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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Fall of the Roman Republic and rise of the Empire may have been triggered by a massive volcanic eruption in Alaska in 43 BC that set off a global climate shock leading to famine and unrest |
| 2020-06-24 |
 Or it could have something to do with the murder of the Gracchi and the rival factions of Marius and Sulla. Caesar was an adherent of Sulla -- he was reported by Suetonius, I believe, to have been Sulla's girly boy when young. The rivalries among Caesar, Anthony, and Cassius had much more to do with the earlier factions than with the eruption of a volcano in Alaska. But I could be wrong. After all, I'm not an expert. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #13 Corruption and internecine civil war in the second and third century as well as the splitting of the empire and the silly Diocletian 4way power sharing idea had far more to do with it. |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2020-06-24 19:22 |
| #12 he was reported by Suetonius, I believe, to have been Sulla's girly boy when young Meh. The Romans considered homosexuality to be disqualifying for public office, so those rumors were around for EVERY emperor or would-be emperor. The bigger rumor about Julius Caesar was that he spent time as the king of Bithynia's lover -- he was the "Queen of Bithynia" -- when he was supposed to be gathering troops. Yet he showed up with troops at Just the Right Moment(tm), and earned him the honors that started his political career. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2020-06-24 16:08 |
| #11 ...where's the government academic graft in that? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2020-06-24 14:43 |
| #10 Is it possible that there was more than one reason, that a bunch of different things contributed? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2020-06-24 14:24 |
| #9 Suetonius always said stuff like that. He was the gossip columnist of the ancient world. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2020-06-24 11:27 |
| #8 Butterflies. |
| Posted by: York Harding 2020-06-24 10:01 |
| #7 Derned Alaskians! |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2020-06-24 09:32 |
| #6 volcano in 43 BC resulted in Alaric's sack of Rome in 410? |
| Posted by: lord garth 2020-06-24 08:09 |
| #5 next year, the fad cause will be raycism |
| Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 2020-06-24 08:04 |
| #4 #1 So you're going to throw an established, well reasoned chain of events and complex human interactions across an arc of time up in our face as opposed to...CLIMATE? |
| Posted by: Cesare 2020-06-24 07:12 |
| #3 What, it wasn't the lead water pipes! |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-06-24 07:10 |
| #2 Quite possible. |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-06-24 06:52 |
| #1 Could have also been driven by their success in the Second Punic War which left an Italian city state republic with vast overseas acquisitions and subsequent military requirements that the structures of the government were never designed to support. Wealth, power, and ambition destroyed the checks and balances that had been previously designed in the structures of the republican state. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2020-06-24 06:35 |