Fall of the Roman Republic For Dummies

The Past and the Fiuture? • • 1 Political developments in the late Republic – legacy of Sulla • – Pompey: significance of military and political career 2007 • – significance of the consulship of Pompey and Crassus in 70 BC • – role and significance of Cicero 2004 • – First Triumvirate: aims, roles and responsibilities of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus • – activities and breakdown of the First Triumvirate 2008 • • • – political crises: role of the Senate; use of the army for political purposes; urban violence – role of optimates, populares • – Caesar and Pompey: political competition and responsibility for outbreak of the Civil • • • War 49– 45 BC – significance of Caesar’s dictatorship 2 Wars and expansion • – Pompey’s extraordinary commands and the Eastern Settlement • • – Caesar’s military activities in Gaul, Germany and Britain – significance of the Mithridatic and Parthian wars • 3 Fall of the Republic • – impact of Caesar’s assassination • – formation, activities and breakdown of the Second Triumvirate 2005 • – rivalry and Civil War between Mark Antony and Octavian: role of Cleopatra VII; • Battle of Actium 2005 2004 2006 2007 2008, 2003 2006 2003

APPROACH TO PERIOD QUESTION • It is vital to know a comprehensive narrative of the period. • The focus of the question will be role or significance of Bodies/Instit utions Groups individuals • Senate • Army & Generals • Tribunes • First Triumvirate • Second Triumvirate • Pompey • Cicero • Crassus • Mark Antony • Octavian

Think and Speak like a Roman • • • Amicitae Mos Maeorum Nobilitas Dignitas Imperium Patron/Client Relationship Suo Anno Clemencia Celeritas Concordia Ordinum

Students must have a broader appreciation of the impact of Empire. This would constitute a sophisticated judgment; Band 6 outcome. 1 The empire expands 5 The unemployed mob cause increased corruption & military commanders become too influential as the army becomes dependent on the spoils of war 2 Wealth and Slaves flood into Rome 3 Senators buy up vast properties 4 Smallholders move to Rome to try and find work

Characteristics of the Period • Increasing factionalism in Senate between Populares and Optimates • Rise of popular tribunes and use by generals • Rise of client armies and powerful generals. ” The rise of the professional army was probably the most important of the problems besetting the Republic with which the Senate failed to deal “ Goldsworthy • Increasing violence in the streets and forum • Undermining of Cursus Honorum. Use of non traditional paths to power • Use of amicitae to overpower Senate

Wars of Expansion • • Punic Wars Jugurtha Mithridates Brought great wealth but raised the importance of army and generals to the most powerful position. • The path to power lay, not with the Cursus Honorum but the ability to raise an army.

78 -63 period of extra ordinary commands 63 BC Cicero Consul Catiline Conspiracy 60 -52 BC First Triumvirate 51 -49 BC Countdown to Civil War 49 -45 BC Civil War 44 -31 BC Second triumvirate and civil war Increasing use of: • Client armies • Powerful generals • Violence • Tribunes • Extraordinary commands • Decreasing use of • Mos maeorum • Senate to pass laws

Legacy of Sulla /rise of Pompey 82 -77 BC • Sulla’s march on Rome; “ momentous event in history” Scullard • ‘The most enduring legacy of Sulla’s his methods” Brunt • Extra Ordinary Commands; • Raised his own ‘private’ army to aid Sulla at 23, gained propraetorian imperium and first triumph. • Granted propraetorian command against Lepidus. Given proconsular command against Sertorius. • Lex Gabinia ( pirates) • Lex Manilia ( Mithridates)

Significance of Pompey • In Sulla’s lifetime, due to Pompey’s insubordination • After his death, to the revolt of Lepidus and the Senates nomination of Pompey to proconsular Imperium • To the unleashing of the tribunate and the restoration of the veto ( 77 Consulship) • To the partial restoration of the courts to equite control • To the unprecedented and limitless Imperium, granted through the Lex Gabinia and Lex Manilia • To the formation of the First Triumvirate, a combined effort of private influences to secure private ambitions, against the Senate’s will. • Ironically by his death at Pharsalus he facilitated the transfer of control from Senate to Dictator

