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The "Roman Republic" (Latin: Res Publica Romanorum) was the republican government of the city of Rome and its territories from 510 BC until the establishment of the Roman Empire, which sometimes placed at 44BC the year of Caesar's appointment as perpetual dictator or, more commonly, 27BC the year that the Roman Senate granted Octavian the title "Augustus".

The city of Rome stands on the Tiber River very near the west coast of Italy. It marked the northernmost border of the territory in which the Latin language was spoken and the southern edge of Etruria, the territory in which the Etruscan language and people reigned.

Government institutions:

The Romans observed two principles for their officials: annuality or the observation of a one-year term and collegiality or the holding of the same office by at least two men at the same time. The supreme office of consul, for instance, was always held by two men together, each of whom exercised a power of mutual veto over any actions by the other consul. If the entire Roman army took the field, it was always under the command of the two consuls, which alternated days of command. Most other offices were held by more than two men — in the late Republic there were 8 praetors a year and 20 quaestors.

The dictators was an exception to annuality and collegiality, and the censors to annuality. In times of military emergency a single dictator was elected for a term of 6 months to have sole command of the state. On a regular, but not annual basis two censors were elected: every five years for a term of 18 months.

The legion formed the backbone of Roman military power.

Early History of the Republic

The legendary founding of Rome — 753 BC

The Roman monarchy was often seen as the time when Rome rose from its founding on the Tiber to becoming one of the foremost cities in all of Italy. The twins Romulus and Remus, sons of the god Mars himself, are said to have been the legendary founders of Rome, set as April 21, 753 B.C. Through a period of 243 years, the Roman state grew in population with the annexations of the Sabines and the Alba Longans, founded by Aeneas's son Iulus, by military aggression. The last three kings of Rome were of Etruscan origin, whose influence could greatly be seen on Roman architecture and art. The expulsion of the last king in 510 B.C. set up the Roman Republic, with the Roman leaders Brutus and Collatinus as the republic's first consuls.

The Establishment of the Republic — 509 BC

Livy's version of the establishment of the Republic states that the last of the Kings of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus ("Tarquin the proud") had a thoroughly unpleasant son, Sextus Tarquinius, who raped a Roman noblewoman named Lucretia. Lucretia compelled her family to take action by gathering her kinsmen, telling them what happened, and killing herself. They then were compelled to avenge her, and led an uprising that expelled the royal house, the Tarquins, out of Rome into refuge in Etruria.

Lucretia's husband Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus and Lucius Junius Brutus were elected as the first two consul´s, the chief officers of the new Republic. (The Marcus Junius Brutus who later assassinated Julius Caesar claimed descent from this first Brutus).

The early consuls took over the roles of the king with the exception of his high priesthood in the worship of Jupiter Optimus Maximus at the sacred temple on the Capitoline Hill. For that duty the Romans elected a Rex sacrorum or "king of holy things." Until the end of the Republic, the accusation that a powerful man wanted to make himself king remained a career-shaking charge. (Julius Caesar's assassins claimed after they acted that they were preserving Rome from the re-establishment of a monarchy.)

Patricians and plebeians

The people of Rome were divided into patricians and plebeians. The two classes were ancestral and inherited. One's class was fixed by birth rather than by wealth, and though patricians had in the early Republic monopolized all political offices and probably most of the wealth, there are always signs of wealthy plebeians in the historical record, and many patrician families had lost both wealth and any political influence by the later Republic. By the 2nd century BC the classifications had meaning predominantly in religious functions — many priesthoods remained restricted to patricians.

The relationship between the plebeians and the patricians sometimes came under such a strain that the plebeians would secede from the city — they literally left the city, took their families and movable possessions, and set up camp on a hill outside the walls. Their refusal to co-operate any longer with the patricians led to social changes on each occasion. In 494 BC, only about 15 years after the establishment of the Republic, the plebeians for the first time elected two leaders, to whom they gave the title Tribunes. The "plebs" took an oath that they would hold their leaders 'sacrosanct' or inviolate during their terms of office, and that the united plebs would kill anyone who harmed a tribune. The second secession led to further legal definition of their rights and duties and increased the number of tribunes to 10. The final secession gave the vote of the Concilium Plebis or "Council of the Plebeians" the force of law. It is important to note that this force of law was binding for both patricians and plebians, and in fact made the Council of the Plebians the leading body for approving Roman laws.

The Building of the Republic

Throughout the 4th century B.C. the Romans fought a series of wars with their neighbors, most notably the Sabines, who became their principle enemies on the Italian mainland. Eventually they became the major power of the Latin League, a coalition of city-states in the area of Latium, the region of which Rome is now the heart. Serious set-backs did occur to Rome during this time. In 390 B.C. the Gauls from the Po Valley sacked and burnt the city, requiring a huge ransom from the Romans to avoid completely destroying it (the phrase "Woe to the vanquished" arises from these times as a Roman senator protested to a Gallic chief that the weights used to measure the ransom of gold were inaccurate, at which point the chief threw his sword onto the weights and uttered the famous words).

