L' Agonie d'Une Republique

"The Republic is dead," Cicero wrote to his friend Atticus nearly fifteen years before Caesar fell, mortally wounded by conspirators' daggers. One century. That is how long the Roman Republic continued in agony before succumbing to the onslaught of ambitious dictators and military leaders eager to wield their personal power. From 133 BC, when Tiberius Gracchus was assassinated after having betrayed the Republican institutions, until Mark Antony's death in Alexandria, where he was defeated by Octavian in the summer of 30 BC, a century of civil wars, violence and bloody conflicts ravaged Rome and Italy. The most illustrious generals - Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar, Antony, Octavius, etc. - managed to bring down a political regime that had taken several centuries to build under the aegis of the famous "Roman virtue," while affirming the Romans' most precious asset: freedom. As always in such cases, the Roman people turned out to be its primary victim. Why was freedom assassinated? How did an ineluctable course of events cause men formerly proud of their Republic to renounce their fundamental values? These are the questions raised by the author, who, to help readers more fully relive these critical times, weaves into his text evocative relationships that give them a more personal glimpse into this tragic era. Observing this historic moment in which a wave of violence erupted that nearly swept everything away with it certainly provides some food for thought for those who are also wondering about the ways in which our era is evolving.