The beginning of the end for the American republic?

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On the Ides of March, 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was assassinated with knives by his fearful political rivals. On that day the Roman Republic started its death spiral.

Earlier, in June 59 B.C., Cicero, the Roman lawyer, philosopher and defender of the Republic, wrote letters to his friend Atticus who was away in Greece on business. In the letters he brought Atticus up to date on the political shenanigans then going on in Rome. While the Republic was legally still alive, it was dominated by a junta of three men — Marcus Crassus with money to spare, Pompey with soldiers loyal to him and Julius Caesar, without money or soldiers but with keenly attuned street smarts.

Cicero wrote to his friend that Crassus bribed juries and voters; a playwright put a pun on Pompey's name in one of his plays and got 12 standing ovations from the audience; and that when Caesar entered the arena nobody clapped.

Cicero's conclusion: These things, though they make me the more glad that our minds are still free, make me the more sad because our virtue is in chains (virtutem adligatam).

Without his knowing it at the time, his insightful words pointed out the cause of the coming collapse of his Republic: Too few had the personal virtue — we might say character — to stop the cultural rot, discipline the miscreants and defend the rule of law against that of the sword.

Time will tell if that indictment similarly set off a death spiral for the American republic.

It is time for all Americans to learn the history of the collapse of the Roman Republic so that we may avoid a similar suicide of our republic.

The history books can be boring and are not readily available, but everyone has access to the two plays of Shakespeare that can tell us all we really need to know about the collapse of the Roman Republic: "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra." Here are links: tinyurl.com/read-caesar and tinyurl.com/read-cleopatra.

To me the most frightening words from Shakespeare in his play "Julius Caesar" are put in the mouth of Antony as he goes into a cold fury over the killing of Caesar:

And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,

Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice

Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war, …

Then Antony speaks to the Roman people, cries "havoc," and stirs the assembled mob to rise and mutiny.

Then he steps back to let the dogs of war he has just unleashed run amok, saying to himself: "Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot. Take thou what course thou wilt!"

Mischief saw to it that the assassins were killed; that Cicero himself was killed on Antony's orders, and that Antony committed suicide in Egypt alongside Cleopatra. The winner brought forth by this Mischief to rule Rome was Octavian, Caesar's nephew and adopted son, who turned Rome into a despotic autocracy providing bread and circuses for the common people.

Who among us now can lead us to keep our virtue free from chains, the dogs of civil strife locked in their kennels, and Mischief itself looking to do its business elsewhere than in the United States of America?