I'll second this as a poor analogy. Roman politics during the Second Punic war, the Sulla era, and then the Civil Wars/Imperial Birth is a very complicated thin

I'll second this as a poor analogy. Roman politics during the Second Punic war, the Sulla era, and then the Civil Wars/Imperial Birth is a very complicated thing and not very open to a UBI analogy. At best, maybe the grain dole of Julio-Claudian dynasty is better, but not for the whole Rome's span, and especially not the Republic until Sulla. For an Excellent intro into Roman history see this very good podcast: http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/the_history_of_rome/archives.html http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/the_history_of_rome/arch...