ABSTRACT
To win wars, one needs only to overcome others. To win peace, one must overcome oneself, which is often more difficult and painful. Imperial conquests reached unprecedented heights with Julius Caesar and the First Emperor. Now Rome and Qin faced the most formidable enemy. Internal convulsions, more terrible than external conflicts, have ended many empires with weaker constitutions. Rome and China pulled through. Yet the costs for their peace were dear. This chapter explores the long power struggle between monarchists and aristocrats that climaxed in the three decades. The twilight of the Republic was the major theme of the Roman civil wars, fought partly for want of an alternative vision to the republican constitution made dysfunctional by the demands of empire. The chapter also argues that those most aggrieved were the political elites who lost privileges in Qin's abolition of the feudalistic aristocracy and resented legal supervision of officers.
