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>But when the authoritarian emperors took over, you could say sayonara to "civil society". Rome had Emperors for either 400 or 1500 years, depending on what yo
by boomboomsubban 4y ago
>But when the authoritarian emperors took over, you could say sayonara to "civil society".
Rome had Emperors for either 400 or 1500 years, depending on what you call Rome, while the Roman Republic lasted about 400 years at most, with a tiny percentage of the population having voting rights for most of it.
So blaming a lack of democracy is a huge stretch.
- thom 4y agoWhile it's true that Rome never really came close to being a democracy, that's not to say that representation and accountability weren't relevant. The questions of who represented the interests of the plebs and the military were central to the crises at the end of the Republic (the Gracchi, the Marian reforms, Clodius, Caesar etc), and again in the late empire (all the barracks emperors).