The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic by Mike DuncanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
In essence, this a story about what happened before Caesar, Mark Antony, Augustus, and all the Romans we've heard of before. The premise is a study of what happened to make the republic crumble and turn into a dictatorship, and see what parallels we can draw in our time and age. Well, the intro and conclusion mention the parallels, otherwise it's just the history. The history itself is fascinating. Some names that I'd just heard of, but didn't know much about (Marius, Sulla, Cinna) were explained in more detail, including how they related to everything else going on.
I wish more time had been spent with the parallels. It seemed like this conclusion (and possibly the introduction) were just rushed in order to make it more appealing to today's readers (let's face it, many, if not most, readers will be trying to draw parallels or find differences).
There were definitely some interesting points, however. The idea that all governments revert slowly to their most oppressive form, as well as how taking unprecedented steps could, in turn, lead to dangerous precedences. I also found it interesting that every time they tried to take land and hand it to the poor/soldiers/plebeians, etc. it never worked out, since they all ended up selling the land back to the nobility, even when a law explicitly outlawing the resale was added.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment