Roman Republic Rome 75BC Roma Liberty Venus Cupid Ancient Silver Coin i52503

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(Roman RepublicThe Latin:

Res Publica Romana)
was the period of the
ancient Roman civilization
when the government
operated as a republic
.

It began with the overthrow of the
Roman monarchy
, traditionally dated around 509
BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two
consuls
, elected annually by the citizens and
advised by a
senate
. A
complex constitution
gradually developed,
centered on the principles of a
separation of powers
and
checks and balances
. Except in times of dire
national emergency, public offices were limited to one year, so that, in theory
at least, no single individual could dominate his fellow citizens.

Roman society was
hierarchical
. The evolution of the
Constitution of the Roman Republic
was heavily
influenced by the struggle between the
patricians
, Rome’s land-holding aristocracy,
who traced their ancestry back to the early history of the Roman kingdom, and
the
plebeians
, the far more numerous
citizen-commoners. Over time, the laws that gave patricians exclusive rights to
Rome’s highest offices were repealed or weakened, and a new aristocracy emerged
from among the plebeian class. The leaders of the Republic developed a strong
tradition and morality
requiring public service
and
patronage
in peace and war, making military and
political success inextricably linked.

During the first two centuries of its existence the Republic expanded through
a combination of conquest and alliance, from central Italy to the entire Italian
peninsula. By the following century it included North Africa, the
Iberian Peninsula
, Greece, and what is now
southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century
BC, it included the rest of modern France, and much of the eastern
Mediterranean. By this time, despite the Republic’s traditional and lawful
constraints against any individual’s acquisition of permanent political powers,
Roman politics was dominated by a small number of Roman leaders, their uneasy
alliances punctuated by a series of
civil wars
.

The victor in one of these civil wars,
Octavian
, reformed the Republic as a
Principate
, with himself as Rome’s “first
citizen” (princeps).
The Senate continued to sit and debate. Annual magistrates were elected as
before, but final decisions on matters of policy, warfare, diplomacy and
appointments were privileged to the princeps as “first among equals” later to be
known as imperator
due to the holding of
imperium
, from which the term
emperor
is derived. His powers were monarchic
in all but name, and he held them for his lifetime, on behalf of the

Senate and people of Rome.

The Roman Republic was never restored, but neither was it abolished, so the
exact date of the transition to the
Roman Empire
is a matter of interpretation.
Historians have variously proposed the appointment of
Julius Caesar
as perpetual
dictator
in 44 BC, the defeat of
Mark Antony
at the
Battle of Actium
in 31 BC, and the
Roman Senate
‘s grant of extraordinary powers to
Octavian under the
first settlement
and his adopting the title
Augustus
in 27 BC, as the defining
event
ending the Republic.

Many of Rome’s legal and legislative structures can still be observed
throughout Europe and much of the world in modern
nation states
and
international organizations
.
Latin
, the language of the Romans, has
influenced language across parts of Europe and the world.

Constitution

The Constitution of the Roman Republic was an unwritten set of guidelines and
principles passed down mainly through precedent. The Roman constitution was not
formal or even official. It was largely unwritten, uncodified, and constantly
evolving.

Senate of the
Roman Republic

The
Senate’s
ultimate authority derived from the
esteem and prestige of the Senate.This esteem and prestige was based on both
precedent and custom, as well as the high calibre and prestige of the
Senators.The Senate passed decrees, which were called senatus consulta.
This was officially “advice” from the Senate to a magistrate. In practice,
however, these were usually obeyed by the magistrates.The focus of the Roman
Senate was directed towards foreign policy.Though it technically had no official
role in the management of military conflict, the Senate ultimately was the force
that oversaw such affairs.

Legislative Assemblies

The legal status of Roman citizenship was strictly limited and was a vital
prerequisite to possessing many important legal rights such as the right to
trial and appeal, to marry, to vote, to hold office, to enter binding contracts,
and to special tax exemptions. Not all those rights were available to every
citizen – women could be citizens, but were denied the rights to vote or hold
elected office.

An adult male citizen with the full complement of legal and political rights
was called “optimo jure.” The optimo jure elected their assemblies, whereupon
the assemblies elected magistrates, enacted legislation, presided over trials in
capital cases, declared war and peace, and forged or dissolved treaties.There
were
two types of legislative assemblies
. The first
was the comitia (“committees”),which were assemblies of all optimo jure.
The second was the concilia (“councils”), which were assemblies of
specific groups of optimo jure.

Assembly of the
Centuries

Citizens were organized on the basis of centuries and
tribes
. The centuries and the tribes would each
gather into their own assemblies. The
Comitia Centuriata
(“Century Assembly”) was the
assembly of the centuries. The president of the Comitia Centuriata was usually a
consul.The centuries would vote, one at a time, until a measure received support
from a majority of the centuries. The Comitia Centuriata would elect magistrates
who had imperium powers (consuls and praetors). It also elected censors.
Only the Comitia Centuriata could declare war, and ratify the results of a
census. It also served as the highest court of appeal in certain judicial cases.Assembly
of the Tribes

The assembly of the tribes, the Comitia Tributa, was presided over by a
consul, and was composed of 35 tribes. The tribes were not ethnic or kinship
groups, but rather geographical subdivisions.The
order that the thirty-five tribes would vote in

was selected randomly by lot. Once a measure received support from a majority of
the tribes, the voting would end. While it did not pass many laws, the Comitia
Tributa did elect quaestors,
curule

aediles
, and military tribunes.

Plebeian Council

The Plebeian Council was an assembly of plebeians, the non-patrician citizens
of Rome, who would gather into their respective tribes. They elected their own
officers, plebeian tribunes and plebeian aediles. Usually a plebeian tribune
would preside over the assembly. This assembly passed most laws, and could also
act as a court of appeal. Since it was organised on the basis of the tribes, its
rules and procedures were nearly identical to those of the Comitia Tributa.

Executive Magistrates

Each magistrate was vested with a degree of maior potestas (“major
power”). Each magistrate could veto any action that was taken by a magistrate of
an equal or lower rank.
Plebeian tribunes
and
plebeian aediles
, on the other hand, were
independent of the other magistrates.

Magisterial powers, and checks on those powers

Each republican magistrate held certain
constitutional powers
. Only the People of Rome
(both plebeians and patricians) had the right to confer these powers on
any individual magistrate. The most powerful constitutional power was
imperium.
Imperium
was held by both consuls and
praetors. Imperium gave a magistrate the authority to command a military
force. All magistrates also had the power of
coercion
. This was used by magistrates to
maintain public order.While in Rome, all citizens had a judgement against
coercion. This protection was called provocatio (see below). Magistrates
also had both the power and the duty to look for omens. This power would often
be used to obstruct political opponents.

