Roman Republic
Roman Republic Res publica Romana | |||||||||
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c. 509 BC–27 BC | |||||||||
accensus.[1] | |||||||||
Latin | |||||||||
Religion | Roman polytheism | ||||||||
Demonym(s) | Roman | ||||||||
Government | Classical republic | ||||||||
Consuls | |||||||||
• 509 BC (first) | |||||||||
• 27 BC (last) |
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Legislature | Assemblies | ||||||||
Historical era | Classical antiquity | ||||||||
c. 509 BC | |||||||||
• Dissolution of the Latin League | 338 BC[2] | ||||||||
82 BC | |||||||||
• Julius Caesar named dictator for life | 44 BC | ||||||||
15 March 44 BC | |||||||||
2 September 31 BC | |||||||||
16 January 27 BC | |||||||||
Area | |||||||||
326 BC[3] | 10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi) | ||||||||
50 BC[3] | 1,950,000 km2 (750,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
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The Roman Republic (
Roman society at the time was primarily a cultural mix of
Unlike the
At home, during the
History
Founding
Rome had been ruled by monarchs since its foundation. These monarchs were elected, for life, by the men of the Roman Senate. The last Roman monarch was called Tarquin the Proud, who in traditional histories was expelled from Rome in 509 BC because his son, Sextus Tarquinius, raped a noblewoman, Lucretia.[5][6][7] The monarchy was abolished in a revolution led by the semi-mythical Lucius Junius Brutus. According to tradition, most of the former functions of the king were transferred to two separate consuls elected to office for a term of one year; each was capable of checking his colleague by veto.[8] Most modern scholarship describes these events as the quasi-mythological detailing of an aristocratic coup within Tarquin's own family[9] or a consequence of an Etruscan occupation of Rome rather than a popular revolution.[10]
Rome in Latium
Early campaigns

Politics of ancient Rome |
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Periods |
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Constitution |
Political institutions |
Assemblies |
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Ordinary magistrates |
Extraordinary magistrates |
Public law |
Senatus consultum ultimum |
Titles and honours |
According to Rome's traditional histories, Tarquin made several attempts to retake the throne, including the Tarquinian conspiracy, which involved Brutus's own sons, the war with Veii and Tarquinii, and finally the war between Rome and Clusium. The attempts to restore the monarchy did not succeed.[11]
The first Roman republican wars
Plebeians and patricians
Beginning with their revolt against Tarquin, and continuing through the early years of the Republic, Rome's patrician aristocrats were the dominant force in politics and society. They initially formed a closed group of about 50 large families, called gentes, who monopolised Rome's magistracies, state priesthoods, and senior military posts. The most prominent of these families were the Cornelii, Aemilii, Claudii, Fabii, and Valerii. The leading families' power, privilege and influence derived from their wealth, in particular from their landholdings, their position as patrons, and their numerous clients.[14]
The vast majority of Roman citizens were commoners of various social degrees. They formed the backbone of Rome's economy, as
Celtic invasion of Italy
By 390 BC, several Gallic tribes were invading Italy from the north. The Romans met the Gauls in pitched battle at the Battle of Allia River around 390–387 BC. The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia rivers, 11 Roman miles (10 mi or 16 km) north of Rome. The Romans were routed and subsequently Rome was sacked by the Senones.[16] There is no destruction layer at Rome around this time, indicating that if a sack occurred, it was largely superficial.[17]
Roman expansion in Italy
Wars against Italian neighbours

From 343 to 341, Rome won
A
At the Battle of Populonia, in 282, Rome finished off the last vestiges of Etruscan power in the region.
Rise of the plebeian nobility
In the 4th century, plebeians gradually obtained political equality with patricians. The first plebeian consular tribunes were elected in 400. The reason behind this sudden gain is unknown,[d] but it was limited as patrician tribunes retained preeminence over their plebeian colleagues.[22] In 385, the former consul and saviour of the besieged capital, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus, is said to have sided with the plebeians, ruined by the sack and largely indebted to patricians. According to Livy, Capitolinus sold his estate to repay the debt of many of them, and even went over to the plebs, the first patrician to do so. Nevertheless, the growing unrest he had caused led to his trial for seeking kingly power; he was sentenced to death and thrown from the Tarpeian Rock.[23][24]
Between 376 and 367, the tribunes of the plebs
Soon after, plebeians were able to hold both the dictatorship and the censorship. The four-time consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus became the first plebeian dictator in 356 and censor in 351. In 342, the tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius passed his leges Genuciae, which abolished interest on loans, in a renewed effort to tackle indebtedness; required the election of at least one plebeian consul each year; and prohibited magistrates from holding the same magistracy for the next ten years or two magistracies in the same year.[29][30][31] In 339, the plebeian consul and dictator Quintus Publilius Philo passed three laws extending the plebeians' powers. His first law followed the lex Genucia by reserving one censorship to plebeians, the second made plebiscites binding on all citizens (including patricians), and the third required the Senate to give its prior approval to plebiscites before they became binding on all citizens.[32]
During the early Republic, consuls chose senators from among their supporters. Shortly before 312, the
In 300, the two tribunes of the plebs Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius passed the lex Ogulnia, which created four plebeian pontiffs, equalling the number of patrician pontiffs, and five plebeian augurs, outnumbering the four patricians in the college.[36] The Conflict of the Orders ended with the last secession of the plebs around 287. The dictator Quintus Hortensius passed the lex Hortensia, which reenacted the law of 339, making plebiscites binding on all citizens, while also removing the requirement for prior Senate approval.[37] These events were a political victory of the wealthy plebeian elite, who exploited the economic difficulties of the plebs for their own gain: Stolo, Lateranus, and Genucius bound their bills attacking patricians' political supremacy with debt-relief measures.[38] As a result of the end of the patrician monopoly on senior magistracies, many small patrician gentes faded into history during the 4th and 3rd centuries due to the lack of available positions. About a dozen remaining patrician gentes and 20 plebeian ones thus formed a new elite, called the nobiles, or Nobilitas.[39]
Pyrrhic War

By the early 3rd century, Rome had established itself as the major power in Italy, but had not yet come into conflict with the dominant military powers of the Mediterranean: Carthage and the Greek kingdoms.[40] In 282, several Roman warships entered the harbour of Tarentum, triggering a violent reaction from the Tarentine democrats, who sank some. The Roman embassy sent to investigate the affair was insulted and war was promptly declared.[41] Facing a hopeless situation, the Tarentines (together with the Lucanians and Samnites) appealed to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, for military aid. A cousin of Alexander the Great, he was eager to build an empire for himself in the western Mediterranean and saw Tarentum's plea as a perfect opportunity.[42]
Pyrrhus and his army of 25,500 men (with 20 war elephants) landed in Italy in 280. The Romans were defeated at Heraclea, as their cavalry were afraid of Pyrrhus's elephants. Pyrrhus then marched on Rome, but the Romans concluded a peace in the north and moved south with reinforcements, placing Pyrrhus in danger of being flanked by two consular armies; Pyrrhus withdrew to Tarentum. In 279, Pyrrhus met the consuls Publius Decius Mus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio at the Battle of Asculum, which remained undecided for two days. Finally, Pyrrhus personally charged into the melee and won the battle but at the cost of an important part of his troops; he allegedly said, "if we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined."[43][g]
He escaped the Italian deadlock by answering a call for help from Syracuse, where tyrant Thoenon was desperately fighting an invasion from Carthage. Pyrrhus could not let them take the whole island, as it would have compromised his ambitions in the western Mediterranean, and so declared war. The Carthaginians lifted the siege of Syracuse before his arrival, but he could not entirely oust them from the island as he failed to take their fortress of Lilybaeum.[44] His harsh rule soon led to widespread antipathy among the Sicilians; some cities even defected to Carthage. In 275, Pyrrhus left the island before he had to face a full-scale rebellion.[45] He returned to Italy, where his Samnite allies were on the verge of losing the war. Pyrrhus again met the Romans at the Battle of Beneventum. This time, the consul Manius Dentatus was victorious and even captured eight elephants. Pyrrhus then withdrew from Italy, but left a garrison in Tarentum, to wage a new campaign in Greece against Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedonia. His death in battle at Argos in 272 forced Tarentum to surrender to Rome.
Punic Wars and expansion in the Mediterranean
First Punic War (264–241 BC)

