Roman Republic
Roman Republic Res publica Romana | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
c. 509 – 27 BC | |||||||||
Roman polytheism | |||||||||
Demonym(s) | Roman | ||||||||
Government | Consular republic | ||||||||
Consuls | |||||||||
• 509 BC (first) | |||||||||
• 27 BC (last) |
| ||||||||
Legislature | Octavian proclaimed Augustus | 16 January 27 BC | |||||||
Area | |||||||||
326 BC[2] | 10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi) | ||||||||
50 BC[2] | 1,950,000 km2 (750,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
|
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
Rome in Latium
Early campaigns

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.[10]
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
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
Roman expansion in Italy
Wars against Italian neighbours

From 343 to 341 BC, Rome won
A
At the Battle of Populonia, in 282 BC, 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.[21] In 385 BC, 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.[22][23]
Between 376 and 367 BC, 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 BC and censor in 351 BC. In 342 BC, 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.[28][29][30] In 339 BC, 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.[31]
During the early Republic, consuls chose senators from among their supporters. Shortly before 312 BC, the
In 300 BC, 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.[35] 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 BC, making plebiscites binding on all citizens, while also removing the requirement for prior Senate approval.[36] 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.[37] 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 BC due to the lack of available positions. About a dozen remaining patrician gentes and twenty plebeian ones thus formed a new elite, called the nobiles.[38]
Pyrrhic War
By the early 3rd century BC, Rome had established itself as the major power in Italy, but had not yet come into conflict with the dominant military powers of the
Pyrrhus and his army of 25,500 men (with 20 war elephants) landed in the Italian peninsula in 280 BC. 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 BC, 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."[42][g]
He escaped the Italian deadlock by answering a call for help from Syracuse, where tyrant Thoenon was desperately fighting an invasion from
Punic Wars and expansion in the Mediterranean
First Punic War (264–241 BC)

Rome and

Messina fell under Roman control quickly.
To hasten the end of the war, the consuls for 256 BC decided to carry the operations to Africa, on Carthage's homeland. The consul
Hostilities in Sicily resumed in 252 BC, 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 BC, 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
These disasters triggered a wave of defection among Roman allies, with the rebellions of the Samnites, Oscans, Lucanians, and Greek cities of Southern Italy.
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 |
![]() |
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.[87] Now not only Rome's allies against Philip, but even Philip himself, sought a Roman alliance against the Seleucids.[88] 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.[89] 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.[89]
Fearing the worst, the Romans began a major mobilisation, all but pulling out of recently conquered Spain and Gaul.
Conquest of Greece
In 179, Philip died.[93] His talented and ambitious son, Perseus, took the throne and showed a renewed interest in conquering Greece.[94] 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.[95] The Macedonians capitulated, ending the war.[96]
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.[97] Yet Macedonian agitation continued. The Fourth Macedonian War, 150 to 148 BC, was fought against a Macedonian pretender to the throne who was again destabilising 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 destabilised its social organisation between conflicting interests; the Senate's policymaking, blinded by its own short-term self-interest, alienated large portions of society, who then joined powerful generals who sought to overthrow the system.[104] 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".[105] 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".[106]
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.[107] 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.[108][109]
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".[117] 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.[118] 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.[119] His legislation (like that of his brother) survived; the Roman aristocracy disliked the Gracchan agitation but accepted their policies.[120]
In 121, the province of Gallia Narbonensis was established after the victory of
Rise of Marius


Rome fought the Jugurthine War from 111 to 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.[123] Numidia had been a loyal ally of Rome since the Punic Wars.[124] Initially, Rome mediated a division of the country. But Jugurtha renewed his offensive, leading to a long and inconclusive war with Rome.[125] 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.[126] Marius's victory played on existing themes of senatorial corruption and incompetence, contrasted especially against the military failure of senatorial leadership in the Cimbrian War.[127]
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[128] migrated from northern Europe into Rome's northern territories,[129] 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.[130] At the Battle of Aquae Sextiae and the Battle of Vercellae, Marius led the Roman armies, which virtually annihilated both tribes, ending the threat.[131]
During the Cimbrian War, further conflicts embroiled the Republic: A Second Servile War waged in Sicily from 104 to 101;[110] 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.[132]
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.[133] After the assassination, in Rome, of a conservative tribune who sought to grant the Italians citizenship, the allies took up arms:[134] 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.[135] The Romans were able to stave off military defeat by conceding the main point almost immediately, tripling the number of citizens.[136] 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.[137]
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.[140] 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.[141] 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.[142] By 85 BC, the Cinnans in Rome started preparations to defend the peninsula from invasion.[142]
In 83, he returned from the east with a small but experienced army.[143] Initial reactions were negative across the peninsula, but after winning a number of victories he was able to overcome resistance and capture the city. In the Battle of the Colline Gate, just outside Rome,[144] Sulla's army defeated the Marian defenders and then proceeded to "run riot... killing for profit, pleasure, or personal vengeance anyone they pleased".[145] He then instituted procedures to centralise the killing, creating lists of proscribed persons who could be killed for their property without punishment.[146] After establishing political control, Sulla had himself made dictator and passed a series of constitutional reforms intended to strengthen the position of the magistrates and the senate in the state and replace custom with new rigid statute laws enforced by new permanent courts.[147][148] Sulla resigned the dictatorship in 81 after election as consul for 80. He then retired, and died in 78 BC.[149]
