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The Late Republic (133 BC-44 BC)
The Middle period of the Republic ended in 133 BC with the
murder of Tiberius Gracchus (and three hundred of his supporters) for trying to
help the poor.
It was the first political murder in the Republic’s 376 year history. Greed, corruption, and self-interest was now preventing the Senate from resolving pressing issues. The Senate was now fighting the common people. While it had done this before, its ruthlessness would prove to be the Republic’s final undoing.
Another Gracchi
Brother, more political murders
Gaius Gracchus was nine years younger than Tiberius
and became elected as a Tribune of the Plebs in 123 and in 122 BC. One of the
best orators of his time, he proved even more effective than his brother.
He introduced the right of appeal to a popular assembly (provocatio)
against a Senate-imposed death sentence. He made the army supply clothing
and equipment to its soldiers, continued land reforms, established colonies, and
introduced a subsidised grain dole. He also unsuccessfully tried to get full
citizen rights to all Latins.
While he was away establishing a colony near the ruins of
Carthage, Lucius Opimius, an arch conservative, was elected consul and
moved to repeal Gaius’s legislation.
In the ensuing mass protests, the Senate declared a State of
emergency (later called Senatus consultum ultimum). Opimius took this as meaning he could use
any means to end the crisis. He murdered Gracchus and others and set up a
tribunal to execute a further 3,000 of his political opponents (without right
of appeal). This was extra-ordinary behaviour and beyond the power of the Senate but now became accepted and a terrible weapon in the hands of the Senate.
Gaius Marius and
reform of the Army (100 BC)
Gaius Marius, a war hero and one of the Populares. He was a Consul an incredible six times (107 -100 BC) before losing favour (with the Senate). He
was foremost in reforming the Roman Army: abolishing the property requirement, resulting in a massive decline in conscription and making the army more effective and professional.
The new legions were now loyal to their standard and commanders above the
Republic, the importance of which wouldn’t become apparent till later.
Another
reformer, another murder and another Purge
Marcus Livius Drusus became elected as Plebian tribune in
91 BC.
He was known as a principled, conscientious and generous Patrician, a member of a small circle of Optimates lead by Lucius Crassus that supported the power of the Senate but still wanted reform. He followed their agenda.
Firstly, he tried to reform jury selection which had switched from Senators to Equestrians
but was now being used to extort tax payers and launch vexatious lawsuits against
Senators. This alienated the Equites.
He then tried to help the poor in the model of previous reformers, which alienated the Senate. And he wanted to extend the full benefits of Roman citizenship to the Latins which alienated the rest of the Romans.
Later historians have viewed his motivation as more genuine, but at the time he was seen as trying to ‘buy’ a massive support base by introducing new citizens.
He was killed by an unknown assassin which triggered the ‘Bellum Sociale (91 to 87 BC) usually mistranslated as
the ‘Social War’, during which many previous Italian Roman allies rose
in revolt at entrenched Roman selfish interests.
Instead of blaming
itself, the Senate blamed Drusus and set up a tribunal to try many of his
supporters for sedition.
Sulpicius,
Drusus’ successor, defects to the Populares
If Drusus was accused of being opportunist, he was nothing
to Publius Sulpicius Rufus, an Equites, who was second in Drusus’s
circle and was elected Plebian tribune in 89 BC).
Sulpicius was not wealthy. The usual bribes left him
with massive debts. Old Gaius Marius offered to clear his debts if he could
somehow get him appointed to lead the army against Mithridates.
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| Kingdom of Pontos before entering Greece |
Sulla, the senior consul and an Optimate, had
already been appointed to lead this lucrative campaign but was near Naples
mopping up after the Social War. The Italians had been promised citizenship
during the Social War, and Marius and Sulpicius introduced a bill to rapidly bring
this into law. The Optimates were still determinedly opposed and got Sulla
to declare an emergency suspension of business.
In an ensuing bloody riot, the two consuls had to withdraw
the order, fearing for their lives.
Sulla then returned to Nola near Naples. While he was
away, Sulpicius used his control of the popular assembly to get Marius
appointed to the lead the army instead of Sulla.
He then used the popular Assembly to forcefully eject his
opponents from the Senate.
Sulla’s first
civil war, and the rise of the power of the Army
Sulla appealed to his loyal troops who were outraged. He was
able to leave one legion at Nola (near Naples) and take the other five to march
to Rome (88 BC) against little opposition.
