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| Gaius Gracchus. |
The last two centuries of the history of the Roman Republic were marked by the birth of violence in politics which resulted in political conflicts, murders and civil wars. This period ended with the assassination of Julius Cesar, the end of the Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire.
Tiberius descended from an old aristocratic family, from both his parents, he had had an honourable military career and he had been a war hero. His political goals were to introduce reforms which would protect the veterans and improve the life of active soldiers. He was not a revolutionary man, but an expert commander who felt the need for changes. The army, in fact, was mainly composed by so called citizen-soldiers, who had the possibility to buy armours and weapons, which meant that the Roman army was mainly composed by small landowners, while the military service was avoided by poor peasants and city workers. From the second century before Christ, Roman citizenship had been extended to all those cities which had earned the favour of Rome and to the colonies founded by the veterans. Military service was a heavy burden for Roman citizens and, due to the many wars which took place between 250 and 150 B.C., it was most likely for young peasants to remain in the army until their old age, leaving his property in debts and unused. It often happened that, returning from war, the soldiers had no more land to go back to, ending up as vagabonds with no job. As the small properties stopped working, the large properties kept growing bigger and bigger, increasing the patrimony of the richer Romans.
The problem became visible after the Macedonian war and the Third Punic War, in 146 B.C., as a great number of war veterans had not place left to go to. Tiberius then came up with a solution, deciding to give large pieces of land to Roman veterans who would cultivate it according to the Roman traditions and form families. With this reform, Tiberius had solved the problem of the quality of the army and of the wide unemployment originated by the end of the wars. But the problem was that the Senate, composed by rich people and aristocrats, had no intention to give up the “common land” gained through the wars, which belonged to the state, without receiving anything in return, and the Senate stated that the Republic could not afford implementing this reform.
However, in 133 B.C., the king of Pergamon (one of the kingdom formed after the break-up of the empire of Alexander the Great) died with no heirs and left his kingdom in heritance to Rome, as he feared that his kingdom would be ravished by civil wars or be conquered by his enemies after his death. The royal treasure went to fill up Rome’s state budget and could be used to pay for Tiberius’ reform. However, the Senate tried to stop him in every move. Tiberius then decided to submit his candidature and become a tribune, although this was usually an office of the Plebeians, but it was not forbidden to Patricians to take it. Tiberius was elected and had the agrarian reform pass.
The members of the Senate were furious with Tiberious’ open rebellion, as no one before had ever put in doubt the will of the Senate and its traditional influence of the tribunes’ decision. When the agrarian reform was approved it would have had to be implemented, organised and administrated, and these duties were in the hands of the Senate. Tiberius knew that, and that he had only taken one small step, so he decided to do things on his own, submitting his candidature for tribune for the second year, although it was not a common practice to run two terms as tribune. The Senate feared that Tiberius was trying to put down the ground stone to build his personal political career and gather as much power as possible.
When the time came to judge whether the reform was in accordance with the constitution in the Forum, a large group of supporters of Tiberius were there, so the Senators, armed with swords and sticks moved towards the Forum and murdered Tiberius and 300 of his supporters, saying they had to save the Republic. The reform was simply ignored and never passed. However, Tiberius' younger brother, Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, tried to carry out hi brother's policy, gaining the support of the large number of immigrants from the countryside and of the cavaliers. He became tribune in 123 B.C. and again the following years, with no resistance from anyone. Gaius pushed the agrarian reform of his brother and had it implemented, adding other reforms in favour of the poor, and pushing the cavaliers into taking juridical offices instead of the Senators. His reforms increased his popularity among the people and earned him the opposition from the Senate. In 122 B.C., then he proposed a reform according to which all peoples who lived under the control of Rome should acquire citizenship.
