I've been reading up on Roman history for the first time. To try to see ahead to our future. Why the Republic succeeded as a Republic, or did it? Define success. Is Republican success measured by increasing control over the Italian peninsula: eat or be eaten? Does success mean controlling just the peninsula and the coast, and a couple of islands, and then three islands, and that trade corridor over there, and helping out that city on that island threatened by this other city across the sea; hey, how about control of metals mined in that peninsula over there because "we" need access to those metals to defend our Republic... In the City of Man, grow or die.
I've been reading up on Roman history for the first time. To try to see ahead to our future. Why the Republic succeeded as a Republic, or did it? Define success. Is Republican success measured by increasing control over the Italian peninsula: eat or be eaten? Does success mean controlling just the peninsula and the coast, and a couple of islands, and then three islands, and that trade corridor over there, and helping out that city on that island threatened by this other city across the sea; hey, how about control of metals mined in that peninsula over there because "we" need access to those metals to defend our Republic... In the City of Man, grow or die.
There is much to learn from those times.