HIST 3053 Midterm #2

Latifundia

• Massive estates of the wealthy staffed by tenant farmers and slaves, and growing cash crops

  • They buy out poorer farmers, leaving them jobless

  • They also grow cash, not substitence crops

• Leads to plot shrinkages nationwide

• More importantly, leads to poor landless farmers fleeing to Rome, while the rich thrive

  • Not to mention food shortages, since the Latifundia grow subsistence crops

• Old paradigm that the Latifundia led to a land crisis in Rome, which led to an emergence of political violence leading to the end of the Republic

  • Land reform led to the death of Tiberius Gracchus and the beginning of the erosion of Mos Maiorum, along with the emergence of widespread political violence

Tiberius Gracchus

• Son of Cornelia

• Tribune in 133 BCE, claiming that poor Romans are living terrible lives (worse than animals)

• He plans to redistribute public land by limiting how much public land can be held by the wealthy

Lex Sempronia Agraria

• Law passed by Tiberius that enforced or created the 500 iugera limit of Ager Publicus

  • Potentially devised to split unused public land up

• Enforced farming protections (i.e., cannot sell land)

• Some Senatorial support originally

  • Enrolls people in the census, making them eligible for military service

• Establishes a team of surveyors to work as enforcers

• Upheaval in the Senate

  • Tiberius expects a Senatus Consultum against his law

  • Chooses either to ignore the Senatus Consultum or refuse to submit his law to the Senate entirely

    • Both of these result in a breaking of the Mos Maiorum and are in departure from long-established precedent

• The Senate tries to counter Tiberius by having Octavius perpetually veto him (unprecedented)

• Tiberius deposes Octavius (also unprecedented), accusing him of not fulfilling the people’s will

*Issues brought about by the creation of the Empire lead to unprecedented political crises that have thus been “resolved” through actions that are both unprecedented and constitute a breaking of the mos maiorum

Tiberius’s Death

• Senate refuses to fund the project, and the Italians are angry

• Tiberius claims the funds of Pergamum for his project

  • Another break with Mos Maiorum (Senate controls both appropriations and foreign policy)

• Next year Tiberius runs for re-election

  • Sacrosanctity and fear his reforms will be undone

    • Never done before, but the assemblies vote for him, and the fasces of politicians opposing the elections are broken

• Senate gathers for an emergency meeting

  • Nasica, pontifex maximus, storms the Capitoline with his fellow Senators, and they kill Tiberius and 300 of his followers

*A sacrosanct official is murdered by Rome’s head of religion in the Pomerium, outside a Temple, and not given a proper burial (thrown into the Tiber)

*Precedent of impromptu violence driven by accusations of unrestrained behavior

*Persecution of various supporters of Tiberius Gracchus

Gaius Gracchus

• Brother of Tiberius

• Tribune in 123 and 122 BCE (further breaking an already shattered mos maiorum)

• Passes many reforms beyond just land reform

  • Entrenches the Publicani tax-farmers

  • Handed the corruption court to the Equites

  • Creates new colonies and a grain subsidy

  • Punishes the Tiberius court

• After losing his third term as Tribune, the Senate counterattacks

  • Death during a sacrifice leads to his fortification on the Aventine

  • Senate issues SCU leading to the slaughter of Gaius and his followers

Senatus Consultum Ultimum (SCU)

• First issued in response to Gaius and his followers fortifying themselves on the Aventine

• Advises magistrates to do whatever is necessary to ensure the Republic survives

  • Often involves using violence against Romans

• Leads to the slaughter of Gaius and his followers

• New response to danger, which authorizes violence against Romans

Gaius Marius

• Novus Homo

• Attacks the nobles as corrupt, idle, and reliant on their ancestor’s accomplishments for office

  • Marius’s mules: turns the Army into an elite fighting force

• Levies an army of landless commoners, promising land upon success, and defeats Jugurtha/Cimbri

  • Elected Consul for 5 years in a row

  • Unprecedented military command resulting from Imperial threats

• Wins victory, massive popularity, and triumph (considered Rome’s third founder)

Marius and Saturninus

• Marius is struggling in domestic politics and allies with Tribune Saturninus

• Marius rewards his veterans with land, with the law being passed through Saturninus’s violence, using Marius’s veterans as a gang of followers

  • General-soldier relationship develops, whereby generals promise their soldiers land in exchange for service (they must succeed)

  • Generals thus have a massive power base to draw on should they reward their solider

  • Armies now involved in violence

  • Violence is organized and coordinated across offices

• Lack of restraint with this violence

  • Tribunician candidates killed, rivals exiled, violence at the ready)

  • Results in another SCU

• Marius betrays his ally and captures him (murdered by angry Romans)

• End of Marius’s popularity

  • Romans reject political violence

Social War*

• Response to endless Roman waffling on the issue of Italian citizenship

  • Scipio Aemilianus, Gaius, Marius, and Drusus all fail

    • Drusus in particular drew together massive Italian crowds, leading to fear and opposition

• 91-87 BCE: Begins with Roman slaughter

  • Italians rise by killing Romans in their cities

  • Lex Julia de Civitate: Gave Italians citizenship if they laid down their arms and further land protections?