In 283BC Pyrrhus of Epirus arrived to help the Greek colony of Tarentum against the Romans. Pyrrhus was widely considered the greatest military mind since Alexander the Great, but even after winning three battles was unable to defeat the Roman Republic, taking irreplaceable losses as he did so. The term "Pyrrhic victory" comes from these battles when Pyrrhus was supposed to have uttered the phrase "Another such victory and we are lost." When Pyrrhus withdrew to fight wars in Sicily and Greece, the Romans won an important international victory and started to gain the attention of the Hellenistic superpowers in the East.

By 268 BC the Romans were dominant in Italy through a network of allies, conquered states, colonies, and strategic garrisons. At that time Rome started to look outwards from Italy and towards the islands of the Mediterranean.

The Punic Wars

(See main article: Punic War)

As soon as Rome had consolidated control of Italy, it had to face down the serious threat from Carthage in a series of three Punic Wars (264-241 BC, 218-202 BC, and 149-146 BC) that resulted in Rome becoming the most powerful state in Europe and the Mediterranean, a status it would retain until its fall in the 5th century AD.

Carthage, a Phoenician colony on the coast of what is now Tunisia, near modern Tunis, was a powerful city-state with a large empire in 264 BC, and, with the exception of Rome, the strongest power in the western Mediterranean. Its navy was, east of Athens, without competition, and easily bested any naval force they went up against. But its army was sorely lacking. Its citizens rarely fought directly against their enemies on land, but rather used the huge wealth they gained from trade to hire mercenaries to fight their wars for them.

The first Punic War between Rome and Carthage began as a dispute over the island of Sicily. A series of Carthaginian naval victories gave Carthage the military supremacy until Rome built a navy using a captured Carthaginian vessel as a model. After several naval battles which ended in Roman victories, a defeated Carthage signed a peace treaty giving Rome the total control of Sicily, and in 238BC the mercenary troops of Carthage revolted and Rome took the opportunity to capture Corsica away from Carthage.

Carthage spent the following years improving its finances and expanded its colonial empire in Spain, under the Baracas family, whose most famous member Hannibal, swore an sacred oath never to be a friend to Rome (i.e. it´s enemy ). In 221BC Hannibal attacked Saguntum, a city which had allied itself to Rome, beginning the second Punic War. Hannibal then led a large army of mercenaries composed mainly of Gauls, Hispannics and Numedians into Italy through the Alps a feat that had been considered impossible. Hannibal was a master strategist and defeated the Roman legions at several battles, like the famous Battle of Cannae, where he destroyed an enormous Roman army but all his victories could not turn the majority of the Italian cities against Rome and his army lacked the strength to break the fortifications of Rome, resulting in sixteen years of back-and-forth fighting between Rome and Hannibal.

Scipio Africanus, a young Roman commander, took control of the war in Spain, captured the local Carthaginian cities, and then invaded Africa itself. Hannibal returned to face down the invaders, and at the final Battle of Zama in 202BC the Romans finally defeated Hannibal in open battle. Carthage sued for peace and Rome isolated the city by reducing it only to Africa and forcing it to pay a huge indemnity. Hannibal took a leadership role in rebuilding Carthage, and succeeded so well that Rome forced him to flee to Asia Minor, where he served several local kings as a military advisor until he committed suicide years later to avoid his capture by Roman agents.

Carthage was weakened but not finished, however. It managed to pay off the debt owed to the Romans quickly and began to show alarming signs of strength again, and it was Cato the Elder who, years after the Second Punic War had been won, ended all his speeches by saying "I also think that Carthage must be destroyed!" (Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.). In 149 BC, Rome, fearful that Carthage might become a serious threat again, demanded impossible terms: the demolition of the city walls and of the city itself and move inland into Africa. The Carthaginians refused and Rome declared the third Punic War, placing command to Scipio Aemilianus, who besieged the city for three long years before breaching the walls, sacking and burning Carthage to the ground, even, according to legend, going so far as to sow salt into the earth so that nothing might ever grown there. Afterwards, the survivors were sold into slavery, and Carthage was no more. It would be later refounded as roman colony.

The Conquest of Greece and Asia

During the Second Punic War, Phillip V king of Macedon, one the Successor states of the empire of Alexander the Great, allied itself with Hannibal in his war against Rome. Though Phillip did not give much to Hannibal, the act gave the Romans a casus belli in siezing territory from Phillip along the Adriatic coastline in order, ostensibly, to combat piracy endangering Roman trade. This opened the doorway into Roman interference in the Greek mainland.

Roman initial policy towards the independent Greek city-states, such as Athens, Sparta, and Thebes, was to mantain the status-quo. There were also several powerful leagues of city-states, such as the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues, both of which were used by Rome and Macedon in their game for supremacy inside Greece itself. Several wars resulted between Rome and Phillip V, none of which went well for Phillip himself, who watched his kingdom steadily be stripped of its power and territory.

In the meantime, Antiochus III of Seleucia waged war on Rome for control of Greece from 192-188 BC. Hannibal, at that time serving at Antiochus' court as a military advisor, urged the king not to attack Greece with so few troops - Antiochus did anyway, and was defeated. Roman troops followed the Seluecid monarch back into Asia, and for the first time Rome held territory on the far side of the Aegean. After the peace treaty, Rome gave considerable amounts of land to Pergamon, an independent city-state ruled by a Hellenstic monarchy not related to the Successors of Alexander.

