Status Updates From The Last Generation of the ...

A central feature of Roman political life was the system of patronage and clientage. A large proportion of the proletariate possessed closer bonds to individual houses of the nobilitas than to others in their own social class.

"Principal agent in the destruction of the Republic, so it would appear, was the Roman army...Once imbued with patriotic ardor, it had transferred its loyalty from the state to its own generals and leaders, producing, in effect, a series of private, client forces with no abstract attachments to the Republic."

"The direction of post-Sullan society moved from flexible institutions toward strictly defined practices. Roman statesmen were, on the whole, sincere and assiduous in attacking contemporary problems. But the means employed, a proliferatiom of statutory law, may have contributed to the Republic's undoing."