Who killed the Republic?

[Publius Nonius Severus]

The way I have started looking at the fall of the Republic is two-fold. Whenever an event (or a person associated with an event(s)) is mentioned and the role it may have played in the Republic's demise, I ask myself two questions:

 

1) Was this a contributing factor in the demise of the Republic?

 

2) If this had not happened would it have stopped or reversed the demise of the Republic?

 

By doing this, you can shed more light on a lot of the major names and events associated with the demise by more clearly depicting their impact in short and long term considerations. How you answer both of the questions better represents the weight that particular event had in the demise. An event with two "yes" answers is more critical than just one.

 

Let's take Sulla for example. Although there are multiple aspects and events associated with Sulla that can be seen as detrimental to the Republic, one of the more prominent was his first march on Rome.

 

Was it a contributing factor? Yes. Not only did it have the short term effect of terrifying the citizens as they watched soldiers fighting within the pomerium, it also gave Marius & Cinna an excuse to march on the city and of course gave Caesar precedent for marching on Rome several decades later.

 

If this had not happened, would it have stopped or reversed the demise? No. Although Sulla's march was a convienent precedent, I feel quite positive that it alone would not have stopped Caesar from crossing the Rubicon, which is another event to which to apply these two questions and so on.