en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_republic
Through this heritage, the Romans b elieved themselves to be directly descended from the ancient Trojans in Asia Minor, an idea that has not been altogether discredited.
Lucretia compelled her family to take action by gathering the men, telling them what happened, and killi ng herself. They then were compelled to avenge her, and led an uprising that drove the royal house, the Tarquins, out of Rome to take refuge in Etruria.
For that duty the Romans e lected a Rex sacrorum or "king of holy things." Until the end of the Rep ublic the accusation that a powerful man wanted to make himself king rem ained a career-shaking charge.
wealth, and though patricians had in the e arly Republic monopolized all political offices and probably most of the wealth, there are always signs of wealthy plebeians in the historical r ecord, and many patrician families had lost both wealth and any politica l influence by the later Republic.
The relationship between the plebeians and the patricians sometimes came under such a strain that the plebeians would secede from the city they literally left the city, took their families and movable possessions, a nd set up camp on a hill outside the walls. Their refusal to co-operate any longer with the patricians led to social changes on each occasion.
of fice, and that the united plebs would kill anyone who harmed a tribune. The second secession led to further legal definition of their rights and duties and increased the number of tribunes to 10. The final secession gave the vote of the Concilium Plebis or "Council of the Plebeians" the force of law.
Gauls from the Po Valley sacke d and burnt the city, requiring a huge ransom from the Romans to avoid c ompletely destroying it (the phrase "Woe to the vanquished" arises from when a Roman senator protested to a Gallic chief that the weights used t o measure the ransom of gold were innaccurate, at which point the chief threw his sword onto the weights and uttered the famous words).
Alexander the Great, but in a series of three bat tles was unable to break the Roman Republic, winning each one but taking irreplacable losses as he did so. The term "Pyrrhic victory" comes from these battles when Pyrrhus was supposed to have uttered the phrase "Ano ther such victory and we are lost."
By 268 BC the Romans were dominant in Italy through a network of allies, conquered states, colonies, and strategic garrisons. At that time Rome s tarted to look outwards from Italy and towards the islands of the Meditt eranean.
Carthage in a series of three wars (264-41 BC , 218-202 BC, and 149-146 BC) that resulted in Rome becoming the most po werful state in Europe, a status it would retain until its fall in the 5 th century AD.
Tunis), was a powerful city-state with a large empi re in 264 BC, and, with the exception of Rome, the strongest country in that area of the Meditteranean. Its navy was, east of Athens, without co mpetition, and easily bested any naval force they went up against. Its citizens rarely fought directly against their enemies on land, but rather used the huge wealth they gained from trade to hire mercenaries to fight their wars for them. As a result, the y had no professional army and were at a severe disadvantage whenever th ey went up against someone who did.
Sicily the first war broke out between Rome and Carthage, resulti ng in, at first, a series of victories for Carthage until Rome refitted its navy using a captured Carthaginian vessel as a model. The war ended when the two signed a treaty giving Rome control of Sicily, but in 238 B C the mercenary troops of Carthage revolted and Rome took the opportunit y to capture Corsica away from Carthage.
Han nibal took a leadership role in yet again rebuilding Carthage, and succe eded so well that Rome forced him to flee to Asia Minor, where he commit ted suicide years later trying to avoid Roman agents. It managed to pay off the deb t owed to the Romans quickly.
Cato the Elder who, years after the Second Punic War had been won, ended his speeches by saying "I also think that Cartha ge must be destroyed!" In 149 BC, Rome, fearful that Carthage might become a serious threat again, demanded Carthage dem olish the city walls and the city itself and move inland into Africa.
S cipio Aemilianus, who besieged the city for three long years before brea ching the walls and sacking Carthage, even, according to legend, going s o far as to sow salt into the earth so that nothing might ever grown aga in in Carthage. Afterwards, the survivors were sold into slavery, and Ca rthage as an independent power was no more.
While factional strife had become a traditional part of Roman life, the stakes were now far higher; a corrupt provincial governor could enr ich himself far beyond anything his ancestors imagined possible, and a s uccessful military commander needed only the support of his legions in o rder to rule vast territories. In addition, small landowners were displa ced in favor of large slave-run estates, resulting in large numbers of u nemployed urbanites.
dictatorships, civil wars, and temporary armed truces during the next century. Much of the political record of this period ha s survived, and we are able to understand it in some depth.
But Marius' military reforms had resulted in an army of proletar ian volunteers with no special love for the Senate, and Marius' politica l allies used the army to threaten the Senate into passing laws reducing the Senate's power. Marius curbed his own allies, and took himself into lesser positions. Again the Senate proved itself unequal to its role, and failed to deal wi th the growing discontent of the allies in Italy.
Sulla contended over the command of the army, en ding with Sulla marching on Rome with several legions, outlawing his opp onents and passing laws favoring the Senate.
Although Crassus did most of the fighting against the rebels, Pomp ey claimed the victory. In the final analysis, once the Romans found the right leadership the reb els were quickly defeated. This does not subtract from the achievement o f Spartacus, who was able to unite a band of slaves into a fighting forc e capable of defeating several legions. The whole incident showed the we akness of the Senate and the regime of the late Roman Republic.
Seeking more power, and with the aid of a Senate planted with Senators who sided with him, Augustus was granted the power of the tribune and also imperium proconsulare maius, o r supreme authority.
A brilliant propagandist, he was very careful to cloak his takeovers in republican disguises. August us led Rome to great prosperity and four decades of civic peace. A gener ation of Romans were born and died in the course of his forty-five years as First Citizen, and this was now all that the people knew rather than the old days of the Republic. As such, the way was clear for Augustus t o appoint a successor to his powers and the Republic was then lost.
Both killings were probably ille gal by the laws of the time. The murders showed that disputes about powe r in Rome would be settled by force and only in the interests of those w ho could use force; not by principles nor in the interests of the whole population. Marius, Sulla, Julius Caesar and Octavian (later known as Au gustus) learned this lesson and applied it more effectively than the Sen ators.
aristocratic faction which had always d ominated the Senate, had never completely accepted that plebeians (commo ners) had rights. For example, Gaius Gracchus' reforms were motivated by his observation that military service had ruined many small farmers, so that their farms were taken over by the large landowners and the impove rished veterans became part of the unstable urban mob.
First Secessi on of the Plebs (what we would call a 'general strike') in 494BC. For ce nturies the Senators ignored this and other issues which might lead to a reduction in their privileges - for example they allowed to fall into d isuse the Licinian-Sextian Laws (367BC), which limited the amount of pub lic land one family could use for its own benefit. Gaius Gracchus' propo sals were largely a rather moderate way of re-applying the Licinian-Sext ian Laws. The Senate fac...
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