5.4: Fall of the Roman Republic
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The late Republican historian Sallust grimly saw the Punic Wars as the beginning of the end of the Republic. Some conservative politicians of his day believed that this victory had corrupted the noble Roman character. Further, the new abundance of resources raised the question of how to distribute the new wealth and land. As result, two political factions emerged: the Populares, or those who protected the interests of the people, and the Optimates, or those who protected the interests of the best element of the populace—namely, themselves.
5.4.1: The Gracchi and the Beginning of Political Violence
Starting with 133 BCE, the final century of the Roman Republic was defined by political violence and civil wars.
In 133 BCE, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, a member of one of the oldest and most respected families in Rome, was one of the ten annually elected plebeian tribunes. Alarmed that the newly acquired lands had largely been taken over by rich landowners at the expense of poorer Romans, Gracchus proposed a land distribution law, known as the Lex Sempronia Agraria. Gracchus argued that this law would benefit the state, since land ownership was a prerequisite for military service.
Aware that the Senate’s Optimates faction opposed his proposal, Gracchus took his law directly to the Plebeian Council, which passed it. At a meeting of the Senate, the pontifex maximus, who was Tiberius Gracchus’ own cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, ultimately argued that Gracchus had attempted to make himself king and had to be stopped. Since weapons were banned inside the Senate building, enraged Senators grabbed whatever was on hand, including chair and table legs, and clubbed Gracchus to death.
Ten years later, Gracchus’ proposed reforms gained a second life in the hands of his younger brother, Gaius Gracchus, who was elected plebeian tribune in 123 BCE and again in 122 BCE. Gaius Gracchus’ went one step further and proposed granting full Roman citizenship to Rome’s Italian allies. Alarmed at Gaius Gracchus’ popularity with the people, the consul Lucius Opimius proposed a new measure in the Senate: a senatus consultum ultimum, which allowed the consuls to do whatever was necessary to safeguard the state. Realizing that the passing of this law amounted to his death sentence, Gaius Gracchus committed suicide.
The Gracchi proposals showed the growing conflict between the rich and the poor in the Roman state. Second, the willingness on the part of prominent Senators to resort to violence to resolve matters set a dangerous precedent for the remainder of the Republic and fundamentally changed the nature of Roman politics. Finally, the support that the Gracchi received from the Roman people, as well as the residents of Italian cities who were not full citizens, showed that the causes that the Gracchi adopted were not going to go away permanently after their death. Indeed, Rome’s Italian allies went to war against Rome in 90 – 88 BCE. The result of this Social War, after “socii,” meaning “allies,” was the grant of full Roman citizenship rights to Italians.
5.4.2: The Civil War of Marius and Sulla
Forty years later, a conflict between two politicians, representing different sides in Populares vs Optimates debate, resulted in a full-fledged civil war.
In 107 BCE, impatient over the prolonged and challenging war against the Numidian king Jugurtha, the Romans elected as consul Gaius Marius.
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While Marius had already enjoyed a distinguished military career, a newcomer to Roman politics. Even more shockingly, Marius was not even from Rome proper, but from the town of Arpinum, located sixty miles south of Rome. Once elected, he took over the command in the war and passed a comprehensive set of military reforms. First, Marius abolished the property requirement for military service, allowing landless Romans to serve in the army for the first time in Roman history. Second, the Roman state was to arm its troops and pay them for service. Henceforth, the military became a profession, rather than a seasonal occupation for farmers. Finally, Marius changed the tactics of the legionary organization on the battlefield, changing the legion of maniples into a legion of cohorts.
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Marius’ reforms proved immensely successful, and he swiftly was able to defeat Jugurtha, ending the war in 104 BCE. As a result of his victories, Marius had gained unprecedented popularity in Rome and was elected to five more successive consulships in 104 – 100 BCE. While a law existed requiring ten years between successive consulships, Marius’ popularity and military success elevated him above the law. In the end, Roman would witness the worse civil war it had ever seen.
