How Republics Die : Creeping Authoritarianism in Ancient Rome and Beyond.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vervaet, Frederik.

Contributor:

Rafferty, David.

Dart, Christopher J.

Series:

Studies in Ancient Civil War Series

Studies in Ancient Civil War Series ; v.4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy--History.

Democracy.

Authoritarianism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (556 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin/Boston : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2025.

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

F. J. Vervaet, Univ. of Melbourne, Australia; D. Rafferty, Univ. of Adelaide, Australia; Chr. J. Dart, Univ. of Melbourne, Australia.

Summary:

This scholarly volume explores the causes, processes, and implications of the collapse of republics, focusing particularly on the demise of the Roman Republic and its transition to autocracy under Augustus. Edited by Frederik Juliaan Vervaet, David Rafferty, and Christopher J. Dart, it offers a multidisciplinary approach, integrating historical, philological, and archaeological perspectives. The book examines parallels between ancient and modern political challenges, such as polarization, demagoguery, and authoritarianism. It draws connections between the Roman experience and other historical and contemporary instances of political decay, providing insights into the vulnerabilities of democratic systems. With contributions from various scholars, the work also addresses fundamental concepts of governance, such as democracy, tyranny, and populism, while exploring the societal and cultural impact of regime changes. This book is an essential resource for historians, political scientists, and readers interested in ancient history and comparative political studies. Generated by AI.

Contents:

Editorial Statement

Preface and Acknowledgements

Contents

Contributors

Part 1: The Death of the Roman Republic – Concepts

New Perspectives on Old Problems/Old Perspectives on New Problems

How Did Ancient Greek Democracies Die? Not (Normally) by Demagoguery

Consensus Breakdown: Or, How Cicero Was Wrong About Rome, and We Might Be Wrong About America

Part 2: The Death of the Roman Republic – Causation

Reform Unwillingness and the Death of the Roman Republic

The Role of the Economy in the Fall of the Roman Republic

Alternative Visions and Fractured Allegiances: The Role of Disillusion, Alienation and Disengagement in the Late Roman Republic

Enabling Laws, Rule of Law, and the Transformation of the Roman Republic

Dominari illi volunt, vos liberi esse – Populist Reason and Rhetoric in Sallust

Part 3: The Death of the Roman Republic – Effect

The View from the Periphery: Local Elites, Roman Elites, and the Western Provinces during Rome’s Crisis of the 80s BCE

In the Wake of Autocrats: The Plight of Matronae in the Late Republic

Just Another Word? The Lure of Libertas in the Seventies

Competitive Authoritarianism on the Eve of Empire: Pompeius’s New Republic of 52 BCE

Caesar and the Tribunes of the Plebs: Process and Events

Who Counts as the Roman People? Caesar’s recensus and Discriminatory Populism

Part 4: From the End of the Roman Republic to the Modern World

Augustus’ Res Gestae as a Revolutionary’s Manual

With a Bang or a Whimper? Reflections on the Fall of the Venetian Republic

A New Catilina or a New Cromwell? Napoleon Bonaparte and the Death of the First French Republic, 1794–1804

Part 5: The Roman Republic and the Modern World

From Caesarism to Populism: An Intellectual History

Dealing with Uncertainty: Cicero, Victor Klemperer and How to Cope with the Present in Moments of Crisis

The Civil War in Spain (1936–1939) and the Civil Wars in Late-republican Rome as Cases of Political and Ideological Polarisation

The Death of Democratic Republics in the 1930s: Germany, Austria, Spain Generated by AI.

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

3-11-170582-X

3-11-170544-7

OCLC:

1519993187