Fall of the Roman Republic
For Dummies
The Past and the Fiuture?
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1 Political developments in the late Republic
– legacy of Sulla
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– Pompey: significance of military and political career 2007
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– significance of the consulship of Pompey and Crassus in 70 BC
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– role and significance of Cicero 2004
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– First Triumvirate: aims, roles and responsibilities of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus
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– activities and breakdown of the First Triumvirate 2008
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– political crises: role of the Senate; use of the army for political purposes; urban
violence
– role of optimates, populares
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– Caesar and Pompey: political competition and responsibility for outbreak of the Civil
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War 49–45 BC
– significance of Caesar’s dictatorship
2 Wars and expansion
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– Pompey’s extraordinary commands and the Eastern Settlement
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– Caesar’s military activities in Gaul, Germany and Britain
– significance of the Mithridatic and Parthian wars
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3 Fall of the Republic
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– impact of Caesar’s assassination
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– formation, activities and breakdown of the Second Triumvirate 2005
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– rivalry and Civil War between Mark Antony and Octavian: role of Cleopatra VII;
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Battle of Actium
2005
2004
2006
2007
2008,
2003
2006 2003
APPROACH TO PERIOD
QUESTION
• It is vital to know a comprehensive narrative of the period.
• The focus of the question will be role or significance of
Bodies/Instit
utions
Groups
individuals
• Senate
• Army & Generals
• Tribunes
• First Triumvirate
• Second Triumvirate
• Pompey
• Cicero
• Crassus
• Mark Antony
• Octavian
Think and Speak like a Roman
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Amicitae
Mos Maeorum
Nobilitas
Dignitas
Imperium
Patron/Client Relationship
Suo Anno
Clemencia
Celeritas
Concordia Ordinum
Students must have a broader appreciation of the impact of
Empire. This would constitute a sophisticated judgment; Band 6
outcome.
1
The empire expands
5
The unemployed mob cause
increased corruption
& military commanders
become too influential as the army
becomes dependent on
the spoils of war
2
Wealth and Slaves
flood into Rome
3
Senators buy up vast properties
4
Smallholders move
to Rome to try
and find work
Characteristics of the Period
• Increasing factionalism in Senate between Populares
and Optimates
• Rise of popular tribunes and use by generals
• Rise of client armies and powerful generals.” The rise
of the professional army was probably the most
important of the problems besetting the Republic
with which the Senate failed to deal “ Goldsworthy
• Increasing violence in the streets and forum
• Undermining of Cursus Honorum. Use of non
traditional paths to power
• Use of amicitae to overpower Senate
Wars of Expansion
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Punic Wars
Jugurtha
Mithridates
Brought great wealth but raised the
importance of army and generals to the most
powerful position.
• The path to power lay, not with the Cursus
Honorum but the ability to raise an army.
78-63 period of extra ordinary commands
63 BC Cicero Consul
Catiline Conspiracy
60-52 BC First Triumvirate
51-49BC Countdown to Civil War
49-45BC Civil War
44-31BC Second triumvirate and civil war
Increasing use
of:
•Client armies
•Powerful
generals
•Violence
•Tribunes
•Extraordinary
commands
•Decreasing
use of
•Mos maeorum
•Senate to pass
laws
Legacy of Sulla /rise of Pompey
82-77BC
• Sulla’s march on Rome; “ momentous event in
history” Scullard
• ‘The most enduring legacy of Sulla’s his methods”
Brunt
• Extra Ordinary Commands;
• Raised his own ‘private’ army to aid Sulla at 23,
gained propraetorian imperium and first triumph.
• Granted propraetorian command against Lepidus.
Given proconsular command against Sertorius.
• Lex Gabinia ( pirates)
• Lex Manilia ( Mithridates)
Significance of Pompey
• In Sulla’s lifetime, due to Pompey’s insubordination
• After his death, to the revolt of Lepidus and the Senates
nomination of Pompey to proconsular Imperium
• To the unleashing of the tribunate and the restoration of the
veto ( 77 Consulship)
• To the partial restoration of the courts to equite control
• To the unprecedented and limitless Imperium, granted through
the Lex Gabinia and Lex Manilia
• To the formation of the First Triumvirate, a combined effort of
private influences to secure private ambitions, against the
Senate’s will.
• Ironically by his death at Pharsalus he facilitated the transfer of
control from Senate to Dictator
Cataline Conspiracy a metaphor for a
dying republic; multi purpose narrative
• Catiline was yet another example of a Roman ambitious to seek power
through unconstitutional means
• It showed the factional nature of the Senate ie Caesar and Crassus vs
Cicero and Cato- Populares vs Optimates
• Aroused the Senates suspicions of Caaser’s motives
• Revealed Caesar’s powerful rhetorical ability and its affect on a
vascillating Senate.