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In 88 BCE, the Roman Senate was facing a war against Mithridates, king of Pontus, an Eastern province of the empire. Sensing that Marius was too old to undertake the war, the Senate appointed Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a distinguished general who had started his career as Marius’ quaestor and was now a consul himself. Summoning the Plebeian Council, Marius overturned the decision of the Senate and drove Sulla out of Rome. Instead of going lightly into exile, Sulla gathered an army and marched on Rome—the first time in Roman history that a Roman general led a Roman army against Rome!
Sulla took over Rome, swiftly had himself declared commander of the war on Mithridates, and departed for the Black Sea. In 86 BCE, Marius was elected consul for the seventh and final time in his career then promptly died of natural causes, just seventeen days after taking office. The civil war that he started with Sulla, though, was still far from over.
In 83 BCE, victorious over Mithridates but facing a hostile reception from the Senate, Sulla marched on Rome for the second time. Declaring himself dictator, he ruled Rome for the next three years. In an effort to prevent the rise of another Marius, he significantly curtailed the powers of the plebeian tribunes. In addition, he established the proscriptions—a list of enemies of the state, whom anyone could kill on sight, and whose property was confiscated. Incidentally, one name on Sulla’s list was the young Julius Caesar, whose aunt had been married to Gaius Marius. While Caesar obviously survived the proscription, and went on to become a prominent politician himself, the confiscation of his property by Sulla ensured that he remained painfully strapped financially and in debt for the rest of his life.
After enacting his reforms, Sulla just as suddenly resigned from politics, retiring to a family estate outside of Rome in 79 BCE, where he appears to have died of cirrhosis of the liver, according to Plutarch’s description. Over the next several decades, some of Sulla’s reforms were overturned, such as those pertaining to the plebeian tribunes. Most historians of the Republic agree that the Republican constitution never afterward reverted to its old state.
The civil war of Marius and Sulla showed the increasing degree of competition in the Republic, as well as the lengths to which some Roman politicians were willing to go to get power and hold on to it. Before Marius, Roman farmer-soldiers did not feel a personal affinity for their generals. After Marius’ reforms, soldiers were paid by their generals, so their loyalty was to their generals, as much or more than to the Roman state. Finally, Marius’ incredible political success showed that military ability had somewhat leveled the playing field between old patrician families and the newcomers to Roman politics.
5.4.3: The First Triumvirate, and the Civil War of Caesar and Pompey
The political careers of Marius and Sulla show the increased level of competition in the late Republic and the ruthlessness with which some Roman politicians in the period attempted to gain the consulship. In 60 BCE, however, three politicians formed an alliance in order to help each other.
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Marcus Licinius Crassus was the wealthiest man in Rome, son of a consul, and consul himself in 70 BCE. His colleague in the consulship, Gnaeus Pompey, achieved military fame in his youth, earning him the nickname “Magnus,” or “the Great,” from Sulla.
By 60 BCE, however, both Crassus and Pompey felt frustrated with their political careers so they joined forces with a relative newcomer to the world of politics, Gaius Julius Caesar. The three men formed an alliance, secret at first, which would be called the Triumvirate by the Roman lawyer and statesman Cicero. To cement the alliance, Caesar’s daughter, Julia, married Pompey. Together, they lobbied to help each other rise again to the consulship and achieve desirable military commands.
Caesar was promptly elected consul for 59 BCE, and was then awarded Gaul as his province for five years after the consulship. In 55 BCE, Crassus and Pompe were re-elected consuls, and Caesar’s command in Gaul was renewed for another five years. The renewal did not specify whether the five-year clock started afresh in 55 BCE—in which case, Caesar’s command was to end in 50 BCE—or if the five years were added to the original five-year term—in which case, Caesar’s command would have ended in 48 BCE.