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[150] 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.[151] After rumours of a pact between Q. Sertorius's ostensible republic-in-exile,[152] 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.[153]
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.[154] 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.[155] 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.[156] They also shepherded legislation to settle the contentious matter of jury reform.[157]
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).[158] Rome for its part seemed equally eager for war and the spoils and prestige that it might bring.[159] After his invasion of Bithynia in 73, Lucullus was assigned against Mithridates and his Armenian ally Tigranes the Great in Asia Minor.[160] 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.[161] After defeat forced the Romans from large parts of Armenia and Pontus in 67, Lucullus was replaced in command by Pompey.[162] Pompey moved against Mithridates in 66.[163] Defeating him in battle and securing the submission of Tigranes,[164] Mithridates fled to Crimea, where he was betrayed and killed by his son Pharnaces in 63.[165] Pompey remained in the East to pacify and settle Roman conquests in the region, also extending Roman control south to Judaea.[166]
End of the Republic
First Triumvirate
![]() |
Part of a series on |
Ancient Rome and the fall of the Republic |
---|
People
Events
Places |
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).[171] 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.[172] Caesar won for himself the political support needed to acquire a profitable provincial command in Gaul and secure his political future.[173]
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.[174] Political opposition to the allies was immense.[175]
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.[176]

After his term as consul in 59, Caesar 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).[177] 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.[180] This chaos reached a climax in January of 52, as Clodius and his allies shut down the government by vetoing the election of consuls. That month, Milo murdered Clodius after a chance encounter on the via Appia, leading to Pompey's occupation of the city as sole consul and a forcible restoration of order.[181]
In 53, Crassus launched a Roman invasion of the Parthian Empire (modern Iraq and Iran). After initial successes,[182] 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 destabilised 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.[183] 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.[184] 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)[185] but decided to tackle Pompey himself in Greece.[186] Pompey initially defeated Caesar, but failed to follow up on the victory, and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48.[187][188] 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.[189] Caesar held both the dictatorship and the tribunate, and alternated between the consulship and the proconsulship.[189] 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,[190] which he used to fill the senate with his partisans. He then raised the membership of the Senate to 900.[191] This robbed the senatorial aristocracy of its prestige, and made it increasingly subservient to him.[192] 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.[191]
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.[195]
After the assassination, Caesar's three most important associates,
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.[197]
Constitutional system
Part of the Politics series |
Republicanism |
---|
![]() |
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.[198]
Senate
The senate's authority derived from the senators' esteem and prestige.[199] 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.[200] 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.[201]
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.[202]
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.[201]
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 optimo iure could participate in assemblies that elected magistrates, enacted legislation, presided over trials in capital cases, declared war and peace, and forged or dissolved treaties. Assemblies were called comitia, in which all citizens optimo jure could vote, and concilia (sg. concilium), 'councils', for specific groups of citizens optimo jure, e.g., the plebeians.[203]
Citizens optimo jure were organised on the basis of and divided into centuries and tribes. Each century or tribe cast a collective vote. The centuriate assembly (comitia centuriata) was said to be traced from the Roman centuries of soldiers, and was usually presided over by a consul. The centuries voted, one at a time, until a measure received support from a majority. The centuriate assembly elected magistrates who had imperium (consuls and praetors). It also elected censors. Only the centuriate assembly could declare war and ratify the results of a census.[204] It served as the highest court of appeal in certain judicial cases.
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.[207] The powers of a magistrate came from the people of Rome (both plebeians and patricians).[208] 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.[209] 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.[210]
In times of military emergency, a dictator was appointed for a term of six months.[211] 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.[212] 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.[213] During the census, they could enroll citizens in the senate or purge them from the senate.[214]
The consuls of the Roman Republic were the highest-ranking ordinary magistrates. Each served for one year.[215] 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.[216] His authority abroad was nearly absolute.
Since the tribunes were considered the embodiment of the plebeians, they were
Military
![]() |
Part of a series on the |
Military of ancient Rome |
---|
![]() |
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"[219] and catastrophic defeats. Nevertheless, it was generally the fate of Rome's greatest enemies, such as Pyrrhus and Hannibal,[220] 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 was 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.[226]
The three infantry classes[227] 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.[227] 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.[228]
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.[229] Eventually, the Romans were forced to begin hiring mercenaries to fight alongside the legions.[230]
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.[231] 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.[232] Each century comprised 10 "tent groups" of eight men. Cavalry were used as scouts and dispatch riders rather than as battlefield forces.[233] 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.[234]
The army's most obvious deficiency lay in its shortage of cavalry, especially heavy cavalry.[235] 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.[228]
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.[241] 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.[242] Freedmen could play notable roles in various crafts and trades, particularly those who had been manumitted by the upper classes.[243] 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.[244][245] A wealthy equestrian class emerged, not subject to the same trading constraints as senators.[246]
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.[247] 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.[248] 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.
