The Breakdown of the Roman Republic

In this new primarily narrative history of the final century of the Roman Republic MacKay aims to get beyond the moralistic and personality based reasoning of the ancient sources to evaulate the causes of the failure of the Republican system. MacKay's thesis broadly stated is that the acquisition of [...]
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In this new primarily narrative history of the final century of the Roman Republic MacKay aims to get beyond the moralistic and personality based reasoning of the ancient sources to evaulate the causes of the failure of the Republican system. MacKay's thesis broadly stated is that the acquisition of empire necessitated the maintenance of a large military, but that the Republic lacked any effective safeguards against generals using this army for their own political ends, resulting the chaotic political violence of the last century of the Republic. The class composition of the army too led to this situation, with the army increasingly based on the landless rural poor, whose interests did not lie with the oligarchic Republican system. There is also a linked look at the changing iconography of Republican coinage, all of which combines to form a lively and persuasive treatment of the subject.