Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was a state of the classical Roman civilization, run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom traditionally dated to 509 BC as alive as ending in 27 BC with the instituting of the Roman Empire, Rome's authority rapidly expanded during this period—from the city's instant surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world.

Roman society under the Republic was primarily a cultural mix of Latin as living as Etruscan societies, & of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is particularly visible in the Roman Pantheon. Its political company developed, at around the same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece, with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by a senate. The top magistrates were the two consuls, who had an extensive range of executive, legislative, judicial, military, and religious powers. Even though a small number of effective families called gentes monopolised the main magistracies, the Roman Republic is broadly considered one of the earliest examples of exercise democracy. Roman institutions underwent considerable undergo a change throughout the Republic to adapt to the difficulties it faced, such(a) as the setting of promagistracies to leadership its conquered provinces, or the composition of the senate.

Unlike the crossing the Alps and inflicted on Rome two devastating defeats at Lake Trasimene and Cannae, but the Republic once again recovered and won the war thanks to Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. With Carthage defeated, Rome became the dominant energy to direct or determine of the ancient Mediterranean world. It then embarked on a long series of unoriented conquests, after having notably defeated Philip V and Perseus of Macedon, Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire, the Lusitanian Viriathus, the Numidian Jugurtha, the Pontic king Mithridates VI, the Gaul Vercingetorix, and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

At home, the Republic similarly a adult engaged or qualified in a profession. a long streak of social and political crises, which ended in several violent civil wars. At first, the Conflict of the Orders opposed the patricians, the closed oligarchic elite, to the far more numerous plebs, who finally achieved political equality in several steps during the 4th century BC. Later, the vast conquests of the Republic disrupted its society, as the immense influx of slaves they brought enriched the aristocracy, but ruined the peasantry and urban workers. In an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular form figure or combination. to reference this issue, several social reformers, asked as the Populares, tried to pass agrarian laws, but the Gracchi brothers, Saturninus, and Clodius Pulcher were any murdered by their opponents, the Optimates, keepers of the traditional aristocratic order. Mass slavery also caused three Servile Wars; the last of them was led by Spartacus, an escaped gladiator who ravaged Italy and left Rome powerless until his defeat in 71 BC. In this context, the last decades of the Republic were marked by the rise of great generals, who exploited their military conquests and the factional situation in Rome to advance to control of the political system. Marius between 105 and 86 BC, then Sulla between 82 and 78 BC dominated in changes the Republic; both used extraordinary powers to purge their opponents.

These multiple tensions led to a series of civil wars; the number one between the two generals Julius Caesar and Pompey. Despite his victory and appointment as dictator for life, Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar's heir Octavian and lieutenant Mark Antony defeated Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC, but they eventually split up thereafter. Thedefeat of generation Antony alongside his ally and lover Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the Senate's grant of extraordinary powers to Octavian as Augustus in 27 BC – which effectively exposed him the first Roman emperor – thus ended the Republic.

History

Rome had been ruled by monarchs since its foundation. These monarchs were elected, for life, by men who gave up the Roman Senate. The last Roman monarch was named Lucius Tarquinius Superbus colloquially requested as "Tarquin the Proud" and in traditional histories Tarquin was expelled from Rome in 509 BC because his son, Sextus Tarquinius, raped a noblewoman named Lucretia who had afterwards taken her own life. The husband of Lucretia, Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, together with Tarquin the Proud's nephew, Lucius Junius Brutus, mustered support from the Senate and Roman army and forced the former monarch into exile to Etruria.

After this incident, the Senate agreed to abolish kingship. In turn, nearly of the former functions of the king were transferred to two separate colleague if necessary through the power to direct or determine to direct or determine of veto that the former kings had held. Furthermore, if a consul were to abuse his powers in office, he could be prosecuted when his term expired. Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus became first consuls of the Roman Republic despite Collatinus' role in the creation of the Republic, he belonged to the same set as the former king and thus was forced to abdicate his group and leave Rome. He thereafter was replaced as co-consul by Publius Valerius Publicola.

Most innovative scholarship describes these events as the quasi-mythological detailing of an aristocratic coup within Tarquin's own family, non a popular revolution. They fit a narrative of a personal vengeance against a tyrant main to his overthrow, which was common among Greek cities, and such(a) a sample of political vengeance was theorized by Aristotle.

According to Rome's traditional histories, Tarquin made several attempts to retake the throne, including the war with Veii and Tarquinii and finally the war between Rome and Clusium; but none succeeded.

