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Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic

Kenneth R. Calvert—Associate Professor of History—Hillsdale College

https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/western-heritage/lessons/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-roman-republic

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Resources:

Marcus Cato — Plutarch (c. 46—120)

Cicero — On Duties (c. 103—43 BC)

Tacitus — The Annals (c. 56—c. 117)

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• Romulus / Remus / Aeneas
• Carthage founded in 800 BC
• Greeks — Magna Graecae

Convictions

• agricultural
• familial
• religious

We have overcome all the nations of the world, because we have realized that the world is directed and governed by the gods Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 — 43 BC)

• traditional (Mos maiorum — ancestral custom)
• dignity
• virtues — honesty, duty

Form of Government

• res publica — republic
  • 509 BC — the Roman aristocracy, the Senate, the patricians overthrew the Etruscan kings and established their own government in coordination with the plebians (Gk. the crowd / everyday people)
  • established a balance of power between themselves
    • the Senate — a core deliberative body which sent laws to the plebians who would vote on those laws (Senatus populusque romanus — Senate and People of Rome — SPQR)
  • limited power for its magistrates
    • magistrates to only serve for one year
    • citizens had the right to gather in assembly — to vote on laws and election of magistrates
  • the government was local, personal, and interactive
  • idea of the patron / clientage relationship — great and wealthy men would gather around themselves clients who they would assist through gifts of houses, jobs, or money — these people would have allegiances to these great men, and they would vote in whatever way the great men required
    • we call this bribery or corruption, but in Roman eyes, this was the way business was done
  • citizen soldiers — fought not because he had to, as a conscript or mercenary, but as a desire to defend hearth and home—to defend the Roman way of life
• Roman government went through a series of transformations
  • ‘struggle of the orders’ — the struggle between the patricians and plebeians
  • (394 BC) the plebeians threatened to leave Rome if they did not greater impact, power, and participation in the economic and political life of Rome
  • the patricians aware they could not survive without the plebeians, agreed to allow certain things for the plebeians
    • between 800—500 BC the plebeians began to increase wealth, lifestyles, and luxuries because of the Mediterranean trade — through this greater wealth, were able to demand greater rights and participation in the political and economic life of Rome
  • Ultimately the office of consul (the highest office of the land) was open to plebeians, Senate, and even (Pontifex maximus — chief priest) — the most important religious position in Roman society
  • this struggle was badge of honor for Rome as they were able to arrive at this transition without bloodshed, but with compromise
• The Romans began to conquer the Italian peninsula (496—266 BC) — spread their power against the Etruscans, Sabines, Samnites, and eventually against the Greeks in the south — the Greek city-state of magna Graecia came in conflict with the Romans
• The Greeks invited a mercenary general named Pyrrhus (319 — 272 BC) to fight on their behalf — Pyrrhus claimed relation to Alexander the Great
• Pyrrhus defeated the Romans in every battle he fought against the Romans, but the Romans kept coming back