One check on a magistrate’s power was his
collegiality
. Each magisterial office would be
held concurrently by at least two people. Another such check was
provocatio
. Provocatio was a
primordial form of
due process
. It was a precursor to
habeas corpus
. If any magistrate tried to
use the powers of the state against a citizen, that citizen could appeal the
decision of the magistrate to a tribune.In addition, once a magistrate’s one
year term of office expired, he would have to
wait ten years
before serving in that office
again. This created problems for some consuls and praetors, and these
magistrates would occasionally have their imperium extended. In effect,
they would retain the powers of the office (as a
promagistrate
), without officially holding that
office.

Consuls, Praetors, Censors, Aediles, Quaestors, Tribunes, and Dictators

 of Marius, had been put on full display. The
populares
party took full advantage of this
opportunity by allying itself with Marius.

Several years later, in 88 BC, a Roman army was sent to put down an emerging
Asian power, king
Mithridates
of
Pontus
. The army, however, was defeated. One of
Marius’ old quaestors,
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
, had been elected consul
for the year, and was ordered by the senate to assume command of the war against
Mithridates. Marius, a member of the “populares”
party, had a tribune revoke Sulla’s command of the war against Mithridates.
Sulla, a member of the aristocratic (“optimates“)
party, brought his army back to Italy and
marched on Rome
. Sulla was so angry at Marius’
tribune that he passed a law intended to permanently weaken the tribunate.He
then returned to his war against Mithridates. With Sulla gone, the populares
under Marius and
Lucius Cornelius Cinna
soon took control of the
city.

During the period in which the populares party controlled the city,
they flouted convention by re-electing Marius consul several times without
observing the customary ten-year interval between offices. They also
transgressed the established oligarchy by advancing unelected individuals to
magisterial office, and by substituting magisterial edicts for popular
legislation.

Sulla soon made peace with Mithridates. In 83 BC, he returned to Rome,
overcame all resistance, and recaptured the city. Sulla and his supporters then
slaughtered most of Marius’ supporters. Sulla, having observed the violent
results of radical popular reforms, was naturally conservative. As such,
he sought to strengthen the aristocracy, and by extension the senate.Sulla made
himself dictator, passed a
series of constitutional reforms
, resigned the
dictatorship, and served one last term as consul. He died in 78 BC.

Pompey, Crassus and the Catilinarian Conspiracy

In 77 BC, the senate sent one of Sulla’s former lieutenants,
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
(“Pompey the Great”), to
put down an uprising in Spain. By 71 BC, Pompey returned to Rome after having
completed his mission. Around the same time, another of Sulla’s former
lieutenants,
Marcus Licinius Crassus
, had just put down the
Spartacus
led gladiator/slave revolt in Italy.
Upon their return, Pompey and Crassus found the populares party fiercely
attacking Sulla’s constitution. They attempted to forge an agreement with the
populares party. If both Pompey and Crassus were elected consul in 70 BC,
they would dismantle the more obnoxious components of Sulla’s constitution. The
two were soon elected, and quickly dismantled most of Sulla’s constitution.

Around 66 BC, a movement to use constitutional, or at least peaceful, means
to address the plight of various classes began. After several failures, the
movement’s leaders decided to use any means that were necessary to accomplish
their goals. The movement coalesced under an aristocrat named
Lucius Sergius Catilina
. The movement was based
in the town of Faesulae, which was a natural hotbed of agrarian agitation. The
rural malcontents were to advance on Rome, and be aided by an uprising within
the city. After assassinating the consuls and most of the senators, Catiline
would be free to enact his reforms. The conspiracy was set in motion in 63 BC.
The consul for the year,
Marcus Tullius Cicero
, intercepted messages
that Catiline had sent in an attempt to recruit more members. As a result, the
top conspirators in Rome (including at least one former consul) were executed by
authorisation (of dubious constitutionality) of the senate, and the planned
uprising was disrupted. Cicero then sent an army, which cut Catiline’s forces to
pieces.

The most important result of the Catilinarian conspiracy was that the
populares party became discredited. The prior 70 years had witnessed a
gradual erosion in senatorial powers. The violent nature of the conspiracy, in
conjunction with the senate’s skill in disrupting it, did a great deal to repair
the senate’s image.

First Triumvirate

In 62 BC, Pompey returned victorious from Asia. The Senate, elated by its
successes against Catiline, refused to ratify the arrangements that Pompey had
made. Pompey, in effect, became powerless. Thus, when
Julius Caesar
returned from a governorship in
Spain in 61 BC, he found it easy to make an arrangement with Pompey. Caesar and
Pompey, along with Crassus, established a private agreement, now known as the
First Triumvirate
. Under the agreement,
Pompey’s arrangements would be ratified. Caesar would be elected consul in 59
BC, and would then serve as governor of Gaul for five years. Crassus was
promised a future consulship.

Caesar became consul in 59 BC. His colleague,
Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus
, was an extreme
aristocrat. Caesar submitted the laws that he had promised Pompey to the
assemblies. Bibulus attempted to obstruct the enactment of these laws, and so
Caesar used violent means to ensure their passage. Caesar was then made governor
of three provinces. He facilitated the election of the former patrician
Publius Clodius Pulcher
to the tribunate for 58
BC. Clodius set about depriving Caesar’s senatorial enemies of two of their more
obstinate leaders in
Cato
and Cicero. Clodius was a bitter opponent
of Cicero because Cicero had testified against him in a sacrilege case. Clodius
attempted to try Cicero for executing citizens without a trial during the
Catiline conspiracy, resulting in Cicero going into self-imposed exile and his
house in Rome being burnt down. Clodius also passed a bill that forced Cato to
lead the invasion of Cyprus which would keep him away from Rome for some years.
Clodius also passed a bill that gave the populace a free grain dole, which had
previously just been subsidised.

The end of
the First Triumvirate

Clodius formed armed gangs that terrorised the city and eventually began to
attack Pompey’s followers, who in response funded counter-gangs formed by
Titus Annius Milo
. The political alliance of
the triumvirate was crumbling. Domitius
Ahenobarbus
ran for the consulship in 55 BC
promising to take Caesar’s command from him. Eventually, the triumvirate was
renewed at Lucca. Pompey and Crassus were promised the consulship in 55 BC, and
Caesar’s term as governor was extended for five years. Crassus led an ill-fated
expedition with legions led by his son, Caesar’s lieutenant, against the Kingdom
of Parthia. This resulted in his defeat and death at the
Battle of Carrhae
. Finally, Pompey’s wife,
Julia, who was Caesar’s daughter, died in childbirth. This event severed the
last remaining bond between Pompey and Caesar.