Rome and Carthage were initially on friendly terms, lastly in an alliance against Pyrrhus,[46][47][48] but tensions rapidly rose after the departure of the Epirote king. Between 288 and 283, Messina in Sicily was taken by the Mamertines, a band of mercenaries formerly employed by Agathocles. They plundered the surroundings until Hiero II, the new tyrant of Syracuse, defeated them (in either 269 or 265). In effect under a Carthaginian protectorate, the remaining Mamertines appealed to Rome to regain their independence. Senators were divided on whether to help. A supporter of war, the consul Appius Claudius Caudex, turned to one of the popular assemblies to get a favourable vote by promising plunder to the voters.[h] After the assembly ratified an alliance with the Mamertines, Caudex was dispatched to cross the strait and lend aid.[49]

Messina fell under Roman control quickly.
To hasten the end of the war, the consuls for 256 decided to carry the operations to Africa, on Carthage's homeland. The consul

Hostilities in Sicily resumed in 252, with Rome's taking of Thermae. The next year, Carthage besieged
Unable to take the Punic fortresses in Sicily, Rome tried to decide the war at sea and built a new navy, thanks to a forced borrowing from the rich. In 242, 200 quinqueremes under consul
Second Punic War

After its victory, the Republic shifted its attention to its northern border as the
Initially, the Republic's plan was to carry war outside Italy, sending the consuls
Hannibal then marched south and won three outstanding victories. The first one was on the banks of the Trebia in December 218, where he defeated the other consul Ti. Sempronius Longus. More than half the Roman army was lost. Hannibal then ravaged the country around Arretium to lure the new consul C. Flaminius into a trap at Lake Trasimene. This clever ambush resulted in the death of the consul and the complete destruction of his army of 30,000 men. In 216, the new consuls L. Aemilius Paullus and C. Terentius Varro mustered the biggest army possible, with eight legions—some 80,000 soldiers, twice as many as the Punic army—and confronted Hannibal, who was encamped at Cannae, in Apulia. Despite his numerical disadvantage, Hannibal used his heavier cavalry to rout the Roman wings and envelop their infantry, which he annihilated. In terms of casualties, the Battle of Cannae was the worst defeat Roman history: only 14,500 soldiers escaped, and Paullus was killed as well as 80 senators.[76][i] Soon after, the Boii ambushed the army of the consul-elect for 215, L. Postumius Albinus, who died with all his army of 25,000 men in the Battle of Silva Litana.[77]
These disasters triggered a wave of defection among Roman allies, with the rebellions of the Samnites, Oscans, Lucanians, and Greek cities of Southern Italy.[78] In Macedonia, Philip V also made an alliance with Hannibal in order to take Illyria and the area around Epidamnus, occupied by Rome. His attack on Apollonia started the First Macedonian War. In 215, Hiero II of Syracuse died of old age, and his young grandson Hieronymus broke the long alliance with Rome to side with Carthage. At this desperate point, the aggressive strategy against Hannibal the Scipiones advocated was abandoned in favour of a slow reconquest of the lost territories, since Hannibal could not be everywhere to defend them.[79] Although he remained invincible on the battlefield, defeating all the Roman armies on his way, he could not prevent Claudius Marcellus from taking Syracuse in 212 after a long siege, nor the fall of his bases of Capua and Tarentum in 211 and 209.
In Hispania, Publius and Gnaeus Scipio won the battles of
In Hispania, Scipio continued his successful campaign at the battles of
Roman supremacy in the Greek East
Macedonian Wars |
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Rome's preoccupation with its war with Carthage provided an opportunity for
The past century had seen the Greek world dominated by the three primary successor kingdoms of
With Egypt and Macedonia weakened, the Seleucid Empire made increasingly aggressive and successful attempts to conquer the entire Greek world.[89] Now not only Rome's allies against Philip, but even Philip himself, sought a Roman alliance against the Seleucids.[90] The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Hannibal was now a chief military advisor to the Seleucid emperor, and the two were believed to be planning outright conquest not just of Greece, but also of Rome.[91] The Seleucids were much stronger than the Macedonians had ever been, because they controlled much of the former Persian Empire and had almost entirely reassembled Alexander the Great's former empire.[91]
Fearing the worst, the Romans began a major mobilization, all but pulling out of recently conquered Spain and Gaul.
Conquest of Greece
In 179, Philip died.[95] His talented and ambitious son, Perseus, took the throne and showed a renewed interest in conquering Greece.[96] With its Greek allies facing a major new threat, Rome declared war on Macedonia again, starting the Third Macedonian War. Perseus initially had some success against the Romans, but Rome responded by sending a stronger army which decisively defeated the Macedonians at the Battle of Pydna in 168.[97] The Macedonians capitulated, ending the war.[98]
Convinced now that the Greeks (and therefore the rest of the region) would not have peace if left alone, Rome decided to establish its first permanent foothold in the Greek world, and divided Macedonia into four client republics.[99] Yet Macedonian agitation continued. The Fourth Macedonian War, 150 to 148 BC, was fought against a Macedonian pretender to the throne who was again destabilizing Greece by trying to reestablish the old kingdom. The Romans swiftly defeated the Macedonians at the second battle of Pydna.
The
Third Punic War
For Carthage, the
Social troubles and first civil war
Views on the structural causes of the Republic's collapse differ. One enduring thesis is that Rome's expansion destabilized its social organization between conflicting interests; the Senate's policy-making, blinded by its own short-term self-interest, alienated large portions of society, who then joined powerful generals who sought to overthrow the system.[106] Two other theses have challenged this view. The first blames the Romans' inability to conceive of plausible alternatives to the traditional republican system in a "crisis without alternative".[107] The second instead stresses the continuity of the republic: until its disruption by Caesar's civil war and the following two decades of civil war created conditions for autocratic rule and made return to republican politics impossible: and, per Erich S. Gruen, "civil war caused the fall of the republic, not vice versa".[108]
A core cause of the Republic's eventual demise was the loss of elite's cohesion from c. 133 BC: the ancient sources called this moral decay from wealth and the hubris of Rome's domination of the Mediterranean.[109] Modern sources have proposed multiple reasons why the elite lost cohesion, including wealth inequality and a growing willingness by aristocrats to transgress political norms, especially in the aftermath of the Social War.[110]
Gracchan period
In the winter of 138–137 BC, a first slave uprising, known as the
In this context,
Tiberius's brother Gaius was elected tribune ten years later in 123 and reelected for 122. He induced the plebs to reinforce rights of appeal to the people against capital extrajudicial punishments and institute reforms to improve the people's welfare. While ancient sources tend to "conceive Gracchus' legislation as an elaborate plot against the authority of the Senate... he showed no sign of wanting to replace the Senate in its normal functions".[119] Amid wide-ranging and popular reforms to create grain subsidies, change jury pools, establish and require the Senate to assign provinces before elections, Gaius proposed a law that would grant citizenship rights to Rome's Italian allies.[120] He stood for election to a third term in 121 but was defeated. During violent protests over repeal of an ally's colonisation bill, the Senate moved the first senatus consultum ultimum against him, resulting in his death, with many others, on the Aventine.[121] His legislation (like that of his brother) survived; the Roman aristocracy disliked the Gracchan agitation but accepted their policies.[122]
In 121, the province of Gallia Narbonensis was established after the victory of Quintus Fabius Maximus over a coalition of Arverni and Allobroges in southern Gaul in 123. Lucius Licinius Crassus founded the city of Narbo there in 118.[123]
Rise of Marius


