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© YahooCicero and Cruz
Ted Cruz (R - Texas) begins his speech delivered on the Senate floor Nov. 20th, 2014 with "The words of Cicero - powerfully relevant 2,077 years later," and then proceeds to recite Cicero's speech "In Catilinam (Against Catiline)" delivered to the Roman Senate in 63 B.C. with some modifications to fit his purpose. During this period in Roman history there was martial law, accusations of high treason, and the specter of civil war.

America today is increasingly becoming like the - now lost - Roman empire.

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Lucius Sergius Catiline
© WikipediaLucius Sergius Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catiline lost an election to Marcus Tullius Cicero for Rome's highest office of consul, Cicero claimed that Catiline conspired to murder him and attempt a coup d'état. Cicero presented to the consul a letter, allegedly written by Catiline, that was found and presented as evidence of the conspiracy. Martial law was declared, and Catiline was denounced in the Senate - a triumph about which Cicero never tired of reminding his peers and readers (Catiline went into exile and soon after died in battle with his army). This is the official version of events where Cicero is generally hailed as a remarkable orator and a model for democracy that is still widely taught to this day.

There is much more to this Cicero character and how the Cataline conspiracy became Rome's 9/11. You can listen to a discussion on the subject on this SOTT Talk Radio broadcast. A more in depth analysis of the situation will be featured in the next installment of Laura Knight-Jadczyk's Secret History series.

Anyway, back to Ted Cruz. Catiline, a Popularis, was an advocate for the poor. He called for the cancellation of debts and openly backed land redistribution. Cicero, on the other hand, was aligned to the Optimates ("Best Men") who wished to preserve the aristocracy's power. Cicero created a law banning such populist gestures. In Cruz's speech, he aligns himself with Cicero and paints Obama as a modern day Catiline. As if Obama was not (s)elected by, and is not working for the 1% that enjoys the fruit of the labours of the masses of ordinary humanity.

Cruz delivers quite the inflammatory speech and makes sure to include the threats implied in Cicero's original speech.

Below is a comparison of Cicero's speech and Cruz's edits:
When, O Catiline President Obama, do you mean to cease abusing our patience?

How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?

Do not the nightly guards placed on the Palatine Hill border -
do not the watches posted throughout the city -
does not the alarm of the people, and the union of all good men and women -
does not the precaution taken of assembling the senate in this most defensible place -
do not the looks and countenances of this venerable body here present, have any effect upon you?

Do you not feel that your plans are detected? Do you not see that your conspiracy is already arrested and rendered powerless by the knowledge which that everyone here possesses of it? What is there that you did last night, what the night before - where is it that you were - who was there that you summoned to meet you - what design was there which was adopted by you, with which you think that any one of us is unacquainted?

Shame on the age and on its lost principles! The Senate is aware of these things; the consul Senate sees them; and yet this man lives. Lives! dictates by his pen and his phone. Dictates! Aye, he comes even won't even come into the Senate. He takes a will not take part in the public deliberations; he is watching and marking down and checking off for slaughter he ignores every individual among us. And we, gallant men and women that we are, think that we are doing our duty to the republic if we keep out of the way of his frenzied attacks.

You ought, O Catiline President Obama, long ago to have been led to execution defeat by command of the consul your own disdain for the people. That destruction which you have been long plotting against us ought to have already fallen on your own head.

What? Did not that most illustrious man, Publius Scipio, the Pontifex Maximus, in his capacity of a private citizen, put to death Tiberius Gracchus, though but slightly undermining the constitution? And shall we, who are the consuls Senate, tolerate Catiline President Obama, openly desirous to destroy the whole world with fire and slaughter the Constitution and this Republic? For I pass over older instances, such as how Caius Servilius Ahala with his own hand slew Spurius Maelius when plotting a revolution in the state how the IRS plotted to silence American citizens. There was - there was once such virtue in this republic, that brave men and women would repress mischievous citizens with severer chastisement than the most bitter enemy. For we have a resolution of the senate, a formidable and authoritative decree against you, O Catiline Mr. President; the wisdom of the republic is not at fault, nor the dignity of this senatorial body. We, we alone - I say it openly - we, the consuls Senate, are waiting in our duty to stop this lawless administration and its unconstitutional amnesty.

This speech is not unusual for Cruz, who has a flair for using the American Revolution and other classic literature in an effort to influence votes etc. in the Senate. Cruz seems to be defending the Constitution and the Republic and accusing Obama of conspiring against and destroying the Constitution with his executive order on immigration reform, almost to the point of saying Obama has committed treason. Yet Cruz is no upholder of 'freedom and democracy'. He played a leading role in devising the legal strategy to ensure that George W. Bush (fraudulently) won the 2000 Presidential election.

Given that Cicero was most likely a schizoidal psychopath, it's no surprise that Cruz admires him and his manipulative and deceitful speeches to the point of quoting him in what was a good example of the hubris and hyperbole that defines modern US politics.