The First Century BCE

The Collapse of the Republic

• Rome’s conquest of the Mediterranean
basin created a number of problems
– land-reform (issues arising from the traditional
methods of raising troops)
– the desire of the Italian allies to be granted
Roman citizenship
• The response of the oligarchy was
problematic, and this led to a period of
political turmoil
– popular agitation against the senatorial
oligarchy
– division within the senatorial class
 The Gracchi
• Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Gaius
Sempronius Gracchus
• Belonged to an elite family (related to
Scipio Africanus)
• After Tiberius was attacked in the senate by
Scipio Aemilianus, he joined a faction
hostile to Scipio
• As tribune of the plebs in 133 BCE, in
Scipio’s absence Gracchus proposed a law
to address the question of land-reform
– this was motivated by military concerns
– the proposed law involved the confiscation of
land (ager publicus)
• Gracchus submitted the law to the plebs
without discussion in the Senate
• The law was vetoed by M. Octavius, but
Gracchus had him removed from office
– an unprecedented step
• Gracchus ignored the Senate’s will on
foreign policy
• Sought immediate re-election to avoid
prosecution for perduellio (activity hostile
to the state)
• This alienated supporters and increased
fears of tyranny
• He was assassinated in 132 BCE by a mob
of senators led by the pontifex maximus
• This is the beginning of the so-called
‘Roman Revolution’
 Marius and Sulla
• Gaius Marius
– c. 157-86 BCE
– an example of the nouus homo (‘new man’)
– used popular support to seize control
– was elected Consul repeatedly
– allowed the landless to enlist in the army
• Accidentally created ‘client armies’
– minor policies or legislative initiates of his own
• exploited the work of others
 Cornelius Sulla Felix
• c. 138 - 79 BCE
• Came from a prominent patrician family
• Used his army to seize control of Rome
• Introduced a number of significant reforms
• Divested himself of power, and restored
constitutional government
• Died of natural causes in retirement
• His rebellion made another civil war inevitable
 Sulla’s Reforms
• The tribunate was weakened
– to prevent another C. Gracchus
• Increase in praetors to eight (now 10 magistrates
with imperium)
– to deal more effectively with 10 provinces
• Governors needed approval from senate or People
to wage war, etc.
– to restrain the often willful activity of provincial
governors
• New senators were enrolled to make up for losses
– mostly from equestrian class
 Caesar
Gaius Iulius Caesar
 Caesar’s Life

• 100 – 15 March 44 BCE

• Born into a patrician family that claimed
descent from Venus and Aeneas
• Wide-ranging career of political ambition
• Wielded great influence through a political
alliance with Pompey and Crassus
– the so-called First Triumvirate
• Conquest in Gaul, etc.
– easy defeat of Pharnaces at Zela in 47 BCE
(Crimean territories): ueni, uidi, uici
• Relationship with Cleopatra
– son: Ptolemy Caesar
• Civil War
– a bloody struggle that end with Caesar in
control of the Roman state
• Author of two surviving Commentarii
• Accorded extraordinary
honours by the Senate
• Dressed in the manner of
early kings, but did not
assume the title rex
• Instituted a divine cult
– M. Antonius was
designated flamen
• Assassinated by a hastily
arranged conspiracy as he
prepared to attack Parthia
– the prospect of being ruled
by an absent divine
monarch was intolerable
even to his friends
Where was Caesar assassinated?
 Caesar’s Last Words
• Et tu, Brute (lit. “You too, Brutus)
– Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Act iii, Scene
1, line 76
– a reference to M. Iunius Brutus, a supporter
• His last words were really in Greek: kai su,
teknon (lit. “You too, son”)
• What do these words mean?
Antioch, 2nd century AD
 Why was Caesar assassinated?
• It was widely believed that Caesar would restore
the republic (much as Sulla did)
• His appointment as lifetime dictator suggested
otherwise
• The conspiracy was led by Romans who believed
strongly in the old senatorial oligarchy
• They thought that Caesar himself was the only
obstacle to a return of the old system
• In this they were mistaken
 After Caesar’s Death
• The old republican system did not return after
Caesar’s death
• Hostilities resumed between the supporters of the
conspirators and those loyal to Caesar
• Eventually the conflict was between M. Antonius
and Caesar Octavian (Ceasar’s adopted heir)
• The Battle of Actium (31 BCE) was decisive
• Antony and Cleopatra withdrew to Egypt and
committed suicide
• Octavian and his supports now controlled the
Mediterranean world
Cleopatra
Black basalt
statue of
Cleopatra VII
Basalt staue (detail)
 Cleopatra
• Cleopatra VII (69-30 BCE)
• Became queen in 51 BCE
– ruled first alone, later with her younger brothers
• Bore children to both Caesar and M. Antonius
• Very successful in her rule over Egypt
• An expert linguist: the first Ptolemy to know
Egyptian
– spoke several languages, but not Latin
• According to Plutarch, it was her conversation,
not her looks, that was the secret of her success
• The legend of Cleopatra proved to be more
powerful than the historical record
– said to be the author of treatises on hair-
dressing and cosmetics
• Her liaison with M. Antonius was the focus
of Octavian’s propaganda
– ‘monster’
– ‘wicked woman’
– fear of Egyptian wealth?
– Foreignness?
 Horace on the Death of Cleopatra
(Odes 1.37)

Now let the drinking begin! Now let us thump the ground
with unfettered feet! Now is the time, my friends, to load
the couches of the gods with a feast fit for the Salii!
Before this it was sacrilege to bring the Caecuban out from
our fathers’ cellars, at a time when the queen, along with
her contaminated flock of men diseased by vice
(contaminato cum grege turpium / morbo uirorum), was
devising mad ruin for the Capitol and death for the empire
— a woman so out of control that she could hope for
anything at all, drunk, as she was, with the sweet wine of
success.
... But her frenzy was sobered by the survival of
scarcely one ship from the flames; and her mind,
crazed with Mareotic wine, was brought down to
face real terror when Caesar pursued her, pressing
her with oars as she flew away from Italy, like a
hawk after soft doves or a swift hunter after a hare
on the plains of snowy Thessaly, to put that monster
of doom (fatale monstrum) in chains.
Determined to die more nobly, she showed no fear of
the sword in the manner of a woman, nor did she use
her swift fleet to gain some hidden shore. She had the
strength of mind to gaze on her ruined palace with a
calm countenance, and the courage to handle the sharp-
toothed serpents, letting her body drink in their black
venom. Once she had resolved to die, she was all the
more defiant — determined, no doubt, to cheat the
cruel (saeuis) Liburnians: she would not be stripped of
her royalty and conveyed to face a jeering triumph
(superbo … triumpho): no humble woman (humilis
mulier) she.
Royal ordinance
from Cleopatra VII,
granting tax
privileges in Egypt
to Publius Canidius
(Crassus), Antony’s
lieutenant (33 BCE)
genestho — ‘Let it happen’