Assassinations: a telling sign of Late Republic turmoil.
History is not over, it is accelerating.
Some classic case studies from Rome and their lessons: 🧵
1: Servilius Glaucia was running for consul for the year 99 BC.
His candidature was illegal (he had been praetor the year before, you're supposed to wait 2 years).
Fearing a challenge from a more respectable candidate (Memmius), Glaucia simply had the man murdered by a mob in broad daylight.
Glaucia and his friend Saturninus (a tribune) underestimated the backlash
The senate declared martial law ("senatus consultum ultimum"). The serving consul, Gaius Marius, sent in troops and besieged them on the Capitoline hill.
The culprits were released under truce, taken into custody in the senate house,
And both murdered with roof tiles during the night.