Rome fought the Jugurthine War from 111–104 BC against the North African kingdom of Numidia (in what is now Algeria and Tunisia). In 118, its king, Micipsa, died, and an illegitimate son, Jugurtha, usurped the throne.[125] Numidia had been a loyal ally of Rome since the Punic Wars.[126] Initially, Rome mediated a division of the country. But Jugurtha renewed his offensive, leading to a long and inconclusive war with Rome.[127] Gaius Marius was a legate under the consul directing the war, and was elected consul in 107 BC over the objections of the aristocratic senators, relying on support from the businessmen and poor. Marius had the Numidian command reassigned to himself through the popular assembly and, with the capture of Jugurtha at the end of a long campaign, ended the war; in the aftermath, the Romans largely withdrew from the province after installing a client king.[128] Marius's victory played on existing themes of senatorial corruption and incompetence, contrasted especially against the military failure of senatorial leadership in the Cimbric war.[129]
The Cimbrian War (113–101) was a far more serious affair than the earlier Gallic clashes in 121. The Germanic tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutons[130] migrated from northern Europe into Rome's northern territories,[131] and clashed with Rome and its allies. The defeat of various aristocrats in the conflict, along with Marius's reputation for military victory, led to his holding five successive consulships with little to enable him to lead armies against the threat.[132] At the Battle of Aquae Sextiae and the Battle of Vercellae, Marius led the Roman armies, which virtually annihilated both tribes, ending the threat.[133]
During the Cimbric war, further conflicts embroiled the Republic: a Second Servile War waged in Sicily from 104 to 101;[111] a campaign was waged against pirates in Cilicia; Rome campaigned in Thrace, adding lands to the province of Macedonia; and Lycaonia was annexed to Rome.[134]
First civil wars
In 91, the Social War broke out between Rome and its former allies in Italy: the main causes of the war were Roman encroachment on allied lands due to the Republic's land redistribution programmes, harsh Roman treatment of the non-citizen allies, and Roman unwillingness to share in the spoils of the empire.[135] After the assassination, in Rome, of a conservative tribune who sought to grant the Italians citizenship, the allies took up arms:[136] most ancient writers explain the conflict in terms of demands for full citizenship, but contemporary rebel propaganda coins indicate it may have been a primarily anti-Roman secessionist movement.[137] The Romans were able to stave off military defeat by conceding the main point almost immediately, tripling the number of citizens.[138] More recent scholarship also has stressed the importance of the war on the allies in destabilising Roman military affairs by blurring the distinction between Romans and foreign enemies.[139]
Further civil conflict emerged, starting in 88. One of the consuls that year,
After the Marians took control of the city, they started to purge their political enemies.[142] They elected, in irregular fashion, Marius and Cinna to the consulship of 86 BC. Marius died a fortnight after assuming office. Cinna took control of the state: his policies are unclear and the record is muddled by Sulla's eventual victory.[143] The Cinnan regime declared Sulla a public enemy and ostensibly replaced him in command in the east. Instead of cooperating with his replacement, which Sulla viewed as illegitimate, he made peace with Mithridates and prepared to return to Italy.[144] By 85 BC, the Cinnans in Rome started preparations to defend the peninsula from invasion.[144]
In 83, he returned from the east with a small but experienced army.
Sullan republic
Cn. Pompey Magnus served the Sullan regime during a short conflict triggered by the republic's own consul, M. Aemilius Lepidus, in 77 BC[152] and afterwards led troops successfully against the remaining anti-Sullan forces in the Sertorian War; he brought the war successfully to a close in 72 BC. While Pompey was in Spain, the Republic faced agitation both foreign and domestic. The main domestic political struggle was the restoration of tribunician powers stripped during Sulla's dictatorship.[153] After rumours of a pact between Sertorius's ostensible republic-in-exile,[154] Mithridates, and various Mediterranean pirate groups, the Sullan regime feared encirclement and stepped up efforts against the threats: they reinforced Pompey in Spain and fortified Bithynia. In spring 73 BC, Mithridates did so, invading Bithynia.[155]
In 73, a slave uprising started in southern Italy under Spartacus, a gladiator, who defeated the local Roman garrisons and four legions under the consuls of 72.[156] At the head of some 70,000 men, Spartacus led them in a Third Servile War—they sought freedom by escape from Italy—before being defeated by troops raised by M. Licinius Crassus.[157] Although Pompey and Crassus were rivals, they were elected to a joint consulship in 70. During their consulship, they brought—with little opposition—legislation to dismantle the tribunician disabilities imposed by Sulla's constitutional reforms.[158] They also shepherded legislation to settle the contentious matter of jury reform.[159]
L. Licinius Lucullus, one of Sulla's ablest lieutenants, had fought against Mithridates during the first Mithridatic war before Sulla's civil war. Mithridates also had fought Rome in a second Mithridatic war (83–82 BC).[160] Rome for its part seemed equally eager for war and the spoils and prestige that it might bring.[161] After his invasion of Bithynia in 73, Lucullus was assigned against Mithridates and his Armenian ally Tigranes the Great in Asia Minor.[162] Fighting a war of manoeuvre against Mithridates' supply lines, Lucullus was able force Mithridates from an attempted siege of Cyzicus and pursue him into Pontus and thence into Armenia.[163] After defeat forced the Romans from large parts of Armenia and Pontus in 67, Lucullus was replaced in command by Pompey.[164] Pompey moved against Mithridates in 66.[165] Defeating him in battle and securing the submission of Tigranes,[166] Mithridates fled to Crimea, where he was betrayed and killed by his son Pharnaces in 63.[167] Pompey remained in the East to pacify and settle Roman conquests in the region, also extending Roman control south to Judaea.[168]
End of the Republic
First Triumvirate
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Pompey returned from the
After Julius Caesar's election as one of the consuls of 59 BC, Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus engaged in a political alliance (traditionally dubbed by scholars as the First Triumvirate).[173] The alliance greatly benefited the three men: Caesar passed legislation to distribute state lands as poor relief while also providing land for Pompey's veterans; he also had Pompey's eastern settlements ratified; for Crassus, he secured relief for tax farmers and a place on agrarian commission.[174] Caesar won for himself the political support needed to acquire a profitable provincial command in Gaul and secure his political future.[175]
Attempting first to pass portions of his programme through the Senate, Caesar found the curia obstinate. He thus unveiled his alliance with Pompey and Crassus and moved his legislation before the people instead.[176] Political opposition to the allies was immense.[177]
Caesar also facilitated the election of the former patrician Publius Clodius Pulcher to the tribunate for 58. Clodius set about depriving Caesar's senatorial enemies of two of their more obstinate leaders in Cato and Cicero. Clodius attempted to try Cicero for executing citizens without a trial during the Catiline conspiracy, resulting in Cicero going into self-imposed exile. Clodius also passed a bill that forced Cato to lead the invasion of Cyprus, which would keep him away from Rome for some years. Clodius also passed a law to expand the previous partial grain subsidy to a fully free grain dole for citizens.[178]