Upon Phillip's death in Macedon 179 BC, his son, Perseus, attempted to recover his father's lost gains and to reconquer Greece. The Roman Senate declared war against Macedon when Perseus was implicated in an assassination plot against one of Rome's allied kings. At first Rome did not fare well against the Macedonian forces, but in 168 BC, the Roman legions smashed the Macedonian phalanxes at the Battle of Pynda, and Macedonia was divided into four 'republics', that were mere extensions of Rome's will.

For several years (168-147 BC), Greece was peacefull, until Macedonia rose up under a native king and was utterly defeated by Rome. In 146 Rome moved against the last remains of Greek freedom in the south, the Achaean League, and conquered them as well, ending Greek independence for the next two thousand years. To provide a frightening example and to show that the age of Greek city-states was over, Rome utterly destroyed Corinth, though it would later be refounded as a Roman colony. Greece and Macedon were reorganized into Roman provinces, and were under Roman rule ( later, the roman eastern empire ) until the 15th century AD.

King Attalus of Pergamon then willed his entire kingdom to Rome in 133 BC, perhaps as a bid to forestall any internal trouble or perhaps because he saw the general trend in the Aegean was that of Roman imperialism, and decided to prevent a war with Rome. Rome then took over Pergamon, taking control of their first piece of Asian territory, a province they would find to be unbelievably profitable, and would proceed to plunder it throughly. But in 133, there was other trouble closer to home.

The end of Republican Rule — 133–31 BC

Beginning of the End

Rome's military and diplomatic successes around the Mediterranean resulted in new and unaccustomed pressures on the structures of the old city-state. While factional strife had become a traditional part of Roman life, the stakes were now far higher; a corrupt provincial governor could enrich himself far beyond anything his ancestors imagined possible, and a successful military commander needed only the support of his legions in order to rule vast territories.

Starting with the Punic Wars, the Roman economy started to shift in a direction that was eventually self-destructive. Powerful families in Rome siezed lands that once were held by Italian cities that had defected to Hannibal during the war. This began a process that would eventually undo the Republic itself.

The Roman army at the time was based upon land ownership - therefore, only men who could provide their own arms and prove they owned land could serve in the military. The idea was that men who owned farms had more to lose on the battlefield, and therefore would fight harder and longer than mercenaries or conscripts, fighting for pay or because they were forced to. As long as Rome had a large, stable population of landed, young males, this system worked, provided that the soldiers could return to work their farms when not on campaign. The nearly endless series of wars that came after the Punic Wars, however, made it impossible for the army to disband after only a few months - wars were becoming frequent, far away, and more importantly, time consuming to the point where farmers returned home only once every few years. As a result, their fields started to lie fallow, and their families left behind needed to take out loans from the rich in Rome itself to buy food. When the debts eventually became too much to handle, their families had to sell the farms and move into the city to try to find work. In the process, the soldier in the field could, technically, no longer serve in the army - and thereby deprived the Republic of not only troops, but also the economic backbone necessary to work a primarily agrarian society.

As the military campaigns lenghtend, the roman citzen-soldiers became more dependend and therefore more and more loyal to their military commanders who rewarded them lavishly with loot from the conquered cities and with land, which had been confiscated from the defeated enemy. These lands were officially given by the Senate as a reward to the veterans but is was widely known that a wise general took great pains to convince the Senate to be generous. Well rewarded troops would remember their general and predictably support him lateron.

By 133 BC the problem was too acute to ignore any longer. But many members of the Senate, especially the partricians and old families, now had a serious vested interest in preserving the status quo - to give up any land meant the end of their vast incomes, and the luxuries they were becoming increasingly notorious for indulging in. Moreover, money meant power - money bought votes, money bought immunity from prosecution, could, in effect, buy anything in Republican Rome, and without it, a senator did not last long. It was not merely a threat to the Senate's private incomes that was at stake - to many, it was the ability to run for office or move up the power ladder.

Enter the brothers Gracchus. Tiberius Gracchus began, in 133BC, to reform the system to allow soldiers returning from the near-constant wars or garrison duties on the ever-expanding Imperial Republic's borders to receive parcels of land, dolled out from the territory owned, technically, by the Senate and People of Rome, or, in other words, the state itself. However, much of this land was de facto being used by the Senators to enrich themselves, and any move to take it away was met with violent opposition by the Senate. Tiberius, in order to enact his reforms, had to work outside the constitution of the Republic, and took actions that were, technically, at best loopholes and at worst downright illegal. The Senate responded by slaughtering Gracchus and 300 of his followers in the streets of Rome.

His younger brother Gaius Gracchus continued the reform efforts almost ten years later, he promoted the extension of the franchise to all the cities of Italy, and established the equites as a new force in Roman politics. Gaius, however, once more seriously threatened the Senate's land holdings, and eventually the Senate moved against him with armed force, hiring Cretean mercenaries to massacre him and his followers as they retreated to the sacred Capitoline Hill and barricaded themselves inside.

A conservative reaction brought power back to the Senate, but they prosecuted the Jugurthine War of 112 BC-105 BC poorly, on top of a slave war in Sicily, and sufered several military defeats at the hands of invading Germanic tribes like the Battle of Arausio in 105 BC. Rome was saved by Gaius Marius, who held multiple consulships 103-[[101 BC|101BC while defeating the Teutones at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 and the Cimbri near Vercellae in the following year. But Marius' military reforms had resulted in a professional army of proletarian volunteers with no special love for the Senate, and Marius' political allies used the army to threaten the Senate into passing laws reducing the Senate's power. Marius curbed his own allies, and took himself into lesser positions.

