Cognella Antiquities Series The Roman Republic A HISTORY FOR STUDENTS Joseph McAlhany University of Connecticut SAN DIEGO Bassim Hamadeh, CEO and Publisher David Miano, Senior Specialist Acquisitions Editor Michelle Piehl, Senior Project Editor Abbey Hastings, Production Editor Emely Villavicencio, Senior Graphic Designer Trey Soto, Licensing Coordinator Natalie Piccotti, Director of Marketing Kassie Graves, Vice President of Editorial Jamie Giganti, Director of Academic Publishing Copyright © 2022 by Cognella, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including pho- tocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information retrieval system without the written permission of Cognella, Inc. For inquiries regarding permissions, translations, foreign rights, audio rights, and any other forms of reproduction, please contact the Cognella Licensing Department at [email protected]. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Cover image: Jean-Paul Laurens, “La Mort de Caton d'Utique,” 1863. All Livy excerpts were translated from Livy, Ab Urbe Condita. Printed in the United States of America. 3970 Sorrento Valley Blvd., Ste. 500, San Diego, CA 92121 Brief Contents Foreword xiii Chapter 1: Last Things First: Of Kings and Consuls 1 Chapter 2: Origin Stories: The Birth of the Roman Republic 29 Chapter 3: Growing Pains: Plebeians and Other Problems 55 Chapter 4: Rome Rising: The Fourth Century 81 Chapter 5: Troubles Next Door: Rome in the Mediterranean 105 Chapter 6: “Our Sea”: Rome Conquers the Mediterranean 133 Chapter 7: When Did the End Begin? 157 Chapter 8: All Roads Lead to War: Commanders and Corruption 181 Chapter 9: Rome Versus Rome 205 Chapter 10: The Rise of Pompey 229 Chapter 11: Caesar in Charge 251 Chapter 12: The Republic Is Dead. Long Live the Republic! 275 Glossary of Latin Terms 303 A Note on Translations 307 Index 317 v Detailed Contents Foreword xiii Chapter 1: Last Things First: Of Kings and Consuls 1 The Man Who Would Be King? 5 A King by Any Other Name 8 Reading History: The What and the Why 10 The Nuts and Bolts of the Roman Republic 13 SPQR: The Senate and People of Rome 13 Roman Social Organization 17 Assemblies and Elections 20 Political Offices 22 Roman Names 25 Dating Roman History 27 Chapter 2: Origin Stories: The Birth of the Roman Republic 29 Overview 29 Timeline 30 Rome Before Rome 30 The Kings of Rome 34 The Cycle of Constitutions 37 Setting the Stage for the Republic 38 Threats Inside and Out: The First Years of the Republic 42 Family Troubles: Brutus and His Sons 42 Virtue Conquers All: Lars Porsenna’s Siege of Rome 43 Becoming Roman 45 Latins 46 Sabines 48 Etruscans 49 Beyond Italy 51 Gauls 51 Greeks 52 Phoenicians and Carthaginians 53 Chapter 3: Growing Pains: Plebeians and Other Problems 55 Overview 55 Timeline 56 vii Rome and the Latin League 56 The Secession of the Plebs 58 Cincinnatus at the Plow 60 Law and Tyranny, Part I: The Twelve Tables and Verginia 62 The Twelve Tables 63 The Story of Verginia 65 The Valerio–Horatian Laws 68 Law and Tyranny, Part II: The Case of Spurius Maelius 69 Roman Religion 70 Communicating With the Gods 71 Religion in Space and Time 73 Religious Offices (Priesthoods) 75 Roman Gods 77 Chapter 4: Rome Rising: The Fourth Century 81 Overview 81 Timeline 82 The Destruction of Veii 82 The Gallic Sack of Rome 86 Rome’s Second Founder: The Return of Camillus 89 New Nobles and New Men: The Licinio–Sextian Laws 91 Appius Claudius Caecus 94 Rome’s Continued Conquest of Italy: Samnites and Latins 95 Colonies and “Romanization” 99 The Roman Army 100 Chapter 5: Troubles Next Door: Rome in the Mediterranean 105 Overview 105 Timeline 105 Greece Comes to Italy: The Invasion of Pyrrhus 106 Carthage and the First Punic War 108 Roman Provinces 113 Other Peoples and Other Problems 116 Elephants Over the Alps: The Second Punic War 117 Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus 126 The Roman Triumph 129 Chapter 6: “Our Sea”: Rome Conquers the Mediterranean 133 Overview 133 Timeline 134 viii The Roman Republic Entanglements in the East 134 Philip V of Macedon 135 Antiochus the Great 137 After Hannibal: Scipio on Trial 138 Strange Gods? The Bacchanalian Conspiracy of 186 141 Everything Ends: Greece and Carthage 144 Perseus of Macedon and the Sack of Corinth 144 The Third Punic War 145 Back West: Wars in Spain 148 Cato the Elder 149 Roman Literary Culture 152 Chapter 7: When Did the End Begin? 157 Overview 157 Timeline 158 A Changing Future 158 Optimates and Populares 159 Are Two Heads Worse Than One? 161 Change Begins at Home 164 Tiberius Gracchus: Revolutionary or Reformer? 