One Ring to Destroy the Roman Republic?

Ross Mackenzie, in his column about J.R.R. Tolkien and Lord of the Rings (December 17, 2003), says “Tolkien was well aware of ring-quest tales” and he “read Pliny, who wrote of the blood feud over a ring between Drusus and Caepio that led to the Social Wars, which ended in the Roman republic's collapse” [1]. One ring to destroy the Roman Republic? from http://janusquirinus.org

Pliny writes, “inter Caepionem quoque et Drusum ex anulo in auctione venali inimicitiae coepere, unde origo socialis belli et exitia rerum” [2]—“Also, it was from a ring put up for sale by auction that the hostility between Caepio and Drusus began, which were the origin of the Social War and the cause of the destruction”. Was it the hostility between Caepio and Drusus the origins of the Social War? No wonder a modern historian says “antiquity was prone to see only the ambition and the agency of individuals” [3]. That aside, what was destroyed? The Republic? Lasto al lalaith nîn! from http://janusquirinus.org

To explain the fall of the Roman Republic, historians invoke a variety of converging forces or movements, political, social and economic [4]. Different occasions have been proposed as the ultimate origin of the collapse; different events have been accorded special significance in the build up to civil war [5]; different individuals have been blamed. from http://janusquirinus.org

Polybius says Gaius Flaminius' agrarian reforms in Picenum in 232 BCE was the first step in the demoralisation of the Roman people [6], Florus thinks it is excessive prosperity and lust for personal power which destroyed the state [7], Velleius Paterculus thinks virtue was abandoned for that of corruption [8], Sallust sees an underlying conflict between the nobility and the plebs where everyone sought to draw or snatch everything to himself tearing the Republic into bits [9] and Appian thinks it was the resort to violence which marked and perhaps caused the demise of the Republic [10]. Inadequate administration of the empire, militarism resulting from the prolongation of military commands and multiracism [11] have also been used to explain the fall of the Roman Republic [12]. Somehow, a ring does not quite fit in, even if all it did was set into motion certain events. That is, unless it is the symbolism of Tolkien’s One Ring—the universal themes of lust for power, gold, desire and domination, “to the ruin of all” [13]. After all, people like the Gracchi brothers, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, Caesar, Cicero and Augustus, who have been blamed for destroying the Republic, were also deemed power-hungry. from http://janusquirinus.org

Tacitus would have agreed with the ending of the Lord of the Rings: the return of the king [14]. But which king? Sauron, “the Dark Lord on his dark throne” [15], or Aragorn, the healing King Elessar? You decide.

[3] Syme, 1939. For another translation ("an increase in bribery", not "put up for sale by auction") and commentary on the ring of dispute, see Rogueclassicism. Same conclusion though--"antiquity was prone to see only the ambition and the agency of individuals".

[4] ibid.

[5] Beard and Crawford, 1985.

[6] Histories II.21.7-8.

[7] Epitome of Roman History I.xlvii, taken from Lewis and Reinhold, 1990:

For what else produced those outbursts of domestic strife but excessive prosperity? It was the conquest of Syria which first corrupted us, followed by the Asiatic inheritance bequeathed by the king of Pergamum. The resources and wealth thus acquired spoiled the morals of the age and ruined the state, which was engulfed in its own vices as in a common sewer. For what else caused the Roman people to demand land and food from their tribunes, except the scarcity which luxury had produced? Hence arose the first and second Gracchan revolutions and the third raised by Appuleius. What was the cause of the violent division between the equestrian order and the senate on the subject of the judiciary laws except avarice, in order that the revenues of the state and the law courts themselves might be exploited for private profit? Hence arose the attempt of Drusus and the promise of citizenship to the Latins, which in war with our allies. Again, what brought the Servile Wars except the excessive size of our slave establishments? How else could those armies of gladiators have arisen against their masters, save profuse expenditure, which aimed at winning the favour of common people by indulging their love of shows, had turned what was originally a method of punishing enemies into a competition of skill? Again, to touch upon less ugly vices, was not ambition for office also by this wealth? Why, it was from such ambition that the Marian and Sullan disturbances arose. Again, were not the sumptuous extravagances of banquets and profuse largess due to a wealth which was bound soon to produce want? That was what brought Catiline into collision with his country. Finally, whence did the lust for personal power and domination arise save from excessive wealth? It was this lust which armed Caesar and Pompey with the raging torches that destroyed the state.

[8] Compendium of Roman History II.1.

[9] Bellum Jugurthinum 41.5, as cited by Crawford, 1978:

digitas

libertas

res publica

[10] Civil Wars I.1.1-2.

[11] Lintott, 1994.

[12] There are many books and web-sites dealing with the fall of the Republic, e.g. C.S. Markey’s lecture notes, second to last section.

[13] Tolkien, 2002.

[14] Annals. I.1.

[15] Tolkien, 2002.

Bibliography
Primary Sources
Appian. Civil Wars.
Florus. Epitome of Roman History, in Lewis and Reinhold, 1990.
Pliny. Natural History.
Polybius. Histories.
Sallust. Bellum Jugurthinum, in Crawford, 1978.
Tacitus. Annals.
Velleius Paterculus. Compendium of Roman History.

Secondary Sources
Beard M and Crawford M. 1985. Rome in the late Republic: problems and interpretations. London: Duckworth.
Crawford, MH. 1978. The Roman Republic. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Crook JA, Lintott A and Rawson E. 1994. The Last age of the Roman Republic, 146-43 B.C. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis N and Reinhold M. 1990. Roman civilization. Volume 1. 3rd ed. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lintott A. 1994. “The crisis of the Republic: source and source-problems.” in Crook et al.
Syme R. 1967. The Roman Revolution.
Tolkien JRR. 1992. The Lord of the Rings. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Text first published in Suite 101.com.