Again the Senate proved itself unequal to its role, and failed to deal with the growing discontent of the allies in Italy. After the reformer Livius Drusus was assassinated in 91 BC, the great majority of the Italian allies of Rome rebelled and the Social War ( allies = Socii ) began. The Romans were only able to end the war in 88 BC by granting citizenship to all Italians living south of the Po River.

At the same time, Mithridates VI of Pontus overran Bithynia, the latest of several provocations which forced Rome to act. Lucius Cornelius Sulla emerged after the Social War as the new strongman of the conservative faction in the Senate, having served under Marius in both the Jurguthine War and the military campaigns against the inavding Germanic tribes, and was now the only man within Rome who could challenge Marius himself. Sulla was determined to gain the command of the new war against Mithridates and finally to step out of Marius' shadow.

Marius, however, old man though he was, also wanted the generalship. In the end, Sulla won it and went to war against Mithridates in Greece, where he proved himself an able leader and excellent soldier, pushing Mithridates out of Greece, back into Asia, and into a new peace treaty favorable to Rome. While gone, however, Marius took an unprecedented step - he siezed control of Rome itself by arming slaves and ex-veterans, using force to get himself elected a seventh consulship. He engaged in widespread butchery of his opponents, but his regime did not last long - only a few days after his election, he died of a massive brain hemmorage, at the very height of his power.

Sulla returned to Rome in 83 BC to face down Marius' successor, Carbo, who'd only recently taken command from Cinna, Marius' hand-picked successor and former co-consul. The troops under Carbo did not put up a very strong fight, and Carbo was quickly dispatched as Sulla took control of Rome with his own army - not, be it noted, like Marius, who still used a volunteer force. Armies were now pawns in the political power game - a general with loyal troops could - and did - break laws, ignore the Senate, and plunder whatever they wanted from their provinces. Moreover, if the Senate attempted to prosecute these generals for any of their transgressions, they could simply take their troops to Rome and smash up the opposing faction in the city, and point to Sulla's precedent.

Sulla quickly made himself dictator of Rome. Though the office was technically only six months long, Sulla held on for two years, using his army to hold power. Sulla set about setting back the clock to the days before Gaius Gracchus. He curbed the power of the popular assemblies, reduced the ability of populist leaders using the current system to work outside the Senate, and drastically entrenced the power of the Senate in both the courts and passing of laws. Sulla, however, proved a tyrant, and installed the new procedure of proscription, wherein a person's property would be siezed by the state and the protection of the law removed from them. In other words, it was now legal to kill a person outside the law - and Sulla set up an office for posting bounties on particularly troublesome opponents. He used the funds stolen to refill the Roman treasury, badly depleted from the wars in Greece and the civil conflict in Italy. He proscribed wealthy Romans who spoke against him, and even some who were simply in his way or had particularly juicy estates. Thousands of noble Romans were killed in the proscriptions, and it took two years, in 79 BC, before Sulla finally laid down his powers as dictator and retired to private life, dying not even a year afterwards in 78 BC.

Sulla was, in effect, the death of the Republic - even with Marius' capture of Rome, it was only Sulla who used a professional army to impose his own will. Though the Republic technically had another fifty years to go, Sulla had ended true freedom in Rome by bringing the army into the political process. No longer could consuls be elected without the approval of the generals in the field - and the only way to counterbalance a potentially dangerous legionary commander was with another of similiar skill and army size. The civilians in Rome were now there for show - military men had the last say when they wanted. Yet even with the lessons of Sulla and Marius, the Senate in Rome acted very much as though it still had the true power in the Republic - and so long as the troops were willing to let them get away with their game, the fiction could be maintained. Without any real ability to defend itself, the Senate became more arrogant, more factionalized, more corrupt and unreasonable - and, in effect, sealed its own fate.

The Seventies and the Sixties

Sulla died the year following his resignation, in 78. Throughout the decade of the 70s politics was dominated by the optimates; nevertheless, the Sullan constitutional settlement would begin to taken part, little by little.

From 73 to 71 the Roman Republic would be rocked by a slave revolt led by Spartacus. Spartacus was a deserter from the Roman legions who had been sold into slavery as a gladiator. In 73 he and some of his fellow gladiators rebelled at Capua and set up a military camp on Mt. Vesuvius. Slaves across the Italian peninsula flocked to him, and their numbers soon swelled to about 70,000. Initially, they had success against the Roman legions sent against them, and wreacked havoc across the italian peninsula. In 71, however, M. Licinius Crassus was given military command and crushed the rebels. About 6,000 were crucified; the 10,000 who escaped were intercepted by Pompey, then returning with his army from Spain. Although Crassus did most of the fighting, Pompey also claimed credit for the victory, and this created tension between the two men.

Crassus and Pompey both ran for consul for the year 70 and were elected. The two spent most of the year trying to outdo each other in the lavishness of their public expenditures. Despite the two consuls uncooperative nature, there was still the passage of two laws that chipped away at the Sullan settlement; first, the tribunte was restored to its former power; secondly, the senatorial monopoly of juries was ended, and membership was divided equally between senators, equestrians, and a group known as “tribunes of the treasury.”