Beginning in the summer of 54 BC, a wave of political corruption and violence
swept Rome.
This chaos reached a climax in January of 52 BC, when Clodius was murdered in a
gang war by Milo. On 1 January 49 BC, an agent of Caesar presented an ultimatum
to the senate. The ultimatum was rejected, and the senate then passed a
resolution which declared that if Caesar did not lay down his arms by July of
that year, he would be considered an enemy of the Republic. On 7 January of 49
BC, the senate passed a senatus consultum ultimum, which vested Pompey
with dictatorial powers. Pompey’s army, however, was composed largely of
untested conscripts. On 10 January, Caesar crossed the
Rubicon
with his veteran army (in violation of
Roman laws) and marched towards Rome. Caesar’s rapid advance forced Pompey, the
consuls and the Senate to abandon Rome for Greece. Caesar entered the city
unopposed.

The period of transition (49–29 BC)

The era that began when Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC and ended
when Octavian returned to Rome after Actium in 29 BC, saw the constitutional
evolution of the prior century accelerate at a rapid pace. By 29 BC, Rome had
completed its transition from being a city-state with a network of dependencies,
to being the capital of a world empire.

With Pompey defeated and order restored, Caesar wanted to ensure that his
control over the government was undisputed. The powers which he would give
himself would ultimately be used by his imperial successors.He would assume
these powers by increasing his own authority, and by decreasing the authority of
Rome’s other political institutions.

Caesar would hold both the dictatorship and the tribunate, but alternated
between the consulship and the proconsulship. In 48 BC, Caesar was given
permanent tribunician powers. This made his person sacrosanct, gave him the
power to veto the senate, and allowed him to dominate the Plebeian Council. In
46 BC, Caesar was given censorial powers, which he used to fill the senate with
his own partisans. Caesar then raised the membership of the Senate to 900. This
robbed the senatorial aristocracy of its prestige, and made it increasingly
subservient to him. While the assemblies continued to meet, he submitted all
candidates to the assemblies for election, and all bills to the assemblies for
enactment. Thus, the assemblies became powerless and were unable to oppose him.

Near the end of his life, Caesar began to prepare for a war against the
Parthian Empire
. Since his absence from Rome
would limit his ability to install his own consuls, he passed a law which
allowed him to appoint all magistrates in 43 BC, and all consuls and tribunes in
42 BC. This, in effect, transformed the magistrates from being representatives
of the people to being representatives of the dictator.

Caesar’s assassination and the Second Triumvirate

Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC. The assassination was led by
Gaius Cassius
and
Marcus Brutus
. Most of the conspirators were
senators, who had a variety of economic, political, or personal motivations for
carrying out the assassination. Many were afraid that Caesar would soon
resurrect the monarchy and declare himself king. Others feared loss of property
or prestige as Caesar carried out his land reforms in favor of the landless
classes. Virtually all the conspirators fled the city after Caesar’s death in
fear of retaliation. The civil war that followed destroyed what was left of the
Republic.

After the assassination,
Mark Antony
formed an alliance with Caesar’s
adopted son and great-nephew,
Gaius Octavian
. Along with
Marcus Lepidus
, they formed an alliance known
as the
Second Triumvirate
. They held powers that were
nearly identical to the powers that Caesar had held under his constitution. As
such, the Senate and assemblies remained powerless, even after Caesar had been
assassinated. The conspirators were then defeated at the
Battle of Philippi
in 42 BC. Eventually,
however, Antony and Octavian fought against each other in one last battle.
Antony was defeated in the naval
Battle of Actium
in 31 BC, and he committed
suicide with his love,
Cleopatra
. In 29 BC, Octavian returned to Rome
as the unchallenged master of the Empire and later accepted the title of
Augustus
– “Exalted One” .

Culture

Life in the Roman Republic revolved around the

city of Rome, and its famed
seven hills
. The city also had several
theatres
,gymnasiums,
and many taverns, baths
and brothels. Throughout the territory
under Rome’s control, residential architecture ranged from very modest houses to
country villas
, and in the capital city of
Rome, to the residences
on the elegant
Palatine Hill
, from which the word “palace”
is derived. The vast majority of the population lived in the city center, packed
into apartment blocks.

Most Roman towns and cities had a
forum
and temples, as did the city of Rome
itself.
Aqueducts
brought water to urban centers and
wine
and cooking oil were imported from abroad.
Landlords generally resided in cities and left their estates in the care of farm
managers. To stimulate a higher labour productivity, many landlords freed large
numbers of slaves.

Beginning in the middle of the 2nd century BC, Greek culture was increasingly
ascendant,in spite of tirades against the “softening” effects of Hellenised
culture. By the time of Augustus, cultured Greek household slaves taught the
Roman young (sometimes even the girls). Greek sculptures adorned Hellenistic
landscape gardening on the Palatine or in the villas, and much of
Roman cuisine
was essentially Greek. Roman
writers disdained Latin for a cultured Greek style.

Social history
and structure

Many aspects of Roman culture were borrowed from the
Greeks
. In architecture and
sculpture
, the difference between Greek models
and Roman paintings are apparent. The chief Roman contributions to architecture
were the arch
and the

dome. Rome has also had a tremendous impact on European cultures
following it. Its significance is perhaps best reflected in its endurance and
influence, as is seen in the longevity and lasting importance of works of
Virgil
and

Ovid. Latin, the Republic’s primary language, remains used for
liturgical purposes by the Roman Catholic Church, and up to the 19th century was
used extensively in scholarly writings in, for example, science and mathematics.
Roman law laid the foundations for the laws of many European countries and their
colonies.

The center of the early social structure was the family, which was not only
marked by blood relations but also by the legally constructed relation of
patria potestas
.The
Pater familias
was the absolute head of the
family; he was the master over his wife, his children, the wives of his sons,
the nephews, the slaves and the freedmen, disposing of them and of their goods
at will, even putting them to death. Roman law recognised only patrician
families as legal entities.

Slavery and slaves were part of the social order; there were
slave markets
where they could be bought and
sold. Many slaves were freed by the masters for services rendered; some slaves
could save money to buy their freedom. Generally, mutilation and murder of
slaves was prohibited by legislation. It is estimated that over 25% of the Roman
population was enslaved.

Clothing and dining

Men typically wore a toga
, and women a
stola
. The woman’s stola differed in
looks from a toga, and was usually brightly coloured. The cloth and the dress
distinguished one class of people from the other class. The tunic worn by
plebeians
, or common people, like shepherds and
slaves, was made from coarse and dark material, whereas the
tunic
worn by
patricians
was of linen or white wool.
A knight or magistrate would wear an augusticlavus, a tunic bearing small
purple studs. Senators wore tunics with broad red stripes, called tunica
laticlavia. Military tunics were shorter than the ones worn by civilians.
Boys, up until the festival of
Liberalia
, wore the toga praetexta,
which was a toga with a crimson or purple border. The toga virilis, (or
toga pura) was worn by men over the age of 16 to signify their
citizenship in Rome. The toga picta was worn by triumphant generals and
had embroidery of their skill on the battlefield. The toga pulla was worn
when in mourning.

