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SRP-Backgrounder-Two.Pdf Introduction Letter Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: my name is Kevin Lei and I am delighted to serve as your Director for the Senate of the Roman Republic. Currently, I attend Port Moody Secondary as a grade 12 student in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. I have been involved with Model United Nations since ConnectMUN 2014, and am grateful to have made it a significant part of my life. In my spare time I enjoy reading, hanging out with friends, and bemoaning the lack of free time that I have, but of course you have already gleaned this from my bio on the committee webpage. If you are new to Model UN, I am honoured that the Senate of the Roman Empire is where you get to have your first taste of the magic. If you are very much experienced, I hope that the immersion and debate will provide everything a historical committee should and more for you. All in all, with the able assistance of my chair Michael Lau, I hope I can make the Senate a memorable experience for you, even with my complete lack of fluency in Latin! We look forward to welcoming you to the conference in March. Sincerely, Kevin Lei SRE Director – CAHSMUN 2017 CAHSMUN 2017 SRP Backgrounder 1 Committee Overview The Roman Senate was a political institution in Ancient Rome that was typically regarded to be established in the time of the Kings and survived until after the fall of the Western Empire to the so-called “barbarians”.1 The height of its powers were in the middle Republic, but its powers declined during the Late Republic (roughly 167 – 44 BCE) when Rome slowly gave way to autocracy.2 As this is a historical committee, it must be noted that the date in which the Senate will convene is January 1, 63 BCE, also known as the Year of the Consulship of Cicero and Hybrida. Without further ado, may all delegates bring honour to their family and the Senatus Populusque Romanus! Topic II: The Rise of Militaristic Populism Overview “There is nothing man will not attempt when great enterprises hold out the promise of great rewards.” – Livy3 Rome from its founding had complicated matters between the patricians and the plebeians.4 The patricians were a group of ruling families that were, according to family legends, descended from the first hundred senators appointed when Romulus founded the city of Rome. At the founding of the Republic, only patricians were afforded the privilege to hold political office, but after a period of time known as the Conflict of the Orders (494 BCE to 287 BCE), plebeians were eventually granted much the same privileges. After economic conditions shifted with Rome’s conquest of the east, the conflict between the different classes of Romans began to come to a head once again. The position of Tribune of the Plebs, previously fairly insignificant, began to play a huge role as they were the sole voice representing “the people” where the Senate was more concerned with expanding their own estates. Civil wars began to crop up at an alarming frequency between those who desired to shake up the status quo and those who desired to keep it going the same way. Political ambition in the upper classes became ever more ruthless. In short, Rome seemed to be falling apart at the seams.5 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Senate-Roman-history 2 Ibid. 3 https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Livy 4 http://www.ushistory.org/civ/6a.asp 5 http://www.ushistory.org/civ/6b.asp CAHSMUN 2017 SRP Backgrounder 2 This topic is relevant in hindsight because it directly relates to the ultimate demise of the Republic. Ultimately, the most visionary and militarily talented populare leader, Julius Caesar, was able to assume full power6, and his adoptive son Augustus was able to transform the Republic into a dynastic autocracy.7 However, at 63 BCE, the political balance could very well swing either way. The Republic might not be overturned and keep going with gradual reforms, but it could also collapse under the weight of its own imbalances. Thus, delegates should be well aware that the future of Rome and the Republic hangs in the balance, and it is putty in their paws. Timeline8 133 BCE – Tiberius Gracchus becomes Tribune of the Plebs and introduces agrarian legislation, but is murdered by supporters of the conservative faction 123-122 BCE – Gaius Gracchus becomes Tribune of the Plebs and introduces even more ambitious reforms, but faces the same fate as his brother 104-100 BCE – Marius’s consulships take place, during which he extinguishes an invading German army and reforms the army to make it more professionalized 100 BCE – Death of Saturninus, another agrarian reformer and ally of Marius killed by conservatives 91-88 BCE – Social War, in which Rome fights against her Italian allies who wished to have the privilege of citizenship 88 BCE – During a civil war against supporters of Marius, Sulla marches on Rome, an unprecedented action at the time. 82 BCE – Sulla becomes dictator and restores the power of the Senate and reduces the power of the tribunes 71 BCE – Crassus defeats the slave rebellion of Spartacus !