I Roman provinces on the eve of the assassination of Julius Caesar, 44 BC

ROMAN REPUBLIC
The Roman Republic (Latin: Rēs pūblica Rōmāna) was the era of classical Roman
civilization, led by the Roman people, beginning with the overthrow of the Roman
Kingdom, traditionally dated to 509 BC, and ending in 27 BC with the establishment
of the Roman Empire. During this period, Rome’s control expanded from the city’s
immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world.
Roman society under the Republic was primarily a cultural mix of Latin and
Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is
especially visible in the Roman Pantheon. Its political organization developed at around
the same time direct democracy did in Ancient Greece, with collective and annual
magistracies, overseen by a senate.[4] The top magistrates were the two consuls, who
had an extensive range of executive, legislative, judicial, military, and religious powers.
Even though a small number of powerful families (called gentes) monopolized the main
magistracies, the Roman Republic is generally considered one of the earliest examples of
representative democracy.[5][6][7] Roman institutions underwent considerable changes
throughout the Republic to adapt to the difficulties it faced, such as the creation of
promagistracies to rule its conquered provinces, or the composition of the senate.
Unlike the Pax Romana of the Roman Empire, the Republic was in a state of quasi-
perpetual war throughout its existence. Its first enemies were its Latin and Etruscan

1
neighbours as well as the Gauls, who even sacked the city in 387 BC. The Republic
nonetheless demonstrated extreme resilience and always managed to overcome its losses,
however catastrophic. After the Gallic Sack, Rome conquered the whole Italian peninsula
in a century, which turned the Republic into a major power in the Mediterranean. The
Republic’s greatest enemy was doubtlessly Carthage, against which it waged three wars.
The Punic general Hannibal famously invaded Italy by crossing the Alps and inflicted
on Rome two devastating defeats at Lake Trasimene and Cannae, but the Republic once
again recovered and won the war thanks to Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Zama in
202 BC. With Carthage defeated, Rome became the dominant power of the ancient
Mediterranean world. It then embarked on a long series of difficult conquests, after having
notably defeated Philip V and Perseus of Macedon, Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire,
the Lusitanian Viriathus, the Numidian Jugurtha, the Pontic king Mithridates VI, the
Gaul Vercingetorix, and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.
At home, the Republic similarly experienced a long streak of social and political
crises, which ended in several violent civil wars. At first, the Conflict of the Orders
opposed the patricians, the closed oligarchic elite, to the far more numerous plebs, who
finally achieved political equality in several steps during the 4th century BC. Later, the
vast conquests of the Republic disrupted its society, as the immense influx of slaves they
brought enriched the aristocracy, but ruined the peasantry and urban workers. In order
to solve this issue, several social reformers, known as the Populares, tried to pass agrarian
laws, but the Gracchi brothers, Saturninus, or Clodius Pulcher were all murdered by
their opponents, the Optimates, keepers of the traditional aristocratic order. Mass slavery
also caused three Servile Wars; the last of them was led by Spartacus, a skilful gladiator
who ravaged Italy and left Rome powerless until his defeat in 71 BC. In this context, the
last decades of the Republic were marked by the rise of great generals, who exploited
their military conquests and the factional situation in Rome to gain control of the
political system. Marius (between 105 and 86 BC), then Sulla (between 82 and 78 BC)
dominated in turn the Republic; both used extraordinary powers to purge their
opponents. These multiple tensions led to a series of civil wars; the first between the two
generals Julius Caesar and Pompey. Despite his victory and appointment as dictator for
life, Caesar was murdered in 44 BC. Caesar’s heir Octavian and lieutenant Mark Antony
defeated Caesar’s assassins Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC, but then turned against each
other. The final defeat of Mark Antony alongside his ally and lover Cleopatra at the
Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the Senate’s grant of extraordinary powers to Octavian
as Augustus in 27 BC – which effectively made him the first Roman emperor – thus
ended the Republic.