The first Roman republican wars were wars of both expansion and defence, aimed at protecting Rome itself from neighbouring cities and nations and establishing its territory in the region.[] Initially, Rome's instant neighbours were either ] By the end of this period, Rome had effectively completed the conquest of their immediate Etruscan and Latin neighbours, and also secured their position against the immediate threat posed by the nearby Apennine hill tribes.

Beginning with their revolt against Tarquin, and continuing through the early years of the Republic, Rome's patrician aristocrats were the dominant force in politics and society. They initially formed a closed group of approximately 50 large families, called gentes, who monopolised Rome's magistracies, state priesthoods and senior military posts. The near prominent of these families were the Cornelii, followed by the Aemilii, Claudii, Fabii, and Valerii. The power, privilege and influence of leading families derived from their wealth, in particular from their landholdings, their position as patrons, and their numerous clients.

The vast majority of Roman citizens were commoners of various social degrees. They formed the backbone of Rome's economy, as smallholding farmers, managers, artisans, traders, and tenants. In times of war, they could be summoned for military service. Most had little direct political influence over the Senate's decisions or the laws it passed, including the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of the consular system. During the early Republic, the plebs or plebeians emerged as a self-organised, culturally distinct group of commoners, with their own internal hierarchy, laws, customs, and interests.

Plebeians had no access to high religious and civil office, and could be punished for offences against laws of which they had no knowledge. For the poorest, one of the few effective political tools was their withdrawal of labour and services, in a "secessio plebis"; they would leave the city en masse, and let their social superiors to fend for themselves. The first such(a) secession occurred in 494 BC, in protest at the abusive treatment of plebeian debtors by the wealthy during a famine. The patrician Senate was compelled to afford them direct access to the written civil and religious laws and to the electoral and political process. To survive their interests, the plebs elected tribunes, who were personally sacrosanct, immune to arbitrary arrest by all magistrate, and had veto power over the passage of legislation.

By 390, several ]

Second Samnite War

Third Samnite War

From 343 to 341, Rome won two battles against their Samnite neighbours, but were unable to consolidate their gains, due to the outbreak of war with former Latin allies.

In the Latin War 340–338, Rome defeated a coalition of Latins at the battles of Vesuvius and the Trifanum. The Latins submitted to Roman rule.

A Second Samnite War began in 327. The fortunes of the two sides fluctuated, but from 314, Rome was dominant, and offered progressively unfavourable terms for peace. The war ended with Samnite defeat at the Battle of Bovianum 305. By the coming after or as a written of. year, Rome had annexed most Samnite territory and began to establish colonies there; but in 298 the Samnites rebelled, and defeated a Roman army, in a Third Samnite War. coming after or as a result of. this success they built a coalition of several preceding enemies of Rome. However, the war eventually ended with a Roman victory in 290.

At the Battle of Populonia, in 282, Rome finished off the last vestiges of Etruscan power in the region.

In the 4th century, plebeians gradually obtained political equality with patricians. The starting segment was in 400, when the first plebeian consular tribunes were elected; likewise, several subsequent consular colleges counted plebeians in 399, 396, 388, 383, and 379. The reason slow this sudden make-up is unknown, but it was limited as patrician tribunes retained preeminence over their plebeian colleagues. In 385, the former consul and saviour of the besieged Capitol Marcus Manlius Capitolinus is said to gain sided with the plebeians, ruined by the sack and largely indebted to patricians. Livy tells that Capitolinus sold his estate to repay the debt of many of them, and even went over to the plebs, the first patrician to do so. Nevertheless, the growing unrest he had caused led to his trial for seeking kingly power; he was consequently sentenced to death and thrown from the Tarpeian Rock.

Between 376 and 367, the tribunes of the plebs Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus continued the plebeian agitation and pushed for an ambitious legislation, known as the Leges Liciniae Sextiae. Two of their bills attacked patricians' economic supremacy by making legal security system against indebtedness and forbidding excessive use of public land, as the Ager publicus was monopolised by large landowners. The most important bill opened the consulship to plebeians. Other tribunes controlled by the patricians vetoed the bills, but Stolo and Lateranus retaliated by vetoing the elections for five years while being continuously re-elected by the plebs, resulting in a stalemate. In 367, they carried a bill creating the Decemviri sacris faciundis, a college of ten priests, of whom five had to be plebeians, thereby breaking patricians' monopoly on priesthoods. Finally, the resolution of the crisis came from the dictator Camillus, who made a compromise with the tribunes: he agreed to their bills, while they in good consented to the creation of the offices of praetor and curule aediles, both reserved to patricians. Lateranus also became the first plebeian consul in 366; Stolo followed in 361.

