Download 5 reformers

The Gracchus Brothers
(Tiberius and Gaius)
The rise, and eventual assassination of the Gracchus brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, is
often considered the first step towards the fall of the Roman Republic.
The activities of the Gracchi brothers completely changed the style of Roman politics as
their careers were marked by riots, murder, and manipulation of the population to
achieve their goals. This political behavior would become more and more accepted in
the 100 years after their time, even including Caesar and eventually Octavian.
The growth of the Empire led to a division in the Roman political system. On one side of
the divide, the patricians were wealthy, old, and powerful families of Rome. Their goal
was to preserve Rome as it was. On the other side, some of these powerful families
began to take up the causes of the less fortunate common masses.
From 137 to 121 BC, Tiberius, and then Gaius Gracchus, stood at the center of this
chaos. Recent conquests brought newfound wealth to the Roman Republic, but the fast
pace of such expansion led to more corruption. The lack of new military recruits from
among the patricians was also weakening Rome. Meanwhile, thousands of landless and
jobless Romans were idle in the city, with little hope for relief, and laws of the time
prevented them from joining the military.
Tiberius and Gaius saw a chance not only to gain political power, but to stabilize Rome
through reform and new laws benefiting the common people. While this sounds
reasonable on the surface, they were really interested in lessening the power of the
Senate. While some saw their reforms an attempt to fix an outdated military system,
others saw it as a blatant power grab. Some of the reforms Tiberius passed limited the
amount of land a person could own. This forced big landowners to sell some of their land
back to poor plebeians. His brother Gaius improved on this by providing more help that
moved former farmers back to the countryside where they could farm again.
Source: http://www.unrv.com/empire/gracchi-brothers.php
Gaius MARIUS
Despite being the son of a small plebeian farmer, the extended Marius family had
powerful political connections. He directly benefited from the reforms of the Gracchus
brothers and was one of the first plebeians to join the military as a way to improve their
fortunes. Ancient fortune-tellers said that Marius was pre-destined to be Consul of Rome
7 times. Not only would this prove true, but he would eventually be hailed as the third
founder of Rome, and its savior. Military glory and personal ambition drove Marius
straight to the top of the Roman system, but even more importantly, he would have a
great impact on the life of his nephew, Julius Caesar.
Early in his career, Marius used his family connections to help get himself elected
Tribune of the Plebes in 119 BC. In this position so soon after the political turmoil and
murder of the Gracchi brothers (Gaius murdered 123 BC), Marius would become a rival
of many in the Senate by passing popular laws forbidding the inspection of ballot boxes.
By doing this, he upset the powerful elite, who used ballot inspection as a way to
intimidate voters in elections. After continuing to create enemies for himself as he served
in a series of higher positions, Marius had to put off eventually running for consul.
Perhaps his delay in running for consul, when he built up a huge fortune helped him
rebuild relationships with his political rivals. In 110 BC, Marius would make an
arrangement that would send shock waves through his own life and Rome itself. The
Caesar branch of the Julii family, who were well known patricians, had completely fallen
from political prominence and at this point, didn't have the personal wealth to recover.
Needing financial help, the Julii family arranged for him to marry their own Julia Caesar
which helped them recover and helped Marius become accepted by the wealthy
patricians of Rome.
Now that he was one of the post powerful politicians in Rome, Marius would begin to
seek changes that he had dreamed of throughout his career. While the Gracchus
brothers opened service in the legions to both plebeians and patricians, Marius thought
he could build military loyalty to himself by building a professional army of career
soldiers. These soldiers would become more loyal to him over time rather than rotate out
of service when their terms ended as citizen-soldiers. He would also open other
government jobs up to plebeians to try to win their loyalty and build political support for
himself.
Source: http://www.unrv.com/empire/gaius-marius.php
Lucius Cornelius SULLA
Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138–78 B.C.) was a Roman general and dictator. He was the
first self-declared dictator of the Roman Republic. (Earlier, temporary dictators had been
appointed in time of crisis). His use of army troops for his own political purposes created
a pattern that eventually led to the downfall of the Republic.
In 88 B.C., Sulla was elected consul and given an army command. To let more of his
political supporters have power, he expanded the Senate from 300 to 600 members.