FOUNDATION (509 BC): OVERTHROW OF THE ROMAN

MONARCHY

Since the foundation of Rome, its rulers had been monarchs, elected for life by the
patrician noblemen who made up the Roman Senate. The last Roman king was Lucius

2
Tarquinius Superbus (“Tarquin the Proud”). In the traditional histories, Tarquin was
expelled in 509 because his son Sextus Tarquinius had raped the noblewoman Lucretia,
who afterwards took her own life. Lucretia’s father, her husband Lucius Tarquinius
Collatinus, and Tarquin’s nephew Lucius Junius Brutus mustered support from the
Senate and army, and forced Tarquin into exile in Etruria.[8][9][10]
The Senate agreed to abolish kingship. Most of the king’s former functions were
transferred to two consuls, who were elected to office for a term of one year. Each consul
had the capacity to act as a check on his colleague, if necessary through the same power
of veto that the kings had held. If a consul abused his powers in office, he could be
prosecuted when his term expired. Brutus and Collatinus became Republican Rome’s
first consuls. Despite Collatinus’ role in the creation of the Republic, he belonged to the
same family as the former king, and was forced to abdicate his office and leave Rome.
He was replaced as co-consul by Publius Valerius Publicola.[11]
Most modern scholarship describes these events as the quasi-mythological detailing
of an aristocratic coup within Tarquin’s own family, not a popular revolution. They fit
a narrative of a personal vengeance against a tyrant leading to his overthrow, which was
common among Greek cities and even theorised by Aristotle.[12][13][14]

ROME IN LATIUM (509–387 BC)

Early campaigns

Lake Regillus· The Cremera·Mount

Algidus·Corbio·Fidenae·Veii

According to Rome’s traditional histories, Tarquin made several

attempts to retake the throne, including the Tarquinian conspiracy,
which involved Brutus’ own sons, the war with Veii and Tarquinii
and finally the war between Rome and Clusium; but none
succeeded.[15]
The first Roman republican wars were wars of both expansion
and defence, aimed at protecting Rome itself from neighbouring cities
and nations and establishing its territory in the region.[16] Initially,
II The “Capitoline Rome’s immediate neighbours were either Latin towns and villages,
Brutus”, a bust
or else tribal Sabines from the Apennine hills beyond. One by one
possibly depicting
Lucius Junius Brutus, Rome defeated both the persistent Sabines and the local cities, both
who led the revolt those under Etruscan control and those that had cast off their
against Rome’s last
king and was a founder Etruscan rulers. Rome defeated the Latin cities in the Battle of Lake
of the Republic Regillus in 496, the Battle of Mount Algidus in 458, the Battle of
Corbio in 446, the Battle of Aricia, however it suffered a significant
defeat at the Battle of the Cremera in 477 wherein it fought against the most important
Etruscan city of Veii.[17][18]

3
 By the end of this period, Rome had effectively completed the conquest of their
immediate Etruscan and Latin neighbours, and also secured their position against the
immediate threat posed by the nearby Apennine hill tribes.[19]

