Why Rome Chose an Emperor
I’m a huge fan of Dan Carlin. His Hardcore History podcast has been an incredibly exciting way to learn about different periods of history.
Each series has around 3–4 episodes and each episode averages about 2 hours. I’ve listened to:
- The Wrath of the Khans — 5 episodes
- Punic Nightmares — 3 episodes
- Death Throes of the Republic — 6 episodes (12 hours total)
- Prophets of Doom — 1 episode (4 hours)
- King of Kings — 3 episodes
All of these are fantastic, but Death Throes of the Republic was my favorite — and I would also say the most relevant for us living in 21st century USA.
It’s eerie how similar this period in Roman history is to our current political climate in the US. If you don’t have 12 hours, here’s a very short overview.. But it’s worth the 12 hours of listening!
Carlin explains in the first episode how Rome became a regional power by forging alliances with other latin city states. As Rome became more wealthy, these other city states wanted more than a partnership, they wanted citizenship.
In the Transition from a regional power to a Mediterranean/World power, Rome began accumulating an incredible amount of slaves for both for help in wars and as the spoils of war.
As they expanded their territory, their foundation became shaky — the gap between the haves and the have nots got wider and wider.
This bubbling discontent set the stage for how Rome went from being a Republic to an Empire…in 60 years!
The main characters of this story are two Roman Generals whose rivalry pushed Rome over the edge — it’s the story of Gaius Marius and Lucius Sulla.
Marius was a genius military commander and after saving Rome from multiple existential threats by German barbarian invaders, he continued to be elected as the Roman consul (the rough equivalent of our office of presidency).
There were limits of time in office and the number of times you could be elected. Well, Marius was elected an unprecedented 7 times..
This was a problem, particularly to Sulla, who saw Marius as a threat to the Republic of Rome. Sulla was willing to do whatever it took to get rid of Marius and “save” Rome.
To save the republic Sulla, crossed a threshold that no one before him was willing to do — he took his army, which had loyalty to him above the Rome, and marched on the capital city, to free it from the usurper, Marius.
Sulla succeeded in ridding Rome of Marius. What he didn’t realize though is that he just showed all the up and coming generals — namely Julius Caesar — that Rome could be conquered from the inside.
Sulla showed Julius Caesar that the custom of never bringing a standing army into the city of Rome was just that…a custom — much like the Constitution of the US is a custom.
It is impossible, listening to this series, not to want to make parallels to the last 20 years in the US.
This is yet another reason, why I didn’t vote in either 2016 or in 2020.
It’s interesting to me that in the middle of political strife, it always feels like it is the “other side” who will be held responsible for the downfall of our collective civilization — the other side who will push us off the proverbial cliff. Our duty then is to stand our ground and even fight back.
The reality, and it seems that history bears this out, is that it is the power struggle itself — the escalating tit for tat feuds — which pushes us all forward, left leg and then right leg… right off the cliff.
As the rhetoric heats up, it bears remembering the example of Jesus in his death and resurrection that by winning some arguments/fights/wars you actually lose, and that the way to win some arguments/fights/wars is actually to lose.