Meanwhile, the optimate general L. Licinius Lucullus was attempting to finally defeat Mithridates in the east. He had a bit of success against Mithridates and his ally, the King of Armenia, Tigranes, but while he maintained military superiority, was unable to occupy the territories conquered completely. At the same time, M. Antonius (father of Antony) and Q. Caecilius Metellus were attempting to stamp out the plague of piracy afflicting the region, with little success.

Due to these lack of successes, in 66, Pompey was given an extraordinary military command. He stamped out piracy within forty-nine days and then began pursuing Mithridates. Pompey annihilated his army, and Mithridates remained a fugitive for the last three years of his life. Pompey followed up these succseses by conquering the entirety of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean ending the Syrian Seleucid dynasty. The captured wealth of the conquests more than doubled the income of the Roman state, and Pompey now surpassed Crassus as the wealthiest man in Rome.

The economic situation in Rome itself, however, was still problematic. Debt was the intractable problem and many, both noble and not, found themselves burdened with incredible debts. Their mantle was taken up by L. Sergius Catilina, who ran for consul in 64 for the year 63 on the platform of a wholesale debt cancellation – essentially a redistribution of wealth. Despite his noble birth, his policies scared the optimates, who instead supported the novus homo M. Tullius Cicero. Cicero was duly elected; Catilina finished third and out of office. Catilina ran again the following year, but this time was defeated even more heavily. He then, along with several dissolute senators, began planning a coup d’etat which would include arson throughout Rome, the arming of slaves, and the accession of Catilina as dictator. Cicero found out and informed the Senate in a series of brilliant speeches, and was given absolute power by the senate consultum ultimum. He executed the conspirators in the city without trial; and his fellow consul, G. Antonius Hybrida, then defeated the army of Catilina near Pistoria. None of Catilina’s soldiers were taken alive.

The First Triumvirate

In 62 Pompey returned from the east. Many senators, especially among the optimates, feared that Pompey would follow in the footsteps of Sulla and establish himself as dictator. Instead, Pompey disbanded his army upon arriving in Italy. Nevertheless, the Senate maintained its opposition to land grants for Pompey’s veterans and the ratification of Pompey’s eastern settlement. In addition, Pompey’s old enemy, Crassus, was also being stonewalled by the Senate in his attempts to to gain some measure of relief for his allies the tax farmers. Now arriving onto the scene was a young politician who had a heretofore successful, but not brilliant, career – G. Julius Caesar. Caesar took advantage of the two enemy’s dissatisfaction to bring them into an informal alliance known as the First Triumvirate. In addition, he reinforced his alliance by marrying Pompey to his daughter, Julia. The three would be able to dominate Roman politics due to their collective influence; the first step was Caesar’s election to the consulship for 59.

In attempting to pass the laws which would benefit both Pompey and Crassus, Caesar ran into heavy opposition from his consular colleague, the very conservative M. Bibulus, who used all manner of parliamentary tactics to stall the legislation. Caesar resorted to the unconstitutional tactic of violence; Bibulus ended up under house arrest for most of the year, and Caesar was able to pass almost all of his legislation. He was then appointed Governor of Gaul (then basically the area of the Alps and some of the Mediterranean coast) for a five year period.

Caesar took up his governership in 58. He immediately launched a series of wars across all of Gaul, and in 55 and 54 even invaded Britain. For a nine year period he attempted to crush all opposition to his rule. The wars were ,tecnically, illegal, as Caesar had exceeded his authority in launching the invasions. They also caused massive death and destruction (one out of three male Gauls was killed; another one out of three was sold into slavery). In 52 an uprising, led by the charismatic Gallic leader, Vercingetorix, nearly succeeded in toppling the Roman presence in Gaul; but Caesar, with his usual speed and brilliant grasp of military strategy, was able to defeat Vercingetorix at the siege of Alesia. By 50BC almost all opposition had been stamped out and Ceasar had a loyal army to further his ambitions.

Meanwhile, the Triumvirate at home needed a reboosting. In 56, the three men who dominated the republic met at Luca, just inside Caesar’s province (as a man in control of an army, he was not allowed to cross into Italy). The three reached a new settlement which would allow the triumvirate to continue. Crassus and Pompey would once again be elected consuls for the year 55; Pompey would then be given command of the legions in Spain (which he would rule in absentia), and Crassus, desiring military glory so he could be on the same level as Pompey and Caesar, would be given a command in the east. Caesar’s governorship of Gaul was extended for another five years.

In 53, Crassus launched an invasion of the Parthian Empire (successor of the Persians). He marched his army deep into the desert; but here the legions were not used to the fighting conditions, whereas the Parthian cavalry was adept at it. His army was surrounded, and cut off deep in enemy territory, was routed at the Battle of Carrhae. Crassus himself was captured and later executed, by having molten gold poured down his throat.

The death of Crassus removed some of the balance in the Triumvirate; consequently, Caesar and Pompey began to move farther apart. In 52BC, Julia died, widening the gap emerging between the two. Pompey, who previously had been the senior member of the Triumvirate and, indeed, of the republic, was beginning to see his authority threatened by the junior partner, Caesar, whose campaigns in Gaul were vastly increasing his power. Consequently, Pompey began to align increasingly with the optimates, who themselves were very much opposed to Caesar, the great populares. By the year 50BC, with Caesar’s governorship drawing to a close, the two were hard-pressed to find any common ground, and a crisis was growing which would be the final nail in the coffin of the republic.