PLEBEIANS AND PATRICIANS: CONFLICT OF THE ORDERS

Beginning with their revolt against Tarquin, and continuing through the early years
of the Republic, Rome’s patrician aristocrats were the dominant force in politics and
society. They initially formed a closed group of about 50 large families, called gentes,
who monopolised Rome’s magistracies, state priesthoods and senior military posts. The
most prominent of these families were the Cornelii,[i] followed by the Aemilii, Claudii,
Fabii, and Valerii. The power, privilege and influence of leading families derived from
their wealth, in particular from their landholdings, their position as patrons, and their
numerous clients.[20]
The vast majority of Roman citizens were commoners of various social degrees. They
formed the backbone of Rome’s economy, as smallholding farmers, managers, artisans,
traders, and tenants. In times of war, they could be summoned for military service. Most
had little direct political influence over the Senate’s decisions or the laws it passed,
including the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of the consular system. During
the early Republic, the plebs (or plebeians) emerged as a self-organised, culturally distinct
group of commoners, with their own internal hierarchy, laws, customs, and interests.[21]
Plebeians had no access to high religious and civil office,[ii] and could be punished
for offences against laws of which they had no knowledge.[22] For the poorest, one of the
few effective political tools was their withdrawal of labour and services, in a “secessio
plebis”; they would leave the city en masse, and allow their social superiors to fend for
themselves. The first such secession occurred in 494, in protest at the abusive treatment
of plebeian debtors by the wealthy during a famine.[23] The Senate was compelled to
give them direct access to the written civil and religious laws, and to the electoral and
political process. To represent their interests, the plebs elected tribunes, who were
personally sacrosanct, immune to arbitrary arrest by any magistrate, and had veto power
over the passage of legislation.[24]

Celtic invasion of Italy (390–387 BC)

Roman–Gallic wars

Allia River·Anio River·Pedum Arretium·Lake

Vadimo·Faesulae·Telamon·Clastidium·Silva
Litana·Cremona·Placentia·Mutina

By 390, several Gallic tribes were invading Italy from the north. The Romans were
alerted to this when a particularly warlike tribe, the Senones,[25] invaded two Etruscan

4
towns close to Rome’s sphere of influence. These towns, overwhelmed by the enemy’s
numbers and ferocity, called on Rome for help. The Romans met the Gauls in pitched
battle at the Battle of Allia River around 390–387 BC. The Gauls, led by the chieftain
Brennus, defeated the Roman army of approximately 15,000 troops, pursued the fleeing
Romans back to Rome, and sacked the city before being either driven off or bought off.

ROMAN EXPANSION IN ITALY (387–272 BC)

Samnite Wars I Mons Gaurus·Saticula·Suessula

II Neapolis·Imbrinium·Caudine Forks·Lautulae·Lake
Vadimo·Bovianum III Camerinum·Tifernum·Sentinum·Aquilonia

Wars against Italian neighbours

From 343 to 341, Rome won

two battles against their
Samnite neighbours, but were
unable to consolidate their
gains, due to the outbreak of
war with former Latin allies.
In the Latin War (340–
338), Rome defeated a
coalition of Latins at the
battles of Vesuvius and the
Trifanum. The Latins
submitted to Roman rule.
A Second Samnite War
began in 327.[27] The
fortunes of the two sides
fluctuated, but from 314,
Rome was dominant, and
offered progressively
unfavourable terms for peace.
The war ended with Samnite
defeat at the Battle of
Bovianum (305). By the following year, Rome had annexed most Samnite territory and
began to establish colonies there; but in 298 the Samnites rebelled, and defeated a Roman
army, in a Third Samnite War. Following this success they built a coalition of several
previous enemies of Rome.[28]
At the Battle of Populonia in 282 Rome finished off the last vestiges of Etruscan
power in the region.

