Post by Christopher Martin on Oct 16, 2016 21:45:22 GMT
VICTORY ABROAD, DISCORD AT HOME: 133-61 BC
The problems of small farmers, the backbone of Rome's citizen army, became acute in the 130s (BC). During the Second Punic War, many had been forced to abandon their farms (recall that Hannibal had been campaigning in Italy). Unable to regain them when they came home, the farmers wold out to larger landowners and many migrated to Rome in search of work. But Rome had no industry and soon many farmers fell into the poorest class, thereby becoming ineligible for military service. This hardly worried the Roman oligarchy, itself growing ever richer. But the reality of the blow to Rome's middle class would have immense ramifications.
AGRARIAN REFORM
In 133BC, Tiberius Gracchus was elected tribune. A member of the aristocracy but schooled in Greek philosophy, Tiberius proposed that ager publicus (public land), often gained by conquest but which the rich had grabbed, should be redistributed to the poor in small lots. Such a proposal was half-expected, but what alarmed the Senate was that Tiberius proposed his reform directly to the Assembly, without taking it through the Senate, employing the Lex Hortensia to start a land commission. He then flouted custom by trying to have himself re-elected tribune. Tiberius also issued a challenge to the Senate's power over foreign policy. It was this, perhaps even more than his land reforms, that so enraged conservative senators, who mobilized their supporters, and had Tiberius and 300 of this followers clubbed to death. Blood had been shed in Roman politics for the first time in nearly four centuries.
Ten years later (123 BC), the more radical younger brother of Tiberius, re-enacted the agrarian reforms and proposed establishing colonies of landless citizens at recently conquered Carthage while subsidizing grain for the poor. To pay for this, he auctioned the rights to collect taxes in the new province of Asia to the knights (equestrians), to whom he also transferred control of the criminal law courts form the Senate. This boosted the knightly, or equestrian, order, the second richest class, which in turn increasingly challenged the Senate's powers. Gaius, too, paid for his reforms with his life. He failed to be elected for a third time as tribune and was killed as the Senate issued a senatus consultum ultimatum, (a "final decree"). From now on, the Senate would be divided between the optimates, in reality reactionaries, and the populares, nobles and others who took the people's side or more often utilized popular support for their own ends. The struggle between these two factions in the end wrecked the Republic.
MARIUS AND SULLA
Rome's growing military weakness was starkly exposed by defeats in Mauretania (western North Africa), whose king Jugurtha proved invincible until the election of Gaius Marius as consul. Marius did not come from the nobility, and his frequent re-election as consul - seven times in all - revealed the new powers of the Assembly. Realizing that the legions badly needed recruits from proletarians, the landless citizens, Marius abolished all property qualifications for the army, while making it semi-professional with proper equipment. He encouraged legionaries to look to their generals, not the Senate, for rewards after service. This tie between general and army was to fatally undermine the Republic.
At first, Marius seemed the Republic's saviour, With his revitalized army he crushed the Cimbri and Teutones - barbarians who had overwhelmed two Roman armies - at Aix-en-Provence and in the Po valley in 102-1BC. The Senate then had to accept proposals that Marius' veterans be given lands in Gaul, Greece and Africa as rewards when Marius marched south with some troops. In 90BC the Italian allies, who had been promised but had never received full citizenship, rose in revolt across Italy. The ensuing war was chiefly won by the Lex Julia, granting all free men south of the Po Roman citizenship. The war left more farmers uprooted and more ex-soldiers looking for rewards.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla, one of Marius' ablest generals but a die-hard optimate, went east in 86BC to defeat Mithradates, king of Pontus, who had invaded Greece. Meanwhile Marius, elected consul for the last time, massacred opponents with his troops before dying in January 87BC. The populares' triumph was brief. In 82BC Sulla returned from the east without disbanding his army and, after a battle outside Rome, revived the ancient office of dictator. He used it to proscribe (eliminate) thousands of opponents, rewriting the constitution to make it impossible for anyone to challenge the restored powers of the Senate. The guarantor of this regime was his own army, and when he retired in late 80BC, his reactionary settlement unraveled.
BACKGROUND: CICERO'S COMMONWEALTH
It's a dialogue on Roman politics written between 54 and 51 BC, of which parts have been lost. Cicero was sometimes criticized in his time for using the format of a philosophical dialogue in which Cicero seemed to disguise his criticism of his political adversaries.
