At the end of the second century BC the Roman people was sovereign. True, rich aristocrats dominated politics.\u00a0\u00a0Yet ultimate power lay with the Roman people. \u00a0Rome prided itself on being a ‘free republic’ and centuries later was the political model for the founding fathers of the United States.<\/p>\n
[pullquote]”A Republic, if you can keep it” \u00a0–Benjamin Franklin[\/pullquote]Many Romans themselves put the key turning point in 133 BC. A young magistrate,\u00a0Gracchus proposed to distribute to poor citizens stretches of state-owned land in Italy which had been illegally occupied by the rich.<\/p>\n
Augustus was both canny and lucky. When he died in 14 AD, aged well over 70, he was succeeded by his stepson, Tiberius. By then the idea of the ‘free republic’ was just the romantic pipe-dream of a few nostalgics.<\/p>\n
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This write-up was cadged and heavily edited from an excellent article hosted by the BBC<\/a>. \u00a0I have isolated passages to make a single point, which is (I’ll wager) not the point intended by the author of the original. \u00a0Nonetheless, the original is a great read, short and informative.<\/em><\/p>\n Please note I claim NO copyright over this post, Creative Commons or otherwise. \u00a0No matter what other marks you see around or even in the body of this post, this post is not my work.<\/p>\n At the end of the second century BC the Roman people was sovereign. True, rich aristocrats dominated politics.\u00a0\u00a0Yet ultimate power lay with the Roman people. \u00a0Rome prided itself on being a ‘free republic’ and centuries later was the political model for the founding fathers of the United States.<\/p>\n [pullquote]”A Republic, if you can keep it” \u00a0–Benjamin Franklin[\/pullquote]Many Romans themselves put the key turning point in 133 BC. A young magistrate,\u00a0Gracchus proposed to distribute to poor citizens stretches of state-owned land in Italy which had been illegally occupied by the rich.<\/p>\n Augustus was both canny and lucky. When he died in 14 AD, aged well over 70, he was succeeded by his stepson, … Continue reading NOTE: This entire post is distilled from an excellent article at the BBC.<\/h2>\n
Republic<\/h2>\n
Redistribution<\/h2>\n
Empire<\/h2>\n