Even footwear indicated a person’s social status. Patricians wore red and
orange sandals, senators had brown footwear, consuls had white shoes, and
soldiers wore heavy boots. The Romans also invented socks for those soldiers
required to fight on the northern frontiers, sometimes worn in sandals.

Romans had simple food habits. Staple food was generally consumed at around
11 o’clock, and consisted of bread, salad, cheese, fruits, nuts, and cold meat
left over from the dinner the night before. The Roman poet,
Horace
mentions another Roman favorite, the
olive, in reference to his own diet, which he describes as very simple: “As for
me, olives, endives
, and smooth
mallows
provide sustenance.” The family ate
together, sitting on stools around a table. Fingers were used to eat solid foods
and spoons were used for soups.

Wine was considered a staple drink, consumed at all meals and occasions by
all classes and was quite cheap.
Cato the Elder
once advised cutting his rations
in half to conserve wine for the workforce.
Many types of drinks involving grapes and honey were consumed as well. Drinking
on an empty stomach was regarded as boorish and a sure sign for alcoholism, the
debilitating physical and psychological effects of which were known to the
Romans. An accurate accusation of being an alcoholic was an effective way to
discredit political rivals. Prominent Roman alcoholics included
Mark Antony
, and Cicero’s own son Marcus (Cicero
Minor). Even
Cato the Younger
was known to be a heavy
drinker.

Education and language

Following various military conquests in the
Greek East
, Romans adapted a number of Greek
educational precepts to their own fledgling system. Physical training to prepare
the boys to grow as Roman citizens and for eventual recruitment into the army.
Conforming to discipline was a point of great emphasis. Girls generally received
instruction from their mothers in the art of spinning, weaving, and sewing.
Schooling in a more formal sense was begun around 200 BC. Education began at the
age of around six, and in the next six to seven years, boys and girls were
expected to learn the basics of reading, writing and counting. By the age of
twelve, they would be learning Latin, Greek, grammar and literature, followed by
training for public speaking.
Oratory
was an art to be practiced and learnt,
and good orators commanded respect.

The native language of the Romans was Latin. Although surviving
Latin literature
consists almost entirely of
Classical Latin
, an artificial and highly
stylised and polished
literary language
from the 1st century BC, the
actual spoken language was
Vulgar Latin
, which significantly differed from
Classical Latin in grammar, vocabulary, and eventually pronunciation. Rome’s
expansion spread Latin throughout Europe, and over time Vulgar Latin evolved and
dialectised in different locations, gradually shifting into a number of distinct
Romance languages
. Many of these languages,
including French, Italian, Portuguese,
Romanian
and Spanish, flourished, the
differences between them growing greater over time. Although English is
Germanic
rather than Roman in origin, English
borrows heavily from Latin and Latin-derived words.

The arts

Roman literature was from its very inception influenced heavily by Greek
authors. Some of the earliest works we possess are of historical epics telling
the early military history of Rome. As the republic expanded, authors began to
produce poetry, comedy, history, and tragedy.
Virgil
represents the pinnacle of Roman epic
poetry. His Aeneid
tells the story of flight of Aeneas
from Troy
and his settlement of the city that would
become Rome. Lucretius
, in his
On the Nature of Things
, attempted to
explicate science in an epic poem. The genre of satire was common in Rome, and
satires were written by, among others,
Juvenal
and
Persius
. The
rhetorical
works of
Cicero
are considered to be some of the best
bodies of correspondence recorded in antiquity.

In the 3rd century BC, Greek art taken as booty from wars became popular, and
many Roman homes were decorated with landscapes by Greek artists. Portrait
sculpture during the period utilised youthful and classical proportions,
evolving later into a mixture of realism and idealism. Advancements were also
made in relief sculptures, often depicting Roman victories.

Music was a major part of everyday life. The word itself derives from Greek
μουσική (mousike), “(art) of the
Muses
“.^[96]
Many private and public events were accompanied by music, ranging from nightly
dining to military parades and manoeuvres. In a discussion of any ancient music,
however, non-specialists and even many musicians have to be reminded that much
of what makes our modern music familiar to us is the result of developments only
within the last 1,000 years; thus, our ideas of melody, scales, harmony, and
even the instruments we use would not be familiar to Romans who made and
listened to music many centuries earlier.

Over time, Roman architecture was modified as their urban requirements
changed, and the civil engineering and building construction technology became
developed and refined. The
Roman concrete
has remained a riddle, and even
after more than 2,000 years some Roman structures still stand magnificently.^[97]
The architectural style of the capital city was emulated by other urban centers
under Roman control and influence. Roman cities were well planned, efficiently
managed and neatly maintained.

Sports and
entertainment

The city of Rome had a place called the
Campus Martius
(“Field of Mars”), which was a
sort of drill ground for Roman soldiers. Later, the Campus became Rome’s track
and field playground. In the campus, the youth assembled to play and exercise,
which included jumping, wrestling, boxing and racing. Equestrian sports,
throwing, and swimming were also preferred physical activities. In the
countryside, pastime included fishing and hunting. Board games played in Rome
included dice
(Tesserae or
Tali
), Roman Chess (Latrunculi),
Roman Checkers
(Calculi),
Tic-tac-toe
(Terni Lapilli), and
Ludus duodecim scriptorum
and Tabula,
predecessors of backgammon.There were several other activities to keep people
engaged like chariot races, musical and theatrical performances.

Religion

Roman religious beliefs date back to the founding of Rome, around 800 BC.
However, the Roman religion commonly associated with the republic and early
empire did not begin until around 500 BC, when Romans came in contact with
Greek
culture, and adopted many of the Greek
religious beliefs. Private and personal worship was an important aspect of
religious practices. In a sense, each household was a temple to the
gods
. Each household had an altar (lararium),
at which the family members would offer prayers, perform rites, and interact
with the household gods. Many of the gods that Romans worshiped came from the
Proto-Indo-European pantheon
, others were based
on
Greek gods
. The two most famous deities were
Jupiter
(the king God) and
Mars
(the god of war). With its cultural
influence spreading over most of the Mediterranean, Romans began accepting
foreign gods into their own culture, as well as other philosophical traditions
such as
Cynicism
and
Stoicism
.

Military

Structural history

The structural history of the Roman military describes the major
chronological transformations in the organisation and constitution of the Roman
armed forces. The Roman military was split into the
Roman army
and the
Roman navy
, although these two branches were
less distinct than they tend to be in modern defence forces. Within the
top-level branches of army and navy, structural changes occurred both as a
result of positive military reform and through organic structural evolution.

Hoplite armies (509–c. 315 BC)

During this period, Roman soldiers seem to have been modelled after those of
the
Etruscans
to the north, who themselves seem to
have copied
their style of warfare
from the Greeks.
Traditionally, the introduction of the
phalanx formation
into the Roman army is
ascribed to the city’s penultimate king,
Servius Tullius
(ruled 578 to 534 BC).^[101]
According to Livy
and
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
,the front rank was
composed of the wealthiest citizens, who were able to purchase the best
equipment. Each subsequent rank consisted of those with less wealth and poorer
equipment than the one before it.

