Western Civilization

instability characterizes the period of Roman history

from 133 until 31B.C.E., when Octavian defeated Mark

Antony and stood supreme over the Roman world. By

that time, the constitution of the Roman republic was

in shambles.

Background: Social, Economic, and

Political Problems

By the second centuryB.C.E., the senate had become

the effective governing body of the Roman state. It

consisted of three hundred men, drawn primarily from

the landed aristocracy; they remained senators for life

and held the chief magistracies of the republic. During

the wars of the third and second centuries, the senate

came to exercise enormous power. It directed the wars

and took control of both foreign and domestic policy,

including financial affairs.

Moreover, the magistracies and senate were increas-

ingly controlled by a relatively select circle of wealthy

and powerful families, both patrician and plebeian,

called the nobiles(NAW-bee-lays) (“nobles”). In the

hundred years from 233 to 133B.C.E., 80 percent of

the consuls came from twenty-six families; moreover,

50 percent came from only ten families. Hence, the

nobiles constituted a governing oligarchy whose mem-

bers managed, through landed wealth, patronage, and

intimidation, to maintain their hold over the magistra-

cies and senate and thus guide the destiny of Rome

while running the state in their own interests.

By the end of the second centuryB.C.E., two types of

aristocratic leaders, called theoptimates(ahp-tuh-MAH-

tayz) (“the best men”) and thepopulares(PAWP-oo-

lahr-ayss) (“favoring the people”), became prominent.

These were terms of political rhetoric that were used

by individuals within the aristocracy against fellow aris-

tocratic rivals to distinguish one set of tactics from

another. The optimates controlled the senate and

wished to maintain their oligarchical privileges, while

the populares were usually other ambitious aristocrats

who used the people’s assemblies as instruments to

break the domination of the optimates. The conflicts

between these aristocratic leaders and their supporters

engulfed the first centuryB.C.E. in political turmoil.

Of course, the aristocrats formed only a tiny minority

of the Roman people. The backbone of the Roman state

and army had traditionally been the small farmers. But

economic changes that began in the period of the Punic

Wars increasingly undermined the position of that

group. Their lands had been severely damaged during

the Second Punic War when Hannibal invaded Italy.

Moreover, in order to win the wars, Rome had to

increase the term of military service from two to six

years. When they returned home, many farmers found

their farms so deteriorated that they chose to sell out

instead of remaining on the land. By this time, capitalis-

tic agriculture was also increasing rapidly. Landed aristo-

crats had been able to develop large estates (the

latifundia) by taking over state-owned land and by buy-

ing out small peasant owners. These large estates relied

on slave and tenant labor and frequently concentrated

on cash crops, such as grapes for wine, olives, and sheep

for wool, which small farmers could not afford to do.

Thus, the rise of the latifundia contributed to the

decline in the number of small citizen farmers. Because

the latter group traditionally provided the foundation of

the Roman army, the number of men available for mili-

tary service declined. Moreover, many of these small

farmers drifted to the cities, especially Rome, forming a

large class of day laborers who possessed no property.

This new class of urban proletariat formed a highly

unstable mass with the potential to create much trouble

in depressed times.

The Reforms of the Gracchi

In 133B.C.E., Tiberius Gracchus (ty-BEER-ee-uss GRAK-

us), himself a member of the aristocracy and a new

tribune, came to believe that the underlying cause of

Rome’s problems was the decline of the small farmer.

Consequently, Tiberius bypassed the senate, where he

knew his rivals would oppose his proposal, and had the

council of the plebs pass a land reform bill that author-

ized the government to reclaim public land held by

large landowners and to distribute it to landless

Romans. Many senators, themselves large landowners

whose estates included large tracts of public land, were

furious, and a group of them took the law into their

own hands and assassinated Tiberius.

The efforts of Tiberius Gracchus were continued by

his brother Gaius (GY-uss), elected tribune for 123 and

122 B.C.E. Gaius, too, pushed for the distribution of land

to displaced farmers. But he broadened his reform pro-

gram with measures that would benefit theequestrian

order, a rising group of wealthy citizens who wanted a

share in the political power held by the ruling aristoc-

racy. Many senators, hostile to Gaius’s reforms and fear-

ful of his growing popularity, instigated mob action that

resulted in the death of the reformer and many of his

friends in 121B.C.E. The attempts of the Gracchus

112 Chapter 5The Roman Republic

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