People and economy

The Roman Republic's economy was predominantly agrarian,[249] but also highly complex. As the Romans continued to conquer the Mediterranean basin, it became fully integrated with the wider Mediterranean economy, a process which completed during the first century BC.[250] The population of the republic expanded considerably during the centuries of its existence; indeed, the vastness of the Roman citizen population was part of how it was able to mobilise such expansive military power.[251]
Agricultural production during the republic was highly regional. Literary evidence from ancient elite writers was highly simplifying and is not entirely consistent with the regional differences revealed by modern archaeology. Such differences were driven not only by soil productivity but also market access, mainly mediated by distance from large urban centres such as Rome, and changes in tenancy.[252]
Demography
Evidence for the republic's population largely comes from thirty-nine republican and early imperial censuses.[253] The reported population increased substantially from the first, reporting 130,000 Romans in 509 BC, to the last, reporting 4,937,000 in AD 14. It is generally believed that the censuses prior to those of Augustus starting in 28 BC reported only free adult males.[254] It is also not clear to what extent these census figures include (or not) the expansion of citizenship through the Roman conquest of Italy and the late republican extension of citizenship to Transpadane Gaul from 49 BC, the manumission of slaves (slaves received citizenship when manumitted), losses from war, and losses to non-citizen towns.[255]
There was fierce debate over the population of Italy from the third century onwards. Estimates of the Italian population c. 225 BC place it around 4.5 million.[256] This debate is based both on censuses and also on arguments from grain accounting and survey archaeology. The two main approaches were the "low" and "high" counts. The former posited that at the end of the republic there was an Italian population of around four million which was sightly lower than that of the estimated 4.5 million in 225. The high count, on the other hand, suggested that the population of the peninsula had increased to between seven and twelve million.[257]
More recent approaches have suggested a "middle" count which views the census in terms of a device for counting military-age males which under the empire transformed into one to further imperial expansionist ideology. This reconstruction argues that imperial censuses inflated numbers, relative to their republican counterparts, by inclusion of women and children who were legally independent. This middle count instead suggests an Italian population between 4.6 and 5.9 million.[258] All three modern accounts, however, are generally agreed to suggest an increase in the population of Italy which precludes ancient narratives of rural depopulation.[259]
The population of all Roman possessions at the death of Augustus was in excess of 54 million, with considerable population flows across the Mediterranean basin.[260] The population of Rome itself in the early imperial period was around one million, which it may have reached during the late republic by 57 BC, with other large cities such as Alexandria or Pergamum having between 100,000 and 300,000 inhabitants.[255]
Agriculture
The agricultural production of republican-era Italy was concentrated in cereals (barley, wheat, and millet), vines, and olives. Grasses and legumes would have required irrigation; localised decay of such infrastructure may in part explain depopulation. Animal pasture was possible on the Appennines and low-lying plains during the winter seasons. Much of the peninsula was not yet cleared for farmland; the old-growth forests provided pasture for pigs, served as a habitat for other wild game, and were a source of timber.[261] Areas of Italy were specialised in terms of their agricultural exports: Campania was notable for its wine and olives; other areas, like the Po Valley, Samnium, and the Appennine highlands generally, were noted for sheep and pig raising. The emergence of large urban elites in the late republic also catalysed the creation of villas close to cities to raise and grow luxury items for local consumption.[262][263]
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.[264][265]
Agricultural tooling was continuous with earlier Iron Age tools: wheel-less and mouldboard-less ploughs with sickles.[266] 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.[267][268] Transhumance was likely, with shepherds leading flocks from the lowlands in winter to highlands in summer.[269] Powered by man (free or slave) and animal, most farms were relatively small. Even large farms were dependent on hired slave or free labour.[270] Labour was necessary to take in the harvest and operate farm machinery, such as olive and grape presses.[271] Evidence of olive and grape vines suggests polyculture was common, used to diversify a farm's agricultural output.[272] Such practices also extended to simple crop rotations with fallow fields and legumes such as peas, chickpeas, and lentils.[273] Non-agricultural gathering was also common in rural areas. Subsistence farming of this sort was the norm and commercial agriculture was concentrated only in areas on the coast and close to Rome, as there was insufficient urban demand to support a substantial number of large commercial farms.[274]
Industry
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2025) |
The mining and processing of metals was a core part of Roman industry. During the early republic Italy itself was generally considered to be rich in copper and iron, but by the late republic these deposits had largely exhaused. Mining by the second century BC had moved to Elba and Cisalpine Gaul. But the taking of Spain from Carthage during the Second Punic War opened huge and profitable mines in Iberia.[275] Techniques for mining were sophisticated, with complex mechanisms to pump and move water for industrial purposes.[276]
Textile manufacture was in part domestic, with notable production at Rome and in Sicily. Production was likely organised via subcontracting networks which split up work between large numbers of small workshops.[277]
Trade, money, and finance

Trade at Rome was well underway by the second century BC, with the development of a large port district (eventually stretching two kilometres) on the banks of the Tiber in central Rome. Large warehouses also were erected in the area. The republican period also saw, after the institution of Roman hegemony over the peninsula, the emergence of
The largest partnerships were the societates publicanorum. These partnerships, which expanded with the empire, took government contracts for matters such as tax farming (where a partnership paid the state a fee for the right to collect taxes on its behalf), operation of large mines or quarries, and provision of supplies to soldiers or building projects.[280] Due to their importance to the state, they also came to have a fully corporate existence, outliving their partners – most partnerships otherwise dissolved if one of the partners died – with inheritable shares (partes), directors (magistri), shareholder meetings for corporate governance.[281]
Large transactions were conducted with gold bars or through banking intermediaries,[282] especially by exchange of large debts owed by and between aristocrats. Banks emerged by the second century BC in two types (deposit-taking banking firms called argentariae and aristocratic financiers) and are poorly attested in the literary evidence of the late republic. It would not have been possible to conduct large business transactions (including the making of loans) without them. Deposit and lending activities by the first century were so ubiquitous to be little worth mentioning in the Ciceronean corpus,[283] though the effects of conquest on financiers in the late republic is well attested.[284]
Religion

Republican Rome's religious practices 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.[293] The priesthoods of local urban and rustic Compitalia street festivals, dedicated to the lares of local communities, were open to freedmen and slaves.[294].

The Lex Ogulnia (300) gave patricians and plebeians more-or-less equal representation in the augural and pontifical colleges;[38] other important priesthoods, such as the Quindecimviri ("The Fifteen"), and the epulones[n] were opened to any member of the senatorial class.[297] 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.[297] Magistrates who held an augurate could claim divine authority for their position and policies.[298] 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.[299]
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
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 (
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.[318][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.[319] In the early Republic, the main meal (cena) essentially consisted of a kind of porridge, the puls.[320] The simplest kind would be made from emmer, water, salt and fat. The wealthy commonly ate their puls with eggs, cheese, and honey, and it was also occasionally served with meat or fish. Over the course of the Republican period, the cena developed into two courses: the main course and a dessert with fruit and seafood (e.g. molluscs or shrimp). By the late Republic, it was usual for the meal to be served in three parts: an appetiser (gustatio), main course (primae mensae), and dessert (secundae mensae).