After his term as consul in 59, he was appointed to a five-year term as the proconsular Governor of Cisalpine Gaul (part of current northern Italy), Transalpine Gaul (current southern France) and Illyria (part of the modern Balkans).[179] Caesar sought cause to invade Gaul (modern France and Belgium), which would give him the dramatic military success he sought. When two local tribes began to migrate on a route that would take them near (not into) the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, Caesar had the barely sufficient excuse he needed for his Gallic Wars, fought between 58 and 49.
Caesar defeated large armies at major battles 58 and 57. In 55 and 54 he made
Clodius formed armed gangs that terrorised the city and eventually began to attack Pompey's followers, who in response funded counter-gangs formed by Titus Annius Milo. The political alliance of the triumvirate was crumbling. Domitius Ahenobarbus ran for the consulship in 55, promising to take Caesar's command from him. Eventually, the triumvirate was renewed at Lucca. Pompey and Crassus were promised the consulship in 55, and Caesar's term as governor was extended for five years. Beginning in the summer of 54, a wave of political corruption and violence swept Rome.[182] This chaos reached a climax in January of 52, when Milo murdered Clodius in a gang war.
In 53, Crassus launched a Roman invasion of the Parthian Empire (modern Iraq and Iran). After initial successes,[183] his army was cut off deep in enemy territory, surrounded and slaughtered at the Battle of Carrhae, in which Crassus himself perished. Crassus's death destabilized the Triumvirate. While Caesar was fighting in Gaul, Pompey proceeded with a legislative agenda for Rome that revealed that he was at best ambivalent towards Caesar.[184] Pompey's wife, Julia, who was Caesar's daughter, died in childbirth. This event severed the last remaining bond between Pompey and Caesar. In 51, some Roman senators demanded that Caesar not be permitted to stand for consul unless he turned over control of his armies to the state. Caesar chose civil war over laying down his command and facing trial.
Caesar's Civil War and dictatorship

On 1 January 49, an agent of Caesar presented an ultimatum to the senate. The ultimatum was rejected, and the senate then passed a resolution declaring that if Caesar did not lay down his arms by July of that year, he would be considered an enemy of the Republic.[185] Meanwhile, the senators adopted Pompey as their new champion against Caesar, passing a senatus consultum ultimum that vested Pompey with dictatorial powers. On 10 January, Caesar with his veteran army crossed the river Rubicon, the legal boundary of Roman Italy beyond which no commander might bring his army, in violation of Roman laws, and by the spring of 49 swept down the Italian peninsula towards Rome. His rapid advance forced Pompey, the consuls and the senate to abandon Rome for Greece. Caesar entered the city unopposed. Afterwards Caesar turned his attention to the Pompeian stronghold of Hispania (modern Spain)[186] but decided to tackle Pompey himself in Greece.[187] Pompey initially defeated Caesar, but failed to follow up on the victory, and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48.[188][189] Pompey fled again, this time to Egypt, where he was murdered.
Pompey's death did not end the civil war. In 46 Caesar lost perhaps as much as a third of his army, but ultimately came back to defeat the Pompeian army of
With Pompey defeated and order restored, Caesar wanted to achieve undisputed control over the government. The powers he gave himself were later assumed by his imperial successors.[190] Caesar held both the dictatorship and the tribunate, and alternated between the consulship and the proconsulship.[190] In 48, he was given permanent tribunician powers. This made his person sacrosanct, gave him the power to veto the senate, and allowed him to dominate the Plebeian Council. In 46, Caesar was given censorial powers,[191] which he used to fill the senate with his partisans. He then raised the membership of the Senate to 900.[192] This robbed the senatorial aristocracy of its prestige, and made it increasingly subservient to him.[193] Caesar began to prepare for a war against the Parthian Empire. Since his absence from Rome would limit his ability to install consuls, he passed a law that allowed him to appoint all magistrates, and later all consuls and tribunes. This transformed the magistrates from representatives of the people to representatives of the dictator.[192]
Caesar was now the primary figure of the Roman state, enforcing and entrenching his powers. His enemies feared that he had ambitions to become an autocratic ruler. Arguing that the Roman Republic was in danger, a group of senators led by
Second Triumvirate
The civil wars that followed destroyed what was left of the Republic.[196]
After the assassination, Caesar's three most important associates, Mark Antony, Caesar's co-consul, Octavian, Caesar's adopted son and great-nephew, and Lepidus, Caesar's magister equitum, formed an alliance known as the Second Triumvirate.[197] The conspirators were defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42.
Following Philippi, Rome's territories were divided between the triumvirs, but the agreement was fragile. Antony detested Octavian and spent most of his time in the East, while Lepidus favoured Antony but felt himself obscured by his colleagues. Following
Antony, meanwhile, married Caesar's lover,
Octavian was granted a series of special powers, including sole imperium within the city of Rome, permanent consular powers, and credit for every Roman military victory. In 27, he was granted the use of the name "Augustus", from which point he is generally considered the first Roman Emperor.[198]
Constitutional system
The constitutional history of the Roman Republic began with the revolution that overthrew the monarchy in 509 BC, and ended with constitutional reforms that transformed the Republic into what would effectively be the Roman Empire, in 27 BC. The Roman Republic's constitution was a constantly evolving, unwritten set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent, by which the government and its politics operated.[199]
Senate
The senate's authority derived from the senators' esteem and prestige.[200] This esteem and prestige were based on both precedent and custom, as well as the senators' calibre and reputation. The senate passed decrees called senatus consulta. These were officially "advice" from the senate to a magistrate, but in practice, the magistrates usually followed them.[201] Through the course of the middle republic and Rome's expansion, the senate became more dominant in the state: the only institution with the expertise to administer the empire effectively, it controlled state finances, assignment of magistrates, external affairs, and deployment of military forces. Also a powerful religious body, it received reports of omens and directed Roman responses thereto.[202]
When its prerogatives started to be challenged in the 2nd century, the senate lost its customary preapproval for legislation. Moreover, after the precedent set in 121 BC with the killing of Gaius Gracchus, the senate claimed to assume the power to issue a senatus consultum ultimum: such decrees directed magistrates to take whatever actions were necessary to safeguard the state, irrespective of legality, and signalled the senate's willingness to support that magistrate if such actions were later challenged in the courts.[203]
Its members were usually appointed by censors, who ordinarily selected newly elected magistrates for membership in the senate, making the senate a partially elected body. Status was not hereditary and there were always some new men, though sons of former magistrates found it easier to be elected to the qualifying magistracies. During emergencies, a dictator could be appointed for the purpose of appointing senators (as was done after the Battle of Cannae). However, by the end of the republic men such as Caesar and the members of the Second Triumvirate usurped these powers for themselves.[202]
Legislative assemblies

The legal status of Roman citizenship was limited and a vital prerequisite to possessing many important legal rights, such as the right to trial and appeal, marry, vote, hold office, enter binding contracts, and to special tax exemptions. An adult male citizen with the full complement of legal and political rights was called optimo iure (lit. 'having the greatest rights'. Citizens who were optimo iure elected their assemblies, whereupon the assemblies elected magistrates, enacted legislation, presided over trials in capital cases, declared war and peace, and forged or dissolved treaties. There were two types of legislative assemblies: the comitia ('committees'), which were assemblies of all citizens optimo jure, and the consilia ("councils"), which were assemblies of specific groups of citizens optimo jure.[204]
Citizens were organized on the basis of centuries and
The assembly of the tribes, that is, the citizens of Rome, the
Magistrates
Each republican magistrate held certain constitutional powers. Each was assigned a provincia by the Senate. This was the scope of that particular office holder's authority. It could apply to a geographic area or to a particular responsibility or task.[208] The powers of a magistrate came from the people of Rome (both plebeians and patricians).[209] Imperium was held by both consuls and praetors. Strictly speaking, it was the authority to command a military force, but in reality, it carried broad authority in other public spheres, such as diplomacy and the justice system. In extreme cases, those with the imperium power could sentence Roman Citizens to death. All magistrates also had the power of coercitio (coercion). Magistrates used this to maintain public order by imposing punishment for crimes.[210] Magistrates also had both the power and the duty to look for omens. This power could also be used to obstruct political opponents.
One check on a magistrate's power was collega ('collegiality'). Each magisterial office was held concurrently by at least two people. Another such check was provocatio. While in Rome, all citizens were protected from coercion, by provocatio, an early form of due process. It was a precursor to habeas corpus. If any magistrate tried to use the powers of the state against a citizen, that citizen could appeal the magistrate's decision to a tribune. In addition, once a magistrate's one-year term of office expired, he would have to wait ten years before serving in that office again. This created problems for some consuls and praetors, and these magistrates occasionally had their imperium extended. In effect, they retained the powers of the office (as a promagistrate) without officially holding that office.[211]
In times of military emergency, a dictator was appointed for a term of six months.[212] Constitutional government was dissolved, and the dictator was the absolute master of the state. When the dictator's term ended, constitutional government was restored.
The censor was a magistrate in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances.[213] The power of the censor was absolute: no magistrate could oppose his decisions, and only another censor who succeeded him could cancel those decisions. The censor's regulation of public morality is the origin of the modern meaning of the words censor and censorship.[214] During the census, they could enroll citizens in the senate, or purge them from the senate.[215]
The consuls of the Roman Republic were the highest-ranking ordinary magistrates. Each served for one year.[216] Consular powers included the kings' former imperium and appointment of new senators. Consuls had supreme power in both civil and military matters. While in the city of Rome, the consuls were the head of the Roman government. They presided over the senate and the assemblies. While abroad, each consul commanded an army.[217] His authority abroad was nearly absolute.
Since the tribunes were considered the embodiment of the plebeians, they were
Military
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Military of ancient Rome |
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Rome's military secured Rome's territory and borders, and helped to impose tribute on conquered peoples. Rome's armies had a formidable reputation; but Rome also "produced [its] share of incompetents"[220] and catastrophic defeats. Nevertheless, it was generally the fate of Rome's greatest enemies, such as Pyrrhus and Hannibal,[221] to win early battles but lose the war.
Hoplite armies
During this period, Roman soldiers seem to have been modelled after those of the
Manipular legion

