[Wh1skey]

The story of Rome’s fall is both complicated and relatively straightforward yet it eerily resembles America: The state became too big and chaotic; the influence of money and private interests corrupted public institutions; and social and economic inequalities became so large that citizens lost faith in the system altogether and gradually fell into the arms of tyrants and demagogues. If all of that sounds familiar, well, that’s because the parallels to our current political moment are striking. Edward Watts, a historian at the University of California San Diego, has just published a new book titled Mortal Republic that carefully lays out what went wrong in ancient Rome — and how the lessons of its decline might help save fledgling republics like the United States today.

[dang]

We've banned this account for spamming the threads with duplicate comments. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21645365.

[fluorocarbon]

Mortal Republic is not about the fall of Rome. It's about the fall of the Republic, or the transition from a republic (oligarchy) into an empire (monarchy). Rome in fact reached its largest extent about a hundred years after the fall of the Republic, under the emperor Trajan.

When people talk about "Rome's fall," they're usually referring to the decline of the western half of the empire which happened 400-500 years after the fall of the Republic. The reasons for this fall are debated, but it's likely due to some combination of plague, invasions, elite infighting, and a lack of rules about succession leading to constant civil wars.

[anigbrowl]

The GP didn't say it was about the fall of Rome, and nothing in the post suggests to me it was intended to be understood that way.

[aetherson]

I mean, his first sentence included the phrase "the story of Rome's fall" and nothing between there and the book suggested he'd changed topics.

[anigbrowl]

Given that he concluded with the focus on saving the republic specifically rather than Roman civilization it seemed obvious to me.

[jhallenworld]

One part of it was that times were better when emperors were selected based on ability instead of by heredity.

https://medium.com/@samo.burja/how-roman-emperors-handled-th...

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Five-Good-Emperors

[JackFr]

One might argue that times were best when there were no emperors.

[WhompingWindows]

Not to mention they were all poisoned by lead, using it for sweeteners, pipes, and for their chalices and cups.

[edoceo]

Flint, MI would like a word

[notabee]

A slow moving disaster of neglected infrastructure across the country would also like a word: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lead-map/reuters-find...

[ip26]

Not all of them, only the poor.

If I recall correctly, sugar of lead was a poor man's sweetener. The rich could afford honey.

[hnuser77]

One could consider Americans poisoned by something, considering that 40% of the American population is obese (not just overweight) and sperm count has declined 50% in developed countries over the past few decades.

[throwawayhhakdl]

Hmm... is the sperm count stat normalized to the obesity problem? I keep hearing things about America’s declining health, some of which seem to be “mysterious” and concerning. But then I’m always reminded that a lot of it is just people being fat. People being fat sounds like a highly probable culprit for why sperm counts are dropping on average.

[rgrieselhuber]

The debasement of money is also a factor in both stories.