Mortal Republic may present no new ideas about the fall of the Roman Republic, but it is a timely reminder that republics are precarious ... Mortal Republic provides excellent insights into how the Republic became the Empire, and more broadly it speaks to the ever-present threat of centralized power. The more a civilization centralizes, the more powerful a central government becomes. A powerful central government will almost always give way to authoritarianism of one stripe or another
Watts, a professor of history at the University of California at San Diego, abandons a careful analysis of the larger trends for a blow-by-blow account of the many conflicts that divided the republic in the last century of its existence. At times, this endless onslaught of calamities—a new violation of some traditional norm, the latest commander to threaten an invasion of Rome, one more shift in the ever-fragile constellation of power—starts to numb the mind. But in another sense, the sheer repetitiveness of the calamities that befell Rome only serves to underline the book’s most urgent message. If we were to make explicit the implicit analogy that runs all the way through Mortal Republic, we would most likely cast Donald Trump as a farcical reincarnation of Tiberius Gracchus ... If the central analogy that animates Mortal Republic is correct, the current challenge to America’s political system is likely to persist long after its present occupant has left the White House.
Edward Watts wrote Mortal Republic, he says, as a result of his efforts to explain to friends and family the parallels between the fall of the Roman Republic and the crisis of today’s American democracy ... Watts does not shy away from drawing parallels and asserting them to be worrisome. The Roman Republic did not have to collapse, he asserts. It happened for reasons that he takes pains to outline, relating them to the events emblazed in today’s headlines ... The warnings of Mortal Republic should be heeded. We must recognize that when negotiation is seen as weakness, and compromise as surrender, the specter of an autocratic regime looms ominously.
...swift and competent ... Watts's latest offers a solid argument and serves as a fine historical companion to Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt's How Democracies Die. It will appeal to audiences interested in both popular Roman history and contemporary American affairs.
Given that mistrust of institutions is a key ingredient in the collapse of republican rule, as we are witnessing daily, the lesson is pointed. An engaging, accessible history that, read between the lines, offers commentary on today’s events as well as those of two millennia past.
... quick and clear, if at times dry ... The book moves briskly through the evolution of the republic’s democracy ... Watts ably and accessibly—if in a somewhat formal, scholarly style—covers a lot of ground in a manner accessible to all readers, including those with little knowledge of Roman history. This well-crafted analysis makes clear the subject matter’s relevance to contemporary political conversations.