During this period, an army formation of around 5,000 men (of both heavy and light infantry) was known as a legion. Maniples were units of 120 men each drawn from a single infantry class. They were typically deployed into three discrete lines based on the three heavy infantry types:
- The first line maniple were the hastati, infantry soldiers who wore a bronze breastplate and a bronze helmet and carried an iron-clad wooden shield. They were armed with a sword and two throwing spears.
- The second line were the principes. They were armed and armoured in the same manner as the hastati, but wore a lighter coat of mail.
- The triarii formed the third line. They were the last remnant of the hoplite-style troops in the Roman army. They were armed and armoured like the principes, but carried a lighter spear.[227]
The three infantry classes[228] may have retained some slight parallel to social divisions within Roman society, but at least officially the three lines were based upon age and experience rather than social class. Young, unproven men served in the first line, older men with some military experience in the second, and veteran troops of advanced age and experience in the third.
The heavy infantry of the maniples was supported by a number of light infantry and cavalry troops, typically 300 horsemen per manipular legion.[228] The cavalry was drawn primarily from the richest class of equestrians. There was an additional class of troops that followed the army without specific martial roles and was deployed to the rear of the third line. Its role in accompanying the army was primarily to supply any vacancies that might occur in the maniples. The light infantry consisted of 1,200 unarmoured skirmishing troops drawn from the youngest and lower social classes. They were armed with a sword, a small shield, and several light javelins.
Rome's military confederation with the other peoples of the Italian peninsula meant that half of its army was provided by the Socii. According to Polybius, Rome could draw on 770,000 men at the beginning of the Second Punic War, of which 700,000 were infantry and 70,000 met the requirements for cavalry.
A small navy had operated at a fairly low level after about 300, but it was massively upgraded about 40 years later, during the First Punic War. After a period of frenetic construction, the navy mushroomed to more than 400 ships on the Carthaginian ("Punic") pattern. Once completed, it could accommodate up to 100,000 sailors and embarked troops for battle. The navy thereafter declined in size.[229]
In 217, near the beginning of the Second Punic War, Rome was forced to effectively ignore its long-standing principle that its soldiers must be both citizens and property owners. Severe social stresses, population decline, and the greater collapse of the middle classes meant that the Roman state was forced to arm its soldiers at the expense of the state, which it had not had to do before. The distinction between the heavy infantry types began to blur, perhaps because the state was now assuming the responsibility of providing standard-issue equipment. In addition, the shortage of available manpower led to a greater burden upon Rome's allies for the provision of allied troops.[230] Eventually, the Romans were forced to begin hiring mercenaries to fight alongside the legions.[231]
Late Republican legions

The organisation of the legions evolved throughout the Republican period. In 107, all citizens, regardless of their wealth or social class, were made eligible for entry into the Roman army. The distinction among the three heavy infantry classes, which had already blurred, had collapsed into a single class of heavy legionary infantry. The heavy infantry legionaries were drawn from citizen stock, while non-citizens came to dominate the ranks of the light infantry. The army's higher-level officers and commanders were still drawn exclusively from the Roman aristocracy.[232] Unlike earlier in the Republic, legionaries were no longer fighting on a seasonal basis to protect their land. Instead, they received standard pay and were employed by the state on a fixed-term basis. As a consequence, military duty began to appeal most to the poorest sections of society, to whom a salaried pay was attractive.
The legions of the late Republic were almost entirely heavy infantry. The main legionary sub-unit was a cohort of approximately 480 infantrymen, further divided into six centuries of 80 men each.[233] Each century comprised 10 "tent groups" of eight men. Cavalry were used as scouts and dispatch riders rather than as battlefield forces.[234] Legions also contained a dedicated group of artillery crew of perhaps 60 men. Each legion was normally partnered with an approximately equal number of allied (non-Roman) troops.[235]
The army's most obvious deficiency lay in its shortage of cavalry, especially heavy cavalry.[236] Particularly in the East, Rome's slow-moving infantry legions were often confronted by fast-moving cavalry troops and found themselves at a tactical disadvantage.
After Rome's subjugation of the Mediterranean, its navy declined in size, although it underwent short-term upgrading and revitalisation in the late Republic to meet several new demands. Julius Caesar assembled a fleet to cross the English Channel and invade Britannia. Pompey raised a fleet to deal with the Cilician pirates who threatened Rome's Mediterranean trading routes. During the civil war that followed, as many as 1,000 ships were either constructed or pressed into service from Greek cities.[229]
Social structure
Citizen families were headed by the family's oldest male, the
Slaves could be bought, sold, acquired through warfare, or born and raised in slavery. There were no legal limits on the slave-owner's power over them. A few slaves were freed by their owners, becoming freedmen and in some circumstances citizens too.[242] This degree of social mobility was unusual in the ancient world but itself limited; for example, freedmen were seen as permanently tainted, and their children could not become magistrates.[243] Freedmen could play notable roles in various crafts and trades, particularly those who had been manumitted by the upper classes.[244] Freed slaves and the master who freed them retained certain legal and moral mutual obligations.
At the other extreme were the senatorial families of the landowning nobility, both patrician and plebeian, bound by shifting allegiances and mutual competition. A plebiscite of 218 forbade senators and their sons to engage in substantial trade or money-lending.[245][246] A wealthy equestrian class emerged, not subject to the same trading constraints as senators.[247]
One of Rome's fundamental social and economic institutions was the client-patron relationship; its obligations were largely moral and social rather than legal, but permeated society, including in politics.
Citizen men and citizen women were expected to marry, produce as many children as possible, and improve—or at worst, conserve—their family's wealth, fortune, and public profile. Marriage offered opportunities for political alliance and social advancement. Patricians usually married in a form known as confarreatio, which transferred the bride from her father's legal control (manus) to that of her husband.[248] Patrician status could be inherited only through birth; an early law, introduced by the reactionary Decemviri but rescinded in 445, sought to prevent marriages between patricians and plebeians.[k] Among ordinary plebeians, different marriage forms offered married women considerable more freedom than their patrician counterparts, until manus marriage was replaced by free marriage, in which the wife remained under her absent father's legal authority, not her husband's.[249] Infant mortality was high. Towards the end of the Republic, the birthrate began to fall among the elite. Some wealthy, childless citizens resorted to adoption to provide male heirs for their estates and to forge political alliances. Adoption was subject to the senate's approval.
Trade and economy
Farming
The Republic was created during a time of warfare, economic recession, food shortages, and plebeian debt. In wartime, plebeian farmers were liable to conscription. In peacetime, most depended on whatever cereal crops they could produce on small farming plots, allotted to them by the state, or by patrons. Soil fertility varied from place to place, and natural water sources were unevenly distributed. In good years, a small-holder might trade a small surplus, to meet his family's needs, or to buy the armatures required for his military service. In other years, crop failure through soil exhaustion, adverse weather, disease or military incursions could lead to poverty, unsupported borrowing, and debt. Nobles invested much of their wealth in ever-larger, more efficient farming units, exploiting a range of soil conditions through mixed farming techniques. As farming was labour-intensive, and military conscription reduced the pool of available manpower, over time the wealthy became ever more reliant on the increasingly plentiful slave labour provided by successful military campaigns.[250][251][252] Large, well-managed agricultural estates helped provide for clients and dependents, support an urban family home, and fund the owner's public and military career, in the form of cash for bribes and security for loans. Later Roman moralists idealised farming as an intrinsically noble occupation.[253][254][255]
In law, land taken by conquest was

