The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic

James McHenry famously wrote that when asked what sort of government the Constitutional Convention had birthed, Benjamin Franklin answered, “A republic, if you can keep it.” This story captures well the central anxiety of a democracy: that sooner or later, our vigilance will weaken just enough for liberty to slip into the hands of the tyrant.

I imagine that’s why we’re fascinated by the collapse of the senatorial Roman Republic into the autocratic Roman Empire. Even the most history-challenged probably has a vague grasp of the key event of that collapse: Julius Caesar setting himself up as dictator, senators stabbing him to death, “Et tu, Brute?” What we might not know is how Rome went from abolishing monarchy to the Divine show more Caesar.

Mike Duncan, the talented writer behind the History of Rome podcast, fills this gap. He picks up the story in 146 BC with the final desolation of Carthage and the destruction of Corinth. From here, Duncan narrates a highly readable tale of the last century of the Roman Republic, and of the ambitious characters who chipped away at the foundations of state until it fell into the hands of an emperor.

One of the themes Duncan returns to repeatedly is that each step toward empire was marked by incremental transgressions of the “mos maiorum,” the unwritten norms which governed respectable society — until someone decided that this or that particular tradition didn’t apply to him.

From this angle, the Roman Republic looks to me like an overgrown town council: part legal code, part gentlemen’s agreement, and part “the way we’ve always done it.” This might work for a municipality with local concerns, but it has none of the guardrails you might put up if you knew all the wealth and power in the Mediterranean was going to land in your minutes.

As an American, I take some comfort from this. I understand that any government can fall, but I also know that those who wrote our Constitution designed it with a strong sense of history, including that of the Roman Republic. With this history in mind, the Founders built the guardrails Rome lacked, as witnessed by the stability of the United States relative to the many democracies which have sprung up in its lifetime only to succumb to generals, demagogues, and autocrats.

If anything, reading this book has reaffirmed my confidence that my republic might not be as bad off as the television and Internet would have me believe. Maybe that’s childishly naive and I’ll eat my words in due course, but I think we’ve got some aces up our sleeve that the Roman Republic never had. I guess when it comes down to it, I’m still in Johnny Cash’s corner: that ragged old flag is in good shape for the shape she’s in. show less

The Storm Before the Storm will appeal to anyone who came to it (as I did) via Mike Duncan's excellent History of Rome podcast. The amusingly flippant voice familiar from Mike's podcast hides the scholarship and diligent research which makes the book as dependable as it is readable.

Back in its prime, I probably enjoyed Mike Duncan's blogging and pod-casting about the sweep of Roman history as much as anyone, so it was just a matter of time before I got to this book.

Having looked at other reviews on this work, yes, it is a little too jocular at times (a tone that probably goes better with a podcast). It's also probably inevitable that contemporary American political troubles are going to be invoked when speaking of Roman political conflict, whether justified or not. However, Duncan has really managed to fill a gap in popular discourse with his history of the conflict between the populist and the aristocratic political factions of Roman politics, and why they turned so destructive. You could do worse in terms of an show more introduction to the state of play before the terminal phase of the Roman Republic.

Also, PublicAffairs, or its printer, really needs to get better editing software. show less

This was a fast paced and well written account of the crucial decades leading up to the end of the Roman Republic. To someone who both had studied and has a particular interest in this area of history, most of the content was already quite familiar, but Duncan does a very good job at taking the complex political, social and economic issues from the period and tying them together into a cohesive ‘storyline’. I felt that the underpinning of the entire narrative with the collapse of the mos maiorum and the interweaving of relevant references to digestible excerpts of ancient sources was especially well done. There was unavoidably some simplification of certain events and relationships, and I did feel the treatment of certain elements show more was a little bit dated, such as the ‘optimates’ and ‘populares’ division. Overall though, a solid telling of some of the most underrated years of Roman Republican history, and an enjoyable read. show less

I am endlessly amazed at the amount of detail uncovered from events that took place more than 2,000 years ago. Mike Duncan managed to piece together an entire narrative, introducing us to the main players in a society whose climb to greatness seemed to be its undoing.

I've read a lot about this period of history, but Duncan's unique approach gave me a different perspective on the unraveling of the empire. While academic, in the sense that this is not light reading, Duncan's writing style is enjoyable and engaging. This is absolutely not a dry, textbook kind of read.

We here in the U.S. often draw parallels between our nation and the Roman Empire. Those parallels are certainly here in this story. Duncan does not point them out to us, but show more you don't have to look hard to find them.

The most disheartening and disturbing aspect, to me, is how little politics - and people - have changed. We like to think we've evolved, grown, become more enlightened in our thoughts. To some degree, yes, we have. But, in reading this, it's all too easy to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

*I received an ebook copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.* show less

Everybody know the story of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Cicero, Cato, Octavian, Brutus, civil war, assassination, the last grasp of liberty, and the foundation of both tyranny and centuries of peace and prosperity. Roman politics are a common metaphor for our own times. In The Storm Before the Storm, veteran history podcaster Mike Duncan (Revolutions, The History of Rome), writes about one of his favorite periods, the Roman Republic between the Second Punic War and Caesar's Civil War.

As expected, Duncan ably brings weaves together the lives of his protagonists and their events, to describe a gradual degradation of Roman political norms to mob violence and military force, as the sclerotic Senate proved show more unable to decisively deal with concerns like corruption in the provinces, the lack of civil rights for Italian allies, transformation of the countryside from yeoman farmers to slave estates, and the ambitions of 'new men' without noble pedigrees. The abortive Gracchian agricultural reforms, Gauis Marius's remaking of the army, and Sulla's dictatorship are the centerpieces of this book.

Duncan ably uses primary sources (the Romans wrote a lot of history) to provide detail and spice to his world. He'll admit he's biased in favor of the Populares and against the Optimates. This is a well-sourced popular history, which is both its strength and weakness. Duncan doesn't have much theory about the collapse of political norms, and the lives of the figures eclipses some questions I had about how Roman politics normally operated, and the balance between formal bureaucracy, networks of patronage, and the ability of oratory to shift the mob at the right moment. show less

This book tells of events and personas that preceded the fall of the Republic. The book focused on political corruption and social unrest mostly fomented by Gaius Marius and Sulla. It was a very dramatic book for a non-fiction history. There seemed to me, although not an expert in this area, that there were pieces missing: slave revolts, economic troubles, movement of farmers to the cities, and the decline of the military which allowed the Vandals at the gate. Perhaps the author focused on just a few major points for brevity's sake. 287 pages 3*

A quote for me to ponder--"When the Republic began to break down in the late second century it was not the letter of Roman law that eroded, but respect for the mutually accepted bonds of mos show more maiorum". I had to look up "mos maiorum", but it seems to translate to those customs and traditions that were adhered to that stabilized society--more the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. It was the interpretation of the law per the ancestors........ show less