BIG CITY/BIG PROBLEMS
• Rome had a population
of close to one million
people and no police
force or army garrison
to keep the peace
– Majority of these
people were Head
Count, freed slaves,
and slaves
– Frequently formed
“mobs” and rioted
PRIVATE ARMIES
• Mobs were generally unarmed
and relied on sticks and
stones as weapons
• Wealthy could obtain
permission from Senate to
issue weapons to their clients
in an emergency
– Wealthy also had
knowledge of strategy,
tactics and logistics
– Kept poor down with private
armies
• Only a small step from using
private armies to keep the
peace to using them to weaken
or eliminate a rival or advance
a program
CROWDED CITY
• Rome had a huge population
crammed together in a high
density in a small geographic
area
– Streets were narrow and
winding
– Rich lived in mansions on
Palatine Hill or in suburbs
– Most other Romans lived
in small flats in rickety
wooden apartment
buildings
• In lower part of city
• Subject to periodic
floods, collapsing
buildings, and almost
daily fires
SLUMS
• Apartment buildings were poorly
constructed and designed
– Flats were poorly lit, poorly
ventilated, and unheated
– Water had to be carried in from
public fountains
– Not connected to the sewer
system
• Most of Rome was an appalling slum
– But landlords like Cicero made
good incomes from their property
• Rents were 100-150 sesterces a
month
• Some reformers proposed
suspending rents for a time to help
the poor
– Always blocked by wealthy
landlords
LABOR FORCE
• Most economic activity in
Rome revolved around
supplying its population
with food and other
necessities and
construction
– Many workers were
slaves or men from
slave origins
– Advantages of slaves
• Slaves were cheap
• Most came from the
East and had highlydeveloped skills
• They provided a
stable labor force
HARD LIVES
• Freeborn Romans of the Head
Count were mostly displaced small
farmers
– Generally performed unskilled
labor on irregular basis
• Most Romans only worked
periodically at unskilled jobs for low
pay
– Yet they continued to pour into
Rome because it was even worse
out in the countryside
• Lived hard lives, dependent
on the voluntary generosity of
the wealthy and occasional
part-time employment
SUMMARY
• Preconditions for political violence in Republican
Rome
– Governmental structure
• Rigged in favor of the wealthy
– Large population and lack of official police force
• Caused the wealthy to form private armies to
protect themselves and their interests
– Misery and squalor of the majority of the Roman
population
• Multiplied their grievances against the
wealthy and the government
• Also fostered their dependence on the rich
and powerful
–Left them open to ruthless politicians who
promised them satisfaction of their
complaints in exchange for support
TIBERIUS GRACCHUS
• In 133 BC, the tribune Tiberius
Gracchus proposed to the
Tribal Assembly that stateowned land be distributed
among the poor of Rome
– Tribal Assembly passed it
but it was vetoed by another
tribune in the pay of the
Senate
– Gracchus then had the
tribune impeached and had
his proposal passed again
– Senate then charged
Gracchus with “aspiring to
tyranny” and lynched him
GAIUS GRACCHUS
• Gaius Gracchus became tribune ten
years later
– Passed several pieces of
legislation that helped the poor
• But he knew new tribunes
would revoke it all once his
term of office was over
• Armed his clients and planned
to use his private army to make
sure his laws remained on the
books
• Senate raised its own private
army to oppose him
– Gaius and his clients killed
in ensuing battle
SATURNIUS
• Another tribune, Saturnius, revived
the Gracchus proposals between
103 and 100 BC
– Free public land to poor and free,
government-subsidized grain to
urban populus
– Murdered anyone who stood in
his way with private army of
armed clients
– Senate once again raised its own
private army and eventually
defeated Saturnius
• Saturnius and supporters
killed by senators while
awaiting trial
NEAR CIVIL WAR
• Tribune Sulpicius proposed to
Tribal Assembly that freed
slaves by given citizenship and
be allowed to join voting tribes
– 88 BC
– Raised army and drove
Senate and opposing
tribunes out of city
• One of the ousted consuls,
Lucius Cornelius Sulla,
invaded Rome with an army
and killed Sulpicius and his
supporters
Sulpicius
Sulla
CINNA AND MARIUS
Cinna
Gaius Marius
• Sulla received a military commission and
went to Asia Minor to fight some
rebellious kings
– Another tribune, Cinna, revived
Sulpicius’ proposal
• Supported by Gaius Marius
– 7-time consul and military
legend
– Opposed by another tribune, Octavius,
and his private army
• Cinna finally driven from city but he
called on the regular army,
returned, and slaughtered Octavius
and his supporters
SULLA SUPREME
• Marius died of a stroke shortly
after helping Cinna regain
control of Rome
– Sulla returns with army,
massacres Cinna and
supporters, and sets
himself up as dictator
• Also murders everyone
who had ever crossed
him in the past
• Retires in 79 BC and
violence erupts
immediately
POMPEY MAGNUS
• Price of grain skyrockets in Rome due to
pirates in eastern Mediterranean
– Tribal Assembly votes to give Pompey
Magnus extraordinary military powers
