Caesar’s murder and the fatal addiction of power: Ancient Rome offers today’s leaders a chilling lesson in the dangers of hubris. (2015)

“..modern politics is less violent than that of ancient Rome but the basic principles of power and ambition are universal and unvarying…

Robert Harris, best-selling thriller writer
Daily Mail / Right Minds: 20 October 2015

“It is one of the great mysteries of history: why did Caesar, sensing mortal danger as he obviously did, nevertheless change his mind and decide at the last minute to attend the senate (on 15 March 44BC)?…. From the very moment that he stepped over the threshold of the senate chamber he was a dead man.

“The answer, I am sure, is what former Labour Foreign Secretary Lord (David) Owen has called ‘the hubris syndrome’. Many successful leaders suffer from it; Caesar’s case was just particularly acute.

“Our modern politics is obviously less violent than that of ancient Rome but the basic principles of power and ambition are universal and unvarying….

“…the very strengths that can drive an individual to reach the pinnacle of office – determination, overflowing energy, self-belief, a desire to dominate, a relish in wielding power – are exactly the qualities that make such individuals blind to their own accumulating misjudgments in power, unable to judge the right time to quit, and doom them, if not to assassination, then to a miserable retirement.”

Read the full article here: Caesar’s murder and the fatal addiction of power