One disadvantage of the phalanx was that it was only effective when fighting
in large, open spaces, which left the Romans at a disadvantage when fighting in
the hilly terrain of central
Italian peninsula
. In the 4th century BC, the
Romans abandoned the phalanx in favour of the more flexible manipular formation.
This change is sometimes attributed to
Marcus Furius Camillus
and placed shortly after
the
Gallic invasion
of 390 BC; it is more likely,
however, that they were copied from Rome’s
Samnite
enemies to the south, possibly as a
result of Samnite victories during the
Second Samnite War
(326 to 304 BC).

Manipular legion (c. 315–107 BC)

During this period, an army formation of around 5,000 men (of both heavy and
light infantry) was known as a legion. The manipular army was based upon social
class, age and military experience. Maniples were units of 120 men each
drawn from a single infantry class. The maniples were typically deployed into
three discrete lines based on the three
heavy infantry
types.

Each first line maniple were leather-armoured infantry soldiers who wore a
bronze breastplate and a bronze helmet adorned with 3 feathers approximately
30 cm (12 in) in height and carried an iron-clad wooden shield. They were armed
with a sword and two throwing spears. The second infantry line was armed and
armoured in the same manner as was the first infantry line. The second infantry
line, however, wore a lighter coat of mail rather than a solid brass
breastplate. The third infantry line was the last remnant of the hoplite-style
(the Greek-style formation used occasionally during the early Republic) troops
in the Roman army. They were armed and armoured in the same manner as were the
soldiers in the second line, with the exception that they carried a lighter
spear.

The three infantry classes may have retained some slight parallel to social
divisions within Roman society, but at least officially the three lines were
based upon age and experience rather than social class. Young, unproven men
would serve in the first line, older men with some military experience would
serve in the second line, and veteran troops of advanced age and experience
would serve in the third line.

The heavy infantry of the maniples were supported by a number of light
infantry and cavalry troops, typically 300 horsemen per manipular legion.The
cavalry was drawn primarily from the richest class of equestrians. There was an
additional class of troops who followed the army without specific martial roles
and were deployed to the rear of the third line. Their role in accompanying the
army was primarily to supply any vacancies that might occur in the maniples. The
light infantry consisted of 1,200 unarmoured skirmishing troops drawn from the
youngest and lower social classes. They were armed with a sword and a small
shield, as well as several light javelins.

Rome’s military confederation with the other peoples of the Italian peninsula
meant that half of Rome’s army was provided by the
Socii
, such as the Etruscans, Umbrians,
Apulians, Campanians, Samnites, Lucani, Bruttii, and the various southern Greek
cities. Polybius states that Rome could draw on 770,000 men at the beginning of
the Second Punic War, of which 700,000 were infantry and 70,000 met the
requirements for cavalry. Rome’s Italian allies would be organized in alae,
or wings, roughly equal in manpower to the Roman legions, though with 900
cavalry instead of 300.

A small navy had operated at a fairly low level after about 300 BC, but it
was massively upgraded about forty years later, during the
First Punic War
. After a period of frenetic
construction, the navy mushroomed to a size of more than 400 ships on the
Carthaginian
(“Punic”) pattern. Once completed,
it could accommodate up to 100,000 sailors and embarked troops for battle. The
navy thereafter declined in size.

The extraordinary demands of the
Punic Wars
, in addition to a shortage of
manpower, exposed the tactical weaknesses of the manipular legion, at least in
the short term. In 217 BC, near the beginning of the
Second Punic War
, Rome was forced to
effectively ignore its long-standing principle that its soldiers must be both
citizens and property owners. During the 2nd century BC, Roman territory saw an
overall decline in population, partially due to the huge losses incurred during
various wars. This was accompanied by severe social stresses and the greater
collapse of the middle classes. As a result, the Roman state was forced to arm
its soldiers at the expense of the state, which it had not had to do in the
past.

The distinction between the heavy infantry types began to blur, perhaps
because the state was now assuming the responsibility of providing
standard-issue equipment. In addition, the shortage of available manpower led to
a greater burden being placed upon Rome’s allies for the provision of allied
troops. Eventually, the Romans were forced to begin hiring mercenaries to fight
alongside the legions.

The legion after the reforms of Gaius Marius (107–27 BC)

In a process known as the
Marian reforms
, Roman consul
Gaius Marius
carried out a programme of reform
of the Roman military. In 107 BC, all citizens, regardless of their wealth or
social class, were made eligible for entry into the Roman army. This move
formalised and concluded a gradual process that had been growing for centuries,
of removing property requirements for military service.The distinction between
the three heavy infantry classes, which had already become blurred, had
collapsed into a single class of heavy legionary infantry. The heavy infantry
legionaries were drawn from citizen stock, while non-citizens came to dominate
the ranks of the light infantry. The army’s higher-level officers and commanders
were still drawn exclusively from the Roman aristocracy.

Unlike earlier in the Republic, legionaries were no longer fighting on a
seasonal basis to protect their land. Instead, they received standard pay, and
were employed by the state on a fixed-term basis. As a consequence, military
duty began to appeal most to the poorest sections of society, to whom a salaried
pay was attractive. A destabilising consequence of this development was that the
proletariat “acquired a stronger and more elevated position within the state.

The legions of the late Republic were, structurally, almost entirely heavy
infantry. The legion’s main sub-unit was called a
cohort
and consisted of approximately 480
infantrymen. The cohort was therefore a much larger unit than the earlier
maniple sub-unit, and was divided into six
centuries
of 80 men each.Each century was
separated further into 10 “tent groups” of 8 men each. Legions additionally
consisted of a small body, typically 120 men, of Roman legionary cavalry. The
cavalry troops were used as scouts and dispatch riders rather than battlefield
cavalry. Legions also contained a dedicated group of artillery crew of perhaps
60 men. Each legion was normally partnered with an approximately equal number of
allied (non-Roman) troops.

However, the most obvious deficiency of the Roman army remained its shortage
of cavalry, especially heavy cavalry. As Rome’s borders expanded and its
adversaries changed from largely infantry-based to largely cavalry-based troops,
the infantry-based Roman army began to find itself at a tactical disadvantage,
particularly in the East.

After having declined in size following the subjugation of the Mediterranean,
the Roman navy underwent short-term upgrading and revitalisation in the late
Republic to meet several new demands. Under
Caesar
, an invasion fleet was assembled in the
English Channel
to allow the invasion of
Britannia
; under
Pompey
, a large fleet was raised in the
Mediterranean Sea to clear the sea of
Cilician
pirates. During the civil war that
followed, as many as a thousand ships were either constructed or pressed into
service from Greek cities.