    • Largely stops the fighting led by Sulla

• Italians succeed in under a year of violence after three decades of political failure

• Introduced formally trained professional armies rather than mobs/gangs to achieve political goals

Mithridates VI

• King of the Pontic Sea Empire who poses a direct threat to Roman power in the East

• Persuades cities in the Roman province of Asia to rebel in 88 BCE

  • Slaughters Romans and Italians in the cities

• Sulla is chosen to lead the campaign against Mithridates

  • Marius attempts to undermine him in the legions with Rufus, by supporting his plan to spread the Italians across tribes

  • Marius lends his support, and in return Rufus succeeds in stripping Sulla of his authority outside of Rome (unprecedented)

• Sulla turns around and marches on Rome

  • Marius and his allies flee; Rufus dies

  • Rome’s first Civil War

• Sulla declares twelve hostes, weakens the Tribunes, and makes the new Consuls swear an oath of allegiance

Sulla Marches on Rome

• Cinna and Octavius fight over how to handle Sulla

  • Cinna invites Marius, who reenters the city and slaughters his rivals

  • Merula, Rome’s Chief Priest of Jupiter, is sentenced to die but commits suicide (taboo, role unfilled for 60 years)

• Cinna and Marius become consuls, but Marius dies 17 days later

  • Confusion over the Mos Maiorum (shattered, but still hold elections)

• Sulla is in Greece, besieging Athens when he hears the news

  • Commits a mass slaughter; pillages Delphi and Olympia for money

  • Needs the money to get revenge in Rome

Roman War (87-82 BCE)

• Flaccus (later Fimbra) clashed with both Asian cities and Sullan forces

• Romans punish cities that side with Mithridates and those that side with other Romans

• Sulla makes a hasty peace with Mithridates so he can march on Rome

  • Wins the battle at the Colline Gate (82 BCE)

    • Murders 6000 people to terrify the Senate

Sulla’s Dictatorship/Proscriptions

• Sulla was elected Dictator for three years

  • Appointed by violence, no limit/duress

• Proscriptions: Final great addition to the political violence

• Lists published in the Forum by Sulla and his allies

  • Members could be killed with impunity

    • Had their property confiscated and sold (How Crassus amasses wealth)

    • Anyone harboring a member could be killed

    • Killers were rewarded with a bounty

• Brilliant solution to rid Rome of his enemies and amass funds in the depleted state treasury

• Mobilized the population of Rome for violence

• Rampant abuse beyond the 600 proscriptions

  • Wealth-based murder

• Sulla rewarded his veterans and supporters

  • Expanded the Senate, regulated the Cursus Honorum, and removed the Tribunate from it

    • None of his reforms worked

      • Pompey and Crassus restored the authority of the Tribunate

    • Within 10 years the vast majority of his constitutional reforms had been overriden

Cicero

• Novus Homo

• Hundreds of his letters from the period survive

  • Firsthand detailed versions of events unseen in any previous era

• Advocate through oratory and widely considered the greatest Latin speaker ever

• Wrote treatises on friendship, government, laws, religions, etc.

• Best source in the Late Republic

• However, also a real pompous asshole

• Made his name in his Pro Roscio against Chrysogonus

• Later executed by Mark Antony

Pompey

• Teenage butcher

• Brutalizes Sulla’s rivals in Sicily and North Africa despite holding no office

  • Armies give power, not offices

• Given total control of the sea and ports of the Mediterranean: imperium, authority to vest individuals with proconsular authority, and appointed governors by Lex Gabinia

  • Solves the piracy problem in 3 months

• Given control over all provinces in the East, ability to dictate war/peace, and full power of foreign diplomacy

  • Crushes Mithridates

• Reorganizes the provinces and secures almost the entire Mediterranean

• However, his land redistribution and provincial organization efforts are shut down

  • Trying to achieve his domestic political aims nonviolently

  • A Republic that once abhorred violence and concentrated authority now struggles to function without it

Crassus

• Worth 200 million Sesterces, but nowhere near the richest man in Rome

• Showcased many new ways for the elite to get wealth (proscriptions, tenant extortion, firefighting)

• Rival of Pompey and 3rd in command of Sulla

  • Served as Consul in league with Pompey

Third Enslaved Revolt

• Led by Spartacus, a Thracian slave

  • Starts the revolt at a gladiator school in Capua

  • Initially successful

• Destroyed by Crassus and Pompey

  • Pompey takes all the credit

• Survivors crucified all along the road from Capua to Rome

Cataline’s Conspiracy

• Cicero is Consul (63 BCE)

• Cataline allegedly wants to murder Senators and burn Rome

• Cicero granted the SCU to round up the conspirators

  • Caesar wants to imprison the conspirators

  • Cato proposes the kill them, and wins, so Cicero executes the conspirators

Julius Caesar

• Descended from Venus, but his family is poor and in disrepute

• Rose through the Cursus Honorum

• Used a praetorship in Iberia to reverse his financial situation

• After serving as Consul, took a command in Gaul where he operated for eight years, conquering it

