Post on 26-Mar-2015
Rome was a Republic
For about 500 years…
Outstanding soldier & political maverick
Unprecedented 6 terms
Army reforms
• (poor) volunteers
• long-term
• veteran’s bonus
Marius
State supplied equipment (it had to)
Soldiers devote all their time to training
Soldiers get land for own farms at the end
Reluctant & inefficient peasant draftees > more efficient professional army
Army loyal to its general, not the state
Army Reforms
Sulla
Distinguished self in Social War
Sulla vs Marius
• army used against fellow citizens
• long civil war
• massacre opponents
Takes absolute power
Restored (& increased) Senate’s power
• restored right to veto acts of the Assembly
• limited power of tribunes & Assembly
• reduced military power of provincial governors
• increased Senate membership to 600
Sulla’s Dictatorship
Pompey -- powerful, popular general
Crassus -- rich, ambitious senator
Julius Caesar -- skilled young politician
Senate standing in the way of what each wants
The First Triumvirate
The First Triumvirate
Pompey
Crassus
Caesar
Senate standing in the way of what each wants
Together, they’re able to get these things
The First TriumvirateGot elected by promising to:
•restore power of tribunes•restore equestrians to courts
Repealed Sulla’s reforms
Work together for military commands to earn reputation, support, & army to rival Pompey
Caesar’s conquest of Gaul (59 - 51 BCE)
wealth, fame, military power
worries Senate, Pompey
51-ish BCE Pompey made sole consol
49 BCE Caesar ordered to return
Civil war…
Caesar’s Rise to Power
Victory for Caesar!
Appointed dictator for 10 years; then, for life
Reforms:
• give land in provinces to peasants, veterans
• grant citizenship to many
• tax reforms
• deal with debt situation
Government Under Caesar
Reforms:
• stronger regulation of free grain
• public works projects
• fixed the calendar
• increased Senate to 900
Government Under Caesar
increases the control he has
over them
Lifelong dictatorship is the last straw
March 15, 44 BCE (‘the Ides of March’)
Group of 60-ish senators, led by Cassius and Brutus (‘Et tu, Brute?’)
Stabbed 23 times
Death of Caesar
More civil war
Cicero:“Our tyrant deserves his death, [for his]
was the blackest crime of all. [Caesar was] a man who was ambitious to be king of the Roman people and master of the whole world…. The man who maintains that such an ambition is morally right is a madman, for he justifies the destruction of law and liberty.”
Death of Caesar
Mark Antony Octavian Lepidus
The three triumvirs split up theEmpire between them
Brutus Cassius
West
Africa
East
In 42 BCE, the triumviral armydefeats Brutus & Cassius
Mark Antony Octavian Lepidus
Not long afterwards, Lepidusis taken out of the picture
Mark Antony & Octavianstruggle for power;by 32 BCE, all pretense at cooperation dropsCleopatra
OctavianMark Antony
Conflict of East vs West,Rome vs Alexandria
Intrigues and propaganda
In 31 BCE, Octavian’s general,Agrippa, wins a decisive victoryagainst Antony & Cleopatra
CleopatraThey flee to Egypt, but are hunted down;they commit suicide in Alexandria
Octavian
Octavian emerges asmaster of the Roman world!
He has enormous power,but an enormous task ahead of him
Pompey’s Conquests
Crassus killed (53 BCE) in military campaign
Julia (Caesar’s daughter, Pompey’s wife) dies
Triumvirate Falls Apart