No General had ever crossed the city limits armed before.
For the first time, the legions didn’t demonstrate
absolute loyalty to the Republic. Any who could win the hearts and minds of the
legions could dominate Rome.
The Optimates
gain a shaky control over Rome
Sulla was popular with his troops and the Senate, but the
Optimates had lost any support they might
have had amongst the common people of Rome, and especially the Italians.
It didn’t help that the recent Social War had triggered a
credit and loan crisis in Rome while Mithridates’ campaigns were depriving Rome
of taxes from the East.
When two new consuls were elected, one, Lucius
Cornelius Cinna, turned on Sulla. Presumably with support from the Plebian
tribunes, he brought charges against him.
Sulla departed with his legions to
fight against Mithridates. While he was out of Rome,
he couldn’t be prosecuted, but this left the other consul, Octavius and
the Senate, to defend against Cinna and his new allies.
There was a massive street fight in the Forum between the
two factions and Cinna was stripped of his title and exiled (illegally).
The Populares and
Italian allies fight back
In exile, Cinna joined with the Italians, Marius and an
especially clever general called Sertorius. They raised an army and
forced Rome’s surrender. Cinna and Marius became consuls but old Marius died
shortly after. Cinna had Octavius and a few political opponents killed and
others exiled but reports of a widespread blood bath and tyranny were likely exaggerated by Cinna’s enemies.
The People
versus the Legions
The Populares may have strong support amongst the Plebs, the
Italians, the provenances and some Legions (especially those that had fought on the rebel side in
the Social War) but this did not translate into widespread support within the
army.
The commanders were by and large taken from the Roman aristocracy
and the rank and file were loyal to them, making the army largely conservative.
Sulla was a darling of the legions, and he (unlike the Populares) was more than happy to let his
troops plunder any town that resisted him, even Italian towns, and plunder was something very greatly desired by Roman soldiers.
Armies raised by the Populares were plagued by mass
defections.
The first army sent against Sulla eventually defected to
Sulla (85 BC). Cinna raised another army (84 BC) but was murdered by his own
troops.
In the spring of 83 BC Sulla landed his army in southern
Italy, triggering another major civil war. Sulla and his allies acted brutally, sacking
any towns that resisted them and slaughtering their populations.
As the Optimates
looked like losing a message was sent back to Rome. A meeting of the Senate was
called and, in an unprecedented act of sacrilege, assassins were brought in to cut
down any marked senators who might support Sulla. The chief priest of Rome was
murdered in the Temple of Vesta itself.
Sulla’s reign of
Terror
Sulla won and declared himself dictator. Until his resignations
(81 BC) he initiated a massive reign of terror nominating against his opponents calling them ‘enemies of the state’. He used 'proscription' executing them and seizing all their property. He barred their impoverished descendants
from holding public office and forbid their daughters (and widows) from
marrying.
At first this was to remove political opponents, soon it used
simply to seize land and property and enrich him and his followers. 9,000
leading Romans were murdered. He also removed most of the powers of the Plebian
council and the Plebian tribunes and expanded the senate in power, and doubled
its size by an infusion of wealthy Equites.
After Sulla
Most of the reforms of Sulla barely lasted a couple of
decades but the massacres and prohibitions of this period accelerated the moral
rot at the heart of the Republic.
It was not only the use of the legions, and the unprecedented
chaos. He and his opponents had murdered Rome’s best leaders. All men of principle, those that supported
the law, had been amongst the first to be purged by either side. There were massive rewards given
to the unscrupulous.
The Collapse of
the Republic (59–44 BC)
It was the beginning of the end when Julius Caesar was elected consul in 59 BC with the help of Crassus and Pompey.
Crassus was the general that defeated Spartacus and had
become the richest man in Rome through real estate. Pompey (known as Pompey
the Great) was only forty-five and the greatest general of his time. He was
almost equally as wealthy as Crassus, through conquest, and had returned for
his third and greatest triumph after the final Mithridatic war.
Back in Rome, Pompey had found his wishes to settle
veterans thwarted and his treaties disavowed by a jealous senate. He had previously squabbled with
Crassus but Julius Caesar was an arch negotiator and a long-term supporter of
both men.
Julius Caesar was already a distinguished soldier and, while as governor of Roman Spain, had conquered two local tribes. While he was the head of a Patrician family, he had no reason to love the Optimates.
