Part Two:

From Republic
To Empire
 SPQR?

• S.P.Q.R. is an initialism of a Latin

noun phrase, Senatus Populusque
Romanus ("The Senate and the
Roman People")
For all its success – Rome was
unstable
Power switches from the many to the
few
 Growing Inequality & Unrest
Landed aristocracy governed Rome
– Wealthy, powerful families
–Senate & political offices
 –Small farmers losing land to large,
wealthy landowners
–New urban class of landless poor
Latifundia – Large Landed
Estates (like Plantations)
VIDEO: Rise of Tiberius
 • Tiberius & Gaius
Gracchus, reform-
minded aristocrats
• Called for laws giving
public land back to the
landless poor

Both brothers eventually

killed

Discontent & unrest grew

Video: Tiberius Champions the Poor
Republic…

Tiberius leads the people.

Or Corrupt Empire?
Cicero –
Great Senator and
Leader
Video: Cicero Takes the Lead
 The Collapse of the Republic

•Civil Wars 82 - 31 B.C.

•Crassus, Pompey & Julius
Caesar emerged as victors
•combined wealth & power
to dominate the political
scene
 The First Triumvirate
•60 B.C.
•Crassus, Pompey &
Caesar
•Crassus killed in 53
B.C.
Video: Caesar’s Leadership
• Caesar
crossed the
Rubicon, the
river
• Caesar and
Pompey start
a civil war
•Caesar defeats
Pompey’s forces
•Caesar become a
dictator – an
absolute ruler
Video: Caesar Starts Civil War
 Julius
Caesar

•44 B.C. a group

of leading
senators
assassinated
him
 The Second Triumvirate

•Octavian, Antony &

Lepidus
•Octavian took the west
& Antony, the east
•Antony allied himself
with the Egyptian
queen Cleopatra VII
•Like Caesar before
him, Antony had fallen
in love with her
 Mark
Anthony
Cleopatra
•Battle of Actium:
Actium
Octavian’s forces
smashed the army & the
navy of Antony &
Cleopatra
•Both committed suicide a
year later
 The Age of Augustus
•27 B.C. Octavian became
“Augustus” the revered
one
•Maintained a huge army
•Becomes Golden Age of
Literature - Virgil
Octavian
Emperors of the Early Empire

•Nero: had people killed if

he wanted them out of the
way - including his mother
 Nero
Roman legions
revolted
Nero committed
suicide by
stabbing himself
in the throat
Video: The Horror of Nero’s Reign
Emperors of the Early Empire
•5 good emperors:
Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian,
Antoninus Pius &
Marcus Aurelius
Pax Romana = Roman Peace
100 Years of Peace