Republican government:
1. Consuls (two, elected yearly, lead state,
command armies, propose laws)
2. Senate (advises consuls, controls finances,
involved in justice, foreign policy)
3. Plebeian Assembly (Comitia Tributa, led by
two elected tribunes, involved in justice,
accepts/rejects laws, debates wars)
Carthage
264-41 BC First Punic War, ends with Sicily
becoming first Roman province
239 Sardinia and Corsica come under Roman
control
218-201 Second Punic War
Saguntum
216 BC Hannibal defeats Romans at Cannae,
one of many defeats that he inflicts on
them
202 Scipio defeats Hannibal at Battle of
Zama
Issues arising from Punic Wars:
Accumulation of land in hands of rich
Unemployment
Shortage of manpower for army
133 BC Tiberius Gracchus, tribune of Plebeian
Assembly, forces through legislation
redistributing public land
123-22 BC Gaius Gracchus serves two terms as
tribune of the people. Enacts various
reforms, including:
1. Road-building
2. Grain law
3. Military law
4. Laws about new colonies
5. Tax reforms
6. Transfer of control of law courts to
equites (Knights)
populares
vs.
(sing. popularis)
optimates
(sing. optimatis)
107 BC Gaius Marius becomes consul, enacts
reform of army
90-88 Italian/Social War
90 Romans pass series of bills granting Roman
citizenship to most peoples of Italian
peninsula