A talented writer, as well as skilled general, Caesar made sure to publish an account of his Gallic campaigns. As a result, Romans were continually aware of his successes, and his popularity actually grew in his absence. Finally, the uneasy alliance disintegrated in 53 BCE. First, Julia died in childbirth, and her baby died with her. In the same year, Crassus was killed at the Battle of Carrhae, fighting the Parthians. With the death of both Julia and Crassus, no links were left connecting Caesar and Pompey; the two former family relations, albeit by marriage, swiftly became official enemies.
Late in 50 BCE, the Senate, under the leadership of Pompey, informed Caesar that his command had expired and demanded that he surrender his army. Caesar, however, refused to return to Rome as a private citizen, demanding to be allowed to stand for the consulship in absentia. When his demands were refused, on January 10th of 49 BCE, Caesar and his army crossed the Rubicon River. By leaving his province with his army against the wishes of the Senate, Caesar committed an act of treason, as defined in Roman law. The civil war began.
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While most of the Senate was on Pompey’s side, Caesar started the war with a distinct advantage: his troops had just spent a larger part of a decade fighting with him in Gaul. Pompey’s army was disorganized. As a result, for much of 49 BCE, Pompey retreated to the south of Italy, with Caesar in pursuit. In late 48 BCE, Caesar’s army managed to defeat Pompey’s much larger forces at the battle of Pharsalus in northern Greece. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated by order of Ptolemy XIII, who had hoped to win Caesar’s favor by this action. When he arrived in Egypt in pursuit of Pompey, Caesar sided with Ptolemy’s sister Cleopatra VII and appears to have fathered a son with her, Caesarion. (See Chapter 4 about the conflict in the Egyptian family.)
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With Pompey’s death, the civil war was largely over. While his military actions on behalf of Rome were largely limited to Gaul, with a couple of forays into Britain, his civil war against Pompey and his allies took Caesar all over the Roman world from 49 to 45 BCE.
5.4.4: Aftermath of the Civil War, the Second Triumvirate, and the Age of Augustus
Victorious in the civil war against Pompey and his supporters, Caesar was faced with the challenging question of what to do next. Based on the previous history, there were two options available to him: the Marius model of rule, meaning election to successive consulships, and the Sulla model, meaning dictatorship. Initially, Caesar followed the first model. By early 44 BCE, however, Caesar appears to have decided to adopt the Sulla model instead. In February of 44 BCE, he took the title of dictator perpetuo, or “dictator for life,” and had coins minted with his image and new title. His action was the first instance in Roman history of a living individual’s placing his likeness on coinage.
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About sixty senators feared that Caesar aimed to make himself a king. On the Ides of March (March 15th) of 44 BCE, the conspirators rushed Caesar during a Senate meeting and stabbed him to death. But if the conspirators had thought that by assassinating Caesar they were going to restore the Republic, they turned out to be sorely mistaken. Caesar’s will, in which he left money to each resident of the city of Rome and donated his gardens for use by the public, only further increased his popularity among the people, and popular rioting ensued throughout the city.
Since Caesar did not have legitimate sons who could inherit— Caesarion, his son with Cleopatra, was illegitimate—he adopted an heir in his will, a common Roman practice. This person was his grand-nephew Gaius Octavius (or Octavian, in English). In an interesting twist, Caesar had named a backup heir, who was no other than Brutus, one of Caesar’s assassins.
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Octavian was nineteen years old; thus, he was too young to have had much military or political experience. Quickly, he created an alliance with two much more experienced former allies of Caesar: Marcus Antonius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Forming what became known as the Second Triumvirate, the three men renewed the proscriptions in 43 BCE, aggressively pursuing the enemies of Caesar and also fighting a small-scale civil war with Caesar’s assassins.