YOU CAN FIND THE TEXT HERE
The problems of small farmers, the backbone of Rome's citizen army, became acute in the 130s (BC). During the Second Punic War, many had been forced to abandon their farms (recall that Hannibal had been campaigning in Italy). Unable to regain them when they came home, the farmers wold out to larger landowners and many migrated to Rome in search of work. But Rome had no industry and soon many farmers fell into the poorest class, thereby becoming ineligible for military service. This hardly worried the Roman oligarchy, itself growing ever richer. But the reality of the blow to Rome's middle class would have immense ramifications.
AGRARIAN REFORM
In 133BC, Tiberius Gracchus was elected tribune. A member of the aristocracy but schooled in Greek philosophy, Tiberius proposed that ager publicus (public land), often gained by conquest but which the rich had grabbed, should be redistributed to the poor in small lots. Such a proposal was half-expected, but what alarmed the Senate was that Tiberius proposed his reform directly to the Assembly, without taking it through the Senate, employing the Lex Hortensia to start a land commission. He then flouted custom by trying to have himself re-elected tribune. Tiberius also issued a challenge to the Senate's power over foreign policy. It was this, perhaps even more than his land reforms, that so enraged conservative senators, who mobilized their supporters, and had Tiberius and 300 of this followers clubbed to death. Blood had been shed in Roman politics for the first time in nearly four centuries.
Ten years later (123 BC), the more radical younger brother of Tiberius, re-enacted the agrarian reforms and proposed establishing colonies of landless citizens at recently conquered Carthage while subsidizing grain for the poor. To pay for this, he auctioned the rights to collect taxes in the new province of Asia to the knights (equestrians), to whom he also transferred control of the criminal law courts form the Senate. This boosted the knightly, or equestrian, order, the second richest class, which in turn increasingly challenged the Senate's powers. Gaius, too, paid for his reforms with his life. He failed to be elected for a third time as tribune and was killed as the Senate issued a senatus consultum ultimatum, (a "final decree"). From now on, the Senate would be divided between the optimates, in reality reactionaries, and the populares, nobles and others who took the people's side or more often utilized popular support for their own ends. The struggle between these two factions in the end wrecked the Republic.
MARIUS AND SULLA
Rome's growing military weakness was starkly exposed by defeats in Mauretania (western North Africa), whose king Jugurtha proved invincible until the election of Gaius Marius as consul. Marius did not come from the nobility, and his frequent re-election as consul - seven times in all - revealed the new powers of the Assembly. Realizing that the legions badly needed recruits from proletarians, the landless citizens, Marius abolished all property qualifications for the army, while making it semi-professional with proper equipment. He encouraged legionaries to look to their generals, not the Senate, for rewards after service. This tie between general and army was to fatally undermine the Republic.
At first, Marius seemed the Republic's saviour, With his revitalized army he crushed the Cimbri and Teutones - barbarians who had overwhelmed two Roman armies - at Aix-en-Provence and in the Po valley in 102-1BC. The Senate then had to accept proposals that Marius' veterans be given lands in Gaul, Greece and Africa as rewards when Marius marched south with some troops. In 90BC the Italian allies, who had been promised but had never received full citizenship, rose in revolt across Italy. The ensuing war was chiefly won by the Lex Julia, granting all free men south of the Po Roman citizenship. The war left more farmers uprooted and more ex-soldiers looking for rewards.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla, one of Marius' ablest generals but a die-hard optimate, went east in 86BC to defeat Mithradates, king of Pontus, who had invaded Greece. Meanwhile Marius, elected consul for the last time, massacred opponents with his troops before dying in January 87BC. The populares' triumph was brief. In 82BC Sulla returned from the east without disbanding his army and, after a battle outside Rome, revived the ancient office of dictator. He used it to proscribe (eliminate) thousands of opponents, rewriting the constitution to make it impossible for anyone to challenge the restored powers of the Senate. The guarantor of this regime was his own army, and when he retired in late 80BC, his reactionary settlement unraveled.
BACKGROUND: CICERO'S COMMONWEALTH
It's a dialogue on Roman politics written between 54 and 51 BC, of which parts have been lost. Cicero was sometimes criticized in his time for using the format of a philosophical dialogue in which Cicero seemed to disguise his criticism of his political adversaries.
YOU CAN FIND THE TEXT HERE