stayed with the family that had owned them to work for pay
in the fi elds or in the household.THE ROMAN REPUBLIC (509–27 B.C.E.)
Historians refer to the period aft er 509 b.c.e. as the Roman
Republic because in that year the monarchy came to an end
and families of leading citizens ruled Rome. According to the
Roman historian Titus Livius (ca. 59 b.c.e.–17 c.e.), better
known to modern readers as Livy, the last of the Roman kings
was Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (“Tarquin the Proud”). His
son, Sextus Tarquinius, raped a Roman noblewoman named
Lucretia (an event memorialized in William Shakespeare’s
long poem Th e Rape of Lucrece). She told her kinsmen what
had happened and demanded justice before she committed
suicide. Her husband and brother led a popular uprising that
expelled the ruling house and established a republican form
of government with elected magistrates.
Th e end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of
the Roman Empire is a modern distinction that the Romans
themselves did not make. Modern historians variously date
the beginning of the empire at 44 b.c.e., when Julius Caesar
was granted complete authority as emperor; 31 b.c.e., when
Octavian defeated Marcus Antonius in the Battle of Actium;
or 27 b.c.e., when Octavian was granted the title Augustus.
Th e precise date is not important. What is important is that
over a 500-year period, Rome grew in size and infl uence, pri-
marily through military conquest.
Th e growth in the power and military prowess of Rome is
relevant to its social organization. Repeated military victories
lent a great dea l of prestige to Rome’s most impor ta nt fa mi lies
and to its senators. Booty seized during military campaigns
gave many Roman ambassadors and generals, who all served
in the Senate, a great deal of wealth. With this wealth came a
major shift in values and growing divisions and antagonisms
in the social structure of the republic.
During the legendary period Romans valued frugality,
modesty, public service, family, and worship of the gods.
Among women, the ideal was the Roman “matron” who ruled
her household and labored at craft s such as weaving. As the
Roman Republic grew wealthier from conquest, a large class
of nobility and statesmen became more arrogant and ostenta-
tious. Many had traveled in the East, where they came into
contact with the Greeks. Th ey tried to imitate the Greeks by
building large, elaborately decorated homes and massive pub-
lic buildings. Th ey seemed to compete with one another over
who could hold the most lavish banquets or otherwise display
their wealth. Women, too, began to imitate the Greeks by cre-
ating lavish lifestyles, oft en using inheritances from husbands
or fathers who had died in warfare. Th is kind of ostentation
got so out of hand that laws were passed allowing the state to
confi scate excessive jewelry and gold.
During the Roman Republic considerable friction grew
between the wealthy elites in the cities and the nation’s rural
population. Many men from the countryside were recruited
into the military, meaning that they were not able to tendtheir fi elds. Th en the republic embarked on a series of wars,
called the Punic Wars, with the Carthaginians. During the
Second Punic War, the Carthaginians’ leading general, Han-
nibal (247–182 b.c.e.), led an army over the Alps from Spain
into the Italian peninsula, laying waste to the countryside as
he went. Meanwhile, Rome was cutting down the peninsula’s
forests to build ships for its navy. Th e result was that rural
Rome was devastated. Its farms became far less productive,
forcing the Romans to rely more heavily on imported grain
from such places as Sicily. Many people tried to convert their
farms into vineyards and olive orchards, but these types of
operations required a large fi nancial investment and years of
work before they paid off.
With farm prices plummeting, many members of the
Roman elite purchased land in the countryside. Th ey used
this land in part for recreational pursuits such as hunting
and fi shing. Th e also took over tracts of land that had been
seized when Rome subdued other areas of the peninsula. In
many cases they farmed this land, adding to their wealth, us-
ing thousands of slaves they had captured in war. Because of
the greed of these landlords, the slaves were treated cruelly.
Th e result was a series of slave revolts beginning in 135 b.c.e.
Th e most famous of these revolts was the one led by Sparta-
cus in 73 b.c.e.
Many rural Romans were unable to complete with the
absentee Roman landlords whose land was worked by slaves.
Many were forced off their land into the cities, where they
could get jobs. Because of the immense amount of building
taking place, jobs were plentiful, at least for a while. Most
jobs were in the construction trades, as wealthy Romans built
large homes and the government funded the construction of
public buildings, aqueducts, and the like.
Th is new class of workers enjoyed the attractions that
city life off ered, but their relocation caused another problem
for the republic: increasing diffi culty fi nding military re-
cruits. During the time of the Roman Republic a man had
to own property to serve in the military, in part because he
had to provide his own weapons and horses. As men left the
countryside for the cities, they were no longer property own-
ers, so the pool of potential military recruits was shrinking,
and, given the farm crisis, those who remained on the land
were reluctant to leave it for military service. Th e quandary
for Rome was that this diffi culty in manning the army came
when Rome was essentially living off tribute (money paid
by foreign rulers for protection and as a sign of submission)
and booty seized in war. Making matters worse, Rome had to
maintain armies of occupation in conquered territories. Th e
result was a strain on the economy—Rome essentially spent
its entire yearly revenue—and growing friction between so-
cial classes.
Th is friction between social classes not only aff ected the
relationship between city elites and people in the country-
side. It also aff ected social classes within the cities, especially
the city of Rome itself. Two major social classes existed, the
patricians and the plebeians. Th e patrician class included1036 social organization: Rome0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1036 1036 10/10/07 2:30:50 PM