The U.S. Senate’s abdication of duty at the start of this Memorial Day weekend, when 11 senators (nine of them Republican) did not even show up to vote on authorizing an investigation of the ...

What the Roman senate’s groveling before emperors explains about GOP senators’ support for Trump Over the past three years, the world depicted by Tacitus, an ancient historian, has seemed much ...

In about 80 years, roughly the same length of time between the end of World War II and now, the Roman Republic was transformed into a dictatorship. If you had told a Roman senator at the beginning ...

The most glaring example, alas, is the senate in the ancient Roman Republic. If it’s been a while since you reached for your Edward Gibbon, save yourself the back strain.

Rome may have grown richer from the spoils of war, but the Senate could not figure out what to do with them. Arguments and sometimes outright violence broke out between senators, and social classes.

Rome’s crisis began in 33 CE, when anonymous informers accused members of the Roman Senate of enriching themselves by loaning money, thus violating a law that mandated senators hold parts of ...