The Later Republic (264-27 bc)
(1) The Political and Economic Situation of the Later Republic From the third century BC we see another shift. For this period, we have a much stronger evidence base. Rome was now a significant power, with a developing economy: it was during the third century BC that coinage was introduced.[32] As we shall see in Chapter 3,[33] it was also during this period that Roman law began to develop into a more sophisticated form.
The Republican constitution survived in the same general form as before, and it was only towards the end of this period that it was strained to breaking point. The government of Rome continued to be formally in the hands of the magistrates, with the consuls at the head, all of this de facto under the superviÂsion of the Senate. There were some changes, however. For example, in 267 BC, four additional quaestorships were created to assist the consuls with the govÂernance of Italy. More important for legal history, though was the division of the praetorship into two in 242 BC.[34] Administration of the law was henceforth divided between the urban praetor (praetor urbanus), who was responsible for disÂputes between Roman citizens, and the peregrine praetor (praetorperegrinus), who oversaw disputes involving non-citizens.[35]
There were major changes in Rome's external relations, however. Although Rome was dominant in Italy, it was only one power of many in the MediterÂranean world. In the western Mediterranean, the major power was Carthage, in modern Tunisia. In the eastern Mediterranean, numerous powerful states had emerged from the break-up of Alexander the Great's continent-spanning empire, following his death in 323 BC.[36] Rome's rise to Italian dominance brought it into this wider world.
(2) The Growth of Empire
It is during this period that Rome acquired the beginnings of its empire.
Care is needed here, because in this chapter we will be using the term ‘empire' in two senses. In one sense, an empire is a state ruling over multiple national groups.[37] In another, an empire is a state ruled by an emperor. Rome was an empire in the first sense long before it was an empire in the second sense, and it is the first sense that is meant here.Rome's first imperial possession beyond Italy came to it when it fought the first of three Punic Wars against Carthage (264—241 BC) over control of Sicily.[38] In that war, Rome came very close to defeat, but eventually emerged victorious. Sicily now came under Roman rule. The Second Punic War (218—201 BC) was triggered by events in Spain, where the Carthaginians had extensive possessions. Rome declared war in defence of the city of Saguntum (modern Sagunto, a little to the north of Valencia). Once again Rome was seriously threatened. The Carthaginian general Hannibal unexpectedly invaded Italy from the north, crossing the Alps with his army (includÂing, famously, a number of elephants), and inflicted heavy defeats on the Romans. Eventually, though, the Romans were able to turn the tide, and brought the war to a successful end by invading Africa itself. This war made Rome dominant in the western Mediterranean. Carthage was finally destroyed in the Third Punic War (149—146 BC). It must be said that this war was entirely provoked by the Romans, whose fear of their traditional enemy was greatly in excess of the latter's ability to harm them. Carthage, at this point, was no longer a threat.
In the east, Rome became involved with the Greek world through a series of wars with Macedonia (now restored to broadly similar borders to those inherited by Alexander the Great). The first of these was fought from 214 to 205 BC to guard against the risk of Macedonian intervention in the Second Punic War. Certain Greek states having sought Roman support to protect them against Macedonian aggression, three further wars were fought against the Macedonians.
The last of these ended in 148 BC, and Macedonia and the rest of the Greek peninsula became Roman provinces.[39](3) Problems with the Republican Constitution
The Republican constitution was finely balanced in its design and in its operaÂtion, with power deliberately diffused among a number of different bodies and office-holders. As the second century BC entered its second half, this system had worked successfully for more than 350 years. Such a system, however, required a high level of co-operation and consensus-building among its participants, and so was vulnerable when that co-operation broke down.[40]
The first major sign of trouble in the system came with the election of Tiberius Gracchus as tribune in 133 BC. Tiberius Gracchus put forward a plan of land reform, by which public land (the ager publicus) was to be redistributed from the wealthy landowners who had unlawfully occupied it.[41] This scheme was opposed by the Senate, whose natural sympathies lay with the wealthier parts of Roman society, and who prevailed upon another tribune to veto the plan. Tiberius responded to this by appealing to the people to remove that tribune. With neither side willing to back down on the matter, and amid accusations that Tiberius wanted to make himself a king, Tiberius and a number of his followÂers were murdered in the Forum in Rome by a mob led by vengeful senators. Attempts to revive the land reform project by Tiberius' brother, Gaius, who was tribune in 123 BC, were also unsuccessful. Gaius appears to have lost public supÂport because he proposed to extend Roman citizenship to Rome's Italian allies. He committed suicide in 121 BC, facing assassination.
The citizenship issue was also a matter of contention at this time. While Rome had in earlier times been relatively generous with grants of citizenship to its most faithful allies, it became less so in the second century BC. Resenting the shift to a relationship that was more openly one of superior and subordinate, a significant number of the allies attempted to break away.
This led to the Social War of 91—88 BC (so called because it was fought between Rome and its erstwhile allies, or socii). While Rome was nominally victorious in this war, it was only able to gain this victory by granting the very citizenship that it had fought the war over.A further issue with the Republican system was the organisation of the army. Originally, the Roman army was a citizen militia, made up of those citizens with the resources to equip themselves for war. As long as Rome was fighting only local wars, this meant only relatively short absences during the summer campaigning season. As Roman power expanded, though, soldiers would be expected to be absent for longer periods, at greater distances from home. This was particularly difficult for those without slaves to keep the farm going in their absence. Although the army would not become fully professional until the Principate, by around 200 BC an increasing proportion of the army was made up of individuals motivated by adventure and the possibility of booty, rather than by a sense of duty as a citizen, and so they owed their primary loyalty to individual generals who could provide them with these things.[42]
Because of this, Republican politics were dominated in the final century BC by a serious of military strongmen, each seeking to make himself the leading man in Rome. The best known of these isJulius Caesar.[43] Caesar was elected consul in 60 BC, and made an alliance with two other prominent figures, Pompey[44] and Crassus.[45] This alliance is known as the First Triumvirate. The Roman historian Suetonius tells us that the three men agreed that ‘nothing should be done in public affairs that is displeasing to any of the three'. This was a significant development, because it envisaged a complete change in the way the politics of the Republic operated. Political questions were to be determined on the basis of these men's priÂvate agreement, rather than on the basis of wider consensus among political actors.
Opposition from the Senate was predictable, but in the end counter-productive.After his consulship, Caesar was put in charge of the provinces of Illyricum,[46] Cisalpine Gaul[47] and Transalpine Gaul.[48] He used this as a platform to launch a conquest of the rest of Gaul,[49] which had not yet been subjected to Roman rule. Of this, the following has been said:
The Gallic war was a gigantic plundering raid designed to provide Caesar with a powerful army and with the financial means he needed to fulfill his political ambitions in Rome. He destroyed Celtic civilization and deprived hundreds of thousands of their lives or their freedom. The cool elegance of his writings (commentarii), which were designed to inform the Roman public about his deeds, cannot disguise these facts.[50]
An alliance between men as ambitious as Caesar, Pompey and Crassus could not last forever, and indeed Caesar and Pompey eventually fell out (Crassus having died in 53 BC). This break between the two led to the Civil War, which began when, inJanuary 49 BC, Caesar and his army illegally crossed the Rubicon, the river separating Italy from Cisalpine Gaul. Caesar defeated Pompey at Pharsalus, in Greece, in August of the following year. He was made dictator for a term of ten years in 46 BC. By 45 BC, Caesar was the undisputed leader of the Roman state, and in February of the following year his dictatorship was extended to a life term. That life was not to continue for much longer, however: on the Ides of March (15 March), 44 BC, Caesar was assassinated.
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