Hmmm, you left out a lot of history leading up to the fall of the Roman Republic, which is far more relevant to what's happening now with our own faltering democracy. Starting with Marius and Sulla and ending with say the Catiline Conspiracy involving a plot to kill Roman Senators, you can draw lots of interesting parallels. And let's no forget that a wealthy in-debt real estate developer with an oversized-ego, Crassus, had a role to play.