The Composition of the Oligarchy of Government

I love Sir Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution, which takes an approach that Murray Rothbard appreciated. Writes Syme: “The subject of this book is the transformation of state and society at Rome. It…records the rise to power of Augustus and the establishment of his rule, embracing the years 44-23 B.C. The period witnessed a violent transference of power and property; and the Principate of Augustus should be regarded as the consolidation of the revolutionary process. Emphasis is laid, however, not upon the personality and acts of Augustus, but upon his adherents and partisans. The composition of the oligarchy of government therefore emerges as the dominant theme of political history…; it is something real and tangible, whatever may be the name or theory of the constitution.”

Read this great book
, though study of the “composition of the oligarchy of government” tends to be excoriated as conspiracy theorizing, by the paid agents of oligarchs.

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1:52 pm on May 2, 2008