The Problem With the Roman Republic's Government

Cicero was born on January 3, 106 BCE in the town of Arpenum, about 60 miles southeast of Rome as the crow flies. He was again an equestrian, the son of a wealthy father of non-sanitorial rank. Cicero's family may have been involved with the cultivation of chickpeas and a famous anecdote from Plutarch tells us that Cicero is the Latin word for chickpea. The republic collapsed because an antiquated land holding elite began to join interests with a newly ascendant sect of wildly laissez-faire capitalists.