The ancient Romans had a concept they called dignitas — a compound of earned excellence, public reputation, and demonstrated authority that could not be inherited or purchased, only proven. The consulship, the tribunate, the generalship: these positions demanded a particular kind of man, not merely a particular kind of credential. When Cicero warned the Senate that the republic was being hollowed out from within, he was not describing a political crisis so much as a civilizational one.
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