• Made himself dictator for life in 44BCE after defeating his rivals in the Civil War

• Introduced various reforms

  • Enfranchised Gauls and expanded the Senate

  • Pardoned all his enemies

• Assassinated by Senators in the Theater of Pompey (44 BCE)

  • Tradition of killing reges from the Republic Era

The First Triumvirate

• Informal alliance between Crassus, Caesar, and Pompey

• Gets Caesar elected as Consul in 59BCE

  • Uses his authority to pass various bills of Pompey

  • Violently puts down Bibulus, his fellow Consul who opposed his legislation

  • Senate does nothing to repeal this legislation

• However, their violence makes them slightly unpopular, so they back Clodius for the Tribunate

Breakdown

• Crassus is slaughtered at Carrhae

• Caesar conquers Gaul, asks to stand as Consul in absentia, but is denied

  • Pompey demands Caesar return and lay down arms

Clodius

• Firebrand Populare

• Final patrician who becomes a Plebeian

• Has Cicero exiled for killing Roman citizens (in reality, Cicero fiercely opposes the Triumvirate) and his house destroyed

• Constant violence at the ready (stores weapons in Temples)

• Constant fighting in the streets, especially with his rival Milo

• Election violence became such a problem that in 52 BCE elections were abandoned

  • Panicked Senate nominates Pompey as sole Consul for the year

Civil War

• 49-45 BCE

• Begins when Caesar crosses the Rubicon

• Pompey’s soldiers are not ready so he retreats to Greece as Caesar marches into Rome unopposed

• Caesar wins a surprise victory at Pharsalus

  • Pompey bolts and Caesar spares surrenders

  • Pompey executed in Egypt

• Crushes Cato the younger in North Africa

The Conspirators

• A group of 60 Senators led by Brutus and Cassius assassinate Caesar

  • Claim to be liberators of the Republic

• Antony and Lepidus compromise with the Conspirators

  • Agree to uphold Caesar’s legislation, and in return the conspirators are safe from prosecution

  • Conspirators secure provincial governorships to escape Rome

• Conspirators have no plan whatsoever; people are horrified by this and by the violence

• Eventually, Octavian and Mark Antony march against the conspirators and defeat them at Philippi

Caesar’s Will/Funeral

• Antony reads a decree passed by the Senate that announced Caesar’s divine nature and promise by the Senate to protect Caesar

• Octavian is listed as his sole heir, and works to ensure Caesar’s deification

• Leaves 300 Sesterces to all Roman men

• Public opinion turns on the conspirators, and Antony heads to Gaul to build force to fight the conspirators, but is declared an enemy of the state

Second Triumvirate

• Formed between Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus

• A formal alliance

• Gives each of them maximum imperium, 5 year commands, full proconsular authority in the provinces, and the ability to ignore the provocatio

  • Thus, they can kill Romans with impunity

• Plan to kill conspirators and divide Republic among themselves

  • Institute a second round of proscriptions to purge their enemies and also amass wealth, so they can build armies to defeat the conspirators

    • Cicero is among the proscribed

• The Laudatio Turiae discusses the horror/violence of the proscriptions and the difficulty of having one’s name removed

• Hortensia protests the punished families to Octavian (he planned to tax them), and while he is furious, he lifts the tax

Final Civil War (Actium)

• Octavian and Antony go to war after Antony divorces his sister and marries Cleopatra

  • Octavian portrays Antony as seduced by Cleopatra and no longer Roman

  • Also wants to take control of Egypt for himself

• Antony loses at Actium in 31 BCE

  • Massive naval engagement

  • Both Antony and Cleopatra commit suicide

• Octavian kills Caesarion

Augustus

• Octavian adopts the title of Augustus in 27 BCE

• Casts himself as Rome’s peacebringer who ended the political violence

  • Octavian is this warlike, ruthless figure who slaughtered Romans

  • Augustus is peaceful, pious, and merciful

• Sets up the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), which is lined with his lineage, and showcases various images affirming his authority in running the Empire

• Uses his authority to restore the religious and moral tradition (Pax Decorum)

  • Constructs Temples, restores the flamen, burns books with false prophecies

• Builds the imperial residence, the initial version of the Pantheon, various aqueducts/roads/marketplaces

• Rules for 40 years and, after his death, becomes a God, creating the precedent of an imperial cult

Princeps Civitatis

• Term Augustus used to describe himself, means “First Citizen”, later interpreted as “First Among Equals”

  • Not placing himself above others

Principate

• Collection of the authority of various offices/laws

  • Takes proconsular, tribunate, and pontifex maximus authority

  • Not a monarch

    • Rather, he is amassing power based on precedent in Republican tradition

• Consuls and Senate take directives from him

• Controlling specific levers of power

• Renders elections non-competitive since all offices serve the Emperor

Lex Julia and Lex Papia Poppaea

• Gives women/families with three children tax breaks

  • Wants to replenish Rome’s tradition, especially the aristocracy

  • Freedwomen must have four children for the same breaks

• Makes marriage mandatory for bachelors, even after divorce or their wife dies

  • Also outlawed adultery among elites

    • Seeking to restore morality among the elite

Division of Provinces

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