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The Roman Empire

Decent Essays

One of the greatest empires in history is the Roman Empire, but ironically what makes it one of the greatest is also what lead it to start falling apart. In other words, many different factors lead Rome to its success and prosperity, but these factors also are the ones that initialize the ruin of the republic. Different authors such as Polybius, Cicero, Sallust and Plutarch describe several of these factors that lead the Roman Empire to its glory and failure. Polybius relates Rome’s success to its political structure and the commitment and self-sacrifice that its citizens have for the republic. But, on the other hand, a few years later Cicero, Sallust, and Plutarch claim the factors that make the republic so great are the triggers to the increase of the need for power and high status in Rome’s citizens, therefore resulting in corruption. Polybius analyses different aspects of Rome to understand how it turns to be so great, and one of the characteristics he highlights in his analysis is the roman government. He states, “THE THREE kinds of government, monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, were all found united in the commonwealth of Rome.” In this statement, he conveys the idea that Rome has taken the best of all three types of government to create this new type of government that is form to make the republic succeed. What takes from these three government branches is: the consul from the monarchy branch, the senate from the aristocracy branch and the tribal assembly from

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