Campaign history

The core of the campaign history of the Roman Republican military is the
account of the
Roman military
‘s land battles. Despite the
encompassing of lands around the periphery of the Mediterranean sea, naval
battles were typically less significant than land battles to the military
history of Rome.

As with most ancient civilisations, Rome’s military served the triple
purposes of securing its borders, exploiting peripheral areas through measures
such as imposing tribute on conquered peoples, and maintaining internal order.
From the outset, Rome’s military typified this pattern and the majority of
Rome’s campaigns were characterised by one of two types. The first is the
territorial expansionist campaign, normally begun as a counter-offensive,^[122]
in which each victory brought subjugation of large areas of territory. The
second is the civil war, of which examples plagued the Roman Republic in its
final century.

Roman armies were not invincible, despite their formidable reputation and
host of victories. Over the centuries the Romans “produced their share of
incompetents” who led Roman armies into catastrophic defeats. Nevertheless,
it was generally the fate of even the greatest of Rome’s enemies, such as
Pyrrhus
and
Hannibal
, to win the battle but lose the war.
The history of Rome’s campaigning is, if nothing else, a history of obstinate
persistence overcoming appalling losses.

Early
Republic (458–274 BC)

Early Italian campaigns (458–396 BC)

The first Roman republican wars were wars of both expansion and defence,
aimed at protecting Rome itself from neighbouring cities and nations and
establishing its territory in the region. Initially, Rome’s immediate neighbours
were either Latin
towns and villages, or else tribal
Sabines from the Apennine hills beyond. One by one Rome defeated both the
persistent Sabines and the local cities that were either under Etruscan control
or else Latin towns that had cast off their Etruscan rulers. Rome defeated Latin
cities in the
Battle of Lake Regillus
in 496 BC, the
Battle of Mons Algidus
in 458 BC, the
Battle of Corbione
in 446 BC,^[129][130]
the
Battle of Aricia
,^[131]
and an Etruscan city in the
Battle of the Cremera
in 477 BC

By the end of this period, Rome had effectively
completed the conquest
of their immediate
Etruscan and Latin neighbours, as well as secured their position against the
immediate threat posed by the tribespeople of the nearby Apennine hills.

Celtic invasion of Italia (390–387 BC)

By 390 BC, several Gallic tribes had begun invading Italy from the north as
their culture expanded throughout Europe. The Romans were alerted of this when a
particularly warlike tribe invaded two Etruscan towns from the north. These two
towns were not far from Rome’s sphere of influence. These towns, overwhelmed by
the size of the enemy in numbers and ferocity, called on Rome for help. The
Romans met them in pitched battle at the
Battle of Allia River
around 390–387 BC. The
Gauls, under their chieftain
Brennus
, defeated the Roman army of around
15,000 troops and proceeded to pursue the fleeing Romans back to Rome itself and
sacked the city^[136]
before being either driven off or bought off. Now that the Romans and Gauls had
bloodied one another, intermittent warfare was to continue between the two in
Italy for more than two centuries. The Celtic problem would not be resolved for
Rome until the final subjugation of all Gaul by Julius Caesar at the
Battle of Alesia
in 52 BC.

Roman expansion into Italia (343–282 BC)

After recovering surprisingly swiftly from the sack of Rome,the Romans
immediately resumed their expansion within Italy. The
First Samnite War
of between 343 BC and 341 BC
was a relatively short affair: the Romans beat the Samnites in two battles, but
were forced to withdraw from the war before they could pursue the conflict
further due to the revolt of several of their Latin allies in the
Latin War
. Rome bested the Latins in the
Battle of Vesuvius
and again in the
Battle of Trifanum
, after which the Latin
cities were obliged to submit to Roman rule.

The
Second Samnite War
, from 327 BC to 304 BC, was
a much longer and more serious affair for both the Romans and Samnites. The
fortunes of the two sides fluctuated throughout its course. The Romans then
proved victorious at the
Battle of Bovianum
and the tide turned strongly
against the Samnites from 314 BC onwards, leading them to sue for peace with
progressively less generous terms. By 304 BC the Romans had effectively annexed
the greater degree of the Samnite territory, founding several colonies.

Seven years after their defeat, with Roman dominance of the area looking
assured, the Samnites rose again and defeated a Roman army in 298 BC, to open
the
Third Samnite War
. With this success in hand
they managed to bring together a coalition of several previous enemies of Rome.
In the
Battle of Populonia
in 282 BC Rome finished off
the last vestiges of Etruscan power in the region.

Pyrrhic
War (280–275 BC)

By the beginning of the 3rd century, Rome had established itself as a major
power on the
Italian Peninsula
, but had not yet come into
conflict with the dominant military powers in the
Mediterranean Basin
at the time:
Carthage
and the Greek kingdoms.

When a diplomatic dispute between Rome and a Greek colony erupted into open
warfare in a naval confrontation, the Greek colony appealed for military aid to
Pyrrhus
, ruler of the northwestern Greek
kingdom of Epirus
. Motivated by a personal desire for
military accomplishment, Pyrrhus landed a Greek army of some 25,000 men on
Italian soil in 280 BC.

Despite early victories, Pyrrhus found his position in Italy untenable. Rome
steadfastly refused to negotiate with Pyrrhus as long as his army remained in
Italy. Facing unacceptably heavy losses with each encounter with the Roman army,
Pyrrhus withdrew from the peninsula (thus deriving the term “pyrrhic
victory“). In 275 BC, Pyrrhus again met the Roman army at the
Battle of Beneventum
. While Beneventum was
indecisive, Pyrrhus realised his army had been exhausted and reduced, by years
of foreign campaigns, and seeing little hope for further gains, he withdrew
completely from Italy.

The conflicts with Pyrrhus would have a great effect on Rome. Rome had shown
it was capable of pitting its armies successfully against the dominant military
powers of the Mediterranean, and that the Greek kingdoms were incapable of
defending their colonies in Italy and abroad. Rome quickly moved into southern
Italia, subjugating and dividing the Greek colonies. Now, Rome effectively
dominated the Italian peninsula,and won an international military reputation.

Mid-Republic (274–148 BC)

Punic
Wars (264–146 BC)

The
First Punic War
began in 264 BC when
settlements on Sicily began to appeal to the two powers between which they lay –
Rome and Carthage – to solve internal conflicts. The war saw land battles in
Sicily early on, but the theatre shifted to naval battles around Sicily and
Africa. Before the First Punic War there was no Roman navy to speak of. The new
war in Sicily
against
Carthage
, a great naval power, forced Rome to
quickly build a fleet and train sailors.