He was a nephew of Gaius Marius, who, with Cinna, had fought against Sulla. Caesar had also married Cinna's daughter, Cornelia. During Sulla’s purges he was stripped of his family fortune, Cornelia’s dowry and an earlier priesthood (Jupiter). He was only barely able to keep his life.
He was told to divorce Cornelia but he angrily refused.
To make ends meet, Caesar was forced to became a lawyer where he showed considerable skill but he remained so heavily in debt that he couldn’t begin his political and military career until becoming a client of Crassus (in everything but name).
The informal alliance of these three is sometimes called the First Triumvirate.
Pompey later married Julius Caesar’s daughter.
It was a bitterly fought election and his co-consul,
Bibulus, vowed to block any of Caesar’s populist reforms. Caesar attempted
persuasion at first but, in the end, Pompey flooded the streets with veterans,
silencing the Optimate opposition and allowing Caesar to use the popular
assembly to push his agenda.
Crassus obtained lucrative tax
collecting contracts. Crassus and Pompey remained in control of
politics in Rome while Caesar, after his one year term as consul, was given command
over Gaul
and Illyria
for five years, allowing him to launch his Conquest of Gaul.
Accounts of how amicable the First Triumvirate continued to
be varied considerably but around 56 BC Pompey and Crassus, as consuls,
extended Caesar’s governorship for another five years. Pompey received governorship
of Hispania,
and Crassus of Syria.
During Caesar’s famous conquest of Gaul, one version was
that he subjugated 300 tribes, and destroyed 800 cities, killed a million
people and gained so much plunder that the price of gold briefly dropped in
Rome.
Caesar was now not only a war hero and a darling of the people, he was a wealthy and could afford bribes.
End of the
alliance
In September 54 BC Caesar’s daughter, Pompey’s wife, died giving
birth to a girl who also died soon after. To secure Pompey, Caesar offered his
great-niece in marriage but Pompey refused.
Soon after, Crassus was killed leading an ill-fated
expedition against the Parthians (May 53 BC). The only people binding Pompey to
Caesar were now dead.
What turned Pompey against Caesar is unclear. He was a proud
and ambitious man and saw Caesar as his main rival. He was also the only member of
the Triumvirate left in Rome and securing his power base in the Senate meant
forming alliances with the Optimates.
In this, he was successful. In 52 BC as political violence got out of hand, he was elected as the sole consul (just one step short of a dictatorship).
There had been calls for Caesar to be recalled, and for
Caesar and Pompey to give up their legions, but it didn’t come to a head until
Caesar’s (unusual ten year) proconsular term came to an end in 50 BC.
His enemies began senate proceedings to try him for war crimes (in his conquest of Gaul) and his behaviour while a consul (in 59 BC). While he was a proconsul (governor) and out of Rome, he was immune to prosecution.
Marcus Anthonius (Mark Anthony), long term supporter of
Caesar and a plebian tribune, tried to block the prosecution, but was threatened
with violence. The senate then passed a state of emergency and demanded Caesar
disband his army and return to Rome to face charges.
Mark Anthony and several of Caesar’s supporters fled to warn him.
Caesar was camped on the banks of the Rubicon in northern
Italy, the southern-most limits of his territory. He crossed the Rubicon with
the thirteenth legion, on January 10 triggering what would be a hard-fought civil
war (49–45 BC).
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| Assassination of Caesar , Holmes Sullivan |
At the end of the war Pompey was dead, Caesar victorious, and declared dictator for life. Ironically, it was a position he held only for a little over a month.
On the
Ides of March, Caesar was stabbed to death by a mob of senators in the senate, where
he had to leave his body guards outside.
After the
Republic 44- 27 BC
The Roman Republic was over in everything but name. Julius Caesar was deified, literally.
Rome was now ruled by a military dictatorship of three.
Mark Antony and a man called Lepidus divided up Roman territories between them. They reintroduced proscription and property seizures.
Octavian, only eighteen and Julius Caesar’s heir, was very a junior partner to these other two.
Except that, while Mark Anthony was fighting Brutus and Cassius in Greece, and Lepidus was attempting to dislodge a very stubborn son of Pompey from Sicily, Octavian had his own legions and was able to cement his position as Caesar’s heir in Rome.
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| Augustus |
He eventually was able to strip Lepidus of all power and then win a civil war against Mark Anthony (joined by Caesar’s previous lover, Cleopatra), to become Rome’s first emperor in 27 BC.
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