Western Civilization

brothers to bring reforms had opened the door to more

instability and further violence.

A New Role for the Roman Army:

Marius and Sulla

In the closing years of the second centuryB.C.E., a series

of military disasters gave rise to a fresh outburst of popu-

lar anger against the old leaders of the senate. Military

defeats in northern Africa under a senate-appointed gen-

eral encouraged Marius (MAR-ee-uss)—a “new man”

from the equestrian order—to run for the consulship on

a “win the war” campaign slogan. Marius won and

became a consul for 107B.C.E., after which he took com-

mand of the army in Africa and brought the war to a suc-

cessful conclusion. He was then called on to defeat the

Celts, who threatened an invasion of Italy. Marius was

made consul for five years, from 104 to 100B.C.E.; raised

a new army; and decisively defeated the Celts, leaving

him in a position of personal ascendancy in Rome.

In raising a new army, Marius initiated military

reforms that proved to have drastic consequences. The

Roman army had traditionally been a conscript army of

small landholders, but Marius recruited volunteers from

both the urban and rural proletariat who possessed no

property. These volunteers swore an oath of loyalty to

the general, not the senate, and thus inaugurated a pro-

fessional-type army that might no longer be subject to

the state. Moreover, because generals promised these

men land to recruit them, the generals had to play poli-

tics to get legislation passed that would provide land for

their veterans. Marius left a powerful legacy. He had cre-

ated a new system of military recruitment that placed

much power in the hands of individual generals.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla (SULL-uh) was the next gen-

eral to take advantage of the new military system. The

senate had placed him in charge of a war in Asia Minor,

but when the council of the plebs tried to transfer com-

mand of this war to Marius, a civil war ensued. Sulla

won, seized Rome itself in 82B.C.E., and forced the sen-

ate to grant him the title of dictator to “reconstitute

the republic.” After conducting a reign of terror to wipe

out all opposition, Sulla revised the constitution to

restore power to the senate and eliminated most of the

powers of the popular assemblies and the tribunes of

the plebs. In 79B.C.E., believing that he had restored

the traditional republic governed by a powerful senate,

he retired. But his real legacy was quite different from

what he had intended. His example of using an army

to seize power would prove most attractive to ambi-

tious men.

The Death of the Republic

For the next fifty years, Roman history would be char-

acterized by two important features: the jostling for

power by a number of strong individuals and the civil

wars generated by their conflicts. Three men came to

hold enormous military and political power—Crassus

(KRASS-uss), Pompey (PAHM-pee), and Julius Caesar.

Crassus, who was known as the richest man in Rome,

had successfully put down the major slave rebellion led

by Spartacus. Pompey had returned from a successful

military command in Spain in 71B.C.E. and been hailed

as a military hero. Julius Caesar had been a spokesman

for the populares from the beginning of his political ca-

reer and had a military command in Spain. In 60B.C.E.,

Caesar joined with Crassus and Pompey to form a coali-

tion that historians call the First Triumvirate.

Though others had made political deals before, the

combined wealth and power of these three men was

Caesar.Conqueror of Gaul and member of the First

Triumvirate, Julius Caesar is perhaps the best-known figure of the

late republic. Caesar became dictator of Rome in 47B.C.E.and

after his victories in the civil war was made dictator for life. Some

members of the senate who resented his power assassinated him

in 44B.C.E. Pictured is a marble copy of a bust of Caesar.(Museo

Archeologico Nazionale, Naples//Scala/Art Resource, NY)

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Republic (133–31B.C.E.) 113

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