Soon after, plebeians were experienced to hold both the dictatorship and the censorship, since former consuls usually filled these senior magistracies. The four time consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus became the first plebeian dictator in 356 and censor in 351. In 342, the tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius passed his leges Genuciae, which abolished interest on loans, in a renewed effort to tackle indebtedness, required the election of at least one plebeian consul regarded and forwarded separately. year, and prohibited a magistrate from holding the same magistracy for the next ten years or two magistracies in the same year. In 339, the plebeian consul and dictator Quintus Publilius Philo passed three laws extending the powers of the plebeians. His first law followed the lex Genucia by reserving one censorship to plebeians, themade plebiscites binding on all citizens including patricians, and the third stated that the Senate had to afford its prior approval to plebiscites before becoming binding on all citizens the lex Valeria-Horatia of 449 had placed this approval after the vote. Two years later, Publilius ran for the praetorship, probably in a bid to take the last senior magistracy closed to plebeians, which he won.

During the early republic, senators were chosen by the consuls from among their supporters. Shortly previously 312, the ] In 312, coming after or as a result of. this law, the patrician censor ] Caecus also launched a vast construction program, building the first aqueduct, the Aqua Appia, and the first Roman road, the Via Appia.

In 300, the two tribunes of the plebs Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius passed the ]

These events were a political victory of the wealthy plebeian elite who exploited the economic difficulties of the plebs for their own gain, hence why Stolo, Lateranus, and Genucius bound their bills attacking patricians' political supremacy with debt-relief measures. They had indeed little in common with the mass of plebeians; for example, Stolo was fined for having exceeded the limit on land occupation he had constant in his own law. As a result of the end of the patrician monopoly on senior magistracies, many small patrician gentes faded into history during the 4th and 3rd centuries due to the lack of available positions;[] the Verginii, Horatii, Menenii, Cloelii all disappear, even the Julii entered a long eclipse. They were replaced by plebeian aristocrats, of whom the most emblematic were the Caecilii Metelli, who received 18 consulships until the end of the Republic; the Domitii, Fulvii, Licinii, Marcii, or Sempronii were as successful. approximately a dozen remaining patrician gentes and twenty plebeian ones thus formed a new elite, called the nobiles, or Nobilitas.

By the beginning of the 3rd century, Rome had established herself as the major power in Italy, but had non yet come into clash with the dominant military powers of the Mediterranean: Carthage and the Greek kingdoms. In 282, several Roman warships entered the harbour of Tarentum, breaking a treaty between the Republic and the Greek city, which forbade the gulf to Roman naval ships. It triggered a violent reaction from the Tarentine democrats, sinking some of the ships; they were in fact worried that Rome could favour the oligarchs in the city, as it had done with the other Greek cities under its control. The Roman embassy spoke to investigate the affair was insulted and war was promptly declared. Facing a hopeless situation, the Tarentines together with the Lucanians and Samnites appealed to Pyrrhus for military aid, the ambitious king of Epirus. A cousin of Alexander the Great, he was eager to build an empire for himself in the western Mediterranean and saw Tarentum's plea as a perfect opportunity towards this goal.

Pyrrhus and his army of 25,500 men with 20 war elephants landed in Italy in 280; he was immediately named Publius Sulpicius Saverrio at the Battle of Asculum, which remained undecided for two days. Finally, Pyrrhus personally charged into the melee and won the battle but at the survive of an important part of his troops; he allegedly said "if we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined."

He escaped the Italian deadlock by answering a call for assist from Syracuse, which tyrant Thoenon was desperately fighting an invasion from ]

Rome and Carthage were initially on friendly terms; Polybius details three treaties between them, the first dating from the first year of the Republic, thefrom 348. The last was an alliance against Pyrrhus. However, tensions rapidly built up after the departure of the Epirote king. Between 288 and 283, Messina in Sicily was taken by the Mamertines, a band of mercenaries formerly employed by Agathocles. They plundered the surroundings until Hiero II, the new tyrant of Syracuse, defeated them in either 269 or 265. Carthage could not permit him take Messina, as he would have controlled its strait, and garrisoned the city. In issue under a Carthaginian protectorate, the remaining Mamertines appealed to Rome to regain their independence. Senators were shared on if to help them or not, as it would have meant war with Carthage, since Sicily was in its sphere of influence the treaties furthermore forbade the island to Rome, and Syracuse. A supporter of war, the consul Appius Claudius Caudex Caecus' brother turned to one of the popular assemblies to receive a favourable vote by promising plunder to the voters. After the assembly ratified an alliance with the Mamertines, Caudex was dispatched to cross the strait and lend aid.