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Article: Lessons of Rome: the rise and fall of the Roman Republic provides lessons that hint at flaws in modern political policies.(History--Rome)
- Article from:
- The New American
- Article date:
- February 21, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 American Opinion Publishing, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This is the 10th (final) installment in a series of articles on the rise and fall of the Roman Republic.
From a modern vantage point, Roman history instructs poignantly on both the genius of prudent government and the folly of empire. Imperial Rome was finally extinguished in the fifth century A.D., and though strands of her culture persisted--in the Venetian Republic, in the Byzantine Empire, and in Western Christendom, which preferred the Latin language over the vernacular for the next thousand years--the books were closed on the civilization of Cicero, Brutus, and even the Caesars. Because well-constituted states usually decline gradually rather than suddenly, ...