The Roman Republic
509 BCE – 30 BCE
Chapter Objectives
 After this chapter, you should be able to do
the following:
1. Describe how the Roman government was
organized.
2. Explain how the Roman Republic was able to
expand.
3. Summarize how the effects of conquest changed
the Roman economy and government.
4. Discuss efforts to save the Roman Republic.
Government
Consuls
Senate
Judges
Assemblies
Tribunes
What were The Twelve Tables?
Other Important Vocabulary Words
• Plebeians
• Patricians
• Veto
Roman Expansion
 The need to protect what they




had (Etruscans)
Conquered or made allies
Very Strong Army – Legions
(5000 Legionaries)
Dress the Roman Centurian
Mild Rulers of those they
conquered
The Punic Wars
Carthage
The First Punic War
 264 BCE
 First of Three Wars between Rome and Carthage
 Carthage – Navy
 Rome – Army (they later built a navy to compete)
 Corvus
 Rome won – Carthaginians left Sicily
The Second Punic War
 218 BCE
 Hannibal Barca
 Not enough heavy




equipment
Raided and
burned
Attacked Carthage
Rome wins – 201
BCE
Carthage pays big
time
Hannibal
The Third Punic War
 149 BCE
 Carthage regaining power
 Romans attacked
 Carthaginians were finished
 Rome attacked Corinth, Greece
264 BCE
50 BCE
120 AD
The Effects of Conquest
 Small Farms to Large Estates (latifundias)
 Due to Hannibal
 Who worked the latifundias?
 Farmers moved to Rome – awful living conditions
 Decline of the Roman Republic (135 BCE)
1. Taxes - Publicans
2. Farmers lost land/independence
3. Luxuries bought in other cities=Merchants grew poor
4. Government officials busy getting rich
5. Rich-----------------------------------------------------Poor
Roman Leadership
 Next 100 years spent trying to improve Rome
REFORMERS
 Tribune Tiberius Gracchus (133 BCE)– limit land
ownership – gave public lands to the poor – ran for a
second term – killed with his followers by Senate
 Tribune Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (123 BCE) –
move poor from the city to the countryside –
discount wheat to the poor – killed in 121 BCE by the
Senate
Roman Leadership
GENERALS
 General Gaius Marius becomes Consul (107 BCE) –
first lower class Roman to be elected this high –
opened the Army to everyone – provided jobs –
loyalty was to the general that hired them, not Rome.
 Lucius Cornelius Sulla – opposed Marius – Marched
on Rome (civil war) – named self Dictator –
increased size of the Senate – made general move
from one command to another yearly
Julius Caesar
 6o BCE Sulla Retired
 Triumverate
Marcus Licinius Crassus
2. Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
3. Julius Caesar
 Crassus dies – the other two
fight for power
 Pompey murdered
1.
Julius Caesar
 58 BCE – Governor
 57-50 BCE Conquered a lot of land
 50 BCE Told to dismantle his Army
 50 BCE Came to Rome with his Troops
 46 BCE – Self Appointed Dictator of Rome
 MADE MANY REFORMS WHICH HELPED DO A
GREAT DEAL FOR ROME – THE PEOPLE LOVED
HIM – BUT GUESS WHO FEARED HIM.
 Killed by the Senate on March 15, 44 BCE – The Ides
of March
The End of the Republic
 New Triumverate – DID NOT LIKE EACH OTHER
Mark Antony – Caesar’s closest follower
2. Octavian – Caesar’s grand nephew/adopted son
3. Marcus Lepidus – One of Caesar’s top officers
1.

31 BCE – Octavian was the sole ruler of the Roman
Empire
Virtual Tour of Rome
 http://www.italyguides.it/us/roma/rome_italy_trav
el.htm