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| Bust of Gaius Marius. (Photo by: wikipedia) |
However, the Senate used Gaius’ proposal to have the citizens of Rome march against him, making them believe that Gaius was trying to take their privileges in favour of other Italic populations, so the other tribune, backed by the Senate, put his veto on Gaius’ proposal. The Senate then, allowed the Consuls to let the army inside the city, who slaughtered Gaius’ followers, and the tribune himself ordered one of his servants to kill him not to fall in the hands of the Senate. The episode of the two brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus marked the beginning of a period in which the Roman political life is characterised by violence and political murders, which ended with the murder of Julius Cesar and the end of the Republic.
Between the second and the first century B.C., Rome started recording several military defeats in Africa, where the king of Numidia rebelled against Rome and threatened the African province, and the Germanic and the Gauls started threatening the Roman armies between 113 and 105 B.C.
Many criticised the Roman army for being an elite group, in the hands of the aristocracy, and blamed this system and the corrupted Senate for the failures in Africa as the consuls kept returning to Rome empty handed. But in 107 B.C., Gaius Marius, a Plebeian, managed to win the elections and became consul thanks to the support of the people who he claimed to represent as one of them. Marius was also a skilled general and in 105 B.C. he defeated Giugurta, prince of Numidia in Africa. His military successes earned him more popularity and the election to the Consulate, in particular because he promised he would defeat the Numidians once for all.
Mario took advantage of his position to reform the army and in 105 he defeated the king of the Numidians, brought him back to Rome and had him executed. Then Gaius Marius was re-elected consul (he was elected consul five times in a row) and moved to France, where Germanic tribes had defeated the consular army, there he defeated them. Marius took advantage of this campaign to implement a radical reform of the army, transforming the former army of rich people into an army of professional soldiers who had chosen war as their job. This system solved the problems to many unemployed people and the army was no longer monopoly of the Senate. In addition, the soldiers were bond to their commander and no longer to the interests of the state. The new army defeated the Gauls in northern Italy completely annulling the Celts as threat for Rome. Marius was a hero and the defender of Rome, but many Senators despised him for his humble origins and never considered him as one of them but more like a threat to their privileges.
While Mario was busy taking care of barbaric invasions in Asia Minor, in Rome, one of the tribunes picked up the idea of Gaius Gracchus and proposed to spread citizenship to all peoples of Italy. However, the Senate feared to lose privilege in favour of the Italians, so the tribune was assassinated. The Italian cities, then, organised a rebellion against Rome which ended in a bloody war. The rebels created an independent state called Italia, defeating the Roman armies several times. The Senate then asked Sulla, second in command of Consul Gaius Marius, to solve the situation and stop the rebellion. Sulla put together an army and before the year ’87 he crushed all the rebels. Then he issued a law which granted citizenship to faithful cities of Italy and Greece and to all those who had surrendered. The war was then concluded and the Italic obtain what they wanted.
These events brought up the figure of Sulla in the political life of Rome. The Senate then, in sign of gratitude, gave Sulla the command in the war in Asia Minor, which made Marius angry as he though he should have been the commander. So he forced the senate to change their orders, but Sulla refused to send the army home, marching against Rome instead. He entered the city and declared Marius enemy of Rome. Marius ran away leaving Sulla strong in Rome before leaving to fight in Asia Minor. Gaius Marius then returned to Rome with his army and started eliminating all his enemies, confiscating their property and sharing it among his veterans. However, Marius died in ’87, leaving the control of Rome to his ally Cinna until he was murdered in ’84.
Sulla refused to cooperate with the Senate and signed peace with the enemies in Asia Minor in 85 B.C., so he was then free to dedicate completely to politics. The Senate declared him outlaw two years later and this act caused another civil war. Had he submitted himself to the law his enemies would have probably sentenced him to death so he decided to fight. He returned to Italy with his army and clashed with the Senate’s army which counted 100,000 men trained by Marius’ veterans.
