On Courage

Reflecting on 2024 in Australia gives me pause to consider how enriched our nation would be if more of our political representatives possessed the courage to speak what they really thought, and the fortitude to take the slings and arrows of rebuke when they do.

Imagine needing to put “freedom” on parade. Yet, when our contemporary political class lacks courage, there is no other option. We would do well to look to the exemplar of the ancients for the virtues that could lead us out of our current predicament.

When Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, achieved stability following the demise of the Republic, he could not have foreseen that his great-great-grandson would treat his inheritance with the disdain that led to the rape and pillaging of the city that Augustus claimed to have transformed from brick to marble.

Yet, Nero, the man most associated with savagery and debauchery of the worst kind, could not deprive the spirit of virtue from burning brightly in one of his own senators. 

Thrasea Paetus unnerved Nero with his loyalty to the old Republican ways of self-discipline, courage and a sense of honour, resulting in the emperor condemning him to death.

Virtues like those had no place in Nero’s new Rome.

Much the same as they don’t have a place in the Uniparty’s new Australia.

With the recent passing of the social media ban for under 16-year-olds, and the forced withdrawal of Labor’s heinous Misinformation Bill, our nation has just endured the most illiberal display of cowardice from the main opposition political party which is meant to be the torchbearers for liberty. 

The modern-day Liberal Party of Australia is a disgrace to the term “classical liberalism,” and might as well have thrown dirt at the legacy left by Robert Menzies who founded the party in 1944 based upon those principles. 

So, who was this man that drew the ire of Nero, and why?

He was suffect consul in AD 56, and renowned for his commitment to the old Republican ways of senatorial freedom. It is important to note that under the Empire, the Senate lost much of the power it possessed in the Republic, prior to the assassination of Julius Caesar and ensuing brutal civil war resulting in its fall in 27 BC. 

We know little of him except through the words of the ancient historian, Tacitus, in his recounting the deeds of Nero’s vitriolic sycophants, those who encouraged Nero through their vilifications of Paetus, to rid Rome of the man who the emperor described as “virtue itself.” 

The condemnation of Paetus occurred at a time when tensions were high in the Senate and panic had overtaken members because of the iron grip which Nero had on Rome. Paetus was accused of being the leader of a revolution comprised of dissidents. His behaviour – claimed to be radical – was tied back to the time of the Gracchi, one of Rome’s most tumultuous eras, a time that many historians highlight as the beginning of the downfall of the Republic due to the Gracchi brothers attempting to change the agrarian law to a more equal distribution of land for the people.

How could this man, committed to old ways of senatorial freedom, be allowed to continue to lead his followers in a parade of freedom?

Paetus stood firm against his accusers, and it is worth quoting this brilliant passage from a man who possessed a type of conviction that we should all insist on in our politicians:

“If I were the only one that Nero was going to put to death, I could easily pardon the rest who load him with flatteries. But since even among those who praise him to excess there are many whom he has either already disposed of or will yet destroy, why should one degrade oneself to no purpose and then perish like a slave, when one may pay the debt to nature like a freeman?”

“As for me, men will talk of me hereafter, but of them never, except only to record the fact that they were put to death.”

“Nero can kill me, but he cannot harm me.”

Imagine a modern politician in Australia stating such words of fire today even without the deathblow reference.

While a handful have come close, they are not close enough at standing up and publicly disavowing the actions of their own party when that party betrays its principles.

Paetus was condemned to death by Nero in AD 66. The Annals of Tacitus breaks off at this event. Because history is full of clues and intrigues, I consider it highly intriguing that these annals fade out on a story where individual courage in the face of danger from the ruling elite is put firmly on display – an intrigue that could well serve us to put a mirror up as we await the outcome of our own fall from grace.