what led to the failure of the roman republic?
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The U.S. Constitution owes a huge debt to aboriginal Rome. The Founding Fathers were well-versed in Greek and Roman History. Leaders like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison read the historian Polybius, who laid out one of the clearest descriptions of the Roman Commonwealth's constitution, where representatives of various factions and social classes checked the ability of the elites and the power of the mob. Information technology's non surprising that in the Usa' nascent years, comparisons to ancient Rome were common. And to this day, Rome, whose 482-year-long Republic, bookended past several hundred years of monarchy and one,500 years of majestic rule, is still the longest the world has seen.
Aspects of our modern politics reminded University of California San Diego historian Edward Watts of the last century of the Roman Republic, roughly 130 B.C. to 27 B.C. That's why he took a fresh look at the period in his new volume Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny. Watts chronicles the means the commonwealth, with a population once devoted to national service and personal honor, was torn to shreds by growing wealth inequality, partisan gridlock, political violence and pandering politicians, and argues that the people of Rome chose to permit their democracy die by not protecting their political institutions, somewhen turning to the perceived stability of an emperor instead of facing the continued violence of an unstable and degraded democracy. Political messaging during the 2018 midterm elections hinged on many of these exact topics.
Though he does non directly compare and contrast Rome with the Usa, Watts says that what took place in Rome is a lesson for all mod republics. "Above all else, the Roman Republic teaches the citizens of its modern descendants the incredible dangers that come along with condoning political obstruction and courting political violence," he writes. "Roman history could not more than clearly testify that, when citizens look away as their leaders appoint in these corrosive behaviors, their democracy is in mortal danger."
Historians are cautious when trying to apply lessons from one unique civilization to some other, and the differences betwixt the modern United states of america and Rome are immense. Rome was an Iron-Age city-land with a government-sponsored religion that at times made decisions by looking at the entrails of sheep. Romans had a rigid form system, relied on slave labor and had a tolerance for everyday violence that is genuinely horrifying. And then again, other aspects of the Roman Commonwealth feel rather familiar.
The Roman people's strong sense of patriotism was unique in the Mediterranean earth. Like the United States later on World War Two, Rome, after winning the Second Punic War in 201 B.C. (the i with Hannibal and the elephants), became the world's hegemon, which lead to a massive increase in their military spending, a baby boom, and gave ascent to a form of super-wealthy elites that were able to utilize their money to influence politics and button their own agendas. Those similarities make comparisons worthwhile, even if the togas, gladiator battles and appetite for dormice seem completely foreign.
Cullen Murphy, whose 2005 book Are We Rome? makes a more caput-on comparison between the autumn of the Roman Empire and the U.S., argues that the changes in politics and order in Rome stemmed from one source: its growing complexity. Rome, during the Democracy and Empire, had increasing and evolving responsibilities effectually the Mediterranean which its authorities constantly struggled to manage. Those challenges forced changes throughout the economic system and guild, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In full general terms, he sees many of the aforementioned struggles in contempo U.South. history.
"I think the U.S. is experiencing this aforementioned situation—we've never quite recovered from our victory in World War Ii, which left us with the world on our shoulders; and the implications of that responsibleness have skewed things in every function of our society and economic system, and put our old political (and other) structures under enormous strain," he says. "New sources of power and new forms of assistants and management fill the gap—and create unease and sometimes also injustice, and at the same time create vast new sectors of wealth."
Those types of social and economic changes besides rattled the Roman Republic, leading to the moment in 130 B.C. when politics turned violent. The introduction of a secret ballot meant Roman politicians and political factions couldn't go along tabs on (or ransom) individual voters. Instead, politicians had to build political brands that appealed to the masses, leading to something akin to mod American campaigning with big promises and populist language aimed at the poor and middle form.
Reforms to the military also meant that service was no longer reserved for the aristocracy, who for centuries used their privilege to demonstrate their loyalty to Rome. For poorer soldiers, however, service became a path to riches. They began to count on the boodle, bonuses and gifts of land they received from their oftentimes-wealthy commanders meaning that over fourth dimension the loyalty of the Roman legions shifted from the empire to their generals. These changes set the phase for a new blazon of politics, i where whipping upwardly the resentments of the lower classes and threatening political enemies with semi-private armies became the norm.
