If I were to briefly sum up the current mood of Australians, it would be this:

“In a phrase, these people are absolutely tired of their lives.”

This is how Cicero described the people of Cilicia when he assumed governorship of the province in 51 BC, and it mirrors with great precision today’s political landscape as Australians, indeed, most western nations, feel the pressure and pain at experiencing their nation’s decline.

On the back of protests and marches occurring regularly in the United Kingdom, Australians are gearing up to march on August 31 against a myriad of issues including unfettered immigration, off the charts cost of housing, and overall a general decline in living standards. Many people have been pushed to the brink, feeling that their voices are no longer heard by politicians.

When Cicero entered Cilicia, he was stunned at the degradation of the province. He writes to his good friend, Atticus:

“I must tell you then that on 31 July I made my eagerly awaited entry into this forlorn and, without exaggeration, permanently ruined province.”

The people weren’t marching, but their utter demoralisation was on full display. Cicero’s predecessor, Appius, was cruel and unrelenting in his management of the province with Cicero writing that:

“I don’t scratch Appius’ sores, but they show and can’t be hidden.

“I have heard nothing but inability to pay the poll taxes imposed, universal sales of taxes, groans and moans from the communities, appalling excesses as of some savage beast rather than a human being.”

Due to Appian’s demands upon the provincials, they were forced to sell their prospective tax revenues to tax farmers for available cash.

Do I sense a stench from 51 BC wafting through to 2025 AD? The stench of government overreach and being blindsided by highway robbery? As I write, the sitting Labor government of Australia is not only doing all it can to destroy the ambitions of those who seek to better their lives through creating businesses and employing others; to excitedly plan for their futures; or to plan carefully for their retirements, but the idea is now being floated to tax the family home in order to raise more revenue and distribute to everyone else.

Tax! Tax! Tax!

The ghost of Appius in the reincarnation of Jim Chalmers is here to haunt us!

I ponder a lot about what our nation would be like if we had men and women who would govern in a righteous manner rather than a self-seeking one. Too much to ask, many would say. But they do appear now and then.

Cicero was a reluctant governor, preferring his more harmonious life in Rome, taking part in senatorial debates and affairs. He made no secret of this, which I see as being to his credit. Transparency is key, after all, to a well-run and ordered society. When he assumed the governorship, he did so through austerity on the part of himself and his staff, telling Atticus that, “so far as financial strictness goes, that not a penny piece is spent on anyone.” He also credited his Legates, Tribunes and Prefects, albeit he saw it as them boosting his own credit, but hey, that’s Cicero!

However, his commitment to justice was above reproach. He set about to relieve the insufferable conditions which the people had been forced to endure under Appius’ reign. When Appius saw him coming, the former left the province with no attempt at handover, something that Cicero viewed as discourteous, but of which he had no time to indulge in.

“I have enough on my hands in healing the hurts indicted on the province. This I try to do with as little reflexion on him as possible.”

Imagine for one moment a political leader in Australia standing tall and speaking this directly and displaying interest in the people’s needs and liberties. Instead, we see a constant barrage of blaming the other side in a continuous game of ping pong of changing parties and leadership.

Remembering that our own people are “absolutely tired of their lives,” must be the basis of ensuring that the march goes smoothly and without incident. Already government ministers are declaring the event as being un-Australian. My response to that is to look at it through a Ciceronian lens and pay it no heed other than to stand strongly together and united in courtesy and commitment to the message and against such indifference from politicians.

Cicero viewed indifference to public opinion as exhibiting a “total lack of principle.”

I agree. For without principles in politics and our civic lives, there is no foundation upon which to govern legitimately.