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| Bust of Sulla. (Photo by: wikipedia) |
Sulla crossed Italy without strong resistance defeating the armies of the Senate and recording the final victories at the walls of the city. As he entered Rome he took revenge on all his enemies and had all Marius’ veterans killed immediately, since he considered them as the source of any kind of resistance against him. He had himself nominated dictator with the duty to reform the state constitutions. He reinforced the aristocratic party, returning to the Senate all the powers it had lost in the past years, and he reduced the power of the tribunes, removing them the right of veto. After bringing the order back in the Republic of Rome, Sulla suddenly deposed dictatorship and retired to private life in his villa in Cuma, and died the following year.
After the death of Sulla, three important generals took power in Rome becoming Consuls and radically changing the history of Rome. For the first time Rome had three Consuls and for the first time in history, Rome lived a civil war fought between consular armies. The events of the first century before Christ led to the end of the Roman Republic.
Marcus Licinius Crassus was one of the wealthiest men in Rome, a member of the cavaliers and had military ambitions. He became a skilled commader and wanted to build a political career on his military success. In the 70s before Christ, he found a chance to prove himself by defeating the rebellion of slaves led by gladiator Spartacus. In 71 B.C., Crassus had become the hero of Rome and was ready to gain power.
Gnaeus Pompeius was a young general in the army of deceased Sulla, who became head of the aristocratic party, strong of his victories against the democrats in Sicily and Africa. Pompeius received the command of the army in the war against the Spanish rebels between 76 and 72 B.C. and defeated him. Then he was involved in a war against the priates of the Mediterranean sea, and in three months he reported a brillian victory. Then he was given to finish off the war in Asia Minor in 66 B.C. and defeated them, spreading the roman territories to a new province. Then he conquered Palestine and Syria, making another province. In only three years, Pompeius managed to conquer all Asia Minor and the middle east, moving the Roman border to modern Iraq. Crassus and Pompeius put their armies together and Pompeius’ candidature to the Consulate was accepted and became Consul.
Gaius Julius Cesar was the third, and maybe the most important, character in this phase of the history of Rome. Cesar, unlike Pompeius and Crassus, tried to build his political career with his money. He financed urban construction and public games. He became very poopular, but he was left without money so he had to start a military career. Pompeius, deceived by the Senate, made an agreement with Crassus and Cesar forming the Triumvirate, a governemnt with three consuls. Cesar then received the important mission tp take the command of an army aimed at the conquest of Gaul in five years. He turned out to be a great general and between 58 and 51 B.C., he conquered Gaul until Belgium and the channel. Cesar became the hero who defeated the legendary Gaul chief Vercingetorix, submitting Gaul, from which Cesar took gold and precious metals which made him one of the richest men in Rome and bought him the loyalty of his men.
As Cesar fought in Gaul, the political situation in Rome had changed in a negative way for him. Crassus had fought the Parthians and was defeated in 53 B.C. in Mesopotamia. Pompeius, worried about Cesar’s military power, made peace with the Senate challenging the rival and in 49 B.C., the Senate ordered Cesar to leave Gaul and send the legions home unless he wanted to be declared enemy of Rome. However, Cesar moved with his army towards Rome, trespassing the Rubicon (the river that marked the borders of Rome in which no army was allowed) and marching towards the city. Pompeius and the Senate fled Rome for Illyria, while Cesar entered Rome in triumph.
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| Gaius Julius Cesar. |
Then he chased Pompeius who had gathered a strong army, but first he defeated Pompeius’ men in Spain, and then Pompeius himself and defeated him. Pompeius fled to Egypt to young king Ptolemy. The latter, however, wanted to gain the favour of Cesar and had him murdered. When Cesar arrived, he honoured Pompeius with solemn funerals and deposed Ptolemy and substitute him with Cleopatra who became queen of Egypt in 47 B.C. Then he defeated all supporters of Pompeius in Africa and Spain in 45 B.C.
After eliminating Pompeius and all his supporters, Cesar became the absolute master of the Republic. He became dictator, like Sulla did before him, gaining all powers in spite of the Senate, and the title of Absolute Emperor (emperor the word use to indicate the commander of the army).
