The Greeks gave us democracy and the Romans gave us Dictatorship.
Of course that isn't really true as many Romans struggled to keep the Senate functioning and resist tyrants like Caesar.
Robert Harris' excellent trilogy on Cicero ending with Dictator is a racy novelisation of history. He portrays the vanity and flaws of his hero but also the bravery and stubborn principles on which political life should be based. He also doesn't shirk from the role that colonisation and conflict played in financing an Empire that we call civilisation.
The big problem with democracy is that it's run by the people for the people and what the people really want, when it comes down to it, is cash for food and entertainment. If anyone can provide that they can subvert the democratic process. Why is it - cue age old rhetorical question - that we never learn from history? Coz we never read abaht it I s'pose!
