COLLAPSE OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC
146 BCE:
133:
to 123:
123-122:
121:
111:
107:
106:
100:
90-88:
88:
to 85:
73:
70:
67-62:
63:
60:
59:
58-50:
48:
to 47:
47:
46:
44:
Third Punic War ends: major wealth & power disparities in Rome
Tiberius Gracchus elected Tribune, enacts land reform/redistribution, removes
rival tribune Octavius, stands for re-election (unconstitutional)
Riots erupt and senators assassinate Tiberius: first blood in Roman politics
Political parties Populares (“of the people”) v. optimates (“the best”): masses v.
aristocracy
Gaius Gracchus elected Tribune, stabilizes grain prices, offers citizenship to all
Italians
Gaius declared enemy of the state, consuls assassinate him and thousands of his
followers
Jugurthine War in Numidia (northern Africa) begins
Marius (novus homo, or “new man”) elected consul, defeats Jugurtha
Sulla (patrician) responsible for victory, doesn’t get credit
Cicero born
Gaius Julius Caesar born
War of the Allies
Civil war between Sulla and Marius; Marius opens ranks of army to the poor
Sulla elected consul, defeats Marius, granted dictatorship and imperium
Sulla’s reforms restore power to the Senate, reduce power of Assembly, uses
army to kill opponents and former supporters of Marius
Spartacus leads slave revolt
Crassus and Pompey elected consuls, repeal Sulla’s constitution, ally with
tribunes and Assembly against patricians/optimates and Senate
Pompey gains imperium to destroy pirates in Mediterranean, campaigns in Asia
Minor
Cicero’s consulship; Crassus allies with Caesar (abandoning Pompey)
First Triumvirate (Caesar, Pompey, Crassus) forms
Caesar’s consulship puts Triumvirate in total control of Rome
Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul, Spain, and Britain against the barbarians
Caesar declared enemy of the state by Pompey and Senate, crosses Rubicon river
and ignites civil war, Pompey & Senate abandon Rome & flee to Greece
Caesar defeats Pompey at Pharsalus, who flees to Egypt & is assassinated by
Ptolemy XIII
Caesar reinstates Cleopatra on Egyptian throne, helps defeat Ptolemy XIII, has an
affair with Cleopatra and (supposedly) fathers a boy, Caesarion
Caesar defeats king of Pontus in rapid victory on return march to Rome
Caesar returns to Rome and is granted imperium and dictatorship for 10 years,
begins governmental and social reforms
Caesar given dictatorship for life
Caesar assassinated on Ides of March (March 15, 44 BCE) by Brutus, Cassius,
and other conspirators
alea iacta est
“The die is cast”
veni vidi vici
“I came, I saw, I conquered”