The Romans knew what Marius and Sulla had done when they found themselves in the same position as Cesar was, and unlike them, Cesar seemed to be a cold blooded politician and did not eliminate his political enemies. Cesar only asked his enemies not to go against him again and those who refused were punished. He rewarded his veterans and founded new colonies for them to take. With the gold accumulated during his campaigns, Cesar paid for public works, giving a job to the unemployed. He reduced the taxes from the provinces, gave Roman citizens to all north Italian Gauls and to many Gauls in France and Spain.
Most of Cesar’s reforms were against the Patrician Senators, as many of them were dead or in exile, and the others remained quiet, fearing the new master of Rome. All of Cesar’s reforms were passed by the Senate. Cesar replaced the missing Senators with new ones, and he doubled the number of the members, in a way to protect himself from those Senators who were against him, because he would always be granted the support from the majority. Despite his social policy, Cesar had many enemies, especially among the young nobles. As dictator, he nominated the magistrates without elections, so the only way to make a career was to be one of his men. Cesar had no intention to leave power like Sulla had done, and started taking an autocratic behaviour, ignoring the Senate, and this raised fear that the Republic was in danger.
When Cesar announced another campaign in Asia to take revenge for the humiliation inflicted to Crassus and his army, his opponents thought they had to act immediately, because once he had gone to war he would return stronger than before. In addition, Cesar had renounced having a body guard; sure he no longer had any opponents in Rome. Brutus and Cassius, two young Roman nobles, feared that Cesar would become a tyrant, destroying the Roman Republic, so they organised a conspiracy in which they had the support of other senators, and on March 15, 44 B.C., Gaius Julius Cesar was murdered after being stabbed twenty times. However, the news of his death was not as welcomed as the conspirers had expected, and some of the Senators ran away, while Rome found itself with no leader. The Senators were still scared and did not how to behave, fearing the revenge of Cesar’s partisans. Disorder ruled the city of Rome, and the political parties were on the edge of a new conflict.
Cesar's general, Marc Anthony, was the only one in Rome, after the death of the dictator, who had clear ideas on what to do. He summoned the Senate in a sitting and asked the conspirers to be forgiven and to grant Cesar a public funeral. Both moves were brilliant as Anthony was in no position to punish Brutus and Cassius, and he would have risked causing a bloody civil war, and the funeral would have given him a good occasion to raise the rage of the Romans. He ensured the Senators nothing would happen at the funeral, so they accepted, submitting themselves to the authority of Anthony.
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| Painting of Anthony and Cleopatra. |
During the funeral, Anthony showed Cesar’s body, still wrapped in the bloody toga pierced by the blades. He held a touching speech and he read out the testament of Cesar which read that a high sum of money was meant to be distributed to the citizens in sign of gratitude for their loyalty to Cesar. The speech worked, and the people stood up against Brutus and Cassius who murdered their benefactor. The two conspirers fled Rome for Greece where they found protection. Anthony ruled for the following few months but he started to spend the state money on trivial things, despising the Senators and gained more enemies than he had before.
A new figure emerged in those months, Octavian, who was Julius Cesar’s adoptive son and who was only eighteen. At the time Cesar died he was in Epirus, when he was recalled by his friends back to Rome to protect his interests. Octavian thought that, as Cesar’s adoptive child, he was the rightful heir of Cesar, and Anthony, as Cesar’s best friend was hoping to be the won to succeed the dictator. The two came to a clash and the result was another civil war.
Octavian played all his cards and urged Cesar’s war veterans to fight for him, and gathered a strong army. Cicero, who thought that Octavian would be easier to manipulate in politics as he was still very young, nominated him champion of the Republic and declared Anthony enemy, and so the Senate declared Anthony outlaw in 43 B.C. Marc Anthony fled to Gaul where he gathered twenty two legions and entered Italy in summer. Meanwhile in Rome, the Senate grudged Octavian because he did not behave as the puppet Cicero thought he would be, and Octavian, seeing Anthony coming forth with his army, thought it would be the right time to get rid of the Senate, occupying Rome with his army, forcing the Senate to revoke the amnesty conceded to Brutus and Cassius, and turned to face Marc Anthony. The two clashed near Modena and Octavian persuaded his enemy to get together instead of fighting each other.
