Roman Republic

History of the Roman Republic

The Establishment of the Republic

The Roman Republic was established in 509 b.C. when the last Etruscan king was driven out, and a system of two consuls elected every year by the senate was established. The consuls, initially patrician but later opened to plebeians, were elected officials who exercised executive authority, but had to contend with the Roman Senate, which grew in size and power with the establishment of the Republic.

The main principles observed by the Romans were annuality, with a one-year term for their officials, and collegiality, with the same office held by at least two men at the same time each of whom exercised a power of mutual veto over any actions by the other. The dictators were an exception to annuality and collegiality, a single man elected in times of emergency (always military) for a term of 6 months to have sole command of the state. The censors were an exception to annuality, with two censors elected on a regular basis every five years for a term of 18 months.

Patricians and plebeians

The people of Rome were divided into patricians and plebeians. The two classes were ancestral and inherited, with the patricians who monopolized all political offices, religious functions and most of the wealth in the early Republic.

The relationship between the plebeians and the patricians sometimes came under such a strain that the plebeians left the city with their families and movable possessions, setting up camp on a hill outside the walls. In 494 b.C. the plebeians for the first time elected two leaders, to whom they gave the title Tribunes. A second secession led to further legal definition of the rights and duties of the plebeians, with an increased number of tribunes up to 10. A 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.

Italic peoples, Gauls and Magna Graecia

Rome after the wars agains Pirrhus The Romans gradually subdued the Italic peoples on the peninsula. In the IV century b.C. Rome extended its influence over West Latium and South Etruria, with the Etruscan city of Veio conquered in 396 b.C..

The decline of the Etruscans brought the France Celts (called Gauls by the Romans) to conquer the Central Italy, and in 387 b.C. the sack of Rome took place, with the Capitoline hill as the only place of the city held by the Romans.

Recovered by the defeat, the Romans conquered the whole Latium and subdued the Samnites in three wars dated 343-341 b.C., 326-304 b.C., and 298-290 b.C.. Also the inhabitants of Picenum, Umbria, Apulia, Lucania, and Etruria were pacified.

The last threat to Roman hegemony in Italy came from the Magna Graecia in south of the peninsula. Tarentum, a major Greek colony, enlisted the aid of Pyrrhus of Epirus in 282 b.C.. He won victories at Heraclea (280 b.C.) and Asculum (279 b.C.), but he was defeated at Benevento in 275 b.C., and he returned to Greece, leaving the Romans masters of central and South Italy.

The Punic Wars

Rome after the Punic Wars Rome, previously a continental power, began to look seaward in the III cent. b.C., meeting the like ambitions of Carthage, which ruled the West Mediterranean.

Carthage was a Phoenician colony on the coast of what is now Tunisia (near modern Tunis).

In Sicily the first war broke out between Rome and Carthage, resulting in, at first, a series of victories for Carthage until Rome refitted its navy using a captured Carthaginian vessel as a model. The war ended when the two signed a treaty giving Rome control of Sicily, but in 238 b.C. the mercenary troops of Carthage revolted and Rome took the opportunity to capture Corsica away from Carthage.

The Punic Wars took place in 264-241 b.C., 218-202 b.C., 149-146 b.C., Although Carthage had the great general Hannibal, Rome fought with the resources of Italy behind it and had such leaders as Scipio Africanus Major. Rome gained from the Punic Wars dominion over Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the northern shores of Africa, ruled as Roman provinces, gaining the hegemony in the Mediterranean.

The Conquest of Greece and Asia

The following campaigns of the Roman Republic was against Philip V of Macedon, successor of Alexander the Great and allied of Hannibal, who was defeated after two wars (215-205 b.C., 200-197 b.C.). His soon Perseus, who also leaded the opposition of the Greeks cities of the Achaean League against Rome, was defeat in 168 b.C. and Illirium and Macedonia become Roman provinces.

Also the reign of Syria, under Antiochus III, was defeated at Termopili (191 b.C.) and Magnesia (190 b.C.); with the treaty signed in 188 b.C., both Syria and Thracia were Roman provinces. In 168 b.C., Roman troops smashed the Macedonians at the Battle of Pynda, and afterwards divided Macedonia into four 'republics' that were, in effect, mere extensions of Rome's will and power. New rebellions took place by the Greeks cities in the south (the Achaean League), still autonomous with respect to the Roman control, and with the destruction of Corinth in 146 b.C. also the Greece became subject to Rome.