During the mid-to-later Republic, wine was increasingly treated as a necessity rather than a luxury. In Ancient Rome, wine was normally mixed with water immediately before drinking, since the fermentation was not controlled and the alcohol proof was high. Sour wine mixed with water and herbs (posca) was a popular drink for the lower classes and a staple part of the Roman soldier's ration.[321] Beer (cerevisia) was known but considered vulgar, and was associated with barbarians.[322][323]
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.[324]
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.[330]
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
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
- 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, Violence 1999, pp. 92–101
- Lucius Atilius Luscus in 444, and Quintus Antonius Meranda in 422 were also plebeian.[20]
- ^ Livy mentions at least two patricians favourable to the tribunes: Marcus Fabius Ambustus, Stolo's father-in-law, and the dictator for 368 BC 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 1989b, 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.[114] With the find locations, scholars estimate distribution of more than 3,200 square kilometres of public lands, mostly concentrated in southern Italy.[115]
- ^ 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
- ^ Latin League.
- ^ a b Taagepera 1979.
- ^ Momigliano 1989, pp. 110–111.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 215–218. Cornell offers a summary of "Livy's prose narrative" and derived literary works relating to the expulsion of the kings.
- ^ Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom., 4.64–85.
- ^ 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. 215–217.
- ^ Flor. Epit., i.11–12.
- ^ Grant 1978, pp. 37–41.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 289–291.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 256–259. 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.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 317–18, noting "the physical damage to the city does not seem to have been nearly as extensive as tradition would have us believe... Gauls were interested in movable booty... no archaeological trace of the Gallic disaster has yet been positively identified... the strongest argument for a 'minimalist' interpretation of the Gallic disaster is the speed and vigour of the Roman recovery in the following years"; 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. 331–332.
- ^ Cornell 1989a, p. 337. Cornell believes Livy confused the contents of the lex Licinia Sextia of 366 BC the lex Genucia of 342 BC.
- ^ 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. 342–343.
- ^ Cornell 1989b, pp. 393–394, giving an earlier date, before 318 BC.
- ^ Humm 2005, pp. 185–226.
- ^ MacBain 1980.
- ^ Cornell 1989a, p. 343.
- ^ Develin 1978.
- ^ Cornell 1989a, pp. 340–341.
- ^ a b Cornell 1995, p. 342.
- ^ Grant 1978, p. 78.
- ^ Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom., xix.5–6.
- ^ Franke 1989, pp. 456–457.
- ^ 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 1989b, pp. 517–537.
- ^ Scullard 1989b, p. 542.
- ^ Scullard 1989b, p. 543.
- ^ Polyb., 1.11–12.
- ^ Scullard 1989b, 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 1989b, p. 547.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2001, p. 113.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2001, p. 84.
- ^ Scullard 1989b, pp. 548–554.
- ^ Tacitus. Annales. II.49.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2001, p. 88.
- ^ Scullard 1989b, pp. 554–557.
- ^ Crawford 1974, pp. 292–293.
- ^ Scullard 1989b, pp. 559–564.
- ^ Scullard 1989b, pp. 565–569.
- ^ Hoyos 2011a, p. 217.
- ^ Hoyos 2011a, p. 215.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, pp. 28–31; Hoyos 2011a, pp. 216–219.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, pp. 33–36.
- ^ Scullard 1989a, p. 39.
- ^ Briscoe 1989, p. 46.
- ^ Fronda 2011, pp. 251–252.
- ^ Briscoe 1989, p. 47.
- L. Cincius Alimentuswho 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. 268–269.
- ^ 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. 627–628, 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 1994a, pp. 25–26.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. 62.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. 66.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. 67.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. 68.
- ^ Roselaar 2010, pp. 252–254.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, pp. 72–73.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. 78.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, pp. 82–83.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. 84.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. 65.
- ^ "CRASSO, Lucio Licinio" (in Italian). Retrieved 14 August 2023.
- ^ Crawford 1974, pp. 449–451.
- ^ Lintott 1994a, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 64.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. 88.
- ^ Lintott 1994a, p. 30; Lintott 1994b, p. 92.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. 94.
- ^ App. BCiv., 6.
- ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 75.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. [page needed].
- ^ Lintott 1994b, p. 96.
- ^ Lintott 1994b, pp. 96–97.
- ^ Gabba 1994, pp. 104–111.
- ^ Gabba 1994, pp. 113–114.
- ^ Beard 2015, p. 238.
- ^ Beard 2015, pp. 238–239.
- ^ Beard 2015, p. 244.
- ^ Seager 1994a, p. 171.
- ^ Beard 2015, pp. 241–242.
- ^ Seager 1994a, p. 178.
- ^ Seager 1994a, p. 180.
- ^ a b Seager 1994a, p. 182.
- ^ Seager 1994a, p. 187.
- ^ Seager 1994a, pp. 194–195.
- ^ Seager 1994a, p. 197.
- ^ Seager 1994a, pp. 197–199, 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 1994a, pp. 205–207.
- ^ Seager 1994b, pp. 208–210.
- ^ Seager 1994b, pp. 210–211.
- ^ Seager 1994b, p. 220, describing Sertorius' administration of Spain as a "Rome-in-exile".
- ^ Seager 1994b, p. 213.
- ^ Seager 1994b, p. 222.
- ^ Seager 1994b, pp. 221–222.
- ^ Seager 1994b, pp. 224–225.
- ^ Seager 1994b, pp. 225–226.
- ^ Sherwin-White 1994, p. 229.
- ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 76.
- ^ Sherwin-White 1994, pp. 234–235.
- ^ Sherwin-White 1994, pp. 236, 239.
- ^ Sherwin-White 1994, p. 244.
- ^ Sherwin-White 1994, p. 252.
- ^ Sherwin-White 1994, p. 253.
- ^ Sherwin-White 1994, p. 254.
- ^ Sherwin-White 1994, pp. 255–262.
- ^ Gruen 1995, pp. 422–425 (supporters), 429–431 (goals and failure).
- ^ Gruen 1995, pp. 432–433.
- ^ Wiseman 1994, pp. 360–361.
- ^ Wiseman 1994, p. 364.
- ^ Morstein-Marx 2021, p. 120.
- ^ Gruen 1995, p. 90; Wiseman 1994, p. 364.