With the introduction of aqueducts (from 312), suburban market-farms could be supplied with runoff or waste aqueduct water. Perishable commodities such as flowers (for perfumes, and festival garlands), fresh grapes, vegetables and orchard fruits, and small livestock such as pigs and chickens, could be farmed close to municipal and urban markets.[251] Food surpluses, no matter how obtained, kept prices low.[260][261] Faced with increasing competition from provincial and allied grain suppliers, many Roman farmers turned to more profitable crops, especially grapes for wine production. By the late Republican era, Roman wine had been transformed from an indifferent local product for local consumption to a major domestic and export commodity, with some renowned, costly and collectable vintages.[262][263]
Roman writers have little to say about large-scale stock-breeding, but make passing references to its profitability. Drummond speculates that this focus on agriculture rather than livestock might reflect elite preoccupations with historical grain famines, or long-standing competition between agriculturalists and pastoralists.[264][265] Though meat and hides were valuable by products of stock-raising, cattle were primarily reared to pull carts and ploughs, and sheep were bred for their wool, the mainstay of the Roman clothing industry. Horses, mules and donkeys were bred as civil and military transport. Pigs bred prolifically, and could be raised at little cost by any small farmer with rights to pannage. Their central dietary role is reflected by their use as sacrifices in cults and funerals.[264]
Religion

Republican Rome's religious practises harked back to
Romans acknowledged the existence of
Individuals, occupations and locations had their own protective
Roman religious authorities were unconcerned with personal beliefs or privately funded cults unless they offended natural or divine laws or undermined the mos maiorum (roughly, "the way of the ancestors"); the relationship between gods and mortals should be sober, contractual, and of mutual benefit. Undignified grovelling, excessive enthusiasm (
Priesthoods
With the abolition of monarchy, some of its sacral duties were shared by the consuls, while others passed to a Republican
Twelve "lesser flaminates" (Flamines minores) were open to plebeians, or reserved to them. They included a Flamen Cerealis in service of Ceres, goddess of grain and growth, and protector of plebeian laws and tribunes.[274] The priesthoods of local urban and rustic Compitalia street festivals, dedicated to the lares of local communities, were open to freedmen and slaves.[275].

The Lex Ogulnia (300) gave patricians and plebeians more-or-less equal representation in the augural and pontifical colleges;[39] other important priesthoods, such as the Quindecimviri ("The Fifteen"), and the epulones[n] were opened to any member of the senatorial class.[278] To restrain the accumulation and potential abuse of priestly powers, each gens was permitted one priesthood at a time, and the censors monitored the senators' religious activities.[278] Magistrates who held an augurate could claim divine authority for their position and policies.[279] In the late Republic, augury came under the control of the pontifices, whose powers were increasingly woven into the civil and military cursus honorum. Eventually, the office of pontifex maximus became a de facto consular prerogative.[280]
Some cults may have been exclusively female; for example, the rites of the Good Goddess (
Temples and festivals
Rome's major public temples were within the city's sacred, augural boundary (
Romulus was said to have pitched his augural tent atop the Palatine. Beneath its southern slopes ran the sacred way, next to the former palace of the kings (Regia), the House of the Vestals and Temple of Vesta. Close by were the Lupercal shrine and the cave where Romulus and Remus were said to have been suckled by the she-wolf. On the flat area between the Aventine and Palatine was the Circus Maximus, which hosted chariot races and religious games. Its several shrines and temples included those to Rome's indigenous sun god, Sol, the moon-goddess Luna, the grain-storage god, Consus, and the obscure goddess Murcia.
Whereas Romans marked the passage of years with the names of their ruling consuls, their calendars marked the anniversaries of religious foundations to particular deities, the days when official business was permitted (fas), and those when it was not (nefas). The Romans observed an eight-day week; law courts were closed and markets were held on the ninth day. Each month was presided over by a particular, usually major deity. The oldest calendars were lunar.
In the military

Before any campaign or battle, Roman commanders took
Cities, towns and villas
City of Rome
Life in the Roman Republic revolved around the city of Rome. The most important governing, administrative and religious institutions were concentrated at its heart, on and around the
Most Roman towns and cities had a
Culture
Clothing
The basic Roman garment was the Greek-style tunic, worn knee-length and short-sleeved (or sleeveless) for men and boys, and ankle-length and long-sleeved for women and girls. The toga was distinctively Roman and became a mark of male citizenship, a statement of social degree.[292] Convention also dictated the type, colour and style of calcei (ankle-boots) appropriate to each level of male citizenship.
The whitest, most voluminous togas were worn by the senatorial class. High-ranking magistrates, priests, and citizen's children were entitled to a purple-bordered
Luxurious and highly coloured clothing had always been available to those who could afford it, particularly women of the leisured classes. There is material evidence for cloth-of-gold (lamé) as early as the 7th century.[294] By the 3rd century, significant quantities of raw silk was being imported from China.[295] Tyrian purple, a quasi-sacred colour, was officially reserved for the border of the toga praetexta and for the solid purple toga picta.[296][297]
For most Romans, even the cheapest linen or woolen clothing represented a major expense. Worn clothing was passed down the social scale until it fell to rags, and these were used for patchwork.
As the Republic wore on, its trade, territories and wealth increased. Roman conservatives deplored the apparent erosion of traditional, class-based dress distinctions, and an increasing Roman appetite for luxurious fabrics and exotic "foreign" styles among all classes, including their own. Towards the end of the Republic, the ultra-traditionalist Cato the Younger publicly protested the self-indulgence of his peers, and the loss of Republican "manly virtues", by wearing a "skimpy" dark woolen toga, without tunic or footwear.[299][s]
Food and dining