The Civil War and Caesar's Dictatorship

The key issue was whether or not Caesar would be able to stand for the consulship of 48 in absentia. Caesar’s governorship would expire at the end of 49, at which point his immunity from trial would also expire. He was sure to be charged with violations of the constitution stemming from his consulship of 59, which could result in his political, or perhaps even physical, death. If he was allowed to run in absentia, he could immediately assume the consulship, and then following that immediately assume a new governorship, and his immunity would be maintained. The optimates were heavily opposed to Caesar’s standing in absentia, and on January 1, 49, passed a law declaring Caesar a public enemy and demanding his return to Rome to stand trial. Pompey was given absolute authority to defend the republic. The word reached Caesar probably on January 10, and on January 11, he crossed the Rubicon River with his army – the boundary between his province and Italy. Civil war had begun.

Caesar quickly swept down the Italian peninsula, and encountered almost no resistance whatsoever. The one exception was at Corfinium, where Gn. Domitius Ahenobarbus was defeated. Caesar pardoned him, under his notable policy of clemency – he wanted to let everyone know that he would not be the next Sulla. He took Rome without opposition, and then marched south to try and stop Pompey, who was trying to withdraw from Brundisium (at the heel of Italy) across the Adriatic to Greece. Caesar came close, but Pompey and his armies were able to escape at the last minute.

Pompey controlled the seas, and his armies heavily outnumbered Caesar’s. Caesar, for his lack of a navy, attempted to try and solidify his control over the western Mediterranean, notably at Massilia and in Spain. The two armies first faced each other at Dyrrachium, on July 10, 48, where Pompey won a decisive victory. Nevertheless, Pompey failed to follow up on his victory, and Caesar was able to regroup and win a massive victory at the Battle of Pharsalus on August 9. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he hoped to find assistance.

Caesar arrived in Alexandria, capital of Egypt, to find the breadbasket of the Mediterranean in a state of civil war. Agents of the young king, Ptolemy, had Pompey killed and his head presented to Caesar, believing it would please him and that he would support Ptolemy against his sister, Cleopatra. It had the opposite effect. Caesar began an affair with Cleopatra, and Ptolemy attempted to destroy Caesar in the city of Alexandria. A long, drawn-out city battle resulted, one of the most dangerous of Caesar’s career, but he triumphed and placed Cleopatra on the throne along with another brother. Cleopatra later claimed to have given birth to Caesar’s son, Ptolemy Caesar (known as Caesarion); and it is likely true. Caesar, hearing of an uprising in Asia Minor led by the son of the old Roman enemy Mithridates, advanced there in 47, and won a massive victory at the Battle of Zela.

In 46 Caesar went to North Africa to deal with the remnants of the pro-Pompeian forces under Cato the Younger. He defeated them at the Battle of Utica. Much to Caesar’s chagrin, Cato committed suicide. Caesar had wanted to pardon Cato, his most intractable foe, in order to gain popularity through further clemency. In 45, he went to Spain, and, in a terrifying battle, won the final victory over the pro-Pompeian forces at the Battle of Munda. He then returned to Rome; he had less then a year to live.

In that final year Caesar launched a wholesale attempt at reform. He tightly regulated the distribution fo free grain to the citizenry, keeping those who could afford private grain from having access to the grain dole. He reformed the calendar, changing from a Lunar to a Solar calendar; with the exception of the change made by Pope Gregory in 1582, it has survived. He also reformed the debt problem. At the same time, he continued to accept enormous honors from the Senate. He was named Pater Patriae (Father of his Country), and began wearing the clothing of the old Roman kings. This deepened the rift between Caesar and the aristocrats, many of whom he had pardoned during the civil war.

In 45 he had been named dictator for ten years. This was followed up in 44 with his appointment of dictator for life. A two-fold problem was created; firstly, all political power would be concentrated in the hands of Caesar for the foreseeable future, in effect subordinating the Senate to his whims; and secondly, only Caesar’s death would end this. As such, a group of about 60 senators, led by Cassius and Brutus, conspired to assassinate Caesar. They carried out their deed on March 15, 44, the Ides of March, three days before Caesar was scheduled to go east to try and defeat the Parthians.

The Second Triumvirate and Octavian's Triumph

After Caesar’s assassination, his chief general, Mark Antony, took control of the dead man’s papers and the city. The conspirators fled. In Caesar’s will, his grand-nephew, Octavian, was named as his heir. Octavian quickly returned from his studies in Greece and raised a small army from among Caesar’s veterans. After some initial disagreements, Octavian and Antony came into collaboration. They, along with M. Aemilius Lepidus, created a Second Triumvirate; unlike the first, this gave the triumvirs absolute power through the force of law. In 42, they pursued the conspirators into Greece, and, mostly due to the generalship of Antony, won a massive victory over them at the battle of Philippi on October 23.

In 40, Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus reached the Pact of Brundisium. Antony received all the territories of the empire from Greece eastwards; Octavian received all in the west; and Lepidus was given the small province of Africa (modern day Tunisia) to govern. Henceforth, the contest for supreme power would be between Antony and Octavian.

