Absolutely NOT!
The constitution of the Roman Republic served the Senate and People of Rome for 727 years. It was her people that failed her. The promises of a tyrant seduced the people of Rome to surrendering their liberty.
"The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes."
-- Thomas Paine
"The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell."
-- Karl Popper
"The people never give up their liberty but under some delusion."
-- Edmund Burke, 1784
The idle promises of the Gracchii, Marius, Caesar and the Julio-Claudian dynasty, what did it ever do for the Roman state? The problem with modern historians is that we take these men at their word when they promise the people wealth provided they steal from Peter. They say that Caesar killed one million Gauls and enslaved another million. How many Romans did he kill? How many did Marius kill at his last grasp for the Consulship?"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
--Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4,1777
Why did the Senate and People of Rome allow Clodius (caesar's stooge) to exile Cicero? Why did they not stand by him when he opposed Antony or stand by the Liberators?
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)
The temporary safety offered by Octavian did not stop the Senate and People of Rome from starving when Antony withheld the Egyptian grain.
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
-- Wendell Phillips, (1811-1884)
"Eternal vigilance is required and there have to be people who step up to the plate, who believe in liberty, and who are willing to fight for it."
-- Milton Friedman
“There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men.”
-- Edmund Burke
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