Modern study of the dietary habits during the Republic are hampered by various factors. Few writings have survived, and because different components of their diet are more or less likely to be preserved, the archaeological record cannot be relied on.[300] In the early Republic, the main meal (
During the mid-to-later Republic, wine was increasingly treated as a necessity rather than a luxury.
From 123 BC, a ration of unmilled wheat (as much as 33 kg), known as the frumentatio, was distributed to as many as 200,000 people every month by the Roman state.[305]
Education and language
Rome's original native language was
Following various military conquests in the
Arts
In the 3rd century, Greek art taken as the spoils of war became popular, and many Roman homes were decorated with landscapes by Greek artists.[311]
Over time,
Literature
Early Roman literature was influenced heavily by Greek authors. From the mid-Republic, Roman authors followed Greek models, to produce free-verse and verse-form plays and other in Latin; for example,
The politician, poet and philosopher Cicero's literary output was remarkably prolific and so influential on contemporary and later literature that the period from 83 BC to 43 BC has been called the "Age of Cicero". His oratory continues to influence modern speakers, while his philosophical works, particularly Cicero's Latin adaptations of Greek Platonic and Epicurean works, influenced many later philosophers.[313][314] Other prominent writers of this period include the grammarian and historian of religion Varro, the politician, general and military commentator Julius Caesar, the historian Sallust and the love poet Catullus.
Sports and entertainment
The
See also
- History of the Roman Empire – Occurrences and people in the Roman Empire
- Roman commerce – Major sector of the Roman economy
- Roman conceptions of citizenship – Aspect of history
- Roman economy – Economy of ancient Rome
Notes
- Corey Brennan has dismissed this theory, arguing that the consular plebeians would not have let the Decemvirs take their power away that easily. Cf Brennan 2000, pp. 24–25. He attributes the "plebeian" names in the fasti to patrician gentes who later died out or became plebeians.
- ^ The traditional date for the first secession is given by Livy as 494; many other dates have been suggested, and several such events probably took place. See Cornell 1995, pp. 215–218, 256–261, 266.
- ^ For a discussion of the duties and legal status of plebeian tribunes and aediles, see Lintott 1999b, pp. 92–101
- Lucius Atilius Luscus in 444, and Quintus Antonius Meranda in 422 were also plebeian.[21]
- ^ Livy mentions at least two patricians favourable to the tribunes: Marcus Fabius Ambustus, Stolo's father-in-law, and the dictator for 368 Publius Manlius Capitolinus, who appointed the first plebeian magister equitum, Gaius Licinius Calvus.
- ^ Appius Caecus is a complex character whose reforms are difficult to interpret. For example, Mommsen considered he was a revolutionary, but was puzzled by his opposition to the lex Ogulnia, which contradicts his previous "democratic" policies. Taylor on the contrary thought he defended patricians' interests, as freedmen remained in the clientele of their patrons. More recently, Humm described his activity as the continuation of the reforms undertaken since Stolo and Lateranus.
- ^ There are significant differences between the accounts of Cassius Dio, Dionysius, and Plutarch, but the latter's is traditionally followed in the academic literature.
- Centuriate Assembly. Scullard 1989a, p. 542 similarly prefers the centuria over the tribes. It is unclear whether the Romans formally declared war; they may have justified the conflict in terms of fulfilling the newly-ratified Mamertine alliance.
- ^ Polyb., iii.117 reports 70,000 dead. Livy, xxii.49 reports 47,700 dead and 19,300 prisoners.
- ^ The activities of the Gracchan land commission are archaeologically documented on recovered boundary stones listing the members of the commission.[116] With the find locations, scholars estimate distribution of more than 3,200 square kilometres of public lands, mostly concentrated in southern Italy.[117]
- ^ The plebeian involved in such a marriage would likely have been wealthy: see Cornell 1995, p. 255
- ^ King Numa Pompilius was also said to have consorted with the nymph Egeria. The myths surrounding king Servius Tullius include his divine fathering by a Lar of the royal household, or by Vulcan, god of fire; and his love-affair with the goddess Fortuna.
- Macrobius describes the woollen figurines (maniae) hung at crossroad shrines during the popular Compitalia festival as substitutions for ancient human sacrifice once held at the same festival and suppressed by Rome's first consul, L. Junius Brutus. Whatever the truth regarding this sacrifice and its abolition, the Junii celebrated their ancestor cult during Larentalia rather than the usual Parentalia even in the 1st century BC; see Taylor 1925, pp. 302ff.
- ^ Established in 196 to take over the running of a growing number of ludi and festivals from the pontifices
- ^ For Camillus and Juno, see Benko 2004, p. 27
- ^ For the earliest likely development of Roman public bathing, see Fagan 1999, pp. 42–44
- ^ "The architecture of the ancient Romans was, from first to last, an art of shaping space around ritual:" Lott 2004, p. 1, citing Brown 1961, p. 9. Some Roman ritual includes activities which might be called, in modern terms, religious; some is what might be understood in modern terms as secular – the proper and habitual way of doing things. For Romans, both activities were matters of lawful custom (mos maiorum) rather than religious as opposed to secular.
- ^ In reality, she was the female equivalent of the romanticised citizen-farmer: see Flower 2004, pp. 153, 195–197
- ^ Appian's history of Rome finds its strife-torn Late Republic tottering at the edge of chaos; most seem to dress as they like, not as they ought: "For now the Roman people are much mixed with foreigners, there is equal citizenship for freedmen, and slaves dress like their masters. With the exception of the Senators, free citizens and slaves wear the same costume." See Rothfus 2010, p. 1
References
Citations
- ^ Crawford 1974, pp. 455, 456.
- ^ Latin League.
- ^ a b Taagepera 1979.
- ^ Momigliano 1989, pp. 110–11.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 215–18. Cornell offers a summary of "Livy's prose narrative" and derived literary works relating to the expulsion of the kings.
- ^ Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom., iv.64–85.
- ^ Livy, 1.57–60.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 226–228.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 215–218, 377–378; Drummond 1989, p. 178.
- ^ Forsythe 2005, pp. 148–149.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 215–17.
- ^ Flor. Epit., i.11–12.
- ^ a b Grant 1978, pp. 37–41.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 289–291.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 256–59. Plebs ("the mass") was originally a disparaging term, but was adopted as a badge of pride by those whom it was meant to insult. It might not have referred to wealthier commoners.
- ^ Kruta 2000, p. 189.
- ^ Treves 2012.
- ^ Grant 1978, pp. 48–49.
- ^ Grant 1978, p. 52.
- ^ Grant 1978, p. 53.
- ^ Brennan 2000, p. 50.
- ^ Cornell 1989a, p. 338.
- ^ Livy, vi.11, 13–30.
- ^ Cornell 1989a, pp. 331–32.
- ^ Cornell 1989a, p. 337. Cornell believes Livy confused the contents of the lex Licinia Sextia of 366 the lex Genucia of 342.
- ^ Livy, vi.36–42.
- ^ Broughton 1952–1986, vol. 1 pp. 108–114.
- ^ Brennan 2000, pp. 59–61.
- ^ Livy, vii.42.
- ^ Cornell 1989a, p. 337.
- ^ Brennan 2000, pp. 65–67, showing that the ten-year rule was only temporary at this time.
- ^ Cornell 1989a, pp. 342–43.
- ^ Cornell 1989b, pp. 393–94, giving an earlier date, before 318.
- ^ Humm 2005, pp. 185–226.
- ^ MacBain 1980.
- ^ Cornell 1989a, p. 343.
- ^ Develin 1978.
- ^ Cornell 1989a, pp. 340–41.
- ^ a b Cornell 1995, p. 342.
- ^ Grant 1978, p. 78.
- ^ Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom., xix.5–6.
- ^ Franke 1989, pp. 456–57.
- ^ Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom., xx.3; Plut. Pyrrh., 21.9, source of the quote; Dio, x.5.
- ^ Franke 1989, pp. 473–480.
- ^ Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom., xx.8.
- ^ Polyb., iii.22–26.
- ^ Livy, vii.27.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, pp. 517–37.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, p. 542.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, p. 543.
