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

Focusing on a less-known period of Roman history, this work narrates the conditions that led to the fall of the Republic. Beginning with the famed demagogue brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus and ending with the sweeping revolutions of Sulla, the book provides a comprehensive backdrop that foreshadows and makes inevitable the death of the Republic. I enjoyed Duncan’s style immensely as his voice is direct, precise, and engaging. Although Duncan doesn’t have a history doctorate, he expertly leverages the historical sources and weaves a palatable story to readers of all backgrounds. The book changed some of my viewpoints on class conflict and public morals (or as the Romans called it, mos maiorum); the calcification of class and subsequent conflicts, combined with the deterioration of political ethics, led extremism to beget further extremism.

One of the greatest issues with the late Republic is political deadlock. Looking at Rome, much of the deadlock between the optimate faction and the populare faction was due to the influx of wealth from Asia, wealth that only went to the already rich. Although many are against gross wealth inequality from a purely Kantian moral imperative, the functional effects of an enormous wealth gap is that it paves the road for demagoguery as a reliable path to power, leading to the likes of the Gracchi, Saturninus, Marius, and Cinna. The conflict of interest between the people and the upper class grow more entrenched with every passing issue. But on an individual level, it reminded me that we can strive to win, but never at the expense of making the losers lose so bad that they would have the will or the ability to destroy the game.