Mortal republic
Subtitle: how Rome fell into tyranny
By: Edward J. Watts
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780465093816
Subjects: Politics and government; History
Description: "In 22 BC, amid a series of natural disasters and political and economic crises, a mob locked Rome's senators into the Senate House and threatened to burn them alive if they did not make Augustus dictator. Why did Rome--to this day one of the world's longest-lived republics--exchange freedom for autocracy? Mortal Republic is a new history of the fall of the Roman Republic that explains why Rome made this trade. Prizewinning historian Edward J. Watts shows how, for centuries, Rome's governing institutions, parliamentary rules, and political customs succeeded in fostering compromise and negotiation. Even amid moments of crisis like Hannibal's invasion of Italy in the 210s BC, Rome's Republic proved remarkably resilient, and it continued to function well as Rome grow into the premier military and political power in the Mediterranean world. By the 130s BC, however, the old ways of government had grown inadequate in managing a massive standing army, regulating trade across the Mediterranean, and deciding what to do with enormous new revenues of money, land, and slaves. In subsequent decades, politicians increasingly misused Rome's consensus-building tools to pursue individual political and personal gain, and to obstruct urgently needed efforts to address growing social and economic inequality. Individuals--and Marius, Caesar and Cato, Augustus and Pompey--made selfish decisions that benefited them personally but irreparably damaged the health of the state. As the political center decayed, political fights evolved from arguments between politicians in representative assembles to violent confrontations between ordinary people in the street, setting the stage for the destructive civil wars of the first century BC--and ultimately for the Republic's end"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Autocratic freedom; title: The new world order; title: Empire and inequality; title: The politics of frustration; title: The rise of the outsider; title: The republic breaks; title: Rebuilding amidst the wreckage; title: The republic of the mediocre; title: Stumbling towards dictatorship; title: The birth and death of Caesar's republic; title: The republic of Octavian; title: Choosing Augustan liberty.