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The Collapse of the Roman Republic

http://home.uchicago.edu/~jedanker/romrep.timeline.gif

Gov’t in the Roman Republic

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What caused the Roman Republic to fall?

•  Punic Wars •  Overexpansion; excessive wealth

•  Gracchi Brothers •  Rise of political violence

•  Triumph of the Generals – Militarization of politics

•  The Caesars •  Julius, Augustus, and the Julio-Claudians

I. The Punic Wars

•  When? •  Where? •  Who? •  What? •  Why?

•  Punic = Phoenecian = Carthaginian

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www.bible-history.com/rome/ map_punic_wars.gif

See map in Noble p. 156

•  First Punic War (264-241) •  Begins over Sicily; imitatio and corvus

•  Second Punic War (218-201) •  Hannibal’s march; Fabian strategy; Scipio

Africanus attacks at Zama

•  Third Punic War (149-146) •  Carthago delenda est (Cato)

First Punic War

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2nd Punic War: Hannibal’s March

Second Punic War

Third Punic War (149-146 BC)

Rome annihilates Carthage: killing the men, enslaving the children, burning the buildings, and sowing the fields with salt to make it uninhabitable….

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II. Tiberius & Gaius Gracchus (died 133, 122 BC)

•  “But the men who fight and die for Italy enjoy nothing but the air and light; without house or home they wander about with their wives and children. . . . [T]hey fight and die to protect the wealth and luxury of others; they are styled masters of the world, and have not a clod of earth they can call their own.”

•  Reformist Tribunes

•  Land reform, debt relief, new colonies, etc.

•  Murdered by Senators

The Gracchi Brothers •  " He was for giving the

citizenship to all Italians, extending it almost to the Alps, distributing the public domain, limiting the holdings of each citizen to five hundred acres, as had once been provided by the Licinian law, establishing new customs duties, filling the provinces with new colonies, transferring the judicial powers from the senate to the equites, and began the practice of distributing grain to the people. He left nothing undisturbed, nothing untouched, nothing unmolested, nothing, in short, as it had been.

•  Velleius Paterculus History of Rome, II, vi. 3-6

“Haec mea ornamenta sunt.” (Cornelia Gracchus, mother)

III. The Generals Control Rome

•  Marius •  Sulla •  Julius Caesar •  [Octavian (Augustus)]

•  = militarization of political leadership •  See Noble, pp. 135-38

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Marius, “The First Man in Rome”

•  Equestrian popularis •  Military success •  Repeated consulships

Julius Caesar (100-44 BC)

•  General, dictator, orator, historian, reformer. . . •  “the sole creative genius ever produced by

Rome” •  As famous in death as in life. . .

Caesar’s career •  First Triumvirate (60-53

BC) •  Pompey, Caesar, Crassus

•  Military victories in Gaul (60-53)

•  Commentaries on Gallic War

•  Crossing the Rubicon (49)

•  Civil War (49-45) •  Dictator in Rome (45-44) •  Assassinated

•  Ides of March, “et tu, Bruti?”

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Map of Julius Caesar’s career

Caesar’s accomplishments

•  Expanded Roman citizenship to provinces

•  Expanded Senate •  Founded colonies for

soldiers •  Public building

program in Rome •  Julian calendar

Caesar in popular culture

•  “Veni, vidi, vici” •  Shakespeare’s play •  Caesarian birth •  Caesar/Kaiser/Tsar •  Caesar salad •  Little Caesar’s pizza •  Caesar’s Palace •  Jeep Rubicon