000			03141pam a2200313 i 4500
001			zzv052 b1805689
003			DLC
005			20210219113409.0
008			180626s2018 nyua b 001 0 eng c
010			_a2018018024
020			_a9780465093816
035			_aCPL
040			_aLBSOR/DLC _beng _erda _cLBSOR _dGCmBT _dMiTN
050		4	_aDG254.2 _bW388 2018
099			_a937.05 WAT
100	1		_aWatts, Edward Jay, _d1975-
245	1	0	_aMortal republic : _bhow Rome fell into tyranny / _cEdward J. Watts.
250			_aFirst edition.
264		1	_aNew York : _bBasic Books, _c2018.
300			_avii, 336 pages : _billustrations ; _c25 cm.
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent.
337			_aunmediated _bn _2rdamedia.
338			_avolume _bnc _2rdacarrier.
520			_a"In 22 BC, amid a series of natural disasters and political and economic crises, a mob locked Rome's senators into the Senate House and threatened to burn them alive if they did not make Augustus dictator. Why did Rome--to this day one of the world's longest-lived republics--exchange freedom for autocracy? Mortal Republic is a new history of the fall of the Roman Republic that explains why Rome made this trade. Prizewinning historian Edward J. Watts shows how, for centuries, Rome's governing institutions, parliamentary rules, and political customs succeeded in fostering compromise and negotiation. Even amid moments of crisis like Hannibal's invasion of Italy in the 210s BC, Rome's Republic proved remarkably resilient, and it continued to function well as Rome grow into the premier military and political power in the Mediterranean world. By the 130s BC, however, the old ways of government had grown inadequate in managing a massive standing army, regulating trade across the Mediterranean, and deciding what to do with enormous new revenues of money, land, and slaves. In subsequent decades, politicians increasingly misused Rome's consensus-building tools to pursue individual political and personal gain, and to obstruct urgently needed efforts to address growing social and economic inequality. Individuals--and Marius, Caesar and Cato, Augustus and Pompey--made selfish decisions that benefited them personally but irreparably damaged the health of the state. As the political center decayed, political fights evolved from arguments between politicians in representative assembles to violent confrontations between ordinary people in the street, setting the stage for the destructive civil wars of the first century BC--and ultimately for the Republic's end"-- _cProvided by publisher.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 283-322) and index.
505	0		_aAutocratic freedom -- The new world order -- Empire and inequality -- The politics of frustration -- The rise of the outsider -- The republic breaks -- Rebuilding amid the wreckage -- The republic of the mediocre -- Stumbling towards dictatorship -- The birth and death of Caesar's republic -- The republic of Octavian -- Choosing Augustan liberty.
651		0	_aRome _xPolitics and government _y265-30 B.C.
651		0	_aRome _xHistory _yRepublic, 265-30 B.C.
999			_c237052 _d237052