5
 Rise of the plebeian nobility

In the 4th century, plebeians gradually obtained political equality with patricians. The
starting point was in 400, when the first plebeian consular tribunes were elected; likewise,
several subsequent consular colleges counted plebeians (in 399, 396, 388, 383, and 379).
The reason behind this sudden gain is unknown,[29] but it was limited as patrician
tribunes retained preeminence over their plebeian colleagues.[30] In 385, the former
consul and saviour of the besieged Capitol Marcus Manlius Capitolinus is said to have
sided with the plebeians, ruined by the Sack and largely indebted to patricians. The issue
of debt relief for the plebs remained indeed pressing throughout the century. Livy tells
that Capitolinus sold his estate to repay the debt of many of them, and even went over
to the plebs, the first patrician to do so. Nevertheless, the growing unrest he had caused
led to his trial for seeking kingly power; he was sentenced to death and thrown from the
Tarpeian Rock.[31][32]
Between 376 and 367, the tribunes of the plebs Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius
Sextius Lateranus continued the plebeian agitation and pushed for an ambitious
legislation, known as the Leges Liciniae Sextiae. Two of their bills attacked patricians’
economic supremacy, by creating legal protection against indebtedness and forbidding
excessive use of public land, as the Ager publicus was monopolised by large landowners.
The most important bill opened the consulship to plebeians.[33] Other tribunes
controlled by the patricians vetoed the bills, but Stolo and Lateranus retaliated by
vetoing the elections for five years while being continuously re-elected by the plebs,
resulting in a stalemate.[34] In 367, they carried a bill creating the Decemviri sacris
faciundis, a college of ten priests, of whom five had to be plebeians, therefore breaking
patricians’ monopoly on priesthoods. Finally, the resolution of the crisis came from the
dictator Camillus, who made a compromise with the tribunes; he agreed to their bills,
while they in return consented to the creation of the offices of praetor and curule aediles,
both reserved to patricians. Lateranus also became the first plebeian consul in 366; Stolo
followed in 361.[35][36][37]
Soon after, plebeians were able to hold both the dictatorship and the censorship,
since former consuls normally filled these senior magistracies. The four time consul Gaius
Marcius Rutilus became the first plebeian dictator in 356 and censor in 351. In 342, the
tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius passed his Leges Genuciae, which abolished interest
on loans, in a renewed effort to tackle indebtedness, required the election of at least one
plebeian consul each year, and prohibited a magistrate from holding the same magistracy
for the next ten years or two magistracies in the same year.[38][33][39] In 339, the
plebeian consul and dictator Quintus Publilius Philo passed three laws extending the
powers of the plebeians. His first law followed the Lex Genucia by reserving one
censorship to plebeians, the second made plebiscites binding on all citizens (including
patricians), and the third stated that the Senate had to give its prior approval to
plebiscites before becoming binding on all citizens (the Lex Valeria-Horatia of 449 had
placed this approval after the vote).[40] Two years later, Publilius ran for the praetorship,
probably in a bid to take the last senior magistracy closed to plebeians, which he won.[41]

6
 During the early republic, senators were
chosen by the consuls among their supporters.
Shortly before 312, the Lex Ovinia transferred
this power to the censors, who could only
remove senators for misconduct, thus
appointing them for life. This law strongly
increased the power of the Senate, which was
by now protected from the influence of the
consuls and became the central organ of
government.[42][43] In 312, following this law,
III The Temple of Hercules Victor, Rome, built in
the patrician censor Appius Claudius Caecus
the mid 2nd century BC, most likely by Lucius appointed many more senators to fill the new
Mummius Achaicus, who won the Achaean War
limit of 300, including descendants of
freedmen, which was deemed scandalous. He
also incorporated these freedmen in the rural tribes.[iii][iv] His tribal reforms were
nonetheless cancelled by the next censors, Quintus Fabius Maximus and Publius Decius
Mus, his political enemies.[44] Caecus also launched a vast construction program,
building the first aqueduct (Aqua Appia), and the first Roman road (Via Appia).[45]
In 300, the two tribunes of the plebs Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius passed the Lex
Ogulnia, which created four plebeian pontiffs, therefore equalling the number of patrician
pontiffs, and five plebeian augurs, outnumbering the four patricians in the college.[46]
Eventually the Conflict of the Orders ended with the last secession of the plebs in about
287. The details are not known precisely as Livy’s books on the period are lost. Debt is
once again mentioned by ancient authors, but it seems that the plebs revolted over the
distribution of the land conquered on the Samnites.[47] A dictator named Quintus
Hortensius was appointed to negotiate with the plebeians, who had retreated to the
Janiculum hill, perhaps to dodge the draft in the war against the Lucanians. Hortensius
passed the Lex Hortensia which re-enacted the law of 339, making plebiscites binding on
all citizens, but also removed the Senate’s prior approval to plebiscites. Popular
assemblies were by now sovereign; this put an end to the crisis, and to plebeian agitation
for 150 years.[48]
These events were a political victory of the wealthy plebeian elite who exploited the
economic difficulties of the plebs for their own gain, hence why Stolo, Lateranus, and
Genucius bound their bills attacking patricians’ political supremacy with debt-relief
measures. They had indeed little in common with the mass of plebeians; Stolo was
notably fined for having exceeded the limit on land occupation he had fixed in his own
law.[49] As a result of the end of the patrician monopoly on senior magistracies, many
small patrician gentes faded into history during the 4th and 3rd centuries due to the lack
of available positions; the Verginii, Horatii, Menenii, Cloelii all disappear, even the Julii
entered a long eclipse. They were replaced by plebeian aristocrats, of whom the most
emblematic were the Caecilii Metelli, who received 18 consulships until the end of the
Republic; the Domitii, Fulvii, Licinii, Marcii, or Sempronii were as successful. About a

