Rome: from Republic to Empire

“From Republic to Empire”

Anthony Kalandjian
History I, Traviolia
Mon-Wed 8:00-9:25
October 29, 2012

The corruption of Rome became the start of a new Empire that conquered most of the known world at the time of its existence. In 5th century B.C.E., Rome was a new nation with a set of morals unlike any other culture. Their morals defined their Republic but as time passed these set of morals was lost and so was their form of government. Through corruption and power hungry rulers began the transformation of Rome from a Republic to an Empire.
This thirst for Power started after the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. Around this time Rome had some paranoia of foreign invasion after their experience with the Gauls in 387 B.C.E. The dispute between the two nations arose over the island of Sicily where Carthage was trying to protect its trade settlements and Rome attempting to stop Carthage from getting too close to their territory. After the defeat of Carthage in the Punic Wars, Rome plundered the rich nation and made them pay war taxes in order to compensate for all of Rome’s losses. The Romans also sought after Macedonia for allying with Carthage during the wars and out of revenge defeated the Macedonian king’s army and took the nation and converted them and Greece into provinces. These conquering of nations made Rome grow a craving for power especially after enjoying sweet victory and the riches gained from sacking towns.
Corruption grew within the political practices of Rome’s senate starting with the event that took place involving the Gracchi Brothers, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. Tiberius became elected as a Tribune in 133 B.C.E. and spent most of his time trying to push forward land reforms to pass that allowed the Plebian class to regain their land back from the Patricians. During the Punic Wars many Plebian farmers lost their land because they were away for too long in battle. Usually they left a hired hand or their wife to tend the farms, but when their spouse was unable to perform both the tasks in the household and on the field or the hired hand were to pass away while the man of the house was still away in battle then the land would most likely be lost. The spouse would be forced to sell the farm in order to provide for her family and the people that bought the land from them would be a Patrician since they were the only ones who had the money and because most of the Plebian class would be away fighting in war. A Patrician would buy a bunch of neighboring farms and he would combine them creating a giant estate for himself. Many people thought this to be unfair especially since it left a lot of Plebians homeless and the number of refugees in Rome grew rapidly; these were the people that Tiberius was fighting for. Tiberius constantly defied the senate by having the Plebian Assembly to pass laws and started his reform on his own by redistributing public land back to homeless Romans. He then broke the rules again by running for tribune again for the second year in a row which was illegal since each Tribune was allowed to run in office for only one year. That was the last straw for the senate, so they all banded together, went over to Tiberius and clubbed him to death. Even after his brother’s death Gaius ran for Tribune having the same goals as Tiberius and became elected in 123 B.C.E. Gaius also annoyed the senate just like his brother by pushing land reforms and public projects to help employ the poor. He also proposed revolutionary ideas like allowing citizenship to many Italians and creating a court system that put the consul members, who were accused of being corrupt, on trial. This enraged the senate and they chose to retaliate by gathering up to go murder Gaius. These series of events introduced a very corrupt and disorderly form of politics where a politician would kill another in order to gain in office or to stop another from gaining.
The rise of client armies came with more power hungry rulers that used their abilities and resources to gain more prestige and get ahead in politics. It first started with Gaius Marius who had a great military record as a junior officer and was the first person in his family to become a consul. Breaking the tradition of the consuls, Marius was elected six times by the people and had much popularity from the commoners. He gained much of his success by allowing the poor proletarian class into the army and giving them a chance to start a new life by allowing them the opportunity to acquire income through plundering towns they have conquered. Marius would purchase the armor and weaponry for his soldiers and all they had to do was win so Marius would get his money back by sacking the town. This started client armies when the soldiers were more devoted to serving their commander rather than to the republic because it was their commander who led them to victory and then generously split the treasures with them. These client armies were not necessarily a threat until Commander Lucius Cornelius Sulla used it for his own personal gain. He had gained a lot of success after the Social War which got him elected as consul in 88 B.C.E. but he achieved most of his power after the events in Asia Minor. People of Asia Minor despised Rome’s tax collectors who tried making people pay more than they needed to so the people revolted killing tens of thousands of Italians. The senate needed to send in troops to stop this treachery and in the meantime, the commander in charge of this expedition would be allowed access to all the riches and resources in Asia Minor so Sulla really wanted the job. He was furious to find out that his nemesis, Marius, had got it instead so he set his client army to go against Rome itself. He took control of Rome letting his soldiers riot through the city and then left to go get control of Asia Minor and plunder it. He came back triumphant and then civil war started in Rome for two years until Sulla defeated all who opposed him. He would exterminate all who went against his ruling, creating a process called a proscription where a list of peoples’ names would be written that were accused of being traitors and anyone would be able to hunt them down and kill them. This might have been appealing to some because the one who took this bounty would be able to acquire all the possessions to the people they assassinate. Sulla had also outlawed the Tribunes and only favored the optimates. He had created much disorder and chaos giving himself the name of dictator, but he exposed the fact that Rome did not fight to defend anymore but instead to plunder and create more land to control. Rome was getting close to fully becoming an empire.
After the First Triumvirate crumbled Julius Caesar was denied consul even after his numerous victories and all the prestige he had gained with the people of Rome. Instead Pompey was chosen to be sole consul and Caesar was ordered to surrender his command. Civil war broke out when Caesar led his army against Rome and attempted to take control of Rome. Pompey and most senators fled to Greece fearing Caesar’s army but Caesar still followed them there and defeated them ending the civil war. He chose to be the sole ruler of Rome claiming he would be a dictator with no term limit controlling the whole nation. Even after his assassination by the senate there was a long chain of sole rulers that continued after Caesar’s reign. Taking in account all the corruption and battles over power, Caesar started the Roman Empire by acting as if a king and being the only one to do so and having it be continued for many generations.