2nd Century/100s B.

C
The Roman Republic

Key Terms
 Carthage [146 B.C]
 Senate
 Revolution [133-31 B.C]
 T. Sempronius Gracchus [133 B.C]
 Tribune
 Tribal Assembly
 C. Marius

I. Carthage [146 B.C]

A. Conquests
1. Domination of the Mediterranean area by 146 B.C and is hold until the next 600 years
B. Polis Influence
1. They learn of Polis’ after knowing what it was and adapt to it
2. Rome had voting, assemblies, and a hoplite army
a. Their Polis resembled a modern day democracy in which it was ruled by the many citizens
 In reality, they were a very narrow oligarchy, they were controlled by the senates
3. There were about 300 men in the Senate, they were the most powerful and wealthy men in the state
a. Controlled all aspects of power in Rome and were elected by the city officials
b. City officials controlled the treasuries and the courts of Rome, they only remained for one year
 The senate were able to control the assemblies of Rome through these officials and were usually rigged
in favor of the wealthy
 All commanders and officers of the army were the senators
 Priests of the Roman religion were also senates, they usually would use religion as their excuse to
keep their power in place
 Being a senator is for life
c. Competition in the senate never really ceased, it was very intense
 They battle over three things:
 Election to Office
 Policy – Whose ideas get to become law?
 Military Power – Who received the military command to lead the Roman army into battle?
 Despite this competition, they would accept defeat when needed and “played by the rules”
II. The Roman Revolution
A. Corruption
1. Senators began to be competitive to win the competitions and in 146 B.C they began to eliminate threats to
their power and fought amongst themselves to own power in the republic
B. T. Sempronius Gracchus [133 B.C]
1. The Tribal Assembly
a. The people’s assembly in which every male citizen was included, however, they never really did anything
against the senate because they had so much power
 Gracchus wants to address problems within the senate and the republic
 There are not enough soldiers are in the army
 The city had a large number of poor people
 b. Gracchus wants to pass a law to fix such problems and brings the idea to the senate
 Divide the lands in states to the poor in which the poor people could now farm
 The senate does not agree with his move and disagrees with him
 Gracchus then takes the idea to the people in the tribal assembly
 The people vote on the idea and it passes, he didn’t even have to take it to the senate but did just to
please them as a sign of respect
 Illuminates the idea that the senate isn’t even needed, the assembly is what’s important for deciding
 Also announces that he’s going to run for re-election in the tribune, no one has been 2 years in the
tribune!
2. Breaking of Tradition
a. The senate think that Gracchus is some-what a traitor for breaking the tradition
 Because Gracchus says he’s going for reelection, the senate feels threatened and feels that their
assembly is losing power in the government
 The senate are so sure that Gracchus is going to when that the senate assembles a mob of armed men
during election day and seeks out Gracchus in which he is clubbed to death by their mob men
 First time a Roman official was assassinated
 Proved that the senate would not want to lose their power and will result to violence to keep their
power
C. C. Marius [107-100]
1. Makes it to the top of the political ladder without having his family background as a help
a. In Rome, there was no professional military officer, it was usually one of the consults that were put into
command during a war
b. Marius becomes consult in 107 B.C and is given a commission for war in North Africa
 Problem: Could not find enough soldiers for his army
 Said that any citizen that wished to volunteer could volunteer, however, since people were poor, the
state was responsible for providing weapons and armor for them
 In the end, Marius had a large army of poor volunteers
 People assume that he isn’t going to win because they’re just poor farmers but win anyway because
he’s that good
 What does he do with all these men? Nothing. They fought for 7 years and they cannot be thrown
out of nowhere because they have no place to go back to after 7 years.
 Makes a plan that he would give a retirement package for being drafting in the army
c. Marius’ plan was not accepted and he brings this plan to the public just as Gracchus had and it gets voted to
be passed
 The senate cannot kill Marius because he has a friggin’ army, soldiers become more loyal to their
generals rather than the senate