[Wrecked944]

Oh Rodeo, I respect your views a lot on this forum - even when I disagree. But this article is way off the mark. My undergrad degree was in Roman History and saying that the events surrounding the fight against the Mediterranean pirates caused the end of the Roman Republic is like saying that you know which bean made you fart. Man, a LOT of things brought about the creation of the imperial system - not the least of which being that Rome was never really a "republic" as we would define one. Instead, even at its best, it more closely resembled a clan of mafia dons - or, more technically, an olagarchy. Actually, the mafia don analogy is surprisingly accurate. And when the imperial system was created, it was still much the same except there was one don who was more powerful than the rest.

We could talk for hours about the causes of the transition from "republic" to "imperial rule". There is no one answer.

And I also have to point out one major flaw in the article. It implies that money corrupted the electoral system in Rome. Well, frankly, the "electoral" system was dysfunctional from the start. To begin with, Senators were not elected by the people. They were simply the heads of each of the most powerful families in Rome - much like mafia dons. It was the senators themselves who decided who got to be a senator. And in the "republic", the senate wielded absolute power. The people got to "vote" for representatives called the "Tribunes of the Plebs". But in practice, these tribunes had no power what-so-ever. They had power in theory. But in 122BC, that power was effectively destroyed when the senate had one of the Plebian Tribunes executed for disagreeing with them.

Blah, blah, blah...sorry for the long rant. Like I said, I could go on for hours...