Questions tend to be about
events, rather than society. They often concern the so-called ‘collapse’
of the republic. This does not mean the fall of Rome to
non-Romans in the 5th century AD/CE! It means the change from one
political system to another around 30 BC/BCE.
Was this change a long gradual process, or was it something that happened quickly?
How far was this change due to personalities, and how far to other events? If Cicero, or Pompey, or Caesar had been different people, might the republic have survived? If Augustus had never been born, would there have been an Empire?
We cannot answer the ‘what-if’s of history, but asking them can help see our assumptions about the role
of particular events and people.
How far was it due to the incompetence of a particular group? Could even a moderately competent group have managed the problems facing Rome without a radical restructuring of the political system?
If that is true, was the political system itself the cause of its own destruction?
