So I wouldn't say he left the Republic empty forms at all -- his system was pretty logical, if you like oligarchy. But maybe I'm not understanding what you meant.
See, I told you I was talking out of my ass :p I think what I was trying to say was that Sulla kind of set the pattern for the "strong-man rule" and then the question was just more or less when the right strong-man was going to come along and rule and eventually the 'dictator for life' was what they got. But was he just the worst of a series of people like him, just a bit more bloodthirsty and good at hanging on to power, or was he something (as I with my HUGELY spotty knowledge) quite different and new? It seems like he was the first in a line of men who used military success and their legions to leverage themselves into absolute power? (And, if at any time you decide that I should go read a book, please feel free to tell me! I realize that this is a bit of a busman's holiday on LJ for you!)
(I think one thing I am struggling with as well, in terms of the show, is that I find Caesar hugely charismatic so it's hard for me to think of his death as a good thing, necessarily - I think some of what worked really well in this past episode was that I saw Caesar kind of betray people I cared about - I was all convinced that Posca was secretly going to go bribe someone to let Pullo go or something and instead, wow, it WAS Caesar who ordered the murder... Even if I'm not sure I buy that he'd go to the trouble of murdering some pleb guy making noise - although I suppose a policy of "forgive the patricians, kill of the plebs" was a more viable one than "kill everyone" or "forgive everyone." Anyway...)
And hee on Pharsalus - as soon as I saw the episode titles, I figured out some of what was going to happen in a bunch of these episodes ("Caesarion" being another one!)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-11-15 12:51 am (UTC)See, I told you I was talking out of my ass :p I think what I was trying to say was that Sulla kind of set the pattern for the "strong-man rule" and then the question was just more or less when the right strong-man was going to come along and rule and eventually the 'dictator for life' was what they got. But was he just the worst of a series of people like him, just a bit more bloodthirsty and good at hanging on to power, or was he something (as I with my HUGELY spotty knowledge) quite different and new? It seems like he was the first in a line of men who used military success and their legions to leverage themselves into absolute power? (And, if at any time you decide that I should go read a book, please feel free to tell me! I realize that this is a bit of a busman's holiday on LJ for you!)
(I think one thing I am struggling with as well, in terms of the show, is that I find Caesar hugely charismatic so it's hard for me to think of his death as a good thing, necessarily - I think some of what worked really well in this past episode was that I saw Caesar kind of betray people I cared about - I was all convinced that Posca was secretly going to go bribe someone to let Pullo go or something and instead, wow, it WAS Caesar who ordered the murder... Even if I'm not sure I buy that he'd go to the trouble of murdering some pleb guy making noise - although I suppose a policy of "forgive the patricians, kill of the plebs" was a more viable one than "kill everyone" or "forgive everyone." Anyway...)
And hee on Pharsalus - as soon as I saw the episode titles, I figured out some of what was going to happen in a bunch of these episodes ("Caesarion" being another one!)