[hinckley buzzard]

Actually Caesar defeated Pompey, of course. Sulla came earlier.

The empire thrived and prospered for centuries after the fall of the republic.

[Robert A Cook PE]

The book, actually, was Gibbon's classic Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. You missed my intended link between the roman republic's fall - because the Senate GAVE UP power to its favored most-powerful-politician ... who then could name himself "emperor" without opposition from the rest of the political class. He did not have to fight to become emperor, the leaders of the republic gave up .