Roman revolution

In 133 BC, was a democratic republic. Little more than a hundred years later it was governed by an emperor. (Emperor = All Powerful Single Ruler)

Around 100 B.C the Roman people still had most of the power. It is true that rich aristocrats dominated politics. In order to be elected into a government position, you ​ had to be very rich. It is also true that even the system of voting was weighted to give more influence to the votes of the wealthy. Despite all this though, ultimate power lay with the Roman people. Mass assemblies elected government officials, made the laws and made many major decisions for Rome. Rome prided itself on being a 'free republic' and centuries later it was the political model for the founding fathers of the United States.

Centuries = 100’s of Years!

By 14 AD, when the first died, popular elections in Rome were no more. Power was located not in the senate but in the imperial palace (where the emperor lived). The assumption was that Augustus's heirs would inherit his rule over the Roman world - and so they did. (MONARCHY!)

This was nothing short of a revolution, brought about through ​ ​ a century of constant civil strife, and sometimes open warfare. This ended when Augustus - 'Octavian' as he was then called - finally defeated his last remaining rivals and Cleopatra in 31 BC and established himself on the throne. Why did this revolution happen?

Many Romans themselves put the key turning point in 133 BC. This was the year when a young aristocrat, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, held the office of 'tribune.

The course of events is clear enough. Gracchus proposed to distribute to poor citizens stretches of state-owned land in Italy which had been illegally occupied by the rich. But instead of following the usual practice of first consulting the senate, he presented his proposal directly to an assembly of the people.

In the process, he deposed from office another tribune who opposed the distribution and argued that his reforms should be funded from the money that came from the new Roman imperial of Asia.

Gracchus's land bill was passed. But when he tried to stand for election for another year's term as tribune (a radical step - as one of the republican principles was that each office should be held for one year only), he was murdered by a group of senators.

The tribune Gracchus's motivation is much less clear. Some modern historians have seen him as a genuine social reformer, responding to the distress of the poor. ​ ​ Others have argued that he was cynically exploiting social concerns to gain power for himself.

Whatever his motives were, his career set the tone for many of the main issues that Rome would experience for the next 100 years.

Challenge of the army The consequences of Rome's growing empire were crucial. Many of the poor had fallen into poverty after serving for long periods with armies overseas - and returning to Italy to find their farmland taken over by wealthier neighbours.

How were the needs of such soldiers to be met? Who in Rome was to profit from its empire, which already stretched from Spain to the other end of the Mediterranean?

Tiberius's decision to use the revenues of Asia for his land distribution was a provocative claim - that the poor as well as the rich should enjoy the fruits of Rome's conquests. But Tiberius's desire to be elected Tribune again for a second term worried people. The government of Rome had few ways to control men who wanted to break out of the carefully regulated system of 'power sharing' that was what usually happened.

Intensifying crisis The events of 133 BC were followed by a series of intensifying problems. In 123-122 BC, Tiberius's brother Gaius was elected to tribune. He then introduced a whole package of extreme ideas to help the poor Romans. Some of his ideas included government assistance in buying corn for the poor. Tiberius was also murdered, just as his brother was before!

Around the year 100, a Roman named Gaius Marius defeated enemies in Africa, and finally in Italy, when Rome's allies in Italy rebelled against her. Remember, fame and wealth were earned most easily in Rome by fighting in the military!

Gaius Marius became consul of Rome and held the office 7 times in total. This was totally against the way that things were normally in done in Roman politics. One man having that much power for so long was not usual.

Gaius Marius then came into violent conflict with a dude named , another Roman warlord, that marched his army into Rome in 82 B.C and made himself dictator!

The office of dictator was designed to give a politician short term powers in an emergency. Sulla held it for two years, in the course of which he had well over a thousand of his political opponents viciously put to death.

Unlike , however, who was to become dictator 40 years later, Sulla retired from the office and died in his bed.

Out of The Chaos Comes Caesar

The middle years of the 100’s B.C were marked by violence in the of Rome, and fighting between gangs supporting rival politicians and political programmes. (Civil war). Out of the chaos came the victorious Julius Caesar! Using the old title of 'dictator', he notoriously received the kind of honours that were usually reserved for the gods. He also embarked on another program of reform ​ including such radical measures as the cancellation of debts and giving homes to homeless veterans.

He did not, however, have long to effect change. For in 44 BC he too was murdered by a group of senators, in the name of 'liberty'.

Not much 'liberty' was to follow. Instead there was another decade of civil war as Caesar's supporters first of all battled it out with his assassins, and when they had been finished off, fought among themselves. (More Civil War)

There was no other major player left when in 31 BC Octavian (Caesar's nephew and adopted son) defeated Antony at a naval battle near Actium in northern Greece.

Augustus, Emperor of Rome (Bye-bye Republic)

Marble statue of Augustus

During his 40-year rule, Octavian (Augustus) established the political structure that was to be the basis of Roman imperial government for the next four centuries.

Some elements of the old republican system, such as magistracies, survived in name at least. But they were in the gift of the emperor ( princeps in ). ​ ​ He also directly controlled most of the of the Roman world through his subordinates, and he nationalised the army to make it loyal to the state and emperor alone. No longer was it to be possible for generals, like or Caesar, to enter the political fray with their troops behind them.

There was a good deal of clever spin here. He labeled himself'Augustus. This can be translated to something like “blessed by the gods.”

No less important, like many autocrats since, he invested heavily in reshaping the city of Rome with massive building projects advertising his rule, while poets sang the praises of him and the new Rome. He spared no effort promoting his family as a future imperial dynasty (Monarchy).

Augustus was both smart and lucky. When he died in 14 AD, aged well over 70, he was succeeded by his stepson, Tiberius. By then the idea of the 'free republic' was just the romantic pipe-dream of some people who wished for the old days.

Autocrat = Someone with total power

Question… 1)Summarize in your own words the transition of Rome from Republic to Empire/Monarchy.