- ^ Polyb., 1.11–12.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, p. 545, however, claims that Caudex failed to break the blockade; he did not receive a triumph and was succeeded in command by Manius Valerius Maximus, who triumphed instead and gained the cognomen "Messalla".
- ^ Scullard 1989a, p. 547.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2001, p. 113.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2001, p. 84.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, pp. 548–54.
- ^ Tacitus. Annales. II.49.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2001, p. 88.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, pp. 554–57.
- ^ Crawford 1974, pp. 292–93.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, pp. 559–64.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, pp. 565–69.
- ^ Hoyos 2011a, p. 217.
- ^ Hoyos 2011a, p. 215.
- ^ Scullard 1989b, pp. 28–31.
- ^ Hoyos 2011a, pp. 216–19.
- ^ Scullard 1989b, pp. 33–36.
- ^ Scullard 1989b, p. 39.
- ^ Briscoe 1989, p. 46.
- ^ Fronda 2011, pp. 251–52.
- ^ Briscoe 1989, p. 47.
- ^ Livy, xxi.38, referencing L. Cincius Alimentus who reported a personal discussion with Hannibal, in which he said he lost 38,000 men by crossing the Alps.
- ^ Briscoe 1989, p. 48.
- ^ "Scipione l'Africano" (in Italian). Retrieved 12 August 2023.
- ^ Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Great Britain, Volume IX, British Museum, Part 2: Spain, London, 2002, n° 102.
- ^ Briscoe 1989, p. 51.
- ^ "Reggio Emilia, Mito e realtà nella battaglia della Silva Litana" (in Italian). Retrieved 12 August 2023.
- ^ Briscoe 1989, pp. 52–53.
- ^ Briscoe 1989, pp. 49–50.
- ^ a b Briscoe 1989, p. 59.
- ^ Briscoe 1989, p. 55.
- ^ Briscoe 1989, p. 60.
- ^ a b Matyszak 2004, p. 47.
- ^ Eckstein 2012, p. 42.
- ^ Eckstein 2012, p. 43.
- ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 49.
- ^ Errington 1989, pp. 268–69.
- ^ Eckstein 2012, p. 48.
- ^ Eckstein 2012, p. 51.
- ^ a b c d Grant 1978, p. 119.
- ^ a b c d Eckstein 2012, p. 52.
- ^ Lane Fox 2006, p. 326.
- ^ Eckstein 2012, p. 55.
- ^ Ziolkowski 1988, pp. 314ff, 316ff.
- ^ Derow 1989, p. 301.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, p. 84.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, pp. 90 et seq.
- ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 53.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, p. 105.
- ^ Derow 1989, p. 323, citing Polyb., 38.12.5..
- ^ Derow 1989, p. 323.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2001, p. 338.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2001, p. 339.
- ^ "Roma e Cartagine: lotta per la supremazia" (in Italian). 10 August 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
- ^ "Breve storia della Cartagine romana (I sec. a.C.-VII sec. d.C.)" (in Italian). 6 January 2023. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
- ^ Morstein-Marx & Rosenstein 2006, p. 627, citing Brunt 1971
- ^ Morstein-Marx & Rosenstein 2006, pp. 627–28, citing Meier 1997. See also, on the crisis without alternative, Meier 1995, pp. 491–496
- ^ Morstein-Marx & Rosenstein 2006, p. 628, citing Gruen 1995, p. 504.
- ^ Morstein-Marx & Rosenstein 2006, p. 634.
- ^ Morstein-Marx & Rosenstein 2006, pp. 634–635; Mouritsen 2017, pp. 171–172.
- ^ a b Lintott 1992a, pp. 25–26.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 62.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 66.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 67.
- ^ Abbott 2001, p. 96.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 68.
- ^ Roselaar 2010, pp. 252–254.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 72–73.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 78.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, pp. 82–83.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 84.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 65.
- ^ "CRASSO, Lucio Licinio" (in Italian). Retrieved 14 August 2023.
- ^ Crawford 1974, pp. 449–451.
- ^ Lintott 1992a, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 64.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 88.
- ^ Lintott 1992a, p. 30; Lintott 1992b, p. 92.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 94.
- ^ App. BCiv., 6.
- ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 75.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. [page needed].
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 96.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, pp. 96–97.
- ^ Gabba 1992, pp. 104–11.
- ^ Gabba 1992, pp. 113–14.
- ^ Beard 2015, p. 238.
- ^ Beard 2015, pp. 238–39.
- ^ Beard 2015, p. 244.
- ^ Seager 1992a, p. 171.
- ^ Beard 2015, pp. 241–42.
- ^ Seager 1992a, p. 178.
- ^ Seager 1992a, p. 180.
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- ^ Seager 1992a, p. 187.
- ^ Seager 1992a, pp. 194–95.
- ^ Seager 1992a, p. 197.
- ^ Seager 1992a, pp. 197–99, also citing ancient accounts that some 80 senators and 1,600 equites were targeted in the first round before being joined by two additional rounds of 220 names.
- ^ Beard 2015, p. 246.
- ^ Steel 2014.
- ^ Seager 1992a, pp. 205–07.
- ^ Seager 1992b, pp. 208–10.
- ^ Seager 1992b, pp. 210–11.
- ^ Seager 1992b, p. 220, describing Sertorius' administration of Spain as a "Rome-in-exile".
- ^ Seager 1992b, p. 213.
- ^ Seager 1992b, p. 222.
- ^ Seager 1992b, pp. 221–22.
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- ^ Gruen 1995, p. 89.
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- ^ Abbott 2001, p. 115.
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- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, p. 15.
- ^ Lane Fox 2006, p. 312.
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- ^ Luttwak 1976, p. 43.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 215–216.
- ^ McGinn 1998, pp. 65ff.
- ^ Drummond 1989, p. 126.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 238, 379–380, citing Livy, 9. 46. 13–14 for the poorest citizens as forensis facto... humillimi (the "lowest of the low")
- ^ Alföldy 2014, p. 17.
- ^ Gardner 2008.
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- ^ Eiland 2023, p. 31.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 288–291.
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- ^ D'Arms 1980.
- ^ Johnston 1999, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Frier & McGinn 2004, pp. 20, 53, 54. Other marriage forms include coemptio' (marriage "by purchase"), and usus (marriage recognised through the couple's "habitual cohabitation")
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 265–268, 283.
- ^ a b Bannon 2009, pp. 5–10.
- ^ Drummond 1989, pp. 118–122, 135, 136.
- ^ Livy, iii.26–29.
- ^ Cornell 1989b, pp. 412–413. Cato the Elder dwelt upon the probably mythical poverty of leading Romans such as Manius Dentatus, and the incorruptible Gaius Fabricius Luscinus.
- ^ Rosenstein 2008.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 265–268.
- ^ Gabba 1992, pp. 197–198.
- ^ Lintott 1992b, p. 55. A later consular investigation into similar land encroachments is dated to 175.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 328–329.
- ^ Bannon 2009, 5–10, citing Hodge 1989, p. 219 for Cato's diatribe against the misuse of aqueduct water by L. Furius Purpureus, consul in 196..
- ^ Nicolet 1992, p. 619.
- ^ Rosenstein 2008, pp. 2–16.
- ^ Nicolet 1992, pp. 612–615. Up to this time, the Roman elite had favoured Greek imported wine over any of Rome's homegrown vintages.
- ^ a b Drummond 1989, pp. 118–122.
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- ^ Fowler 1899, pp. 202–204.
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- ^ Lott 2004, pp. 31, 35, citing Cato, On Agriculture, 5.3., and Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom., 4.14.2–4
- ^ Ovid, Fasti, v, 129–145
- ^ Crawford (1974), p. 312.
- ^ a b Lipka 2009, pp. 171–172.
- ^ Rosenberger 2007, p. 299. Auctoritas ('authority') is etymologically linked to augur: See Cornell 1995, p. 341
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- ^ Spaeth 1996, pp. 4, 6–13.
- ^ Culham 2004, p. 155. See also Beard 1980 and Parker 2004.
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- ^ Vout 1996, p. 215.
- ^ Flower 1996, p. 118: "The best model for understanding Roman sumptuary legislation is that of aristocratic self-preservation within a highly competitive society which valued overt display of prestige above all else."
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External links
Library resources about Roman Republic |
- The Roman Republic from In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)
- Nova Roma – Educational Organization a working historical reconstruction of the Roman Republic
- Roman Empire History