Cataline Conspiracy a metaphor for a dying republic; multi purpose narrative • Catiline was yet another example of a Roman ambitious to seek power through unconstitutional means • It showed the factional nature of the Senate ie Caesar and Crassus vs Cicero and Cato- Populares vs Optimates • Aroused the Senates suspicions of Caaser’s motives • Revealed Caesar’s powerful rhetorical ability and its affect on a vascillating Senate. • The public outcry over Caesar’s accused complicity showed the Senate how much mass popularity Caesar had acquired • The Senates understanding of the urban discontent is revealed in the subsequent law providing for the distribution of cheap corn, presented in the Asssembly by Cato!!!!! • The Optimates had adopted a Populare policy in order to appease the people. On a more personel level Cato no doubt( galled by his sisters affair with Ceasar) would hope that this policy would undermine Caesar’s popularity with the urban masses. • Allowed Cicero to be hailed as “Pater Patria” and led to his appeal of Concordia Ordinum ( Agreement of good men)

Three Men , Three Paths to Power; Triumvirate 60 - 56 -52 BC • MUST KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! • Crassus wanted to make a contract with then Asian tax collectors as he had financial interests at stake. Cicero supported this as it would help relations between the knights and the senate, which he thought was fundamentally important, but the proposal was rejected. • Pompey wished for land to be provided for his veterans and to have the eastern settlement ratified in one go, instead of every one of his actions be debated. • Caesar wished to gain a large pro-consular command instead of being in charge of forests in some insignificant part of the empire, which was the optimates plan.

Historians • “ Conspiracy against the state by its three leading citizens” Livy • AN UNOFFICIAL AMICITAE • “ He Caesar entered the city and immediately adopted a policy which deceived everyone except Cato. This was to effect a reconciliation between Pompey and Crassus, the two most powerful men in Rome. Caesar brought these men together, making them friends instead of enemies and used their united power for the strengthening of himself. ” Plutarch

Caesar’s Consulship-illegal or irreverent? • Despite Bibulus’s attempts Caesar passed laws granting land to Caesar’s veterens, tax concessions to Crassus, and agrarian bills for the relief of the poor • Due to the intransigence of the Senate, Pompey put his soldiers in Rome and thus left Caesar open to the accusation of illegality. Bibulus also post dated ill omens, rendering any laws invalid

Other significant players • Cato- the conscience of Rome- “ fly in the ointment”- killed himself, rather than live on Caesar’s mercy • Catiline- anbitious Roman , ready to march on Rome when frustrated in his attempts to gain consulships • Clodius and Milo Escalation of violence created the Senate’s need for Pompey as Sheriff • Curio- tribune and negotiator in the countdown to Civil War

Caesar and Gaul? 58 -49 BC • Allowed Caesar to gain the dignitas to equal Pompey • Was close enough to Rome to manipulate politics( Something that Antony failed to do) • 10 years later, conquered all of Gaul, made Rome and himself wealthy, and had at his back an invincible army ready to follow him anywhere

Slide to Civil War 51 -49 BC • Offer and Counter Offer • The lynchpin of the Civil War was the Senate’s desire to prosecute Caesar for his supposed illegalities in the Consulship of 59 BC. This could only happen if he relinquished his proconsulship and thus his immunity from prosecution • As long as he held legions the Senate could not prosecute • Their only choice was to declare the Senatus Consultum Ultimum

Who was to blame? • • • Caesar? Pompey? The Senate? Broader deep seated problems of the Empire? All of the above? . ”On broader grounds it may be confidently said that the civil war was not of Caesar's making. . . Caesar in 49 like Sulla in 83 was offered the choice between self defense and political extinction. . . therefore the 22 extremist senators who insisted on Caesar's recall were in fact insisting on Civil War. To them the feud with Caesar had become a higher object than the welfare of the State. " Cary

Saying it in a nutshell • " For Caesar publicly declared that only two things were needed to rule, soldiers and money, and armies could only be held together with money… since the Roman citizen force had inevitably changed into an army of professional soldiers, the imperator with his veterans took the political place of the patron and his clients. What some had feared and others aspired to, for decades, was fully realized in the person of Caesar; the conqueror of Gaul whom the old powers refused to recognize overwhelmed all resistance and, on the strength of an authority based solely on the loyalty of his soldiers, was reaching for the government of the Empire. " • Gelzer, Caesar: Politician and Statesman

Shared to Sole Power 49 -44 BC • 49 BC Caesar is elected dictator and, during 11 -day term, passes emergency legislation. • Caesar gives up the dictatorship, elected to second consulship with Publius Servilius Isauricus • 47 Caesar again appointed dictator, this time for one year in absentia. Antony, his Master of the Horse, maintains order in Italy • 46 Caesar elected consul for the third time, serving with Lepidus. Completes some reform including the calendar • 45 Caesar serves as his fourth consulship (without a colleague). On March 17, Caesar victorious at Munda; after administrative reforms, he returns to Rome in October. The Senate votes extravagant decrees in his honor, including dictatorship for life and divine worship • 44 On February 15, Caesar appears at the Lupercalia as dictator perpetuus (for life), in the dress of the ancient kings of Rome;