The end of Republican Rule

Rome in 146 b.C. The expansion of Roman dominion had negative effects at home. The provinces were governed by the senate for the benefit of their own. Class dissension was rife, and in spite of agrarian laws the masses were daily more dissatisfied. The small landowners, became slaves, rebelled twice in Sicily (134-132 b.C., 104-101 b.C.). The two brothers Tiberio and Gaio Gracco tried to make the populace more powerful, but massacres and incredible barbarities disposed of the slaves' restlessness, lead the Gracco brothers to be assassinated (133 and 121 b.C.). Also the Roman allied started to claim their right, and Rome was forced by the Social War (90-88 b.C.) to extend citizenship widely in Italy.

The troubles of the Republic led to a Civil War between two Roman generals: Marius and Sulla. Marius, who defeated Jugurtha in 106 b.C. and the Cimbri and the Teutons in 101 b.C., introducing Roman arms into Transalpine Gaul, used proscription to rid himself of his foes, but Sulla, a conservative, destroyed Marius' party by the same method. After the death of Marius in 86 b.C., Rome was ruled by Sulla's dictatorship.

The First Triumvirate

After Sulla's retirement in 79 b.C., his lieutenant Pompey was appointed by the senate to defeat a Sulla's opponents in Spain. In the same timeframe a slave revolt led by Spartacus was put down by Crassus. Back to Rome in 70 b.C., Pompey and Crassus allied themselves to force the senate to elect them as consuls. Pompey abolished some of Sulla's reactionary measures, suppressed Mediterranean piracy, and defeated Mithradates VI so that Pontus, Syria, and Phoenicia where brought under Roman dominion, gaining the support of the Roman senate. In the meantime, Julius Caesar, supported by Crassus' fortune, gained popularity in Rome as leader of the popular party, in opposition to Pompey, leader of the aristocratic party. The three men formed the First Triumvirate in 60 b.C., to get control of Rome.

Each of the three was elected consul, but Caesar obtained the command of the Roman army for five years, to fight the Gauls in France and in Great Britain.

The Civil War and Caesar's Dictatorship

Victorious from the resulting wars, the popularity of Caesar became a threat for the senate and Pompey was elected as unique consul to fight against Caesar. Pompey was defeated and in 45 Caesar forced the senate to be named dictator for ten years. This was followed up in 44 with his appointment of dictator for life.

Caesar took on too much power too soon for some of the senators, however, and was murdered in a plot organised by Brutus and Cassius, on the Ides of March 44 b.C.. At the death of Caesar, the territories ruled by Rome included Spain (except part of the northwest), Gaul, Italy, part of Illyria, Macedonia, Greece, Asia Minor, Bithynia, Pontus, Cilicia, Syria, Cyrenaica, Numidia, and the islands of the sea, and Rome completely controlled Egypt and Palestine.

Rome in 44 b.C.

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 in Greece, and, mostly due to the generalship of Antony, won a massive victory over them at 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 son of Pompey, who had taken control of parts of Sicily and was running pirate operations in the Mediterranean, disrupting the flow of grain from Egypt to Rome. In 36, Lepidus, while besieging Sextus in Spain, refused 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 on the Parthians. His campaigns were not as successful as he would have hoped, the 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, 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 fight with Antony and Cleopatra. Octavian's chief advisor and extraordinary military leader, Agrippa, captured Methone on Greece. Due to Octavian's incredible popularity with the legions, Greece and Cyrenaica went over to his side. 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 latter two fled to Egypt.

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 30, but before he could get capture his two enemies, they committed suicide within a few days of each other in August.

The Collapse of the Republic

In the end, the Roman world became too large and complicated for the structures of the republic to cope, and after a period of civil war, which ended at the Battle of Actium in 31 b.C., Augustus Caesar established the form of government that would later be regarded as the Roman Empire; with himself as its first Emperor of Rome. The transition from Republic to Empire was swift, yet subtle; rather than making a direct grab for power after the civil wars, Augustus' first political move was to support the return of power to the Senate in 27 b.C.. Augustus was granted the Consulship. Seeking more power, and with the aid of a Senate planted with Senators who sided with him, Augustus was granted the power of the tribune and also imperium proconsulare maius, or supreme authority. 23 b.C. is the year that Augustus became the first of what historians now call an Emperor of Rome; the title that was used for him in his time was "First Citizen". A brilliant propagandist, he was very careful to cloak his takeovers in republican disguises. Augustus led Rome to great prosperity and four decades of civic peace. A generation of Romans were born and died in the course of his forty-five years as First Citizen, and this was now all that the people knew rather than the old days of the Republic. As such, the way was clear for Augustus to appoint a successor to his powers and the Republic was then lost.