alone could maintain, his usurped
dominion,had
gradually formed his powerful body of
guards in constant
readiness to protect his person,
to awe the
senate, and
either to prevent
or to crush the first motions of
rebellion.
He distinguished these
favored troops by a double
pay, and superior
privileges, but, as their formidable
aspect would at once have alarmed and
irritated the Roman people, three
cohorts only were stationed in the
capital; whilst the remainder was
dispersed in the adjacent towns of
Italy. But after fifty years of peace
and servitude, Tiberius
ventured on a decisive measure, which
forever riveted
the fetters of his country.
Under the pretences of relieving
Italy from the heavy burden of
military quarters, and of introducing
a stricter discipline among the
guards, he assembled them at
Rome, in a permanent camp, which
was fortified with skillful
care, and placed on a commanding
situation.
The Person of
the Sovereign,
Authority of
the Senate, Public
Treasure,
& Seat of Empire, All
In the Hands
of Praetorian Guard
“Such formable
servants are always necessary, but
often fatal to the throne of
despotism. By thus introducing the
Praetorian guards as it were, into
the palace and the senate, the
emperors taught them to perceive
their own strength, and the weakness
of the civil government; to view the
vices of their masters with familiar
contempt, and to lay aside that
reverential awe, which distance only,
and mystery, can preserve, towards an
imaginary power. In the luxurious
idleness of an opulent city, their
pride was nourished by the sense of
their irresistible weight; nor was it
possible to conceal from them, that the
person of the sovereign, the
authority of the senate, the public
treasure, and the seat of empire,
were all in their
hands.”
–Edward Gibbon, The Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol.
1, chap. V. pp. 127,128.
50,000
Praetorians Superior in
Arms to Any
Force Brought
Against Them
The Praetorians
eventually murdered the emperor and
sold the empire. Severus was declared
Emperor, June 2, 193 A.D. He
dissolved the Praetorians, then the
Praetorians were “soon restored
on a new model by Severus, and
increased to four times the ancient
number.” Severus established
that now the ranks of the Praetorians
would be filled “from all the
legions of the frontiers, the
soldiers most distinguished for
strength, valour, and fidelity.”
(Gibbon, vol. 1, ch. 5, 146), The
Praetorians now numbered “fifty
thousand men, superior
in arms and appointments to any force
that could be brought into the field
against them, would for ever crush
the hopes of rebellion,
and secure the empire to himself and
his posterity.” –Gibbon,
vol. 1, ch. 5, p. 146.
In Iraq Three
Times The Number
of
Mercenaries as Ancient
Praetorian
Guard
In Iraq, there are
almost three times the number of
mercenaries soldiers as there were in
the Roman Praetorian Guard at the
height of its power
Severus
Assumes Legislative as
Well as
Executive Power
“Severus, the new
emperor, “assumed the conduct
and style of a sovereign and a
conqueror, and exercised, without
disguise, the whole
legislative as well as the executive
power.
Slaves in the
Senate Descanted on
The Inevitable
Mischiefs of
Freedom; the
Emperor is Freed
From
Restraints of Civil Law
“The
victory over the senate was easy and
inglorious. Every eye and every
passion were directed to the supreme
magistrate, who possessed the arms
and treasure of the state…The
fine theory of a republic insensibly
vanished, and made way for more
natural and substantial feelings of
monarchy. As the freedom
and honours of Rome were successively
communicated to the provinces, in
which the old government had been
either unknown, or was, remembered
with abhorrence, the
tradition of republican maxims was
generally obliterated….the
senate filled with polished and
eloquent slaves…who justified
personal flattery by speculative
principles of servitude. These new
advocates of prerogative were heard
with pleasure by the court, and with
patience by the people, when they
inculcatedthe duty
of passive obedience,
and descanted on the inevitable
mischief’s of freedom.The
lawyers and the historians concurred
in teaching, that the Imperial
authority was held, not by the
delegated commission, but by the
irrevocable resignation of the
senate; that the
emperor was freed from the restraint
of civil laws, could command by his
arbitrary will the lives and fortunes
of his subjects,
and might dispose of the empire as of
his private patrimony…
“The
contemporaries of Severus, in the
enjoyment of the peace and glory of
his reign, forgave the cruelties by
which it had been introduced.
Posterity, who experienced the fatal
effects of his maxims and example,
justly considered him as the
principal author of the decline of
the Roman Empire.” –Gibbon,
op. cit., 147,148.