In the west, Octavian had to deal with Sextus Pompeius, the surviving son of Pompey, who had taken control of parts of Sicily and was running pirate operations in the Mediterranean, endangering the flow of egyptian grain to Rome. In 36, Lepidus, while besieging Sextus in Spain, ignored Octavian’s orders that no surrender would be allowed. Octavian then bribed Lepidus’ troops, who changed their allegiance to the former. This had the effect of stripping Lepidus of all political power.

Antony, in the east, was attempting to wage a successful war against the Parthians. His campaign was not as successful as he would have hoped, tough far more successful than Crassus. He took up an amorous relationship with Cleopatra, who gave birth to three children by him. In 34, at the Donation of Alexandria, Antony “gave away” much of the eastern half of the empire to his children by Cleopatra. In Rome, this gave Octavian the opportunity to accuse Antony of "going native", of being completely in the thrall of Cleopatra and of deserting the cause of Rome. He made sure not to attack Antony himself, for Antony was still quite popular in Rome; instead, the blame was placed on Cleopatra.

In 31 war finally broke out. Approximately one-third of the Senate abandoned Octavian to support Antony and Cleopatra. Octavian’s chief advisor and extraordinary military leader, Agrippa, captured Methone on Greece. The final major confrontation of the end of the Roman Republic occured on September 2, 31, at the naval Battle of Actium. Agrippa’s forces routed those of Antony and Cleopatra; the two lovers fled to Egypt. Due to Octavian's victory and his skillfull propaganda and negotiation many legions in Greece and Cyrenaica went over to his side.

Octavian continued on his march around the Mediterranean towards Egypt, receiving the submission of kings and Roman governors along the way. He finally reached Egypt in 30BC, but before he could capture them they committed suicide within a few days of each other in August.

The period of civil wars were finally over. Thereafter, there was no one left in the Roman Republic who could - or wanted - to stand against Octavian, as the nephew of Caesar moved to take absolute control. He first made himself governor of the half dozen provinces where the majority of the legions were situated, thus, at a stroke, giving him command of enough legions to ensure that no governor could try to overthrow him. He also reorganized the Senate, purged it of unreliable or dangerous members, and expanded it by filling it up with his supporters from the provinces and outside the Roman aristocracy, men who could be counted on to follow his lead. However, he left the majority of Republican institutions apparently intact, albeit feeble. Consuls continued to be elected under his watchful eye - tribunes of the plebians continued to offer legislation - and debate still resounded through the Roman Curia. However it was Octavian who controlled the final decisions - and had the legions to back it up, if necessary.

The Senate and the roman citizens, tired of the never-ending civil wars and unrest, were willing to toss aside the unreliable, incompetent and unstable rule of the Senate and the popular assemblies in exchange for the iron will of one man who might set Rome back in order. By 27BC the transition, though subtle, was complete - in that year, Octavian offered back all his extraordinary powers to the Senate, and, in a carefully staged way, the Senate refused and in fact voted Octavian 'Augustus', or 'the revered one.' He was always careful to avoid the title of 'rex', or 'king', and instead took on 'Imperator', a title given by Roman troops to their victorious commanders. It is from 'Imperator' that the modern title 'Emperor' is derived.

Once Octavian named Tiberius as his heir, it was clear to everyone that even the hope of a restored Republic was dead. From that point on, Rome was a despotic regime, which, underneath a competent and strong Emperor, could achieve military supremacy ( which lead to peace )and economic prosperity, but under a weak or incompetent one saw its glory tarnished by cruelty, militar defeats and internal military revolts. The system lasted in the West until 476 AD, when Romulus Augustulus was deposed by the Ostrogoth Odoacer. The Eastern system continued, with few changes, until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD.

Causes of the collapse

In truth, however, the Republic had been dying since 133 BC, with the killing of Gracchi. Their deaths signaled the end of debate and legal procedure - from that point on, it was whoever was willing to go the farthest that dictated policy. Murder became commonplace during election time, and mobs were often whipped up by opposing parties to frighten enemies into submission. It became accepted, even encouraged, in some circles, to use force to 'preserve the Republic'. Senators who could not legally block reform used assassination and trumped-up criminal charges to stop it; reformers who could not legally pass their bills used the steadily growing anger of the Roman populace to terrify the Senate or appealed to powerful generals and their armies for military support. Each time someone used violence to achieve an end, someone else hit back even harder to counter it. When Marius used his army of gladiators, slaves, and plebians to sieze Rome, Sulla hit back using professional legions. The result was a short-term stablity and further weakening of the underlying structure of government.

The change also became one that put the men before the Republic - no longer was it possible to survive in the new vicious world of Roman politics by being humble and loyal to the ideals of the ancestors. Powerful politicans vied to become 'first amongst equals' through whatever means necessary, and ambitious men were only kept in check by other equally ambitious competitors. Marius and Sulla were the first, and their example gave rise to the first Triumvirate of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, and of the second one composed by Octavian, Lepidus, and Antony.

Moreover, the Senate had proven, time and time again, to be selfish, arrogant, stupid, and short-sighted incompetent in so many areas that the Roman population no longer trusted them to lead. When someone did come from their ranks and proved himself capable, the Romans flocked to them in a desperate hope that they might pull together the Republic and restore sense to the system. These champions were, starting with the Gracchi, struck down by the Senate using whatever means they had. Each time they were, the Roman people became more willing to accept the extreme measures the reformers had to implement to ensure their laws - and their lives - continued. Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon was tecnicaly treason - but no one outside the Senate cared, because it promised real change for a corrupt and unworkable Republic.

