“I cannot find a faithful message-bearer, … How few are they who are able to carry a rather weighty letter without lightening it by reading.”

-Cicero

“Who is watching the Watchers?”

― James Hauenstein

 

Knowledge is power. And when it relates to matters of governance or diplomacy, certain knowledge can be weaponized to great effect. Whether it is used on an enemy or to manipulate a potentially unfriendly citizenry, there is perceived value in understanding what vulnerabilities or sentiments might be exploited to justify reasons of conquest or power. 

It is understandable to spy on your enemy and it has long been considered an accepted tool of war and diplomacy.  It’s another matter completely to deploy these tactics on one’s own population.   It’s such an anathema that even the great strategists like Sun Tzu and Machiavelli rarely spoke on this and Machiavelli said it should only be used in certain circumstances.  Nonetheless it has been deployed throughout history by the likes of the Stasi, FBI, KBG and even Rome.  

You wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Roman courts were filled with deception and intrigue.   Its history is littered with stories of people like Sejanus, Tigellinus or Paulus Catena who tried to use deceit to claim or manipulate power. But there are also examples that demonstrate that the intrigue and scheming went beyond the palace walls and extended into streets to impact common citizens as well.  

Let’s first discuss why a government might choose to spy on its citizens. From there we will provide examples in both Rome and the US that will have you second guessing your faith in government institutions and promises.  So strap on your tinfoil cap and trust no one.

Why spy on your own people?

The reasons are varied but there are circumstances in which a government justifies keeping a close eye on its citizens.  Attempts might be made to offer a justification (think Japanese internment camps during WW2) but the ends rarely justify the means and often the collateral damage is a loss of trust by the citizens towards the government.  With that in mind below are the most common reasons I can think of.

Neutralizing Political Opposition and Regime Threats– For authoritarian regimes or politically vulnerable governments, espionage is a tool for self-preservation. By monitoring political rivals, dissidents, journalists, and activist groups, the state can preemptively arrest leaders, sabotage campaigns, or blackmail opponents before they gain widespread public support.

Preventing Domestic Terrorism and Violent Extremism– Governments often argue that internal intelligence gathering is essential to national security. Because domestic threats originate from within the population, intelligence agencies monitor communications, financial transactions, and online activities to spot radicalization or operational planning.

Managing Social Unrest and Civil Disobedience– During periods of economic hardship, political tension, or social change, governments use surveillance to monitor public sentiment and track community organizers. Knowing where a protest will gather, who is organizing it, and how many people will attend allows law enforcement to deploy forces, block routes, or arrest leaders preemptively.

Enforcing Ideological, Cultural, or Social Control– Some states view surveillance not just as a reactive security measure, but as a proactive tool for social engineering. By letting citizens know they are constantly monitored, the state encourages self-censorship and conformity to state-approved norms, morals, or ideologies.

Countering Foreign Espionage and Infiltration– Foreign powers frequently attempt to recruit government employees, military personnel, scientists, or corporate executives to steal secrets or sabotage infrastructure. Governments monitor their own workforce and citizens in sensitive positions to detect leaks, espionage, or treason.

Examples of Roman Surveillance

In Rome there was one group that stood out and sent shivers down the spines of the average citizen.  That group was the frumentarii.  Their origins begin during the early Principate and they formed the backbone of the empire’s primary domestic intelligence network. Our best ancient source for this group is the Historia Augusta. Their duties required extensive travel between Rome and the provinces, and emperors—most notably Hadrian—recognized their potential for internal surveillance across the empire.   They were centralized at the Castra Peregrina in Rome. Operating as couriers, tax collectors, and undercover informants, they monitored provincial governors, political dissidents, and ordinary citizens, intercepting communications and reporting potential subversion directly to the emperor.

One illustration for how this worked comes from the reign of Emperor Hadrian, who formally structured them into a domestic spying network. According to the Historia Augusta, Hadrian frequently stunned his friends and senators by casually revealing intimate details about their private lives—such as knowing the exact menu served at an exclusive dinner party or the private contents of a letter a noble received from his wife. The frumentarii achieved this by infiltrating domestic households, intercepting mail carriers, and bribing servants. 

Over time, this freedom of movement and unchecked imperial backing transformed the frumentarii into a feared, covert secret police force. Their reputation deteriorated rapidly as officers routinely abused their authority, resorting to extortion, bribery, false accusations, and state-sanctioned assassinations for personal profit. By the late 3rd century AD, public hatred of the frumentarii was so intense that Emperor Diocletian formally disbanded the organization as part of his administrative reforms, though domestic espionage quickly re-emerged under a new civilian bureaucracy known as the Agentes in Rebus.

