"Quod licet Jovi non licet bovi"

Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi. 

Back when we were subjects of the king of England, one of the things that grated on the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence--and later our Constitution--was the fact that in England a nobleman--a "connected person"--could literally get away with anything (except trying to defy the king).  Commoners had no defense against the depredations of the powerful.

Thus one of the most basic principles underlying the United States was "We are a nation of laws, not men, and everyone is equal under the law."

Notice it was "the" law, not "two sets of laws."  But over time that basic principle seems to have vanished.

For the 19 years that I've been using this blog to analyze U.S. society, I've probably posted hundreds of examples showing that we really do have two sets of laws in this country:  one very strict set for ordinary people, and second, unbelievably lenient set for the powerful.

Turns out some observant folks in an earlier age recognized exactly the same thing, summed up in the phrase at the top:  Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi.

That saying comes from the Roman empire, and means "That which is permitted to gods (Jovi) is not permitted to cattle (bovi)."

Two sets of laws, citizen.

For young Americans thru age 25 or so:  Rome effectively ruled the known world for 600 years.  But somehow, with all that power and sophistication, for some still-unknown reason its citizens stopped defending it, and it was taken over.

Say, you don't suppose the apathy of Roman citizens toward the whole damn society could have had any connection to "Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi," do ya?

(H/T Ace of Spades)