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


Author: Mike Duncan
Rating: 4/5

Mike Duncan is my favorite podcaster.
He ran “The History of Rome” podcast from 2007 to 2012 explaining in detail the whole history of the Roman Western Empire.
It ran for 73h total, and I relished every last minute of it! (mostly while commuting by car).

He then published this book that focuses on a period that is less glamorous than the Fall of the Republic but that is nonetheless fundamental in understanding the shift from Republic to Empire.

Most of the attention, when talking about the constitutional changes that Augustus will bring forth, is in fact commanded by Caesar (with all the might that the name brings) often overlooking the fact that Caesar himself is not by himself a watershed figure in the history of Rome but rather is building its agenda and his prestige and his career on precedents set prominent figures a generation back. (It is also worth noting that most of the prestige of Caesar is a direct emanation of the legitimizing PR campaigns of his successor and successors.)

This book is about that generation (or couple of generations) that, by way of conflict, and often violence, slowly transformed Roman society and costumes, enabling, without intending, so the rise of the Empire.

History itself is more often than not imagined (and taught as) a series of compartmentalized, easy to digest “moments” often hiding in plain sight the overarching narrative that binds said moments together.

Is much easier to present Roman History (or any History for that matters) as a “chronicle” rather than an arch ignoring the fact that aforementioned moments cannot be unlinked from each other and that each brings forth the next and is bound by it. What in my opinion is the most fascinating aspect of history is the context in which the story unravels; the subtleties that link together cause and effect and how the current situation is the result of decisions taken and precedents set in the past.

This is the ultimate goal of this book: trying to show that the Empire didn’t just pop up overnight because of the immense magnetic pull of certain historical figures (read: Augustus), but rather the culmination of a slow erosion of the Republican institutions caused by many factors some generation removed in the past.

Some of those instruments, dating back to the Gracchi brothers themselves are:

The ambitions of young man, willing to cast aside the yoke of the oligarchy first in the name of equality and then in the name of personal power, fostered innovation that basically allowed them to overcome of the costume (the famous “mos maiorum”, the unwritten rules of Roman politics) and introduce “precedents” that later generations will abuse to pursue personal goals (the bread and butter of Caesar and Pompey).

This changes happened over the course of “generations”, but there are historical figures that can be seen as catalysts in this process; The major struggles ensued between the “Optimates” (i.e. the conservative oligarchy) and the “Populares” (i.e. still members of the same conservative oligarchy, as Rome didn’t have means for the masses of direct political participation, but that were willing to subvert the State).

Some association of the latter against the first are:

The point is, before the birth of the Empire, there is a whole generation (or generations) worth of civil strife, where ambitious young men would ride the political issue of the moment (earlier with the Gracchi: land redistribution, later with Marius and Sulla: the question of Italian suffrage) in order to acquire political power.

The book deftly helps explaining this changes, is a read that I know I was missing and that I enjoyed a lot.

Book Details