Battle Hymn Of The Imperium

Yesterday was Veterans Day (via Talking Points Memo):

Marine Cpl. David Antonio Garcia stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier Thursday and was sworn in as an American citizen - after already serving under the U.S. flag in Iraq.

The native of Mexico was among 80 sailors and Marines from 25 countries - from Canada to Syria - who became citizens in a Veterans Day ceremony aboard the USS Midway, a reward for putting their lives on the line for their adopted country.

Those who remember anything that happened before yesterday might be reminded of this:

The imperial army consisted of some 300,000 men... Auxiliary units of colonial troops drawn from the provinces backed up the legions. The auxiliary soldiers, who drew less than half the pay of the legionaries, were granted citizenship on their discharge.

Republics don't have trouble raising large enough armies for any war, because republics go to war only with the full support of their people. (See article I, section 8 of this boring old document.) By contrast, empires often engage in wars their citizens don't support enough to fight themselves. So finding the necessary soldiers is a constant problem. Dangling citizenship in front of non-citizens is a tried and true method.

Some might say we're still different from the Roman Empire, because the Romans gave citizenship both to soldiers and to soldiers' families. Uh huh:

...there are several bills pending that, if passed, will make the path to citizenship more flexible and far-reaching for not only non-citizen soldiers, but also their families.

Maybe if things go really well, we could even adopt certain Roman symbols, like rods bundled around an ax, and name our political system after them.

UPDATE: Apparently we're also giving chariot races a shot (via lies.com).