• The public outcry over Caesar’s accused complicity showed the Senate
how much mass popularity Caesar had acquired
• The Senates understanding of the urban discontent is revealed in the
subsequent law providing for the distribution of cheap corn, presented in
the Asssembly by Cato!!!!!!!!!!
• The Optimates had adopted a Populare policy in order to appease the
people. On a more personel level Cato no doubt( galled by his sisters affair
with Ceasar) would hope that this policy would undermine Caesar’s
popularity with the urban masses.
• Allowed Cicero to be hailed as “Pater Patria” and led to his appeal of
Concordia Ordinum ( Agreement of good men)
Three Men ,Three Paths to Power;
Triumvirate 60- 56-52BC
• MUST KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Crassus wanted to make a contract with then Asian
tax collectors as he had financial interests at stake.
Cicero supported this as it would help relations
between the knights and the senate, which he
thought was fundamentally important, but the
proposal was rejected.
• Pompey wished for land to be provided for his
veterans and to have the eastern settlement ratified in
one go, instead of every one of his actions be debated.
• Caesar wished to gain a large pro-consular
command instead of being in charge of forests in
some insignificant part of the empire, which was the
optimates plan.
Historians
• “ Conspiracy against the state by its three
leading citizens” Livy
• AN UNOFFICIAL AMICITAE
• “ He Caesar entered the city and immediately
adopted a policy which deceived everyone except
Cato. This was to effect a reconciliation between
Pompey and Crassus, the two most powerful men
in Rome. Caesar brought these men together,
making them friends instead of enemies and used
their united power for the strengthening of
himself.” Plutarch
Caesar’s Consulship-illegal or
irreverent?
• Despite Bibulus’s attempts Caesar passed
laws granting land to Caesar’s veterens, tax
concessions to Crassus, and agrarian bills for
the relief of the poor
• Due to the intransigence of the Senate,
Pompey put his soldiers in Rome and thus
left Caesar open to the accusation of illegality.
Bibulus also post dated ill omens, rendering
any laws invalid
Other significant players
• Cato- the conscience of Rome- “ fly in the
ointment”- killed himself, rather than live on
Caesar’s mercy
• Catiline- anbitious Roman ,ready to march on
Rome when frustrated in his attempts to gain
consulships
• Clodius and Milo Escalation of violence
created the Senate’s need for Pompey as
Sheriff
• Curio- tribune and negotiator in the
countdown to Civil War
Caesar and Gaul? 58-49 BC
• Allowed Caesar to gain the dignitas to equal
Pompey
• Was close enough to Rome to manipulate
politics( Something that Antony failed to do)
• 10 years later, conquered all of Gaul, made
Rome and himself wealthy, and had at his
back an invincible army ready to follow him
anywhere
Slide to Civil War51-49BC
• Offer and Counter Offer
• The lynchpin of the Civil War was the
Senate’s desire to prosecute Caesar for his
supposed illegalities in the Consulship of
59BC. This could only happen if he
relinquished his proconsulship and thus his
immunity from prosecution
• As long as he held legions the Senate could
not prosecute
• Their only choice was to declare the Senatus
Consultum Ultimum
Who was to blame?
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Caesar?
Pompey?
The Senate?
Broader deep seated problems of the Empire?
All of the above?
.”On broader grounds it may be confidently said that the
civil war was not of Caesar's making.....Caesar in 49 like
Sulla in 83 was offered the choice between self defense and
political extinction......therefore the 22 extremist senators
who insisted on Caesar's recall were in fact insisting on
Civil War. To them the feud with Caesar had become a
higher object than the welfare of the State." Cary
Saying it in a nutshell
• " For Caesar publicly declared that only two things were
needed to rule, soldiers and money, and armies could only
be held together with money… since the Roman citizen
force had inevitably changed into an army of professional
soldiers, the imperator with his veterans took the political
place of the patron and his clients. What some had feared
and others aspired to, for decades, was fully realized in the
person of Caesar; the conqueror of Gaul whom the old
powers refused to recognize overwhelmed all resistance
and, on the strength of an authority based solely on the
loyalty of his soldiers, was reaching for the government of
the Empire."
• Gelzer, Caesar: Politician and Statesman
Shared to Sole Power49-44BC
• 49 BC Caesar is elected dictator and, during 11-day term, passes
emergency legislation.
• Caesar gives up the dictatorship, elected to second consulship with
Publius Servilius Isauricus
• 47Caesar again appointed dictator, this time for one year in
absentia. Antony, his Master of the Horse, maintains order in Italy
• 46Caesar elected consul for the third time, serving with Lepidus.