- ^ Gruen 1995, p. 89.
- ^ Gruen 1995, p. 91.
- ^ Gruen 1995, p. 92.
- ^ Abbott 1901, p. 113.
- ^ Santosuosso 2008, p. 58.
- ^ Santosuosso 2008, p. 62.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, p. 212.
- ^ Abbott 1901, p. 114.
- JSTOR 45019234.
- ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 133.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, p. 214.
- ^ Abbott 1901, p. 115.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, p. 217.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, p. 218.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, p. 227.
- ^ Lane Fox 2006, p. 403.
- ^ a b Abbott 1901, p. 134.
- ^ Abbott 1901, p. 135.
- ^ a b Abbott 1901, p. 137.
- ^ Abbott 1901, p. 138.
- ^ Roller 2010, p. 175.
- ^ Walker 2008.
- ^ Abbott 1901, p. 133.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, p. 268.
- ^ Luttwak 1976, p. 7.
- ^ Byrd 1995, p. 161.
- ^ Byrd 1995, p. 96.
- ^ Byrd 1995, p. 44.
- ^ a b Momigliano & Cornell 2012.
- ^ Momigliano & Lintott 2012; Golden 2013, p. 148.
- ^ Abbott 1901, p. 251.
- ^ Abbott 1901, p. 257.
- ^ Taylor 1966, p. 7.
- ^ Lintott, Constitution 1999, p. 61.
- ^ Lintott, Constitution 1999, p. 101.
- ^ Lintott, Constitution 1999, p. 95.
- ^ Lintott, Constitution 1999, p. 97.
- ^ Lintott, Constitution 1999, p. 113.
- ^ Byrd 1995, p. 24.
- ^ Suolahti, J. (1963) The Roman Censors: A Study on Social Structure (Helsinki)
- ^ "censorship". etymonline. Archived from the original on 12 October 2023.
- ^ Byrd 1995, p. 26.
- ^ Byrd 1995, p. 20.
- ^ Byrd 1995, p. 179.
- ^ Byrd 1995, p. 23.
- ^ Byrd 1995, p. 32.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2016, p. 15.
- ^ Lane Fox 2006, p. 312.
- ^ Sekunda & Northwood 1995, p. 17.
- ^ Sekunda & Northwood 1995, p. 18.
- ^ Sekunda & Northwood 1995, pp. 37–38.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-2153-8. Plate 12.2 on p. 204.
- ^ Coarelli, Filippo (1987), I Santuari del Lazio in età repubblicana. NIS, Rome, pp. 35–84.
- ^ Polyb., B6.
- ^ a b Santosuosso 2008, p. 18.
- ^ a b Webster 1994, p. 156.
- ^ Santosuosso 2008, p. 11.
- ^ Webster 1994, p. 143.
- ^ Santosuosso 2008, p. 29.
- ^ Luttwak 1976, p. 14.
- ^ Webster 1994, p. 116.
- ^ Luttwak 1976, p. 15.
- ^ 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.
- ^ MacLean 2018, p. 2.
- ^ Eiland 2023, p. 31.
- ^ Cornell 1995, pp. 288–291.
- ^ Flower 2004, pp. 173–175. Flower is describing the restrictions placed on Senatorial business activity by the plebiscitum Claudianum of 218 BC, and related legislation: it may have been intended to reduce opportunity for bribery and corruption, or to help Senators focus exclusively on their tasks in government
- ^ 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")
- ISSN 1047-7594.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, p. 599 n. 1.
- ^ Morley 2006, p. 318.
- ^ Witcher 2016, pp. 477–78.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, pp. 602, 603 (showing the censuses by year in tabular form).
- ^ Nicolet 1994, p. 602.
- ^ a b Hin 2019.
- ^ Morley 2006, p. 321, noting the count emerges from Polybian evidence.
- ^ Morley 2006, p. 321, explaining that the Augustan censuses which recorded around four million can be read either to include only men or include entire families; the former and latter correspond to the high and low counts respectively (championed by Lo Cascio and Brunt, respectively).
- ISSN 0009-840X.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link - ^ Nicolet 1994, p. 608, adopting a low count and still noting "the image of a dramatic 'depopulation' of Italy must be discarded"; de Ligt 2006, pp. 599, 601–2, emphasising that the ancient narratives were based on census reports which themselves were flawed by non-registration to avoid military service and concluding "the theory of a drastic decline in [the free rural population] is completely untenable".
- ^ Hin 2019, noting that estimates "range from 54 to 70 million... under the low count" scenario.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, pp. 610, 612–13.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, p. 611.
- ^ Witcher 2016, p. 473, noting the convenient placement of commercial farms close to Rome.
- ^ Rosenstein 2008, pp. 2–16.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, pp. 612–615. Up to this time, the Roman elite had favoured Greek imported wine over any of Rome's homegrown vintages.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, p. 612.
- ^ Drummond 1989, pp. 118–122.
- ^ Witcher 2016, pp. 463–64.
- ^ Witcher 2016, p. 464.
- ^ Roselaar 2010, pp. 215–26.
- ^ Witcher 2016, p. 467; Nicolet 1994, p. 612.
- ^ Witcher 2016, p. 467–68; Nicolet 1994, pp. 611–12.
- ^ Witcher 2016, p. 468.
- ^ Witcher 2016, pp. 472–73; Temin 2012, p. 52.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, pp. 624–25, by the second century BC some 40, 000 workers with revenues of 25, 000 drachmae per day.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, p. 625.
- ^ Hawkins 2012, p. 178.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, pp. 629–30.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, pp. 630–31.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, pp. 635–36, noting Cato the Elder's engaging in a maritime partnership c. 160 BC.
- ^ Nicolet 1994, pp. 635–36, also noting an early public partnership in 215 BC of nineteen men in five separate partnerships to take contracts to supply soldiers in the Spanish theatre of the Second Punic War.
- ^ a b Nicolet 1994, p. 631.