to eliminate pirate threat
• Opposed by Senate but poor chase
senators out of the city
– Also physically several tribunes
who threatened to veto
appointment
– Clear that common people
would not stand any opposition
to Pompey’s appointment
• Pompey wipes pirates out in 3 months
– Price of grain falls
MORE POLITICAL VIOLENCE
• Political violence
continued
– Cataline Conspiracy
– Milo/Clodius affair
– War between Pompey
and Julius Caesar
– Establishment of
dictatorship by Caesar
and his subsequent
assassination
– All ate away at the core
of the Republic
END OF THE REPUBLIC
• Victory of Caesar’s
grandnephew, Octavian,
over Marc Antony and
Cleopatra in 31 BC
brings end of the
Roman Republic
– Last civil war of the
period
• Octavian (now calling
himself Augustus)
creates an imperial
monarchy to take place
of the Republic
MAIN POINTS
• Political violence did not proceed from any single
source in Rome
– Sometimes it was private army some tribune
– Sometimes it was private army of senators
– Sometimes it was a spontaneous uprising by the
poor themselves
– And sometimes it came from the senators
themselves
• The common thread which connects all of these
sources (except the last one) was that all mob
actions involved the poor
– They made up the private armies of both tribunes
and the Senate as well as the unorganized mobs
WHO MADE UP THE MOBS?
• Cicero claimed the supporters of
Clodius were “assassins freed from
jail, runaway slaves, bandits, and
foreigners”
– But was this accurate?
• Best evidence indicates no
– Based on similar studies of
crowds during the French
Revolution by George Rudé
and some contemporary
evidence, there is no solid
reason to believe that Roman
mobs were dominated by
criminals and outsiders
» But they were poor and
frequently desperate
Cicero, supreme
bullshit artist
WHY DID THE POOR RIOT?
• Some historians have interpreted motivations of mobs in
class terms
– As a struggle between rich and poor
• Class consciousness was not a motivating factor, or at
least not a crucial one
– Main motivations lay elsewhere
• Sometimes poor were following orders of patrons
• At other times, the mobs were motivated by grain
shortages or high grain prices
• Unifying motivational factor was hunger
– Mobs were not out to overthrow their economic
and social superiors nor where they a bunch of
heroic democrats out to change the rigged
structure of Roman government
» They were poor, hungry people who wanted
food, who wanted to survive
IMPERIAL MONARCHY
• From the standpoint of the poor,
the destruction of the Republic
and the installation of an imperial
monarchy by Augustus was not
such a bad thing
– Wealthy lost control of
government under the
monarchy
• Emperors provided free grain (and
later free olive oil and free wine)
– They also improved the water
supply, provided better fire
protection, launched a
rebuilding program that
provided more jobs, and put on
lavish public entertainments
• And mob violence
correspondingly declined
SUMMARY I
• Emperors did more to alleviate the misery of the
poor of Rome than the Republic had ever done in
order to protect themselves
– Political violence of the Republic begins to make
some sense from this point of view
• Suffocating under a governmental structure
designed to only benefit the rich and powerful, those
who wanted to help the poor had to go outside the
system to accomplish their goals
– And since Roman republican politics was based
on the development of large networks of clients
and the maintenance of private armies to keep the
peace, it was inevitable that this would lead to the
frequent use of violence
SUMMARY II
• Nor were the poor adverse averse to violence
– Desperately poor, underemployed, pressed by the
high cost of living in Rome, and often hungry,
they were more than willing to follow men who
promised to solve their problems
• And sometimes even took matters into their
own hands
• The destruction of the Republic was, in a way, their
victory
– For with the destruction of the oligarchy which
had controlled the Republic and establishment of
imperial monarchy, living conditions for the poor
did improve
• And that was the only thing they had wanted in
the first place
PRINCEPS
• Augustus did not immediately
establish a blatant imperial monarchy
after he emerged victorious over Marc
Antony
– Institutions of the Republic still
appeared to operate
• But no longer possessed any
real political power
– All real power was now in the hands
of Augustus
• With the honorary title of
“princeps”
• Controlled army and provinces,
had the poor in his pocket,
selected candidates for public
office and made sure they were
elected, determined Senate
membership, had total control of
the treasury
THE AUGUSTAN SYSTEM
• Augustus exercised his vast powers
quietly, behind the scenes
– Because he was fearful that his
open use of his powers might
arouse republican sympathies of
Roman people
• On the other hand, he had no
intention of voluntarily giving his
powers up
– Since this might re-ignite civil war
• Augustus thus stayed in power and
established a dynasty
– Emperors who would follow him
would become less and less
careful in the quiet exercise of their
power and the fiction of the
Republic would fall to the wayside