CSP 12 Autocracy and Its Resistance in Ancient Rome

Autocracy is a mode of governance in which all power is vested in one person. At first Rome was ruled by kings. After overthrowing the monarchy, Romans enjoyed centuries under various republican constitutions. Eventually, following decades of civil war, Rome accepted autocratic, one-man rule. These political changes, played out over 1000 years, gave Romans ample occasion to experience, worry over, theorize about, sometimes welcome and sometime resist autocracy. We will look at ancient historical, philosophical, and poetic texts in which Romans asked themselves questions such as: What are the varieties of autocracy? Do some circumstances necessitate autocracy, or is that merely what we tell ourselves when in fact we simply crave it? What are our alternatives to autocracy? Why should we value any one of these alternatives? What do each of these alternatives ask of us, as citizens? Are we politically, psychologically, and indeed morally prepared to create and sustain an alternative to autocracy -- a freedom of some sort -- for ourselves? Roman experiences of, reflections on, and modes of resistance to autocracy have inspired visions of the social order from St. Augustine to Machiavelli, from Hobbes to the Founders of the United States of America, and remain to this day required tools for imagining ourselves as free beings living in community.