7
dozen remaining patrician gentes and twenty plebeian ones thus formed a new elite,
called the nobiles, or Nobilitas.[50]

PYRRHIC WAR (280–275 BC)

Heraclea Asculum Venusia Rhegium Syracuse Eryx Cranita

Lilybaeum Messina Beneventum

By the beginning of the 3rd century, Rome had

established itself as the major power in Italy,
but had not yet come into conflict with the
dominant military powers of the Mediterranean:
Carthage and the Greek kingdoms.[52] In 282,
several Roman warships entered the harbour of
Tarentum, thus breaking a treaty between the
Republic and the Greek city, which forbade the
Gulf to Roman navy. It triggered a violent
reaction from the Tarentine democrats, who
IV Route of Pyrrhus in Italy and Sicily
sank some of the ships; they were in fact worried
that Rome could favour the oligarchs in the city,
as it had done with the other Greek cities under its control. The Roman embassy sent
to investigate the affair was insulted and war was promptly declared.[53] Facing a
hopeless situation, the Tarentines (together with the Lucanians and Samnites) appealed
for military aid to Pyrrhus, the very ambitious king of Epirus. A cousin of Alexander the
Great, he was eager to build an empire for himself in the western Mediterranean, and
saw Tarentum’s plea as a perfect opportunity towards this goal.[54][55]
Pyrrhus and his army of 25,500 men (and 20 war elephants) landed in Italy in 280;
he was immediately named Strategos Autokrator by the Tarentines. Publius Valerius
Laevinus, the consul sent to face him, rejected the king’s negotiation offer, as he had
more troops and hoped to cut the invasion short. The Romans were nevertheless defeated
at Heraclea, as their cavalry were afraid of the elephants of Pyrrhus, who lost a large
portion of his army. Pyrrhus then marched on Rome, but could not take any Roman city
on his way; facing the prospect of being flanked by the two consular armies, he moved
back to Tarentum. His adviser, the orator Cineas, made a peace offer before the Roman
Senate, asking Rome to return the land it took from the Samnites and Lucanians, and
liberate the Greek cities under its control. The offer was rejected after Appius Caecus
(the old censor of 312) spoke against it in a celebrated speech, which was the earliest
recorded by the time of Cicero.[56][57][58] In 279, Pyrrhus met the consuls Publius
Decius Mus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio at the Battle of Asculum, which remained
undecided for two days, as the Romans had prepared some special chariots to counter
his elephants. Finally, Pyrrhus personally charged into the melee and won the battle,