- LCCN 2017-935371.
- Pro Lege Maniliaof how the Mithridatic Wars negatively affected many Roman financiers' solvency, causing a credit crunch.
- ^ Fowler 1899, pp. 202–204.
- ^ a b Rüpke 2007a, p. 4.
- ^ a b Beard, North & Price 1998, pp. 30–35.
- ^ Schilling 1992, p. 115.
- ^ Orr 1978, pp. 1557–1591.
- ^ Rüpke 2007a, p. 5.
- ^ Gruen 1996, pp. 34ff.
- ^ Rüpke 2001, p. 223.
- ^ a b Cornell 1995, p. 264.
- ^ 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
- ^ Brent 1999, pp. 19–20, 21–25, citing Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 2.4.
- ^ Spaeth 1996, pp. 4, 6–13.
- ^ Culham 2004, p. 155. See also Beard 1980 and Parker 2004.
- Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed 6 June 2021.
- ^ Orlin 2002, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Roller 1999, pp. 282–285.
- ^ Crawford 1974, pp. 487–495.
- ^ Orlin 2007, p. 58.
- ^ Beard, North & Price 1998, pp. 44, 59, 60, 143.
- ^ Jones 2000.
- ^ Greene 2000, p. 39.
- ^ Ceccarelli, L., in Bell, S., and Carpino, A., A, (Editors) A Companion to the Etruscans (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World), Blackwell Publishing, 2016, p. 33
- ^ 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.".
- ^ Sebesta & Bonfante 1994, pp. 62–68.
- ^ Gabucci 2005, p. 168.
- ^ Bradley 2011, pp. 189, 194–195.
- ^ Edmondson & Keith 2008, pp. 28–30.
- ^ Vout 1996, pp. 211–212.
- ^ a b Edmondson & Keith 2008, p. 33.
- ^ Witcher 2016, p. 467.
- ^ Woolf 2007, p. 388.
- ^ Dalby 2003, p. 270.
- ^ Stambaugh 1988, p. 149.
- ^ Bonfante 2011, p. 23.
- ^ Garnsey 1998, pp. 237–238.
- ISBN 978-88-452-4961-7.
- ^ Pascal 1984.
- ^ OCD4 2012, p. 487.
- ^ Farrell 2001, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Bauman 1994, pp. 51–52.
- ^ Toynbee 1971.
- ISBN 978-0-714-82214-3.
- ^ Zauzmer 2016.
- ^ Griffin 1986, pp. 454–459.
- ^ Strabo, Geographica, V, 3,8.
- ^ "Sport e gioco al tempo dei Romani" (in Italian). Retrieved 16 August 2023.
- ^ "Sala LIV: La caccia, la pesca e l'alimentazione" (in Italian). Retrieved 16 August 2023.
- ^ Austin 1934.
- ^ ""Gladiatori, carri e navi. Gli spettacoli nell'antica Roma" di Patrizia Arena" (in Italian). 24 March 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
Ancient sources
- Appian. Bellum Civile.
- Cassius Dio. Roman History – via LacusCurtius.
- Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Antiquitates Romanae (Roman Antiquities) – via LacusCurtius.
- Florus. Epitome – via LacusCurtius.
- History of Rome.
- Plutarch. "Life of Pyrrhus". Parallel Lives – via LacusCurtius.
- Polybius. Historiae – via LacusCurtius.
Cited sources
- )
- Alföldy, Geza (2014) [First published, in German, 1975]. The social history of Rome. Routledge Revivals. ISBN 978-1-317-66858-9.
- Austin, Roland (October 1934). "Roman Board Games". Greece & Rome. 4 (10): 24–34. S2CID 162861940.
- Bannon, Cynthia (2009). Gardens and Neighbors: Private Water Rights in Roman Italy. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-03353-9.
- Bauman, Richard (1994) [1992]. Women and Politics in Ancient Rome. Routledge.
- S2CID 162651935.
- ISBN 978-1-846-68380-0.
- ISBN 0-52130-401-6.
- Benko, Stephen (2004). The virgin goddess: studies in the pagan and Christian roots of mariology. Brill.
- ISBN 978-0-521-19404-4.
- Bradley, Mark (2011). Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome. Cambridge Classical Studies. Cambridge University Press.
- Brennan, T Corey (2000). The Praetorship. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-195-13867-2.
- ISBN 978-9-004-11420-3.
- Brown, Frank (1961). Roman Architecture. G. Braziller.
- Broughton, Thomas Robert Shannon (1952–1986). The Magistrates of the Roman Republic.
- Brunt, Peter (1971). Social conflicts in the Roman republic. Chatto & Windus.
- U.S. Government Printing OfficeSenate Document 103-23.
- Cooley, Alison E, ed. (2016). A Companion to Roman Italy. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4443-3926-0.
- Witcher, Robert. "Agricultural production in Roman Italy". In Cooley (2016), pp. 459–82.
- ISBN 978-0-415-01596-7.
- Crawford, Michael (1974). Roman Republican Coinage. Cambridge University Press.
- Crook, J. A.; Walbank, F. W.; Fredericksen, M. W.; Ogilvie, R. M., eds. (1989). Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 BC. Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 8 (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-05436-2.
- Briscoe, John. "The second Punic war". In CAH2 8 (1989), pp. 44–80.
- Derow, P. S. "Rome, the fall of Macedon, and the sack of Corinth". In CAH2 8 (1989), pp. 290–323.
- Errington, R. M. "Rome against Philip and Antiochus". In CAH2 8 (1989), pp. 244–289.
- Scullard, H. H. (1989a). "The Carthaginians in Spain". In CAH2 8 (1989), pp. 17–43.
- Crook, J. A.; ISBN 978-1-139-05437-9.
- Gabba, E. "Rome and Italy: the Social War". In CAH2 9 (1994), pp. 104–128.
- Lintott, A. (1994a). "The Roman empire and its problems in the late second century". In CAH2 9 (1994), pp. 16–39.
