Classics Speaker Series: Julia Mebane

The Expansionist Republic in Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae One of the great truisms of the classical republican tradition is that the extension of Rome’s empire caused the downfall of its republic. Although this idea finds canonical expression in Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy, its origins can be traced back to the second century BCE. My paper highlights the role of Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae in formulating the paradox of the expansionist republic, which requires warfare for the realization of concord yet is corrupted by its consequences. Whether there might be a political form better suited to