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3.4 late-Republic 146-63BC

Hi guys this is the fourth part of Chapter Three, late-Republic

1. SPQR, this is the symbol of Roma

SPQR is an initialism of a phrase in Latin: "Senātus Populusque Rōmānus" meaning "The Senate and People of Rome", referring to the government of the Roman Republic. This signature first appeared during the Late Republic, and continued to be used in the Roman Empire. This is a standard of a Roman legion. On the top there is an eagle and below the eagle here is a flag of SPQR.

2. Crisis of the Roman Republic

By 146 BC the Romans not only conquered Carthage, it also conquered Macedonian and Greek mainland, Spain and southern Gaul. It was an Empire now across the whole Mediterranean area. But the Republic now was facing new crisis which lasted for more than 100 years.

3. Optimates

In the late Republic the society was highly hierarchical. On the top was a group of people called the optimates meaning "best ones", including 300 senators and magistrates. By the end of the Punic Wars, only people from the 25 patrician families could become consuls. Optimates represent the patricians. They wished to extend the power of the Senate, and limit the Plebeian Assembly and Plebeian Tribune. Patricians were the ruling class, with inherited wealth, political powers and their political connections were strengthened by patronage. Patronage was the relationship between a patron and their clients. Patron was a man of wealth and influence; he protected and sponsored his clients.

Populares.

On the other side another group of political leader represents the ordinary citizens particularly the urban poor. They wanted to strengthen the power of the Plebeian Assembly and Plebeian Tribune.

4. The reform of Gracchus brothers

The real winner of the military victory were the ruling class, they owned large amount of land. Ordinary citizens often lacked minimum amount of land to support their family. In 133 BC Tiberius Gracchus was elected tribune, he was the first of the populares, political leaders represents the ordinary citizens’ interests. He proposed a law to limit the amount of land that any individual could own. This of cause was opposed by the patricians. His law was enacted, but he was murdered together with 300 supporters. That time his one year term was just finished, and he was appealing to the Plebian Assembly to elect him for a second term.

In 123 BC Tiberius Gracchus’s brother Gaius Gracchus was elected tribune. He tried to weaken the senate by giving the second elite of the society the equites or equestrians more political power. He also proposed a law which would grant citizenship rights to Rome's Italian allies. Gaius was elected the second term, but when he failed to be elected for a third term, he and his 3,000 supporters were murdered by supporters of the senate.

5. The Jugurthine War started from 112 BC, it was a war between Rome and Jugurtha, king of Numidia. Numidia is a kingdom on the North African coast roughly present-day Algeria. Jugurtha bribed many Roman magistrates including consul and tribune. This reflected Rome's moral and ethical decline. The war dragged for five years until Gaius Marius.

6. Gaius Marius, was elected consul in 107 BC. Marius was a leader of the populares, a successful general and an ex plebeian tribune.

Facing the threats of Jugurtha to the south and the invasion of Celtic and Germanic barbarians to the north, Marius made a dramatic reform to raise the Roman army. Traditionally the qualification to be a Roman soldier is that he must own land and could provide his own arms and uniform. Marius ignored this, he allowed all Roman citizens to become soldiers, regardless of social class. He armed the poor citizens at public expense, and promised lands would be given as reward at the end of their military service. In return his soldiers became more loyal to him than to the Republic. Form this time Roman armies became personal armies. Leading his loyal army Marius quickly defeated Jugurtha. Jugurtha was captured and killed. Marius was elected consul all together seven times. There was a legend, when he was a young boy Marius once found an eagle's nest with seven chicks in it; it was a miracle because eagles hardly ever have more than three eggs. This was considered an omen predicting he would be elected consul for seven times. When he became consul he ordered the eagle to be the symbol of the Senate and People of Rome. Marius married Julia, the aunt of Julius Caesar.

7. Mithridatic War 89–63 BC and Sulla's first Civil wars 88- 87 BC

From 89–63 BC there was a Mithridatic War. Mithridatic War was fought between Romans and Mithridates, the king of Pontus, a kingdom in Asia Minor. In 88BC, Mithridates invaded the Roman province of Asia, and massacred nearly 80,000 Romans. The Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla was sent to fight Mithridates. But he soon back home and marched on Rome to fight Marius. Sulla was a quaestor of Marius when he was elected consul in 107 BC, quaestor is a magistrate, a financial administrator. Marius was a leader of the populares, representing Plebeians the common people; Sulla was a leader of the Optimates, representing power of Senate and patricians, the ruling class. The civil war was very bloody. Rome was occupied by Marius one time and by Sulla two times. Each time they executed many opponents and confiscated their property and give them to their supporters. Finally Sulla became the winner and he ruled as dictator from 82 to 79 BC. He doubled the number of senators to 600, and reduced the power of tribunes. And in 63 BC Mithridates was finally defeated by Pompey, another Roman general.

8. In 63 Cicero (106-43BC) was elected consul. Cicero was a "new man" from a wealthy family of the equestrian order, and is considered one of Rome's greatest orator, lawyer, writer, political leader and philosopher. Cicero was influenced by Stoicism, a school of Hellenistic Philosophy. He was a devoted Stoic. In his work the republic and the laws he stated humans and god were bound together in a world governed not simply by might but by justice. The universe was rational and reason had to be the basic for society and its laws. Michael Grant said: "the influence of Cicero upon the history of European literature and ideas greatly exceeds that of any other prose writer in any language". Michael Grant is an English classicist (1914 – 2004), a classicist is someone who studies the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations.

During the civil wars and the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, Cicero tried to save the traditional republican government through the harmonious cooperation between the equestrians and the senators. When Caesar died, Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony. He was declared an enemy of the state by the Second Triumvirate and executed in 43 BC. Cicero told the soldier who was going to kill him: "There is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly."

9. During his consulship Cicero thwarted a plot to assassinate him and overthrowing the Republic led by Lucius Catiline. Cicero declared a martial law and made four vehement speeches, called the Catiline Orations on the Senate floor to denounce Catiline and his followers and demanded them leave the city. These speeches remained best examples of Cicero’s rhetorical talent. Catiline is the one sitting there to the right, looks very desperate.

10. Slave uprising

Between 135 BC and 71 BC there were three "Servile Wars", slave uprisings against the Roman Republic. The final one was led by gladiator Spartacus (c. 111–71 BC), a gladiator was a man who had to fight against other men or wild animals in order to entertain an audience. Under Republican law, an owner could abuse, injure or even kill their slaves, a slave was not considered a person, but property. Some slaves were trained in gladiator schools. In 73 BC, 70 gladiators escaped from a gladiator school in Capua; they chose Spartacus as a leader and defeated the Roman force sent to recapture them. Within two years, they became a strong army of 120,000 to 150,000 slave fighters including men, women and children. Roman Republic sent an army of eight legions led by Marcus Crassus. In 71 BC the revolt was totally suppressed.

11. Spartacus fought to death,

12. His 6,000 followers were captured and crucified along the road from Capua to Rome. Crucified means killed by being tied or nailed to a cross and left to die. From this event we can see how cruel and inhuman the Roman Republic was.

13 Let’s look at Key words: Optimates and Populares, Gracchus brothers, Gaius Marius, Sulla, Cicero.

This is the end of the fourth part of Chapter Three Late Republic.