- Lintott, A. (1994b). "Political history, 146–95 BC". In CAH2 9 (1994), pp. 40–103.
- Nicolet, Claude. "Economy and Society, c. 133–143 BC". In CAH2 9 (1994), pp. 599–643.
- Seager, Robin (1994a). "Sulla". In CAH2 9 (1994), pp. 165–207.
- Seager, Robin (1994b). "The rise of Pompey". In CAH2 9 (1994), pp. 208–228.
- Sherwin-White, A. N. "Lucullus, Pompey, and the East". In CAH2 9 (1994), pp. 229–273.
- Wiseman, T. P. "The senate and the populares". In CAH2 9 (1994), pp. 327–367.
- Dalby, Andrew (2003). "Posca". Food in the Ancient World from A to Z. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-23259-3.
- D'Arms, J. B. (1980). "Senators' Involvement in Commerce in the Late Republic: Some Ciceronian Evidence". Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. 36 (The Seaborne Commerce of Ancient Rome: Studies in Archaeology and History): 77–89. JSTOR 4238697.
- Develin, R. (1978). ""Provocatio" and Plebiscites. Early Roman Legislation and the Historical Tradition". Mnemosyne. 31 (1): 45–60. JSTOR 4430760.
- Eckstein, Arthur M. (2012). Rome Enters the Greek East: From Anarchy to Hierarchy in the Hellenistic Mediterranean, 230–170 BC. Wiley-Blackwell. LCCN 2007037809.
- Edmondson, JC; Keith, A., eds. (2008). Roman dress and the fabrics of Roman culture. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-442-61079-8.
- Eiland, Murray (2023). Picturing Roman Belief Systems: The iconography of coins in the Republic and Empire. British Archaeological Reports. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-407-36071-3.
- Fagan, Garrett (1999). Bathing in Public in the Roman World. University of Michigan Press.
- Farrell, Joseph (2001). Latin Language and Latin Culture. Cambridge University Press.
- Flower, Harriet (1996). Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power in Roman Culture. Oxford University Press.
- Flower, Harriet, ed. (2004). The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Culham, Phyllis. "Women in the Roman Republic". In Flower (2004), pp. 139–159.
- Forsythe, Gary (2005). A Critical History of Early Rome. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-22651-7.
- Fowler, W Warde (1899). Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic. Kennikat Press. pp. 202–204.
- Frier, Bruce W.; McGinn, Thomas A. J. (2004). A Casebook on Roman Family Law. Oxford University Press.
- Gabucci, Ada (2005). Dictionaries of Civilization: Rome. University of California Press.
- Gardner, Jane F. (2008). Women in Roman Law and Society. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-93026-5.
- Garnsey, Peter (1998). Scheidel, Walter (ed.). Cities, Peasants and Food in Classical Antiquity: Essays in Social and Economic History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-59147-8.
- Golden, Gregory K. (2013). Crisis management during the Roman republic. Cambridge University Press. OCLC 842919750.
- ISBN 0-30435-967-X.
- ISBN 978-0-300-21852-7.
- Grant, Michael (1978). History of Rome (1st ed.). Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-02345-610-8.
- .
- Griffin, Miriam (1986). "Cicero and Rome". In Boardman, John; Griffin, Jasper; Murray, Oswyn (eds.). The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19285-236-1.
- Gruen, Erich S. (1995). The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (1st Paperback ed.). University of California Press.
- Gruen, Erich S. (1996). "The Bacchanalia affair". Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy. University of California Press.
- Hin, Saskia (2019). "population, Roman". Oxford Classical Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
- Hodge, A Trevor (1989). Roman Aqueducts and Water Supply. Duckworth.
- Hornblower, Simon; et al., eds. (2012). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. OCLC 959667246.
- Momigliano, Arnaldo; Cornell, Tim. "senate, regal and republican period". In OCD4 (2012).
- Momigliano, Arnaldo; Lintott, A. "senatus consultum ultimum". In OCD4 (2012).
- Treves, Piero. "Brennus (1), Gallic chieftain". In OCD4 (2012).
- Hoyos, Dexter, ed. (2011). A Companion to the Punic Wars. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-405-17600-2.
- Fronda, Michael P. "Hannibal: tactics, strategy, and geostrategy". In Hoyos (2011), pp. 242–259.
- Hoyos, Dexter (2011a). "Carthage in Africa and Spain, 241–218". In Hoyos (2011), pp. 204–222.
- Humm, Michel (2005). Appius Claudius Caecus: la République accomplie. Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome (in French). Publications de l'École française de Rome. ISBN 978-2-728-31026-5.
- Johnston, David (1999). Roman Law in Context. Cambridge University Press.
- Jones, Mark Wilson (2000). Principles of Roman Architecture. Yale University Press.
- ISBN 2-22105-690-6.
- Lane Fox, Robin (2006). The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian. Basic Books. ISBN 0-46502-496-3.
- "Latin League". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-199-26108-6.
- ISBN 978-0-198-15282-8.
- Lipka, M. (2009). "Roman Gods: a conceptual approach". In Versnel, H. S.; Frankfurter, D.; Hahn, J. (eds.). Religions in the Graeco-Roman world. Brill.
- Lott, John (2004). The Neighborhoods of Augustan Rome. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-52182-827-9.
- ISBN 978-0-801-81863-9.
- MacBain, Bruce (1980). "Appius Claudius Caecus and the via Appia". The Classical Quarterly. 30 (2): 356–372. S2CID 170803863.
- MacLean, Rose (2018). Freed Slaves and Roman Imperial Culture: Social Integration and the Transformation of Values. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-14292-3.
- Matyszak, Philip (2004). The Enemies of Rome. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-25124-9.
- McGinn, Thomas A. J. (1998). Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law in Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press.
- Meier, Christian (1995) [First published, in German by Severin und Siedler, 1982]. Caesar. Translated by McLintock, David. Basic Books. ISBN 0-46500-895-X.
