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The Roman Senators prevented such attitudes from developing by incorporating even the sturdiest of their antagonists into the Republic on a par with themselves. Not only did they extend the rights of citizens at home, but they expanded the franchise of citizenship abroad, giving all in their domain a common, broad interest in the welfare of the state. This was a new phenomenon in history as until this time, all empires had been built on obedience to some monarch. However, early on, this was theoretically a "Republican empire" even if eventually it became simply the "Roman Empire".
Actually, the nature of the Republic is masked from the modern mind by the very use of the term "Republic", which in our day suggests (without guarantying) representative government. Even in the early days of Rome, this never really was the case, and as the Republic grew, the Popular Assembly lost what influence it had. At best, the people were never really effectively represented because they were disenfranchised by both distance and the organization of the Assembly, which voted along tribal lines. These tribal votes were often manipulated in ways which would have shamed Tammany Hall so as to produce results contrary to the popular will, and as the Assembly became increasingly unwieldy and corrupt, power fell to the Senate. The Senate was the bastion of the Roman oligarchy—the big businessmen, ambitious politicians, great land owners, etc. Thus, most members had interests at odds with those of the majority of the citizens. Although the Senate had little executive authority, it was so influential and the unrepresentative Assembly so impotent that popular government failed before the First Punic War. In the Punic Wars, Rome had the distinct advantage of fighting Carthage, which was about as stupid an opponent as any belligerent could wish to have. The Carthaginian leaders ignored their allies and own people as much as possible and, as leaders of the Roman Empire would later do, pursued their own narrow interests to the detriment of the state in general. They were particularly hostile to new men and novel measures and were overconfident of their maritime ascendancy to the point of negligence. In fact, nothing better illustrated the general stupidity of the Carthaginians than their demise at sea at the hands of the Roman fleet in the First Punic War. At the battle of Mylae in 260, the Romans were victorious by virtue of a tactical innovation: Instead of ramming the enemy vessels or breaking their oars, the Roman navy maneuvered so that Roman soldiers could board the enemy ships and slaughter their crews. Incredibly, they were completely triumphant using exactly the same tactic
 stupidity.net  Notes |