#G MONEY PRO TRUMP FREE#

These norms were meant to keep ambitious men like Caesar in check, and they worked until men like Caesar started ignoring them. Perhaps Caesar’s greatest weapon was that “unlike all the others,” Meier goes on to say, he “had no particular respect for the Roman order.” (Again, sound familiar?) Caesar did not hesitate to break Rome’s political norms, the traditional ways of acting that had guided the Republic for almost 500 years. Caesar was duly elected, and he proceeded to ram through his entire legislative agenda “with an unexpected ruthlessness,” Meier writes.

These things Caesar promised, and thus was completed the First Triumvirate, eventually sealed by Pompey’s marriage to Caesar’s daughter, Julia. But Pompey needed his recent military victories confirmed and land provided for his returning troops. Pompey the Great, as he has come down to us, would bring votes, senatorial support and even more wealth.

To guarantee victory in the 59 BCE election, Caesar brought a third member into his cabal, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, the greatest military hero of the day. If Crassus supported him, Caesar promised to cut taxes. It was Rome’s highest office, something like president or prime minister, except two men held the job jointly, for a one-year term. And to do that, Caesar had a bigger prize in mind – the consulship. The problem with Crassus, from Caesar’s viewpoint, was that he expected to be repaid. It might be worth around half a billion dollars today. In 61 BCE, Crassus came to Caesar’s rescue with a loan of 830 talents, “an immense sum, amounting to about an eighth of Crassus’ fortune – and he was the richest man in Rome,” writes Caesar biographer Christian Meier. Only after the transaction was agreed to would Crassus send in the firefighters. Rome lacked anything like a modern fire department, so Crassus would dispatch his own private fire brigade to the site of a conflagration – but refuse to extinguish it until the poor owner agreed to sell him the property.

#G MONEY PRO TRUMP FREE#

He borrowed to fund his election campaigns, to stage Olympic-type games, and to dole out free grain and other typical expenses of candidates and officeholders.Ĭaesar found a source of almost endless wealth in Marcus Licinius Crassus, whose fortune and greed were legendary. Running for office was expensive in Rome, as it is in America today, and though Caesar came from an ancient patrician family, the Julii had run into hard times. They were assumed in his single-minded mission to acquire political power. Who, in that case, will lend him the funds to repay his debts, and what will they want in return?Ĭaesar’s debts, unlike Trump’s, weren’t business-related. Most Wall Street banks have refused to lend to him for years. To avoid that, Trump would need to raise the cash some other way. The debt will need to be repaid, and Trump has backed it all with his personal guarantee, meaning Deutsche Bank can claim his assets if he defaults. The Times could not identify all the sources of Trump borrowed money but his biggest creditor appears to be Deutsche Bank. Trump’s very secretive finances may not be fully captured by the tax documents and it’s quite possible his obligations are significantly larger. As a result, according to the Times, Trump “is personally responsible for loans and other debts totaling $421 million, with most of it coming due within four years.” And this is what we know about. Trump’s finances, which revealed a career flush with business losses and financial lifelines. Caesar would find many people willing to help him out with his debt – for a price.Ĭaesar’s financial troubles are brought to mind by the recent New York Times investigation into President Donald J. But it’s not when that man is the most powerful man in the world.

That one man’s personal debt could cause such a chain reaction seems improbable. It was, in part, responsible for his march on Rome and the other events that followed – the civil war, the fall of the Republic, his assassination and the snuffing out of democracy for almost two thousand years. In fact, the mountain of debt Caesar amassed guided his every political move. As a result, each step of Julius Caesar’s march to immortality was dogged by creditors. Immense ambitions require immense amounts of cash. But that victory would not end his debt worries. Julius Caesar was said to be so far in debt that, on the morning of the 63 BCE election for chief pontiff, in which he was a candidate, he told his mother as she kissed him goodbye “that if he did not return to her as chief pontiff he would not return at all.”Īs it happened, Caesar did return as chief pontiff, his very expensive bribery paying off handsomely.

G money pro trump