Conspiracy theories about ruling elites date to ancient Rome.

Evidence

Per Tacitus, Roman citizens began to suspect that Nero himself had ordered the fires set, to consolidate his power and reconstruct Rome in the manner he saw fit. Or he had allowed the fires to keep burning for the same reason, even sending mobs to prevent citizens from quashing the flames. Nero, meanwhile, blamed the fires on an upstart religious group, the Christians, and used the pretext to merrily persecute and crucify them. Many parts of the story have been called into question by modern scholarship, but the Nero-fiddling-as-Rome-burns version is one of the earliest known examples of two things. First, it’s a conspiracy theory about the government unleashing chaos to extend control; second, a government official used a conspiracy theory to realize political ends. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 70

Categorization

• XREF: The pattern of blaming an out-group scapegoat for in-group elites’ own destruction maps onto vault authoritarianism/prejudice-psychology claims. — connects to: Conspiracy theories themselves are old but their peddlers’ political power is new — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 30; Conspiracy charts argue a few elites secretly control all institutions — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 356; Spontaneous mass uprising and elite conspiracy combined in the Sicilian Vespers — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 808 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Conspiracy theories themselves are old but their peddlers’ political power is new #complicates (0.85) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 30
• Spontaneous mass uprising and elite conspiracy combined in the Sicilian Vespers #exemplifies (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 808
• Conspiracy charts argue a few elites secretly control all institutions #expands (0.75) — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 356
• Classic conspiracy theories are explanations of events by secret small groups #expands (0.75) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 60