"The social instability that resulted from inequities in the class system gave way to the rise......

[marmar]

[font size="3"]......of demagogues like the brothers Gracchi. The use of the citizen assemblies for popular agendas tore at the very fabric of Senatorial power.

Men like Marius and Sulla, with their own personal agendas and rivalries wreaked havoc in an already weakened structure. Partisan politics of the conservative Optimate Senators trying to keep power with the elite class, while the tactics of the Populares, who looked to the lower classes for support, divided the people and classes into what seemed like warring factions. For nearly 100 years, the climate was unpredictable at best, and brutally bloody at worst."[/font]

- from Fall of the Roman Republic


Dejavu all over again.

[tularetom]

1. I think Mel Brooks commented on that

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I told people to seriously read Cicero

[hedda_foil]

3. My understanding of the Gracchi brothers was that they were of the left, relatively speaking.

They've been compared to the Kennedy brothers, and not just because they were assassinated for their troubles. It's the demagogue part that bothers me. As in populist=demagogue.