Review of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
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Re: Review of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
#2The military disasters referenced are the Battle of Cannae and the previous Battle of Lake Trasimene, both of which suffered appalling losses by the Roman side when they were trapped unable to retreat. After those Rome relied on the unflashy but effective tactic of Fabius the Delayer to defeat Hannibal over a period of time, rather than risk yet another disastrous confrontation.
Re: Review of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
#3[deleted]
Re: Review of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
#4The military disasters referenced are the Battle of Cannae and the previous Battle of Lake Trasimene, both of which suffered appalling losses by the Roman side when they were trapped unable to retreat. After those Rome relied on the unflashy but effective tactic of Fabius the Delayer to defeat Hannibal over a period of time, rather than risk yet another disastrous confrontation.
Fabius was dictator after Trasimene, but before Cannae. Although his tactics were effective, the Romans cared more about virtus than effectiveness and replaced him with Varro and Paulus, who engaged with Hannibal directly at Cannae. The aim of ancient war was the demonstration of martial virtue, with victory as a relatively secondary concern. Because victory without the clash of arms was worth little to the Romans, Roman generals often had a hard time getting their armies to not engage when delaying would lead to circumstance more favorable to victory (c.f. Caesar at Gergovia).
The more interesting period politically is the ascent of the Gracchi, who consistently violated unwritten political norms. The response of the establishment was to murder them, as there was no institutional mechanism to reign them in.
Re: Review of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
#5The Senate binned Republicanism when they murdered the Gracchi.
Re: Review of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
#6[deleted]
Re: Review of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
#7[deleted]
Re: Review of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
#8The Senate binned Republicanism when they murdered the Gracchi.
Agreed. Once the taboo of violence against other officials in the state got broken, all hell broke loose.
Re: Review of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
#9The military disasters referenced are the Battle of Cannae and the previous Battle of Lake Trasimene, both of which suffered appalling losses by the Roman side when they were trapped unable to retreat. After those Rome relied on the unflashy but effective tactic of Fabius the Delayer to defeat Hannibal over a period of time, rather than risk yet another disastrous confrontation.
Fabian tactics didn't defeat Hannibal. Hannibal's Italian army was never defeated. Rome won the war by ignoring Hannibal and striking at Carthage directly. The threat to the homeland forced Carthage to recall Hannibal, leaving his best troops in Italy, to fight a losing battle with fresh recruits against Roman veterans in Africa.
Re: Review of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
#10The Senate binned Republicanism when they murdered the Gracchi.
Sulla had an opportunity to fix everything, but he misidentified the symptoms for the disease, formalizing the cursus honorum and stripping power from the Assembly, instead of changing the incentive structure of the Senate and addressing wealth inequality.