Thomas Wiedemann’s thin volume, Cicero and the End of the Roman Republic, begins with this sentence: “The values of the Roman republic into which Cicero was born were both militaristic and competitive”—a claim amply supported by the next 83 pages of murders, treachery, slander, and endless legal battles consisting largely of ad hominem attacks. I confess to skimming more and more quickly. The Chinese phrase puts it succinctly: 他们都是流氓, “they are all gangsters.”