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 6 Ibid. 7 http://www.ushistory.org/civ/6c.asp 8 http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romerepublic/a/061109RomanRepublicTimeline.htm CAHSMUN 2017 SRP Backgrounder 3 63 BCE – Marcus Tullius Cicero, a new man and a renowned orator, becomes Consul after a career of winning public offices at the youngest age eligible. Historical Analysis Populistic politics in the Roman Republic springs directly from the period immediately preceding it, during which Rome established hegemony over the entire Mediterranean basin. In succession, Rome extinguished Carthage, Macedon, and the Seleucid Empire as rival states in wars of conquest.9 This completely transformed the nature of Rome’s economy and government. The Republic was originally established as a government for a small, independent city-state; after engaging in foreign conquest, this government had to run an overseas empire. In addition, the previous balance between the patricians and the plebeians had run its course. The domination of the known world also brought back uncountable quantities of wealth to Rome, which not only made the rich even richer, but included slaves captured as prisoners of war. Slave labour fueled the patricians’ expansion of their large agrarian estates into agglomerations known as latifundia, and made the former Roman archetype of the citizen-farmer-soldier obsolete.10 Although Rome gained affluence, power, and splendour from its position as hegemon, she also gained a host of new problems to deal with. The first wave of these populists came from the rank of the ruling class itself. The Gracchi brothers came from the esteemed Scipio-Paulus-Gracchus dynasty, who produced many of Rome’s finest conquerors.11 Thus, it was that more biting when Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus used the position of Tribune, a position representing the plebeians that can override the Senate’s legislation, to introduce radical reform proposals that would redistribute enormous land estates of the rich to the urban poor, and extend the privilege of citizenship to the rest of the Italians.12 Although these bills were ultimately rejected and both brothers assassinated13, this would presage developments in the future that would soon take their course, but not without fierce resistance from the established classes. Although unrest and instability would continue, the next thunderbolt would not come until the 100s BCE. This period of Roman politics was dominated by the seven-time consul Gaius Marius, who combined the populism of the Gracchi with professionalism in the army. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 9 http://www.international-relations.com/History/Roman-Power.htm 10 http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rauhn/fall_of_republic.htm 11 http://www.the-romans.co.uk/gracchi.htm 12 http://www.ancient.eu/article/95/ 13 Ibid. CAHSMUN 2017 SRP Backgrounder 4 Fending off both Germanic invasion and African rebellion, his army became increasingly loyal to their general, rather than solely to the Roman state.14 Following this, the other cities in the Italian peninsula rebelled against Roman rule in what has been dubbed as the “Social War” due to continuously being denied the liberties of the rule of law, representation, and citizenship.15 The demands of these cities for citizenship were eventually granted after the rebellion was put down, just as Gaius Gracchus previously proposed. However, one Roman civil war would lead to another, as the victorious commanders in the Social War quickly turned on one another in disagreements and affairs of besmirched honour. Marius, the previous first among equals of the Roman state, now had a challenger in his former lieutenant Sulla, and they would face one another in myriad catastrophic Roman civil wars of general against general.16 During this conflagration, Sulla shook the Republic’s core by marching on Rome with his troops and becoming dictator for life, both actions having never been done by a Roman general before.17 The consequences of this were that to the next generation of Romans, anything was possible for victorious generals. Sulla broke all precedents to march on Rome and to fight against another general, and thus, these actions were opened up as possibilities for ambitious senators following him. Catiline, among others, would look to Sulla’s example and think that it was not so absurd to launch a coup after he failed to achieve the political summits he desires. Current Situation Lucius Sergius Catilina, commonly known as Catiline, was a Senator born to one of the most august families of Republican Rome, the gens Sergia.18 Thus, he was under considerable pressure to keep up with the other august families and reach for political heights and the consulship.
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