After defeating Caesar’s assassins at the Battle of Philippi in northern Greece, they carved out the Roman world into regions to be ruled by each. Marcus Antonius claimed Egypt, and married Pharaoh Cleopatra. Ultimately, however, another civil war resulted in the defeat of Antonius by Octavian. From 31 BCE-14 CE, Octavian—soon to be named Augustus--ruled what henceforth was known as the Roman Empire, and is considered by modern historians of Rome to have been the first emperor.
Throughout his time in power, Augustus claimed to have restored the Roman Republic, and, with the exception of a few elected offices, he did not have any official position. How did he manage to rule the Roman Empire for over forty years without any official position? Some answers can be found in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, an autobiography that Augustus himself composed.
In this document, Augustus described himself as the first citizen, or princeps, of the Roman state, superior to others in his auctoritas. In addition, he was especially proud of the title of “Pater Patriae,” or “Father of the Fatherland,” voted to him by the Senate and reflecting his status as the patron of all citizens. Having learned from Caesar’s example, he avoided accepting any titles that might have suggested a desire for kingship. Instead, he brilliantly created for himself new titles and powers, thoroughly grounded in previous, Republican tradition.
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The question remains: when did the Roman Republic actually fall? Some historians argue that the Republic had fallen with the dictatorship of Sulla, since it fundamentally altered the nature of the Republican government and permanently destabilized it. Others suggest the assassination of Caesar in 44 BCE, because the Republic was never quite the same as it had been before the civil war of Pompey and Caesar. Additional people claim 27 BCE, when the Senate granted Octavian the title of Augustus, recognizing his albeit unofficial consolidation of power. Yet another possible answer is the death of Augustus in 14 CE. Overall, all of these possible dates and events show the instability of the Roman state in the late first century BCE.
5.4.5: Roman Culture of the Late Republic and the Augustan Age
From the conclusion of the Second Punic War, Roman entertainment culture and literary arts flourished. The Romans borrowed and adapted Greek literature to make it distinctly their own. For example, in one fragment from a Roman tragedy, Iphigenia at Aulis, adapted by the Roman poet Ennius from the Greek tragedian Euripides, the chorus of frustrated Greek soldiers debates the merits of otium, or leisure, and negotium, or business (a specifically Roman concept). Similarly, Roman philosophy and rhetoric were heavily based on their Greek counterparts. For instance, Cicero, a preeminent rhetorician and philosopher of the late Republic, adapted the Socratic dialogue in several of his philosophical treatises.
The age of Augustus saw an even greater flourishing of Roman literature. The three most prominent poets of this age were:
- Virgil--Wrote the Aeneid, which became the Roman national epic. It tells about the travels of the Trojan prince Aeneas who, by will of the gods, became the founder of Rome. Clearly connecting the Roman to the Greek heroic tradition, the epic also includes a myth explaining the origins of the Punic Wars. During his travels, Aeneas was ship-wrecked and landed in Carthage. Dido, the queen of Carthage, fell in love with him and wanted him to stay with her, but the gods ordered Aeneas to sail on to Italy. After Aeneas abandoned her, Dido committed suicide and cursed the future Romans to be at war with her people.
- Horace--Showcased the pax deorum that caused Rome to flourish in the past and, again now, in the age of Augustus.
- Ovid--Challenge acceptable limits in his poetry or in his personal conduct. As a result, he was exiled and spent the remainder of his life writing mournful poetry and begging unsuccessfully to be recalled back to Rome.
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In his Res Gestae, Augustus includes a very long list of temples that he had restored or built. Among these new building projects, allegedly ordained by the gods themselves, is the famous Ara Pacis, or Altar of Peace, in Rome. The altar features a number of mythological scenes and processions of gods. It also integrates scenes of the imperial family, including Augustus himself making a sacrifice to the gods, while flanked by his grandsons Gaius and Lucius.
The message of these building projects, as well as the other arts that Augustus sponsored, is simple: Augustus wanted to show that his rule was a new Golden Age of Roman history, a time when peace was restored and Rome flourished, truly blessed by the gods.