Book excerpt: "Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republicks" is a work by the prominent British thinker and political observer Edward Wortley Montagu. The book was written when Great Britain suffered a series of military reversals. In this book, Montagu studies five ancient republics: Sparta, Athens, Thebes, Carthage, and Rome, and tries to take a separate lesson adapted to the needs of Britain during the crisis.