Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny

by Edward J. Watts

Overview

Learn why the Roman Republic collapsed — and how it could have continued to thrive — with this insightful history from an award-winning author.

In Mortal Republic, prize-winning historian Edward J. Watts offers a new history of the fall of the Roman Republic that explains why Rome exchanged freedom for autocracy. For centuries, even as Rome grew into the Mediterranean's premier military and political power, its governing institutions, parliamentary rules, and political customs successfully fostered negotiation and compromise.

By the 130s BC, however, Rome's leaders increasingly used these same tools to cynically pursue individual gain and obstruct their opponents. As the center decayed and dysfunction grew, arguments between politicians gave way to political violence in the streets. The stage was set for destructive civil wars — and ultimately the imperial reign of Augustus.

The death of Rome's Republic was not inevitable. In Mortal Republic, Watts shows it died because it was allowed to, from thousands of small wounds inflicted by Romans who assumed that it would last forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541646483
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	08/25/2020
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	222,093
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Edward J. Watts holds the Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair and is professor of history at the University of California, San Diego. The author and editor of several prize-winning books, including The Final Pagan Generation, he lives in Carlsbad, California.

Table of Contents

Maps viii

Preface 1

Chapter 1 Autocratic Freedom 5

Chapter 2 The New World Order 13

Chapter 3 Empire and Inequality 45

Chapter 4 The Politics of Frustration 69

Chapter 5 The Rise of the Outsider 97

Chapter 6 The Republic Breaks 119

Chapter 7 Rebuilding amid the Wreckage 145

Chapter 8 The Republic of the Mediocre 169

Chapter 9 Stumbling Toward Dictatorship 191

Chapter 10 The Birth and Death of Caesar's Republic 219

Chapter 11 The Republic of Octavtan 241

Chapter 12 Choosing Augustan Liberty 271

Notes 283

Index 323

Editorial Reviews

"Watts describes how the rise of an economic élite and increasing inequality brought about populist sentiment that was easily exploited by nefarious politicians. The parallels to the present day are striking."—New Yorker

"If the central analogy that animates Mortal Republic is correct, the current challenge to America's political system is likely to persist long after its present occupant has left the White House."—New York Times Book Review

"Watts chronicles the ways the republic, 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 let their democracy die by not protecting their political institutions, eventually turning to the perceived stability of an emperor instead of facing the continued violence of an unstable and degraded republic."—Smithsonian

"Mortal Republic provides excellent insights into how the Republic became the Empire, and more broadly it speaks to the ever-present threat of centralized power. The more a civilization centralizes, the more powerful a central government becomes."—New York Journal of Books

"Readers will find many parallels to today's fraught political environment: the powerful influence of money in politics, a "delegitimized establishment," and "the emergence of a personality-driven, populist politicking." Watts ably and accessibly...covers a lot of ground in a manner accessible to all readers, including those with little knowledge of Roman history. This well-crafted analysis makes clear the subject matter's relevance to contemporary political conversations."—Publishers Weekly

"In a timely book of ancient history, an eminent classicist looks at Rome's decline from representative government to corrupt empire... Given that mistrust of institutions is a key ingredient in the collapse of republican rule, as we are witnessing daily, the lesson is pointed. An engaging, accessible history that, read between the lines, offers commentary on today's events as well as those of two millennia past."—Kirkus

From the Publisher

09/24/2018
Watts (The Final Pagan Generation) outlines the end of the Roman republic to show “how republics built on Rome’s model might respond to particular stresses,” in this quick and clear, if at times dry, primer. Watts begins by depicting Rome’s journey to the status equivalent of a modern world power, by defeating Greek king Pyrrhus in 280 BCE, taking on Carthage in the Punic Wars, and achieving a final victory over Hannibal’s Carthage in 202 BCE. The book moves briskly through the evolution of the republic’s democracy in subsequent decades, including an early example of demagogic populism in the election and reign of Tiberius. The book ends with a deep analysis of Caesar’s ascent to autocratic power, his murder, and the rise of Emperor Augustus in 27 BCE. Readers will find many parallels to today’s fraught political environment: the powerful influence of money in politics, a “delegitimized establishment,” and “the emergence of a personality-driven, populist politicking.” Watts ably and accessibly—if in a somewhat formal, scholarly style—covers a lot of ground in a manner accessible to all readers, including those with little knowledge of Roman history. This well-crafted analysis makes clear the subject matter’s relevance to contemporary political conversations. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

There’s great drama in Watts's history of Rome from the Punic Wars to the fall of the Republic. However, narrator Matthew Kugler tries too hard to convey it, to engage listeners, and to underline the significance of this story with respect to our own time. He starts with the forced drama and the exaggerated emphases of an announcer narrating the trailer for an action thriller. Such “marquee” reading distances the listener. Still, his voice is strong, and his pacing, though speedy, is basically good. He does moderate his tone eventually, still emphasizing too many words but allowing the story, and his essential intelligence, to come to the fore. His performance of Watts’s quick-moving history is flawed, then, but not fatally. W.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2019 - AudioFile

There’s great drama in Watts's history of Rome from the Punic Wars to the fall of the Republic. However, narrator Matthew Kugler tries too hard to convey it, to engage listeners, and to underline the significance of this story with respect to our own time. He starts with the forced drama and the exaggerated emphases of an announcer narrating the trailer for an action thriller. Such “marquee” reading distances the listener. Still, his voice is strong, and his pacing, though speedy, is basically good. He does moderate his tone eventually, still emphasizing too many words but allowing the story, and his essential intelligence, to come to the fore. His performance of Watts’s quick-moving history is flawed, then, but not fatally. W.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2019 - AudioFile

2018-09-12

In a timely book of ancient history, an eminent classicist looks at Rome's decline from representative government to corrupt empire.

What killed the Roman Republic? It wasn't plague, external enemies, civil war, or corruption, although all of those things played a role. No, writes Watts (Chair, History/Univ. of California, San Diego; Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher, 2017, etc.), author of the superb The Final Pagan Generation (2015). What killed the Republic was its electorate. "A republic is not an organism," he writes, meaningfully. "It has no natural life span. It lives or dies solely on the basis of choices made by those in charge of its custody." That electorate chose to trade the freedoms and responsibilities of representative government for the security of the Pax Augusta, for "they came to believe that freedom from oppression could only exist in a polity controlled by one man." Watts chronicles the death as one by which the ambitions of would-be rulers, bribes offered and accepted, and votes bought and sold all contributed to the arrival of imperial and totalitarian rule. The seeds of destruction had been scattered long before the fact. As the author writes, for instance, even Rome at its height was no stranger to scandals, in one case requiring the unheard-of executions of three Vestal Virgins whose behavior had not, in fact, been appropriately virginal. Still, better angels often spoke, as when Pompey and Crassus, political foes on the brink of civil war, agreed to follow the rules such that "the most powerful men in the Roman state clearly specified that they trusted the system to protect them from their rivals and to allow them to compete fairly within the rules it set." Given that mistrust of institutions is a key ingredient in the collapse of republican rule, as we are witnessing daily, the lesson is pointed.

An engaging, accessible history that, read between the lines, offers commentary on today's events as well as those of two millennia past.

Kirkus Reviews