The History Book

60

enabled him to rule as emperor,

bringing the 500-year-old Roman

Republic to an end in all but name.

Republican origins

From its ancient beginnings as a

cluster of small villages on seven

hills by the River Tiber, Rome grew

into a city-state that was just one

of many on the Italian peninsula.

According to legend, Rome was

first ruled by kings, but in 509 bce,

the monarchy was overthrown and

it became a republic. A new

constitution allowed the election of

two top officials, known as consuls,

to run the state, but in order to

prevent abuse of power, their term

was limited to one year. The office

of king was also prohibited, and

special provision was made for the

appointment of a dictator to replace

the consuls in times of crisis—his

term being limited to six months.

The fledgling Roman Republic

proved remarkably successful:

between 500 and 300 bce, it

increased its extent and power

THE ASSASSINATION OF JULIUS CAESAR

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Fall of the Roman Republic

BEFORE

509 bce Rome becomes a

republic in which a small

number of wealthy families

share power.

202 bce Rome defeats

Carthage in North Africa and

the empire expands rapidly.

88–82 bce Civil war between

rival generals Sulla and Marius

tips the republic into crisis.

AFTER

31 bce Octavian’s victory at

the Battle of Actium leads

to his accession as Rome’s

first emperor and the end

of the republic.

79 ce Vesuvius erupts,

destroying Pompeii.

2nd century ce The Roman

Empire reaches its greatest

extent, with a population of

around 60 million people.

O

n March 15, 44 bce,

the life of Julius Caesar,

dictator of Rome, came

to a bloody end at the hands of a

faction of aristocratic senators who

were determined to rescue the

Roman Republic from what they

saw as Caesar’s tyranny. In reality,

the dictator’s death did not save

the republic: it merely unleashed

the latest in a series of civil wars,

which exhausted the Roman state.

It was left powerless to resist the

rise to absolute power of Caesar’s

great-nephew Octavian. Taking the

title Augustus, Octavian created

a new political arrangement that

The oligarchic political

system in the Roman

Republic is corrupt

and decaying.

Rome’s nobility

dominate the Senate,

protecting their privileges at

the expense of political change,

leading to a crisis of

the republic.

Octavian wins the

civil war to determine

Caesar’s heir. Calling himself

Augustus, he becomes the

first emperor of Rome.

Augustus ensures that the

office of emperor survives

by making Tiberius his heir,

transforming Rome into a

hereditary monarchy.

After successful military

campaigns, Julius Caesar

becomes dictator and forces

political and social reforms

on the nobility.

Fearing Caesar’s

popularity and power,

a group of senators

assassinate him.

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61

through a combination of conquest

and diplomacy until it incorporated

the whole of Italy. Between 202 and

120 bce, Rome came to dominate

parts of North Africa, the Iberian

Peninsula, Greece, and what is

now southern France. Its conquered

territories were organized into

provinces, ruled by short-term

governors who maintained order

and oversaw the collection of taxes.

By the 1st century bce, Rome

was a Mediterranean superpower,

yet its long tradition of collective

government, in which no individual

could gain too much control, was

being challenged by the personal

ambitions of a few immensely

powerful military men. A series

of bloody civil wars, internal

political struggles, and civil unrest

culminated with the dictatorship

of Julius Caesar, a brilliant general

and statesman, whose murder at

the hands of his political enemies

led to the demise of the republic

and the birth of the Roman Empire.

The republic crumbles

In the period in which Julius

Caesar came to prominence on

the Roman political scene (around

70 bce), Rome was in turmoil: beset

with ever worsening social and

economic problems and torn by

political conflict. Early in Rome’s

history, the non-slave population

had been officially split into two

classes: the patricians (members

of the ancient hereditary nobility

and wealthy landowners) and the

plebeians, or plebs for short (the

common people). On the formation

of the republic, only patricians

had been entitled to hold office in

the Senate—Rome’s governing and

advisory council—but in 368–367

bce, a constitutional amendment

allowed the election of wealthier

plebs too, and the result was a

power-sharing arrangement.

However, in reality, a small

group of patrician families known

as the Optimates (the “Best Men”)

had long dominated the Senate and

jealously guarded their privileges.

In the late Roman Republic, those

who championed the rights of the

plebs—the Populares (the “People’s

Men”)—sought popular support

against the Optimates, either in the

interests of the people themselves,

or more often, in pursuit of their

own careers. The self-interested

Optimates resisted making the

social and economic reforms that

were urgently required to meet the

changing needs of the Roman

people. In Italy and the provinces

an unequal system of taxation and

corrupt governance were causing

social unrest, while in the city of

Rome itself, the infrastructure was

barely able to cope with a growing

population. The empire’s rapid

expansion had brought a flood of ❯❯

See also: Athenian democracy 46–51 ■ The conquests of Alexander the Great 52–53 ■ The Battle of Milvian Bridge 66–67 ■

The Sack of Rome 68–69 ■ Belisarius retakes Rome 76–77 ■ The crowning of Charlemagne 82–83 ■ The fall of Constantinople 138–41

ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

In Caesar were combined

genius, method, memory,

literature, prudence,

deliberation, and industry.

Cicero

2nd Philippic, section 116

Trajan’s column in Rome is one of the

most valuable sources of information

about the Roman army—it is decorated

with a spiraling relief depicting the

well-drilled legions on campaign.

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