Roman Republic Research Paper
"Would Be Savior or Destroyer of the Republic?" The traditional dates for the Roman Republic are 509 to 27 B.C. The latter part of this period from 133 to 27 B.C. is known as the late Republic. It is also known as the Roman Revolution. The result of this revolution was the emergence of the Roman Empire and the catalyst has traditionally been linked to a single Roman citizen called Tiberius Gracchus. The wake of his brief political career left Rome much different than it had been. Like a crack in the wall of a dam, Tiberius revealed a weakness in the Roman system of government that would soon spider out of control until it could no longer hold back the deluge of the building political tension. What was this weakness? This paper will focus
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This land connected these people to Rome. It provided a bond much stronger than just citizenship alone. It gave a majority of the population something to fight for; something to defend; something to inherit and to leave to their children. The replacement of this peasantry class by the latifundia's of the wealthy started the crumbling of the Republic. Plutarch writes that "the poor, who had been ejected from their land, no longer showed themselves eager for military service, and neglected the bringing up of children, so that soon all Italy was filled with gangs of foreign slaves, by whose aid the rich cultivated their estates, from which they had driven away the free citizens." Similarly, Appian comments that "certain powerful men became extremely rich and the race of slaves multiplied throughout the country, while the Italian people dwindled in numbers and strength, being oppressed by penury, taxes, and military service." What was left was beginning to look less and less like the beloved Republic that brought Rome so much success as the lower class citizens began losing their ability to contribute to society. Their once beneficial rural augmentation of the Republic had become a burdensome urban problem. It is ironic to think that for all of the liberties that the poor gained during the struggle of the orders that they would eventually be denied the right to land; the one thing, with military loyalty attached, that made them most valuable because of the strength and unity they provided for the
This land connected these people to Rome. It provided a bond much stronger than just citizenship alone. It gave a majority of the population something to fight for; something to defend; something to inherit and to leave to their children. The replacement of this peasantry class by the latifundia's of the wealthy started the crumbling of the Republic. Plutarch writes that "the poor, who had been ejected from their land, no longer showed themselves eager for military service, and neglected the bringing up of children, so that soon all Italy was filled with gangs of foreign slaves, by whose aid the rich cultivated their estates, from which they had driven away the free citizens." Similarly, Appian comments that "certain powerful men became extremely rich and the race of slaves multiplied throughout the country, while the Italian people dwindled in numbers and strength, being oppressed by penury, taxes, and military service." What was left was beginning to look less and less like the beloved Republic that brought Rome so much success as the lower class citizens began losing their ability to contribute to society. Their once beneficial rural augmentation of the Republic had become a burdensome urban problem. It is ironic to think that for all of the liberties that the poor gained during the struggle of the orders that they would eventually be denied the right to land; the one thing, with military loyalty attached, that made them most valuable because of the strength and unity they provided for the