The Fall Of The Republic Poem by John F. McCullagh

The Fall Of The Republic



In the streets, broad and narrow, of Republican Rome,
when Cicero, togate, called the Forum his home,
there was sly innuendo and sarcastic wit.
Court was quite entertaining with those advocates.

In the Senate, gridlock was rampant those days
the Boni, content with conservative ways,
Would block legislation and seek to destroy
The populist leaders who held mobs enthralled.

The realm grew too large, the Republic too small,
And Civil War was declared and great Pompey did fall.
Then Caesar was slain and violence started anew
and the laws became silent as often they do.

Exhausted, at last, many principals slain,
Caesar Augustus the power reclaimed.
There still was a Senate in Empire Rome
But form is not substance, the Republic was gone.

Now Rome had an emperor to worship and fear.
Change happened quickly, the fruits of despair,
When the dust had all settled
a Monarch ruled there.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Topic(s) of this poem: history
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
The Boni and Progressives brought government to a standstill in the days leading up to the Roman Civil wars.
At the end of the wars the Republic was replaced by a hereditary Monarchy, but one that retained the old forms and institutions of the Republic as impotent vestiges of the past.
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