The run-up to the Brexit referendum could be seen to display some similarities to oratorical campaigns in ancient Rome, especially during the first century BCE, as discussed in a blog in 2016. Ten years later one may ask whether a comparison with political rhetoric or political features in the Roman Republic is still instructive.
Naturally, ‘Brexit’ is no longer as prominent in public political statements as it was ten years ago, so there is less material for comparison. However, with the longer-term impact of the Brexit referendum ever more evident, descriptions of (especially economic) connections between countries in Roman times do come to mind.
A pertinent example might be the relationship between the city of Rome and Sicily in the Republican period. While Sicily was Rome’s first colony (since the conclusion of the First Punic War) and thus the relationship between Sicily and Rome is not directly comparable to connections between modern European countries, Sicily likewise soon developed close economic interactions with Rome. Sicily was even called by some Romans the ‘storehouse of our state, the wet-nurse of the Roman people’ (Cic. Verr. 2.2.5: cellam penariam rei publicae nostrae, nutricem plebis Romanae), as it provided a large amount of grain, a staple commodity, for the Roman population. Hence any measures affecting the relations between the two places would have a major impact on food supply and economic status, just as any changes to trade conditions in modern Europe. Thus, in the Roman case, when the notorious governor C. Verres was in charge of Sicily in the 70s BCE and embezzled and diverted a lot of money and produce for his own use, so that the supply to Rome was reduced, Cicero emphasizes in the trial against Verres that followed, that Verres’ activities are not only deplorable acts of a criminal, unworthy of a Roman official, but that they affect the lifeline of Rome. Here, the situation in ancient Rome and Roman oratory serve to highlight the importance of close trade links between geographically adjacent countries for a functioning supply system and illustrate the risk seen in loosening them.
Obviously, Brexit has affected links between the UK and the European continent with regard to the economy, travelling, cultural exchanges and many other fields. People are getting used to the ‘new’ reality, but the break with a naturally developed ecosystem will continue to be felt just as something similar would have been in Roman times.
Gesine Manuwald is Professor of Latin in the Department of Greek and Latin
at UCL.
Note: The views expressed in this post are those of the authors, and not of the UCL European Institute, nor of UCL.
