Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

by Tom Holland

villas that now dotted the coastline either side of Puteoli and were themselves the ultimate in consumer trophies. Like the super-rich anywhere, the Roman aristocracy

What does the bloodthirsty passage of time not leech away? Our parents’ generation, worse than their parents’, Has given birth to us, worse yet—and soon We will have children still more depraved.

Augustus, claiming no more authority than was due to him by virtue of his achievements and prestige, summoned his countrymen to share with him the heroic task of revitalizing the Republic. He encouraged them, in short, to feel like citizens again.

“cultivation restored to the fields, respect to what is sacred, freedom from anxiety to mankind.”30

to renew the rugged virtues of the ancient peasantry, to bring the Republic back to basics.

nostalgia for a venerated past, yes, but simultaneously a spirit harsh and unsentimental, the same that had forged generations of steel-hard citizens and carried the Republic’s standards to the limits of the world. “Back-breaking labor, and the urgings of tough poverty—these can conquer anything!”

Officially, this was the voting hall, the Ovile, an extravagant upgrading of the old wooden pens into marble. But it was rarely used for voting. Instead, where the Roman people had once gathered to elect their magistrates, gladiators now fought and bizarre monsters—giant serpents, for instance, almost ninety feet long—were displayed. And if there were no shows, then citizens could always flock there for the luxury shopping.

“Shaggy simplicity is yesterday’s news. Rome’s made of gold,/And coins in all the wealth of the

“The fruit of too much liberty is slavery”