Within the Senate itself, the heavily entrenched, tradition-bound, rich conservative party constantly was at odds with any reformer of any sort that arose. The Gracchi worked outside the constitutional system by using the popular assemblies instead of the Senate; Marius had to fight tooth and nail just to get the necessary changes needed to recruit lower class soldiers; Sulla terrified the Senators with executions to enact reforms that were intended to actually preserve the powers of the Senate; and Caesar had to effectively conquer the whole Roman dominion in order to pass laws that were at least a century overdue. The harder the Senate fought to keep the status quo, the farther the reformers were willing to go, until at last it ended in Caesar's dictatorship.

Symtomatic of the distrust the Roman citizensa felt for the Senate was evident in the reaction of the troops to their commanders asking them to commit treason. The legions were willing to follow their commanders because they had no special love for the Senate, who only refused them pay and often fought over their rights to receive land upon returning home from war. There was no time when a commander asked his men to march with him on Rome and they refused - not one time where legionaries sided with the Senate. They chose to rally around names like Sulla and Pompey and Caesar, not the antiquated ideals of a Republic that rarely worked for them. The only thing that kept them in check, was each other. The Senate's inability to see this new reality cost it dearly. The Senate could not and did not want to adapt itself to the changing power structure, and as a result was pushed aside by those who could.

Part of the problem was that Rome had never been founded as meaning to rule a empire. The Republic was meant to govern a city-state; one that was, even then, growing in scope and power, but nevertheless only supposed to extend through the regions of central Italy. When territory was captured overseas, the Republic proved itself unable to effectively govern it. The provinces became fiefdoms of the governors, who proceeded to plunder them at will and engage on military adventures that did not have the approval of the Senate. These governors eventually took on Rome itself whenever they were threatened. There was no system of accountability, no ancient tradition of dealing with corrupt governors - the problem was new, and the Republic, so tradition-bound, would not change to handle it. Once the Republic acquired the Empire, only an Emperor could effectively rule it, not an oligarchic assembly. But it took nearly a century before that was fully realized.

It was, in the end, the failure of the Senate to control the generals that caused the downfall of Rome's Republic. The Senate was often too willing to protect its friends, allies and members from lawful prosecution for even the most evident and extraordinary crimes; and because of it lost the trust of the Roman citizenry at large. When Caesar finally took Rome for himself, he was greeted with thunderous applause, because he, at long last, promised - and even delievered - reforms the Roman people had wanted since the Gracchi.

It was the legions of Rome that physically dismantled the Republic - but it was its Senate that set up a world where such a thing could happen as the citizens looked on and cheered.

Political bodies of the Republic

Roman Senate
Various other Roman assemblies

Political institutions of the Republic

Figures of the Republic

Early Republic

Samnite wars 327 - 290 BC

Late Republic

Latin literature of the Republic

Tourist resorts in the Republic

External links

References

Harriet I. Flower (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, Cambridge 2004 (with bibliography).
The Cambridge Ancient History, vols. 7-9, Cambridge 1990ff.
"the enemys of Rome" Thames & Hudson
"Rubicon : the last years of the roman republic", Doubleday

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 During the Second Punic War, [[Phillip V]] king of [[Macedon]], one the [[Successor states]] of the empire of [[Alexander the Great]], allied itself with Hannibal in his war against Rome.  Though Phillip did not give much to Hannibal, the act gave the Romans a ''casus belli'' in siezing territory from Phillip along the [[Adriatic]] coastline in order, ostensibly, to combat piracy endangering Roman trade.  This opened the doorway into Roman interference in the Greek mainland.
-Roman inicial policy towards the independent Greek city-states, such as [[Athens]], [[Sparta]], and [[Thebes]], was to mantain the [[status-quo]].  There were also several powerful leagues of city-states, such as the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues, both of which were used by Rome and Macedon in their game for supremacy inside Greece itself.  Several wars resulted between Rome and [[Phillip V]], none of which went well for Phillip himself, who watched his kingdom steadily be stripped of its power and territory.
+Roman initial policy towards the independent Greek city-states, such as [[Athens]], [[Sparta]], and [[Thebes]], was to mantain the [[status-quo]].  There were also several powerful leagues of city-states, such as the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues, both of which were used by Rome and Macedon in their game for supremacy inside Greece itself.  Several wars resulted between Rome and [[Phillip V]], none of which went well for Phillip himself, who watched his kingdom steadily be stripped of its power and territory.
 In the meantime, [[Antiochus III]] of [[Seleucia]] waged war on Rome for control of Greece from 192-188 BC.  Hannibal, at that time serving at Antiochus' court as a military advisor, urged the king not to attack Greece with so few troops - Antiochus did anyway, and was defeated.  Roman troops followed the Seluecid monarch back into Asia, and for the first time Rome held territory on the far side of the Aegean.  After the peace treaty, Rome gave considerable amounts of land to [[Pergamon]], an independent city-state ruled by a Hellenstic monarchy not related to the [[Successors]] of Alexander.