Chapter 5Section 2

From Republic to Empire

Objectives

• Explain the role of the Roman Army• Examine the social inequity in Rome

Growing Inequality and Unrest

• By the second century B.C., the Senate had become the real governing body of the Roman State.– Senators served for life, mostly from the landed

aristocracy, and directed military campaigns and the same people tended to be in control.

• The backbone of the Roman state and army, however, was the small farmer.– Many small farmers had found themselves unable to

compete with large, wealthy landowners and lost their land.

• Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus believed the basic cause of Rome’s problems was the decline of the small farmer.– Urged counsel of the plebs to create land reforms– Tiberius was killed in 133 B.C., and Gaius soon

meant the same fate.• The attempts at reform caused more

instability and violence

New Role of the Roman Army

• 107 B.C., Marius became consul.• Began to recruit armies in a new way.– Recruited from urban and rural poor.– Promised them land, and they swore an oath to

the general, not the state.• Created a new form of army that was not

under government control.

• Lucius Cornelia Sulla was the next general to take advantage of the military system.– Had command of the war in Asia Minor.

• Consul of plebs tried to transfer control to Marius, and a civil war broke out. Sulla was victorious.– Seized control of Rome itself in 82 B.C., conducting a

reign of terror against his opposition.– Restored power to the Senate, and eliminated most of

the powers of the popular assembly.

Objectives

• List important Roman leaders• Evaluate the first and second Triumvirate• Explain the Age of Augustus

The Collapse of the Republic

• From 82-31 B.C., Rome was characterized by civil wars as a number of individuals competed for power.

• Three men- Crassus, Pompey, and Julius Caesar emerged as the victors of these wars– Crassus was very wealthy– Pompey was a military hero– Julius Caesar also had military command in Spain

Crassus

Pompey

Caesar

The First Triumvirate• In 60 B.C. Caesar joined with Crassus and Pompey to form

the First Triumvirate.– A triumvirate is a government by three people with equal

power.– Pompey received a command in Spain, Crassus in Syria, and

Caesar in Gaul (modern day France), where Caesar had great military achievements.

• When Crassus died in battle in 53 B.C., only two powerful men were left.

• Senators decided that Pompey alone would be to their benefit, so they voted for Caesar to lose his command.

• Caesar refused– During his time in Gaul, he achieved a great deal

of military success, and developed a loyal army.– He chose to keep his army and move into Italy by

illegally crossing the Rubicon river.• He marched into Rome and started a civil war

between his forces and those of Pompey and his allies, where he defeated them and gained control of the Roman government.

• Caesar was made dictator in 45 B.C.• He made a great deal of reforms focused on

the social inequality in Rome– Gave land to the poor, and increased the Senate to

900 members.• Caesar had great plans, but was assassinated

in 44 B.C. by a group of leading Senators.

The Second Triumvirate

• A struggle for power followed Caesars death, with Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus joining forces to create the second triumvirate.– Octavian was Caesars grand-nephew, Antony was

Caesars ally and assistant, and Lepidus was commander of Caesar’s Calvary.

• Within a few years of Caesar’s death, however, only two men had control of the Roman world: Octavian took the west, and Antony the East.

• The Roman empire, as large as it was, was still too small for two masters.

• Octavian and Antony came into conflict.• Antony allied himself with the Egyptian queen

Cleopatra VII.– Like Caesar before him, Antony was in love with Cleopatra.

• At the Battle of Actium in Greece in 31 B.C., Octavian’s forces crushed the army and navy of Antony and Cleopatra. They both fled to Egypt and committed suicide a year later.

“Antony was the first to commit suicide, by the sword. Cleopatra threw herself at Octavian’s feet, and tried her best to attract his gaze: in vain, for his self control enabled him to ignore her beauty. It was not her life he was after,… but a portion of her kingdom. When she realized this was hopeless… she took advantage of her guard’s carelessness to get into the royal tomb.

Once there, she put on the royal robes… and lay down in a richly perfumed coffin beside her Antony. Then she applied poisonous snakes to her veins and passed into death as though into a sleep.”

• Octavian, at age 32, had control of the Roman world.

• Civil wars had ended, as had the republic.• The beginning in 31 B.C. and lasting until A.D.

14 became known as the Age of Augustus.

Objectives:

• List new areas of the empire

• Analyze the Early Empire• Evaluate how growth resulted in economic

and social change

Octavian

The Age of Augustus

• In 27 B.C., Octavian proclaimed the restoration of the republic.– He knew that only traditional republican forms would

satisfy the Senate, but was also aware that the Senate could not be fully restored.

• Although he gave some power to the Senate, Octavian in fact became the first Roman Emperor.

• In 27 B.C. the Senate fitted him with the title of Augustus, or revered one.

• Augustus’s chief source of power was his control of the army.– The Senate gave Augustus the title imperator, or commander

in chief. – Imperator gives us our word emperor.

• Augustus maintained a standing army of about 28 legions, or about 150,000 troops.

• Only Roman citizens could be legionnaires. – Subjects people could serve as auxiliary forces, which

numbered around 130,000.– He also had a guard of roughly 9,000 men to guard him.

• He stabilized the frontiers of the Roman empire and added new areas.

• His attempts to conquer Germany were a failure, and three Roman legions under Varus were massacred by German warriors.

Emperor’s of the Early Empire

• The period between 14 and 180 is referred to as the Early Empire.

• The first four emperors after Augustus came from his family. – They were Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.

• They took over more areas and also assumed more responsibilities that Augustus had given to the Senate, and were very corrupt.

• At the beginning of the second century, a series of five “good emperors” came to power.– Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonious Pius, and

Marcus Aurelius.• The created a period of peace and prosperity

known as the Pax Romana. • The empire continued to expand at the

expense of the Senate.

Extent of the Empire

• Trajan extended into Dacia (modern Romania), Mesopotamia, and the Sinai Penisula.

• Hadrian withdrew from the area and went on the defensive on the frontier. (Hadrian’s Wall)

• Cities were important to spreading culture, law, and the Latin language.– Latin was used in the western part of the empire

and Greek in the east, resulting in a Greco-Roman civilization.

Economic and Social Conditions

• Trade poured into the Empire, and luxury goods satisfied the upper class.

• Despite the large amount of trade, farming was still the chief occupation.– Large landed estates called latifundia dominated

farming in southern and central Italy. Small peasant farmers existed in the north.

• The rich and poor was separated by a very large margin.– The upper class was very wealthy and the small

farmers were dependent on their wealthy neighbors.

• In cities, many poor citizens worked together in shops.

• Thousands of unemployed depended on the emperor’s handouts of grain to survive.

Closure

• What did you learn today?

Homework

• Page 162• Quiz on 5-2