These trends starting time came to a head in 134 B.C. when Tiberius Gracchus, an elected tribune of the people, proposed a state reform nib that would benefit poorer and heart-grade Romans. The style Gracchus went virtually his reform, yet, was an affront to the norms and traditions of the Republic. He brought his law before the Plebeian Assembly without the thumbs-upwardly of the Senate. When his fellow tribune Marcus Octavius threatened to veto the bill, which was his right, Gracchus manipulated the rules to take him stripped of his office. At that place were other incidents too, simply the nearly concerning aspect of Gracchus was his peppery, populist linguistic communication, which whipped his supporters to the edge of political violence. As his power grew, Gracchus began moving through the streets surrounded past a mob of frenzied supporters, a kind of personal militia non seen in Rome before.
Rumors spread that Gracchus was line-fishing to get a king or dictator, and some in the Senate felt they needed to human action. When Gracchus stood for a second term as tribune, which was not illegal but broke some other norm, a group of Senators and their supporters crush Gracchus and 300 of his followers to expiry.
It was just the beginning. Over the next century, Tiberius'due south brother Gaius Gracchus would come up into conflict with the Senate after a like populist confrontation. The commander Sulla would march legions loyal to him on Rome itself and battle his political rival Marius, the first fourth dimension Roman troops fought one some other. He would then execute and punish his political enemies. In the post-obit generation Pompey and Caesar would settle their political scores using Roman legions, Octavian and Marc Antony would field an army against the Senate earlier finally battling i another bringing virtually 500 years of the Democracy to a bloody (and confusing) decision.
Watts argues that while the Senate ordered his murder, it was Tiberius Gracchus who permit the genie out of the canteen. "What he has to bear responsibility for is he starts using this really ambitious and threatening language and threatening postures. He never resorts to violence, but there'south ever this implicit threat. 'If non for me, things would get out of command.' And that is different, that was never washed before. What he introduces is this political tool of intimidation and threats of violence. After thinkers say one time information technology's in that location, even if others cull not to employ it, it's there forever."
While life in Rome, with gladiator battles, crucifixions and endless war was violent, for centuries Romans took pride in their republican organisation and political violence was taboo. "The Republic was free of political violence for the amend part of 300 years. People who are politically engaged are not killing each other and they're not threatening to kill each other. When they disagree with each other they use political means that were created past the republic for dealing with political conflict," says Watts. "If y'all lose one of those conflicts, you don't die and you don't lose your holding and you aren't sent away. You just lose face and movement on. In that sense, this is a remarkably successful system for encouraging compromise and encouraging consensus building and creating mechanisms whereby political conflicts will exist decided peacefully."
So what does the story of the Roman Republic mean for the United States? The comparison is not perfect. The U.S. has had its share of political violence over the centuries and has more or less recovered. Politicians used to regularly duel one some other (See the Hamilton soundtrack, vocal 15), and in the run-upwardly to the Civil War, the ultimate human action of political violence, at that place was the raid on Harper'south Ferry, Bleeding Kansas, and the near murder of Charles Sumner in the Senate bedroom. Joanne B. Freeman, author of Field of Claret, a history of violence in Congress earlier the Civil War, tells Anna Diamond at Smithsonian she found at least seventy incidents of fighting among legislators, including a mass ball in the Firm, though they often tried to paper over the conflicts. "Information technology's all hidden between the lines in the Congressional record; information technology might say "the conversation became unpleasantly personal." That meant duel challenges, shoving, pulling guns and knives."
The ameliorate comparing, surprisingly, applies to post-WWII America. Despite periods where the U.South. political system and established political norms have been tested and stretched—the McCarthy hearings, Vietnam, Watergate, the Iraq War—partisan violence or attempts to subvert the organisation have been rare. Only recent events, similar changes to delay rules and other procedures in Congress likewise as increasingly heated political rhetoric give Watts pause. "It is profoundly dangerous when a politician takes a step to undercut or ignore a political norm, information technology's extremely unsafe whenever anyone introduces violent rhetoric or actual violence into a republican arrangement that'southward designed to promote compromise and consensus building."
The solution to keeping a democracy healthy, if Rome tin can truly be a guide, is for the citizens to refuse whatever attempts to alter these norms he says. "I recall the lesson I have away near greatly from spending so much fourth dimension with these materials is basically, yes, we do demand to assign blame to politicians and individuals who take a shortsighted view of the health of a democracy in order to endeavour to pursue their own personal objectives or specific short-term political advantages."
The example of the Roman Democracy shows the result of non policing those norms and keeping violence in bank check is the potential loss of democracy. "No democracy is eternal," Watts writes. "It lives only as long every bit its citizens desire it. And, in both the 21stcentury A.D. and the first century B.C., when a republic fails to piece of work every bit intended, its citizens are capable of choosing the stability of autocratic rule over the chaos of a broken commonwealth."
Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lessons-decline-democracy-from-ruined-roman-republic-180970711/
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