Part 4/5:
However, Polybius' optimism about the Roman solution proved short-lived. In the century after his death, the Roman Republic began to unravel. Resentments built up among various factions, leading to the rise of demagogic leaders who undermined the Republic's institutions. A series of civil wars ultimately resulted in the establishment of the Roman Empire under Augustus.
The collapse of the Roman Republic seemed to follow the very pattern of decline that Polybius had described in his theory of anacyclosis. This raises the question of whether any civilization can truly escape the cycle of rise and fall.