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THE FALL OF THE
ROMAN REPUBLIC
The Roman Revolution (133-27 BCE)
• 133 BCE - Final conquest of Spain, acquisition of the
province of Asia
• Long political transformation that ended the Roman
Republic
The Changing World of Italy:
• Increase in slave population, displaced farmers,
unemployment and poverty high
• Couldn’t join the army for cost of armour
Tiberius Gracchus (162-133 BCE)
• Young Roman statesman who attempted to solve the problems
of those who had lost their land
• Plebeian status through the male bloodline (mother Patrician)
• 133 BCE – became tribune of Plebeian council
• Proposed bill to assign parcels of public land to dispossessed
farmers
• Create prosperous farmers & increase recruits for the army
• Opponents feared Tiberius would seize power and
lead the Plebeians into a social revolution
• Clubbed to death
Gaius Gracchus (154-121 BCE)
• 123 BCE – Tiberius’ younger brother became tribune of the
Plebeian Council (harsher than Tiberius)
• Sought to limit the powers of the Senate
• Restricted their freedom of assigning governors to
provinces
• Assigned seats for the jury of the extortion court
• Continued bill that distributed public land
• Proposed Roman colony on site of Carthage (hated enemy)
• Enemies asserted he and his
followers were planning a revolution
• Consul suppressed Gaius
• Mob hunted him, killed by his slave
THE YEARS OF THE
WARLORDS
107 BCE
• Roman conquests brought the state into more wars which allowed powerful generals
who had the support of their armies and used it to seize power.
• Senate vs. Powerful generals  undermined the Republic  dictatorship
Gaius Marius (157-86 BCE)
• Novus homo – “new man” – ancestors had not been consuls
• Changed the membership of the Roman army
• 111-106 BCE – acquired prestige by winning a war against
Numidia
• 105-101 BCE – drove back a Germanic
invasion toward northern Italy
• Consul for 5 consecutive years
• Abolished requirement that a soldier had to
own land and accepted volunteers
• Poor men who served their commander for
land when they were discharged
Sulla the Dictator (138-78 BCE)
• 80s BCE – civil war broke out in Rome over
who should command in a war against
Mithridates (king of Pontus, Asia Minor)
• 88 BCE – marched and seized the city of Rome
• Mithridates ordered massacre of 80,000 Romans/Italians in Asia
Minor
• 87 BCE – Sulla departed for his campaign against
Mithridates
• Marius seized Rome and conducted a reign of terror
• 82 BCE – Sulla returns and executes opponents
• Has himself named as dictator without a time limit
• Established law that forbade army commanders from
making wars outside their borders
Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey the Great)
(106-48 BCE)
• 77 BCE – another warlord, ended revolts in
Spain, helped suppress a rebellion of slaves
in Italy against Spartacus (Thracian slave)
• Worked with his rival, Crassus, to suppress
the revolt
• 71 BCE – marched to the gates of Rome
together to demand the consulships
• They cancelled many of Sulla’s arrangements
• 67-62 BCE – Pompey commanded many foreign
campaigns
• 62 BCE – Pompey returns to Rome and joins in a political
alliance with Julius Caesar
Cicero (106-43 BCE)
• Became the chief non-military
statesman in Rome during Pompey’s
absence
• Career in law and administration
• Dedicated to compromise and political
negotiation
• 63 BCE – elected consul
• Catiline – a rival formed a conspiracy to take over the
city
The First Triumvirate
• Julius Caesar – governor of Spain – returns to Rome in 60
BCE
• Enemies within the Senate – refused him consulship in 59 BCE
• Made a political bargain with Pompey
• Crassus joined because he was at odds with Senators too
• The First Triumvirate (“body of three men”)
• Caesar elected to consul in 59 BCE
• Pompey’s army secured land allotments
• Crassus’ financial quarrel settled
• Caesar secured command over the Po valley
• Gallic War (58-50 BCE) – series of campaigns to bring the
modern France and Belgium area under Roman rule
• 53 BCE – Died during campaign against kingdom of Parthia
The Supremacy of Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE)
• Senate feared Caesar would become permanent dictator
• Drew Pompey onto their side
• Ordered Pompey to command the armies of Rome against Caesar
(“last decree”)
• Senate threatened the lives of tribunes who opposed
• Caesar could now argue he was defending the rights of the
tribunes, the common people, and the loyal soldiers of Rome
• 49 BCE – “Let the die be cast”
• Crossed the boundary of his province, the Rubicon River, and
invaded his own country
• Pompey retreated to Greece, then sought refuge in Egypt
(unsuccessfully)
• As Pompey approached the shore, he was decapitated
Julius Caesar (continued)
• Caesar followed Pompey to Egypt and found he was dead
• He intervened in a civil war between Ptolemy XIII and his
sister Cleopatra VII
• Arranged them to share rule and had a long affair with Cleopatra
• Son was named Caesarion (the Little Caesar)
• Cleopatra’s affection guaranteed Roman control over the resources
of Egypt
• 46-44 BCE – Caesar’s Rule
• Took positions of dictator and consul like the model of Sulla
• Series of rapid reforms in Roman life (Roman calendar – 365 days)
The Death of Julius Caesar
• March 15, 44 BCE – The Ides of March
• Brutus & Cassius (his lieutenants) united against him to carry out
his murder
• “You, too, my boy?”
• His career is a blend of triumph and tragedy
The Second Triumvirate
• Survivor of one of Caesar’s commanded
armies was Marc Antony – consul for the
year 44 BCE
• Antony tried to seize the provincial command in Cisalpine
Gaul but the Senate (Cicero) led an attack against him
• Octavian – Caesar’s 19 year old grandnephew was put in
charge of this attack against Antony
• Antony & Octavian join together because the Senate was
ultimately seeking their destruction
• Marcus Lepidus joins them to invade Rome
• Senate turns control over to the three of them for 5 years