The first few naval battles were catastrophic disasters for Rome. However,
after training more sailors and inventing a grappling engine,a Roman naval force
was able to defeat a Carthaginian fleet, and further naval victories followed.
The Carthaginians then hired
Xanthippus of Carthage
, a Spartan mercenary
general, to reorganize and lead their army. He managed to cut off the Roman army
from its base by re-establishing Carthaginian naval supremacy. With their
newfound naval abilities, the Romans then beat the Carthaginians in naval battle
again at the
Battle of the Aegates Islands
and leaving
Carthage without a fleet or sufficient coin to raise one. For a maritime power
the loss of their access to the Mediterranean stung financially and
psychologically, and the Carthaginians sued for peace.

Continuing distrust led to the renewal of hostilities in the
Second Punic War
when
Hannibal Barca
attacked a Spanish town, which
had diplomatic ties to Rome. Hannibal then crossed the Italian Alps to invade
Italy. Hannibal’s successes in Italy began immediately, and reached an early
climax at the
Battle of Cannae
, where 70,000 Romans were
killed.

In three battles, the Romans managed to hold off Hannibal but then Hannibal
smashed a succession of Roman consular armies. By this time Hannibal’s brother
Hasdrubal Barca
sought to cross the Alps into
Italy and join his brother with a second army. Hasdrubal managed to break
through into Italy only to be defeated decisively on the
Metaurus River
. Unable to defeat Hannibal
himself on Italian soil, the Romans boldly sent an army to Africa under
Scipio Africanus
with the intention of
threatening the Carthaginian capital. Hannibal was recalled to Africa, and
defeated at the
Battle of Zama
.

Carthage never managed to recover after the Second Punic War
and the
Third Punic War
that followed was in reality a
simple punitive mission to raze the city of Carthage to the ground. Carthage was
almost defenseless and when besieged offered immediate surrender, conceding to a
string of outrageous Roman demands. The Romans refused the surrender, and the
city was stormed after a short siege and completely destroyed. Ultimately, all
of Carthage’s North African and Spanish territories were acquired by Rome.

Kingdom of Macedonia, the Greek poleis, and Illyria (215–148 BC)

Rome’s preoccupation with its war with Carthage provided an opportunity for
Philip V
of the kingdom of
Macedonia
, located in the north of the
Greek peninsula
, to attempt to extend his power
westward. Philip sent ambassadors to Hannibal’s camp in Italy, to negotiate an
alliance as common enemies of Rome. However, Rome discovered the agreement when
Philip’s emissaries were captured by a Roman fleet. The
First Macedonian War
saw the Romans involved
directly in only limited land operations, but they ultimately achieved their
objective of pre-occupying Philip and preventing him from aiding Hannibal.

Macedonia began to encroach on territory claimed by Greek city states in 200
BC and these states pleaded for help from their newfound ally Rome. Rome gave
Philip an ultimatum that he must submit several parts of Greater Macedonia to
Rome and give up his designs on Greece. Philip refused, and Rome declared war
starting the
Second Macedonian War
. Ultimately, in 197 BC,
the Romans decisevely defeated Philip at the
Battle of Cynoscephalae
,subsequently Macedonia
was reduced to a central rump state.

Rome now turned its attentions to one of the Greek kingdoms, the
Seleucid Empire
, in the east. A Roman force
defeated the Seleucids at the
Battle of Thermopylae
and forced them to
evacuate Greece. The Romans then pursued the Seleucids beyond Greece, beating
them in the decisive engagement of the
Battle of Magnesia
.

In 179 BC, Philip died and his talented and ambitious son, Perseus, took his
throne and showed a renewed interest in Greece. Rome declared war on Macedonia
again, starting the
Third Macedonian War
. Perseus initially had
some success against the Romans. However, Rome responded by simply sending
another stronger army. The second consular army decisively defeated the
Macedonians at the
Battle of Pydna
in 168 BC and the Macedonians
duly capitulated, ending the
Third Macedonian War
.The Kingdom of Macedonia
was then divided by the Romans into four client republics.

The Fourth Macedonian War, fought from 150 BC to 148 BC, was fought against a
Macedonian pretender to the throne who was attempting to re-establish the old
Kingdom. The Romans swiftly defeated the Macedonians at the
Second battle of Pydna
. The
Achaean League
chose this moment to rebel
against Roman domination but was swiftly defeated.
Corinth
was besieged and destroyed in 146 BC,
the same year as the destruction of
Carthage
, which led to the league’s surrender.

Late
Republic (147–30 BC)

Jugurthine War (111–104 BC)

The
Jugurthine War
of 111–104 BC was fought between
Rome and Jugurtha
of the North African kingdom of
Numidia
. It constituted the final Roman
pacification of Northern Africa, after which Rome largely ceased expansion on
the continent after reaching natural barriers of desert and mountain. Following
Jugurtha’s usurpation of the throne of Numidia, a loyal ally of Rome since the
Punic Wars,
Rome felt compelled to intervene. Jugurtha impudently bribed the Romans into
accepting his usurpation. Jugurtha was finally captured not in battle but by
treachery.

The Celtic threat (121 BC) and the new Germanic threat (113–101 BC)

In 121 BC, Rome came into contact with two Celtic tribes (from a region in
modern France), both of which they defeated with apparent ease. The
Cimbrian War
(113–101 BC) was a far more
serious affair than the earlier clashes of 121 BC. The
Germanic
tribes of the
Cimbri
and the
Teutons
migrated from northern Europe into
Rome’s northern territories, and clashed with Rome and her allies. At the
Battle of Aquae Sextiae
and the
Battle of Vercellae
both tribes were virtually
annihilated, which ended the threat.

Internal unrest (135–71 BC)

The extensive campaigning abroad by Roman generals, and the rewarding of
soldiers with plunder on these campaigns, led to a general trend of soldiers
becoming increasingly loyal to their generals rather than to the state.
Rome was also plagued by several slave uprisings during this period, in part
because vast tracts of land had been given over to slave farming in which the
slaves greatly outnumbered their Roman masters. In the last century BC at least
twelve
civil wars
and rebellions occurred. This
pattern did not break until Octavian (later
Caesar Augustus
) ended it by becoming a
successful challenger to the Senate’s authority, and was made
princeps
(emperor).

Between 135 BC and 71 BC there were three
“Servile Wars”
involving slave uprisings
against the Roman state. The
third
and final uprising was the most serious,
involving ultimately between 120,000 and 150,000
slaves under the command of the gladiator
Spartacus
. Additionally, in 91 BC the
Social War
broke out between Rome and its
former allies in Italy over dissent among the allies that they shared the risk
of Rome’s military campaigns, but not its rewards. Although they lost
militarily, the allies achieved their objectives with legal proclamations which
granted citizenship to more than 500,000 Italians.

The internal unrest reached its most serious state, however, in the
two civil wars
that were caused by the consul
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
at the beginning of 82
BC. In the
Battle of the Colline Gate
at the very door of
the city of Rome, a Roman army under Sulla bested an army of the Roman Senate
and entered the city. Sulla’s actions marked a watershed in the willingness of
Roman troops to wage war against one another that was to pave the way for the
wars which ultimately overthrew the Republic, and caused the founding of the
Roman Empire
.