Completes some reform including the calendar
• 45Caesar serves as his fourth consulship (without a colleague). On
March 17, Caesar victorious at Munda; after administrative reforms,
he returns to Rome in October. The Senate votes extravagant decrees
in his honor, including dictatorship for life and divine
worship
• 44On February 15, Caesar appears at the Lupercalia as dictator
perpetuus (for life), in the dress of the ancient kings of Rome;
Assassins/Liberators
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Cassius, Trebonius, Casca, Decimus Brutus, Marcus Brutus
“There were various reasons which affected each and all of them and impelled them
to lay hands on the man. Some of them had hopes of becoming leaders themselves in
his place if he were out of the way, others were angered over what had happened to
them in war, embittered over the loss of relatives, property or offices of state.”
Nicholas of Damascus
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“Jealousy of Caesar’s onward progress and hatred of his being esteemed above
others” Cassius Dio
“When Caesar made himself responsible for all important decisions, he fostered a
dangerous atmosphere… those he had disappointed, frustrated… could easily focus
their anger directly on Caesar; and it was Caesars friends, who nurtured the highest
expectations, who felt this deprivation most keenly “ Relative Deprivation
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Power Vacuum and Contenders
44BC
• OCTAVIAN- Caesar’s name, client and
armies
• ANTONY- Experience ,Caesar’s
lieutenant, Consul and army loyalty
• LEPIDUS- master of Horse, in control of
many legions
Significance of Cicero
• Career highlighted the power of rhetoric and its influence in the
Senate and Courts. Prosecution of Verres was a precedent
limiting provincial corruption
• Gained prestige as Pater Patria for his role as Consul during
Catiline Conspiracy
• Creater of Concordia Ordinum
• Acted as powerbroker between Pompey and Senate, Octavian
and Senate. Inadvertantly created the adversarial environment
which led to two civil wars.
• Penned the Philippics which assisted in Antony’s downfall but
led to his own death in the proscriptions
• Left an invaluable legacy of written sources of the time in his
speeches and private letters
2nd Triumvirate 43BC
Lex Titius
• The triumviri rei publicae constituendae ('board of three to
reconstitute the state') accepted the powers of a dictator and
took several measures
• the execution of 4,700 opponents (e.g. Cicero);
• land bills to give farms to Caesar's veterans (the inhabitants of
eighteen cities were sent away from their homes without any
compensation);
• war against Caesar's murderers, who were defeated at Philippi;
• measures against the Senate, including the appointment of all
magistrates
• “ unstable equilibrium of conflicting elements” Cary
• “-its real aim was the service of personal and factional
ambition” David Shotter
Treaties as ointment for the
festering sore of the Second
Triumvirate
• Brundisium 40BC Antony kept control
of the Eastern provinces, while
Octavian got Spain, Gaul and Illyricum.
Antony marries Octavia
• Misenum
• Tarentum
AN UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM OF CONFLICTING ELEMENTS
Antony &
Octavian
Battle of
Philippi 42BC
Brutus &
Cassius
Octavian
The Perusine
War41BC
Lucius
Antonius &
Fulvia
Antony
Battle of
Naulochus36BC
Octavian
Battle of Actium
31BC
Sextus Pompey
Antony &
Cleopatra
Octavian/Antony; 43-33BC
Changing Power Ratios
OCTAVIAN
MORAL REMEDIES- ROLE OF
THE PERFECT FAMILY
WITH LIVIA
BUIDING REFORN IN ROME
CANCELLED WAR TAXES
WATER SUPPLY
SURRENDER POWERS
SENATE RESPECT
RESTORED ELECTIONS
FOR MINOR MAGISTRATES
PROPAGANDA AGAINST ANTONY
DEMONISE CLEOPATRA
ANTONY
TOO MUCH TIME
AWAY FROM ROME
RISKY AND EXPENSIVE
CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE
PARTHIANS
LOSES RESPECT OF
ARMY
APPARENT INFATUATION WITH
CLEOPATRA
DIVORCES OCTAVIA
DONATIONS OF
ALEXANDRIA
TRIUMPH
31 BC Battle of Actium; Civil
War or Foreign Conquest
• The forces of Antony and Cleopatra, camped near the swampy
lowlands of Cape Actium, had been depleted by malaria before
the battle even began--severely reducing the contingent of
oarsmen. Supply lines had been cut, further weakening morale
and support. Faced with a bleak situation that worsened every
day, Antony burned those ships he could no longer man and
prepared with Cleopatra to withdraw southward from the gulf
with as much of his force as possible.
• Antony’s flight nullified any remaining
loyalty they may have had for him and
his soldiers surrendered
• Octavian had used a combination of
political ,diplomatic, and economic
methods to present himself as the
legitimate heir. It was his friend
Agrippa who ultimately gave him the
military success to inherit the Empire
Why did the Roman Republic
Fall?
• The Roman Republic was ruled by a Constitution
which relied on a balance of three elements; The
Senate; the Magistrates; the Assemblies.
• When the balance was upset either by ambitious
magistrates, armies or tribunes then civil war was the
result
• The Senate proved ineffectual in preventing this.
• A broader view would suggest that the Republic was
inadequate to the problems resulting from a
burgeoning Empire