- Meier, Christian (1997) [1966]. Res publica amissa (in German) (3rd ed.). Suhrkamp. ISBN 978-3-518-57506-2.
- Morstein-Marx, Robert (2021). Julius Caesar and the Roman People. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-94326-0.
- Mouritsen, Henrik (2017). Politics in the Roman republic. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-65133-3.
- Orr, D. G. (1978). "Roman domestic religion: the evidence of the household shrines". Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Vol. Part II, volume 16, 2.
- Orlin, Eric M. (2002). "Foreign Cults in Republican Rome: Rethinking the Pomerial Rule". Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Vol. 47.
- Parker, Holt N. (2004). "Why Were the Vestals Virgins? Or, the Chastity of Women and the Safety of the Roman State" (PDF). American Journal of Philology. 125 (4): 563–601. S2CID 154436702.
- Pascal, Nanette (1984). "The Legacy of Roman Education (in the Forum)". The Classical Journal. 79 (4).
- Roller, Lynn Emrich (1999). In Search of God the Mother: The Cult of Anatolian Cybele. University of California Press. ISBN 0-52021-024-7.
- Roller, Duane W. (2010). Cleopatra: a biography. ISBN 978-0-195-36553-5.
- Roselaar, Saskia T. (2010). Public land in the Roman Republic: a social and economic history of ager publicus in Italy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-199-57723-1.
- Rosenstein, Nathan S.; Morstein-Marx, Robert, eds. (2006). A Companion to the Roman Republic. Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-405-17203-5.
- de Ligt, Luuk. "The economy: agrarian change during the second century". In Rosenstein & Morstein-Marx (2006), pp. 590–605.
- Morley, Neville. "Social structure and demography". In Rosenstein & Morstein-Marx (2006), pp. 299–323.
- Morstein-Marx, Robsert; Rosenstein, Nathan S. "The transformation of the republic". In Rosenstein & Morstein-Marx (2006), pp. 625–637.
- Rosenstein, Nathan (2008). "Aristocrats and Agriculture in the Middle and Late Republic". The Journal of Roman Studies. 98: 1–26. JSTOR 20430663.
- Rothfus, M. A. (2010). "The Gens Togata: Changing Styles and Changing Identities". American Journal of Philology. 131 (3): 425–452. S2CID 55972174.
- Rüpke, Jörg (2001). Religion of the Romans. Polity Press.
- ISBN 978-0-470-69097-0.
- Rosenberger, Veit. "Republican Nobiles: Controlling the Res Publica". In Rüpke (2007), pp. 292–303.
- Rüpke, Jörg (2007a). "Roman Religion – Religions of Rome". In Rüpke (2007), pp. 1–9.
- Orlin, Eric. "Urban Religion in the Middle and Late Republic". In Rüpke (2007), pp. 58–70.
- Santosuosso, Antonio (2008). Storming the Heavens. Avalon Publishing. ISBN 978-0-786-74354-4.
- Scheidel, Walter, ed. (2012). The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-89822-5.
- Hawkins, Cameron. "Manufacturing". In Scheidel (2012), pp. 175–94.
- Temin, Peter. "The contribution of economics". In Scheidel (2012), pp. 45–70.
- Schilling, Robert (1992). "The Decline and Survival of Roman Religion". Roman and European Mythologies. University of Chicago Press.
- Sebesta, Judith Lynn; Bonfante, Larissa, eds. (1994). The World of Roman Costume. Wisconsin Studies in Classics. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-13850-9.
- Sekunda, Nicholas; Northwood, Simon (1995). Early Roman Armies. Osprey. ISBN 1-85532-513-6.
- ISBN 0-29277-693-4.
- Stambaugh, John E. (1988). The Ancient Roman City. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-801-83574-2.
- Steel, Catherine (2014). "The Roman senate and the post-Sullan "res publica"" (PDF). Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 63 (3): 323–339. S2CID 151289863.
- JSTOR 1170959.
- Taylor, Lily Ross (1925). "The Mother of the Lares". American Journal of Archaeology. 29 (3): 299–313. S2CID 192992171.
- Taylor, Lily Ross (1966). Roman Voting Assemblies: From the Hannibalic War to the Dictatorship of Caesar. The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-08125-7.
- Toynbee, J. M. C. (1971). "Roman Art". The Classical Review. 21 (3): 439–442. S2CID 163488573.
- .
- ISBN 978-1-139-05435-5.
- Cornell, Tim J. (1989a). "The recovery of Rome". In CAH2 7.2 (1989), pp. 309–350.
- Cornell, Tim J. (1989b). "The conquest of Italy". In CAH2 7.2 (1989), pp. 351–419.
- Drummond, A. "Rome in the fifth century I: the social and economic framework". In CAH2 7.2 (1989), pp. 113–171.
- Franke, P. R. "Pyrrhus". In CAH2 7.2 (1989), pp. 456–485.
- Momigliano, A. "The origins of Rome". In CAH2 7.2 (1989), pp. 52–112.
- Scullard, H. H. (1989b). "Carthage and Rome". In CAH2 7.2 (1989), pp. 486–569.
- Walker, Susan (2008). "Cleopatra in Pompeii?". .
- Webster, Graham (1994). The Roman Imperial Army of the First and Second Centuries AD. University of Oklahoma Press.
- Woolf, Greg (2007). Ancient civilizations: the illustrated guide to belief, mythology, and art. Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-1-435-10121-0.
- Zauzmer, Julie (3 November 2016). "Donald Trump, the Cicero of 2016". The Washington Post.
- Ziolkowski, Adam (1988). "Mummius' Temple of Hercules Victor and the Round Temple on the Tiber". JSTOR 1088657.
External links
- Devereaux, Bret (2023). "How to Roman Republic 101, Part I: SPQR". A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.
- "Digital Prosopography of the Roman Republic". King's College London. 2025.
- Thayer, Bill. "LacusCurtius: Into the Roman World". LacusCurtius.