Conflicts with Mithridates (89–63 BC) and the Cilician pirates (67 BC)

Mithridates the Great
was the ruler of
Pontus
, a large kingdom in
Asia Minor
(modern Turkey), from 120 to 63 BC.
Mithridates antagonised Rome by seeking to expand his kingdom, and Rome for her
part seemed equally keen for war and the spoils and prestige that it might
bring.In 88 BC, Mithridates ordered the killing of a majority of the 80,000
Romans living in his kingdom. The massacre was the official reason given for the
commencement of hostilities in the
First Mithridatic War
. The Roman general
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
forced Mithridates out
of Greece proper, but then had to return to Italy to answer the internal threat
posed by his rival,
Gaius Marius
. A peace was made between Rome and
Pontus, but this proved only a temporary lull.

The
Second Mithridatic War
began when Rome tried to
annex a province that Mithridates claimed as his own. In the
Third Mithridatic War
, first
Lucius Licinius Lucullus
and then
Pompey the Great
were sent against Mithridates.^[186]
Mithridates was finally defeated by Pompey in the night-time
Battle of the Lycus
.The Mediterranean had at
this time fallen into the hands of pirates, largely from
Cilicia
. The pirates not only strangled
shipping lanes but also plundered many cities on the coasts of Greece and Asia.
Pompey
was nominated as commander of a special
naval task force to campaign against the pirates. It took Pompey just forty days
to clear the western portion of the sea of pirates and restore communication
between Iberia (Spain), Africa, and Italy.

Caesar’s early campaigns (59–50 BC)

During a term as praetor in the
Iberian Peninsula
(modern Portugal and Spain),
Pompey’s contemporary
Julius Caesar
defeated two local tribes in
battle.
Following his term as consul in 59 BC, he was then appointed to a five-year term
as the proconsular Governor of Cisalpine Gaul (current northern Italy),
Transalpine Gaul (current southern France) and Illyria (the modern Balkans).
Not content with an idle governorship, Caesar strove to find reason to invade
Gaul, which would give him the dramatic military success he sought. When two
local tribes began to migrate on a route that would take them near (not into)
the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, Caesar had the barely sufficient excuse
he needed for his
Gallic Wars
, fought between 58 BC and 49 BC.

Caesar defeated large armies at major battles 58 BC and 57 BC. In 55 and 54
BC he made
two expeditions into Britain
, becoming the
first Roman to do so. Caesar then defeated a union of Gauls at the
Battle of Alesia
,
completing the Roman conquest of Transalpine Gaul. By 50 BC, the entirety of
Gaul lay in Roman hands. Gaul never regained its Celtic identity, never
attempted another nationalist rebellion, and, other than the crisis of the 3rd
century, remained loyal to Rome until the fall of the western empire in 476.

Triumvirates and Caesarian ascension (53–30 BC)

By 59 BC an unofficial political alliance known as the
First Triumvirate
was formed between
Gaius Julius Caesar
,
Marcus Licinius Crassus
, and
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
(“Pompey the Great”) to
share power and influence.
In 53 BC, Crassus launched a Roman invasion of the Parthian Empire (modern Iraq
and Iran). After initial successes,^[193]
he marched his army deep into the desert;
but here his army was cut off deep in enemy territory, surrounded and
slaughtered at the
Battle of Carrhae
in which Crassus himself
perished. The death of Crassus removed some of the balance in the Triumvirate
and, consequently, Caesar and Pompey began to move apart. While Caesar was
fighting in Gaul, Pompey proceeded with a legislative agenda for Rome that
revealed that he was at best ambivalent towards Caesar^[195]
and perhaps now covertly allied with Caesar’s political enemies. In 51 BC, some
Roman senators demanded that Caesar not be permitted to stand for consul unless
he turned over control of his armies to the state, which would have left Caesar
defenceless before his enemies. Caesar chose civil war over laying down his
command and facing trial.

By the spring of 49 BC, the hardened legions of Caesar crossed the river
Rubicon
and swept down the Italian peninsula
towards Rome, while Pompey ordered the abandonment of Rome. Afterwards Caesar
turned his attention to the Pompeian stronghold of Iberia (modern Spain)
but decided to tackle Pompey himself in Greece.
Pompey initially defeated Caesar, but failed to follow up on the victory, and
was decisively defeated at the
Battle of Pharsalus
in 48 BC,
despite outnumbering Caesar’s forces two to one, albeit with inferior quality
troops.
Pompey fled again, this time to Egypt, where he was murdered.

Pompey’s death did not result in an end to the civil war as Caesar’s enemies
were manifold and continued to fight on. In 46 BC Caesar lost perhaps as much as
a third of his army, but ultimately came back to defeat the Pompeian army of
Metellus Scipio
in the
Battle of Thapsus
, after which the Pompeians
retreated yet again to Iberia. Caesar then defeated the combined Pompeian forces
at the
Battle of Munda
.

Caesar was now the primary figure of the Roman state, enforcing and
entrenching his powers and his enemies feared that he had ambitions to become an
autocratic ruler. Arguing that the Roman Republic was in danger a group of
senators hatched a conspiracy and
murdered Caesar
in the Senate in March 44 BC. 
Mark Antony
, Caesar’s lieutenant, condemned
Caesar’s assassination, and war broke out between the two factions. Antony was
denounced as a public enemy, and Caesar’s adopted son and chosen heir,
Gaius Octavian
, was entrusted with the command
of the war against him. At the
Battle of Mutina
Antony was defeated by the
consuls
Hirtius
and
Pansa
, who were both killed.

Octavian came to terms with Caesarians Antony and Lepidus in 43 BC when the
Second Triumvirate
was formed.^[74]
In 42 BC
Triumvirs

Mark Antony
and
Octavian
fought the
Battle of Philippi
with Caesar’s assassins
Brutus
and
Cassius
. Although Brutus defeated Octavian,
Antony defeated Cassius, who committed suicide. Brutus joined him shortly
afterwards.

However, civil war flared again when the Second Triumvirate of Octavian,
Lepidus and
Mark Antony
failed. The ambitious Octavian
built a power base of patronage and then launched a campaign against Mark Antony.
At the naval
Battle of Actium
off the coast of Greece,
Octavian
decisively defeated Antony and
Cleopatra
. Octavian was granted a series of
special powers including sole “imperium” within the city of Rome, permanent
consular powers and credit for every Roman military victory, since all future
generals were assumed to be acting under his command. In 27 BC Octavian was
granted the use of the names “Augustus” and “Princeps” indicating his primary
status above all other Romans, and he adopted the title “Imperator Caesar”
making him the first Roman Emperor.

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