When political opponents transferred the command to Marius, Sulla marched his loyal
troops to Rome and drove Marius into exile. Sulla then left Italy to conduct military of the
Republic in Asia. Meanwhile, Marius had died, but his followers succeeded in gaining
control of the Roman government. Sulla returned in 83 B.C., crushed all opposition, and
made himself dictator in 82 B.C. While dictator, he wrote laws that prevented generals
from serving for more than one year at a time in order to prevent other generals from
using the same methods he used to become dictator. After giving power back to the
Senate he voluntarily retired in 79 B.C.
Source: http://history.howstuffworks.com/ancient-rome/lucius-cornelius-sulla.htm
Julius Caesar
The Caesar family was an impoverished line of the noble original clans. While highly
respected, the family held little political power. His father, Gaius Julius, had served in the
Senate, but had little importance aside from his son's legacy. His mother, Aurelia, of the
Aurelii Cotta line, seems to have had a more major impact on the life of her son.
Caesar was raised in the common quarters of Rome. His home was an insula, which
would now be known as apartment building in the modern world. Even for a patrician
family in poor financial shape, this was a definite handicap for future political ambition.
However, the young Caesar learned a great deal as a child, as he early on realized the
power in championing the common man. It wouldn't take a genius to understand that
several politicians in this era made a name for themselves using this method, and
Caesar certainly caught on to this easily. He had, though, the added advantage because
he was a patrician and arguably a political genius that would push him to the very limit of
Roman power.
Two major events impacted the life of the young Caesar. The later and seemingly less
momentous event of the two was the death of his father at the age of 15. So few of the
details of Gaius Julius Caesar the elder's life are known, that it's difficult to determine the
impact this may have had. While he certainly played a role in the life of his young son,
he was often away on military and Senate work. Before dying, his greatest contribution
to his son may have been reaching the office of Praetor (the office just below Consul),
which helped set the stage for his son to eventually gain a high government position.
The more significant event in the life of Caesar was a marriage arrangement that would
have enormous impact on Roman culture as a whole. The marriage of his aunt Julia to
Gaius Marius affected the entire ancient world. Through this marriage in 110 BC and 10
years prior to the birth of his famous nephew, Marius gained the political and familial
connection necessary to advance his own career up the ladder. Marius was one of the
richest men in Rome at the time and gained political power from the marriage, while the
Caesar family gained the wealth required to pay for election campaigns for Caesar's
father and uncles.
http://www.unrv.com/fall-republic/gaius-julius-caesar.php
Octavius/Octavian/Augustus
(Just pick a name already!)
Gaius Julius Caesar Augusts was born on September 23, 63 BCE. Even though he was
a sickly child, in 48 BCE, Octavius was appointed as a pontiff (priest) at the tender age
of 15. It's possible the Caesar planned to take his nephew with him to Africa to face off
against the Republicans there, but either sickness, or an over protective mother shot
down this idea.
In 46 BCE, Octavian took part in Caesar's triumphal parades in Rome, earning himself
some military awards despite not serving in the military. Clearly this shows that Caesar
at least had some ideas about his great nephew's future. The following year Octavian
followed Caesar to Spain, where the dictator conducted the last battle of his career.
Though Octavian himself took little part in the actual military aspect of this campaign, his
journey to join Caesar seems a significant development in the relationship.
While Caesar had planned to give Octavius a minor government position in 43 or 42
BCE at the age of 20 or 21, Caesar’s murder in 44 BCE quickly changed these plans.
Shortly afterward, Octavian joined forces with Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius
Lepidus in a military dictatorship known as the Second Triumvirate. After a civil war that
resulted in the death of Mark Antony (and suicide of Cleopatra VII) and the exile of
Lepidus, Octavius ruled Rome alone. As the sole ruler of Rome, Augustus used the
military to expand the Empire’s border so that it reached its natural borders of mountains
and oceans that could help protect it from attack. With Rome more secure, Augustus
worked with Rome’s neighbors to write treaties to guarantee that peace would last for a
long time as Rome entered a period known as the Pax Romana. During this time,
Augustus would also pass laws about the moral and sexual behavior of Romans which
had become somewhat shady for many years. These laws, along with others that
improved the way that government helped its people, would be the main parts of his plan
to restore “traditional virtues” to Rome.
http://www.unrv.com/fall-republic/octavian.php