A notorious example from this later period occurred in 353 AD under Emperor Constantius II, who dispatched the previously mentioned  Paulus—nicknamed “Catena” (“The Chain”) for his skill in weaving inescapable webs of accusations—to Britain to purge supporters of the defeated usurper Magnentius. Leveraging his authority over the imperial postal network (cursus publicus) and immunity from local courts, Paulus aggressively expanded his mandate, fabricating treason charges against innocent local nobles, confiscating their estates, and dragging prominent citizens away in chains. His reign of terror illustrated how Late Roman state intelligence had transformed into an untouchable, pervasive political police force that answered solely to the emperor.

The United States of Surveillance

In spite of all of the talk of openness and liberty, the US has its own storied history of spycraft and questionable monitoring of its citizens.  Activities have ranged from the patriotic (Washington’s Culper Spy Ring during the Revolutionary War) to the salacious (J Edgar Hoover and his wire taps) to the down right scary (Edward Snowden’s uncovering of the NSA domestic monitoring programs like PRISM). We’re certainly well behind China and its Social Credit system, but recent revelations make it seem like the US is trying to catch up. 

Since we have far more to work with in the US, let’s walk you through some interesting and terrifying examples, using the standard reasons from earlier, of how the American government, through agencies like the FBI, NSA, or CIA has spied on its people or adversaries.  It might have you rethinking how the 4th Amendment or Privacy Act of 1974 are enforced.

Neutralizing Political Opposition and Regime Threats–  This is a sad one and unfortunately there are various examples.  Most notable is  COINTELPRO, the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program and it actively spied on, wiretapped, and sought to neutralize political dissidents, civil rights leaders (most notably Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), anti-war activists, and socialist organizations. The goal was explicitly to disrupt, misinform, and prevent the growth of political groups deemed threats to the existing social and political order.

Preventing Domestic Terrorism and Violent Extremism– Following the September 11 attacks, the National Security Agency (NSA) secretly instituted bulk collection of millions of Americans’ call detail records under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and Section 702 of FISA (e.g., the PRISM program), arguing that mass data sweeps were necessary to map terror networks before attacks occurred.

Managing Social Unrest and Civil Disobedience– During the widespread civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), FBI, and National Guard deployed aerial reconnaissance aircraft, drones, and real-time social media monitoring tools to track crowd movements and identify key organizers during racial justice protests across major U.S. cities. This also happened extensively during the Vietnam era.

Enforcing Ideological, Cultural, or Social Control– The easy example is Joseph McCarthy. The FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, along with

congressional committees like the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), wiretapped and monitored suspected communists, intellectuals, civil rights figures, and Hollywood creators to enforce Cold War ideological loyalty and force political self-censorship across public life.

Countering Foreign Espionage and Infiltration– There are many examples of counter intelligence efforts against Russia in capturing people like Robert Hanssen.  I’d like to share an example that illustrates that even our “allies” spy on us. This one comes from Israel and Jonathan Pollard. He was a a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who was arrested in 1985 for spying on behalf of Israel. He passed thousands of top-secret documents—primarily regarding Middle Eastern military intelligence—to Israeli officials, resulting in one of the most high-profile espionage cases in U.S. history. 

In the US there’s the notion of the deep state that has left the realm of the conspiracy theorist and entered the mainstream through revelations as varied as CIA disclosures to the Epstein scandal. At its core is the idea that the real power in the US government is the permanent bureaucracy and this is controlled by powerful entities (Finance, Pharma, Defence, etc.) to push policies and programs that support their interests. This capture extends to the legislature through lobbying and is facilitated through things like the Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United.  These tools of surveillance can be deployed by the “deep state” to monitor and challenge threats to their pursuits.

Where do we go from here?

We are still an open society where the First Amendment is still widely respected.  But the rapid advance of AI and other technologies should be forcing us to have necessary and uncomfortable conversations about the roles and limits of surveillance at home and abroad.  If these tools are not deployed without the necessary guardrails then trust will erode and we very well could be living in Orwell’s 1984. 

 

Additional resources:

• NSA  Stellar Wind Program- link
• How the Frumentarii inspired modern UK spy agencies- link
• BBC article tracking government spying through the ages- link
• The suspicious deaths of reporters like Michael Hastings and Gary Webb

 

Bonus Material:

John Kiriaku on CIA’s Vault 7 program