Shows of force Trump's military parade taps into old tradition of power

Shows of force

- Robert Tait

To Donald Trump, the inspiration is the pomp and pageantry of Bastille Day, France's annual celebration of the 1789 revolution. For his critics, it is redolent of the authoritarian militarism proudly projected by autocracies such as Russia, China and North Korea.

Despite its superpower status, overt military displays in civilian settings are the exception rather than the rule in US history.

But in bringing to the streets of Washington DC today the military parade Trump has long hankered after, he consciously or otherwise is tapping into a tradition that harks back to antiquity.

The first known instances of victorious exhibitions of military might date to ancient Mesopotamia, whose territory now comprises Iraq and parts of Turkey, Syria and Iran.

Mesopotamian emperors decorated their palaces and citadels with friezes portraying heroic conquests. Portraits would display a potentate striding ahead of his troops and crushing his opponents' skulls.

Military parades were also integral rituals of the Roman Empire, where generals and emperors who had won battles would march from the Field of Mars into the Temple of Jupiter, witnessed by thousands of adoring peasants.

The looted possessions of conquered nations were said to be conveyed in chariots, while abducted barbarians were dragged along in chains. Slaves were encouraged to murmur Memento mori (remember you must die) to their captors, it is said, as part of a drama supposed to link the Roman public to its leaders.