165 Aftermath 172 His Brother’s Keeper: Gaius Gracchus 173 Roman Dining 176 Chapter 8: All Roads Lead to War: Commanders and Corruption 181 Overview 181 Timeline 181 Divided Loyalties 182 The Afterlife of the Gracchan Reforms 183 A City for Sale: Jugurtha Comes to Rome 184 Patricians and Populares at War: Metellus and Marius 188 The Germans Are Coming! 191 Marius and His “Mules” 194 Marius at Peace? 195 The Bull and the Wolf: The Social War 198 Roman Engineering: Roads and Aqueducts 200 Chapter 9: Rome Versus Rome 205 Overview 205 Timeline 206 Detailed Contents ix Down the Drain 206 The Fortunate One 208 The “Poison King”: Mithridates VI of Pontus 208 Prelude to Civil War 210 Enter Pompey 214 Sulla’s New Republic 214 The First Cracks 217 Lepidus: Rebel or Freedom Fighter? 217 Sertorius: Traitor or Tragic Hero? 219 Pompey the Great 220 Quest for Freedom?: The Slave Revolt of Spartacus 222 Two’s Company: Pompey and Crassus 223 Law and Order at Rome 225 Chapter 10: The Rise of Pompey 229 Overview 229 Timeline 230 Pompey’s Special Commands 230 The Republic’s Spokesperson 231 Pompey and the Pirates 235 Pompey and the “Poison King” 236 Eastern Settlements: Rome and Jerusalem 239 Rotting at the Core: The Conspiracy of Catiline 240 Pompey: Power and Weakness 244 A Necessary End: The Rise of Caesar 246 Roman Money 248 Chapter 11: Caesar in Charge 251 Overview 251 Timeline 252 Caesar’s Path to the Consulship 252 Scandalous Clodius 253 Principles Over Politics: Cato the Younger 256 Prelude to Power 258 Clodius Against the Optimates 260 The Wars in Gaul 262 Things Fall Apart—Again 266 Pompey’s Grip on Rome 269 The Latin Language 270 x The Roman Republic Chapter 12: The Republic Is Dead. Long Live the Republic! 275 Overview 275 Timeline 276 March to War 276 Running Resistance 280 On a Beach in Egypt: The End of Pompey 283 Caesar and Cleopatra 285 End of the Resistance 287 Return of the Conqueror 288 The Republic Transformed 289 The Ides of March 292 The Noblest Roman of Them All? 295 Res Publica Aeterna 298 Glossary of Latin Terms 303 A Note on Translations 307 Index 317 Detailed Contents xi ACTIVE LEARNING This book has interactive activities available to complement your reading. Your instructor may have customized the selection of activities available for your unique course. Please check with your professor to verify whether your class will access this content through the Cognella Active Learning portal (http://active. cognella.com) or through your home learning management system. Foreword s its subtitle declares, this book is written for students. In structure, selection of A material, approach, and even in the way sentences were written and vocabulary chosen, every choice was dictated by students. Of course, every author has their own idea of a student. In my case, students are intelligent and curious, but come to the study of Roman history (and much else) unequipped with some of the background information that many authors and their textbooks take for granted. Moreover, many Roman history textbooks are written with future Roman historians in mind, or at least future history graduate students. This book is aimed spe- cifically at students whose only exposure to Roman history, or any history, may be in a single class, perhaps taken as a requirement. The concern is less with what that history is than what that history—and any history—means, less about small answers than big questions. I would like to thank Arieta Jakaj, Renee Semple, and Jake Webber for their comments, crit- icisms, and suggestions. These three students made the book immeasurably better. I would also like to thank the staff at Cognella, especially Michelle Piehl, for shepherding this project to its completion. And, finally, I thank Clare for many things, not least putting upwith me. xiii CHAPTER 1 Last Things First Of Kings and Consuls Figure omitted due to copyright restrictions. FIG. 1.1 A coin with a portrait of Julius Caesar wearing a laurel wreath issued shortly before his assassination. The text reads Caesar Dict Perpetuo—Caesar, dictator for life. ver the course of the year, the inhabitants of ancient Rome celebrated over forty O religious festivals, known as feriae in Latin. Priests performed the appropriate sacrifices, officials made the necessary arrangements, and all legal and political business came to a halt. Some festivals included games and entertainments (ludi) such as chariot races, musical and theatrical performances, or gladiator fights and staged animal hunts (gladiator combats were at first only performed in connection with a funeral). One of the major annual festivals, celebrated every Feb- ruary 15, was the Lupercalia. Its origin and meaning were already obscure to Romans at the end of the republic in the first century BC, and they were not even sure to which god it was dedicated.