The two and Lepidus, a strong and powerful man, got together to form the second Triumvirate, and to make the bond between the two generals even stronger, Marc Anthony married Octavia, sister of young Octavian. The Triumvirate then forced the Senate to pass a law which granted them Consular powers for five years. Lepidus received Spain under his command, Anthony Gaul, and Octavian Africa and Sicily, but they all decided to reside in Rome where they had supreme power. The second Triumvirate swept the Republic away for ever. Then three consuls named the magistrates, filled the Senate with their men and had full control of the armies and the state budget. Octavian had over two thousand people declared outlaw and sent to exile.
Once order was brought back in Rome according to Octavian’s will, he moved against the conspirers and in 42 B.C., he and Anthony moved against Greece where Brutus and Cassius had found support and became the champions of the old republicans. The army of the triumvirate and the one of the republicans form Greece clashed and Brutus and Cassius were defeated one after the other, and they committed suicide, and many Senators died during the war with them. Octavian’s first battles revealed how faithful was his army to him and that he could count on skilled men who one the war for him.
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| Statue of Octavian Augustus. (Photo by: wikipedia) |
Almost immediately after the war against the Republican forces, Octavian and Anthony drastically reduced the role of Lepidus and shared honours, offices and territories leaving him out. The Roman territories were divided in two parts, the West was under the influence of Octavian, and the East was controlled by Anthony. A period of peace then followed the civil war and in 38 B.C., the Triumvirate was renewed for five more years, although Lepidus saw his powers widely reduced.
Octavian wanted to avoid a military conflict with Anthony because he was still not ready to face his power, due to rebellions in the provinces, especially in Spain, where he had to face the army organised by Pompeius’ son, a conflict which lasted four years. After winning in Spain, Octavian’s power grew and Lepidus rebelled but was defeated and retired to private life, leaving Anthony and Octavian alone in command. Octavian reached the peak of his power in 35 B.C. and he gathered an army of 45 legions and 500 ships, which was much superior than Anthony’s forces. Marc Anthony, however, was sure in victory as he thought Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, would give her the support of her powerful kingdom.
Anthony fell in love with Cleopatra, a proud and strong woman who took command of Egypt after Julius Cesar had taken it from her brother during the war against Pompeius. Marc Anthony married and had a child with her, divorcing Octavia, Octavian’s sister and gave most of the eastern provinces of Rome to Egypt. The Romans saw his actions as treason and feared that Anthony wanted to make Cleopatra queen of Rome, submitting it to Egypt. Octavian himself was deeply offended by Anthony’s behaviour with his sister and started sharing the public opinion that Anthony wanted to move the centre of Europe to Egypt. Another war was about to start.
Octavian, who had complete control over the Senators, had the Senate declare war to Egypt and moved with his army against Anthony in Greece, the civil war took place in 31 B.C. in Epirus in Actium. Octavian had more men and a better army, but Cleopatra had ensured Anthony that her fleet would have destroyed the Romans on the sea and grant him victory. However, the battle was led in a wrong way by Egypt, and after a series of mistakes, they remained trapped in Actium. Anthony and Cleopatra ran away, leaving the army and the navy which were completely destroyed. Octavian chased them, and when the two realised they had no chance to stop Octavian they both committed suicide. Octavian had Cleopatra's children killed and ended the Pharaoh dynasty of Egypt after four thousand years, declaring the kingdom Egypt, and its enourmous treasure, his personal property. Octavian, at the age of 32, had become the most powerful man in Rome, he had 60 legions at his command and was owner of entire nations as part of his personal property. Most of the Senators had died, having backed Octavian, there were no longer consul, and that was the end of the Republic of Rome.