Assassins/Liberators • • Cassius, Trebonius, Casca, Decimus Brutus, Marcus Brutus “There were various reasons which affected each and all of them and impelled them to lay hands on the man. Some of them had hopes of becoming leaders themselves in his place if he were out of the way, others were angered over what had happened to them in war, embittered over the loss of relatives, property or offices of state. ” Nicholas of Damascus • “Jealousy of Caesar’s onward progress and hatred of his being esteemed above others” Cassius Dio “When Caesar made himself responsible for all important decisions, he fostered a dangerous atmosphere… those he had disappointed, frustrated… could easily focus their anger directly on Caesar; and it was Caesars friends, who nurtured the highest expectations, who felt this deprivation most keenly “ Relative Deprivation •

Power Vacuum and Contenders 44 BC • OCTAVIAN- Caesar’s name, client and armies • ANTONY- Experience , Caesar’s lieutenant, Consul and army loyalty • LEPIDUS- master of Horse, in control of many legions

Significance of Cicero • Career highlighted the power of rhetoric and its influence in the Senate and Courts. Prosecution of Verres was a precedent limiting provincial corruption • Gained prestige as Pater Patria for his role as Consul during Catiline Conspiracy • Creater of Concordia Ordinum • Acted as powerbroker between Pompey and Senate, Octavian and Senate. Inadvertantly created the adversarial environment which led to two civil wars. • Penned the Philippics which assisted in Antony’s downfall but led to his own death in the proscriptions • Left an invaluable legacy of written sources of the time in his speeches and private letters

2 nd Triumvirate 43 BC Lex Titius • The triumviri rei publicae constituendae ('board of three to reconstitute the state') accepted the powers of a dictator and took several measures • the execution of 4, 700 opponents (e. g. Cicero); • land bills to give farms to Caesar's veterans (the inhabitants of eighteen cities were sent away from their homes without any compensation); • war against Caesar's murderers, who were defeated at Philippi; • measures against the Senate, including the appointment of all magistrates • “ unstable equilibrium of conflicting elements” Cary • “-its real aim was the service of personal and factional ambition” David Shotter

Treaties as ointment for the festering sore of the Second Triumvirate • Brundisium 40 BC Antony kept control of the Eastern provinces, while Octavian got Spain, Gaul and Illyricum. Antony marries Octavia • Misenum • Tarentum

AN UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM OF CONFLICTING ELEMENTS Antony & Octavian Battle of Philippi 42 BC Brutus & Cassius Octavian The Perusine War 41 BC Lucius Antonius & Fulvia Antony Battle of Naulochus 36 BC Octavian Battle of Actium 31 BC Sextus Pompey Antony & Cleopatra

Octavian/Antony; 43 -33 BC Changing Power Ratios OCTAVIAN MORAL REMEDIES- ROLE OF THE PERFECT FAMILY WITH LIVIA BUIDING REFORN IN ROME CANCELLED WAR TAXES WATER SUPPLY SURRENDER POWERS SENATE RESPECT RESTORED ELECTIONS FOR MINOR MAGISTRATES PROPAGANDA AGAINST ANTONY DEMONISE CLEOPATRA ANTONY TOO MUCH TIME AWAY FROM ROME RISKY AND EXPENSIVE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE PARTHIANS LOSES RESPECT OF ARMY APPARENT INFATUATION WITH CLEOPATRA DIVORCES OCTAVIA DONATIONS OF ALEXANDRIA TRIUMPH

31 BC Battle of Actium; Civil War or Foreign Conquest • The forces of Antony and Cleopatra, camped near the swampy lowlands of Cape Actium, had been depleted by malaria before the battle even began--severely reducing the contingent of oarsmen. Supply lines had been cut, further weakening morale and support. Faced with a bleak situation that worsened every day, Antony burned those ships he could no longer man and prepared with Cleopatra to withdraw southward from the gulf . • Antony’s flight nullified any remaining loyalty they may have had for him and his soldiers surrendered with as much of his force as possible

• Octavian had used a combination of political , diplomatic, and economic methods to present himself as the legitimate heir. It was his friend Agrippa who ultimately gave him the military success to inherit the Empire

Why did the Roman Republic Fall? • The Roman Republic was ruled by a Constitution which relied on a balance of three elements; The Senate; the Magistrates; the Assemblies. • When the balance was upset either by ambitious magistrates, armies or tribunes then civil war was the result • The Senate proved ineffectual in preventing this. • A broader view would suggest that the Republic was inadequate to the problems resulting from a burgeoning Empire