8
but at the cost of an important part of his troops; he allegedly said “If we are victorious
in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.”[59][60][61][v]
He escaped the Italian deadlock by answering a call for help from Syracuse, which
tyrant Thoenon was desperately fighting an invasion from Carthage. Pyrrhus could not
let them take the whole island as it would have compromised his ambitions in the western
Mediterranean and so declared war on them. At first, his Sicilian campaign was an easy
triumph; he was welcomed as a liberator in every Greek city on his way, even receiving
the title of king (basileus) of Sicily. The Carthaginians lifted the siege of Syracuse before
his arrival, but he could not entirely oust them from the island as he failed to take their
fortress of Lilybaeum.[62] His harsh rule, especially the murder of Thoenon, whom he
did not trust, soon led to a widespread antipathy among the Sicilians; some cities even
defected to Carthage. In 275, Pyrrhus left the island before he had to face a full-scale
rebellion.[63] He returned to Italy, where his Samnite allies were on the verge of losing
the war, despite their earlier victory at the Cranita hills. Pyrrhus again met the Romans
at the Battle of Beneventum; this time the consul Manius Dentatus was victorious, and
even captured eight elephants. Pyrrhus then withdrew from Italy, but left a garrison in
Tarentum, and waged a new campaign in Greece against Antigonos Gonatas. His death
in battle at Argos in 272 forced Tarentum to surrender to Rome. Since it was the last
independent city of Italy, Rome now dominated the entire Italian peninsula, and won an
international military reputation.[64]

PUNIC WARS AND EXPANSION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

(264–146 BC)

First Punic War (264–241 BC)

Treaties·Messana·Agrigentum·1 s t Mytistratus·Lipari Islands·

Mylae Thermae·2 n d Mytistratus·Sulci·Tyndaris·Cape
Ecnomus·Aspis·Adys·Bagradas (Tunis)·Cape Hermaeum·
Panormus·Lilybaeum·Drepana·Phintias·Drepana (siege)·
1 Mt Eryx·2 n d Mt Eryx·Aegates Islands·Treaty of Lutatius
st

Rome and Carthage were initially on friendly terms; Polybius details three treaties
between them, the first dating from the first year of the Republic, the second from 348.
The last one was an alliance against Pyrrhus.[65][66][67] However, tensions rapidly built
on after the departure of the Epirote king. Between 288 and 283, Messina in Sicily was
taken by the Mamertines, a band of mercenaries formerly employed by Agathocles. They
plundered the surroundings until Hiero II, the new tyrant of Syracuse, defeated them (in
either 269 or 265). Carthage could not let him take Messina, as he would have controlled
its Strait, and garrisoned the city. In effect under a Carthaginian protectorate, the
remaining Mamertines appealed to Rome to regain their independence. Senators were
divided on whether to help them or not, as it would have meant war with Carthage,

9
since Sicily was in its sphere of influence (the treaties furthermore forbade the island to
Rome), and also Syracuse. A supporter of the war, the consul Appius Claudius Caudex
(Caecus’ brother) turned to the Tribal Assembly to get a favourable vote, by notably
promising booty to voters.[68]
Caudex first secured control of the city with ease. However, Syracuse and Carthage,
at war for centuries, made an alliance to counter the invasion and blockaded Messina,
but Caudex defeated Hiero and Carthage separately.[69][70] His successor Manius
Valerius Corvinus Messalla landed with a strong 40,000 men army that conquered
eastern Sicily, which prompted Hiero to shift his allegiance and forge a long lasting
alliance with Rome. In 262, the Romans moved to the southern coast and besieged
Akragas. In order to raise the siege, Carthage sent reinforcements, including 60 elephants
– the first time they used them, but still lost the battle.[71] Nevertheless, as Pyrrhus
before, Rome could not take all of Sicily because Carthage’s naval superiority prevented
them from effectively besieging coastal cities, which could receive supplies from the sea.
Using a captured Carthaginian ship as blueprint, Rome therefore launched a massive
construction program and built 100 quinqueremes in only two months, perhaps through
an assembly line organisation. They also invented a new device, the corvus, a grappling
engine which enabled a crew to board on an enemy ship.[72] The consul for 260 Scipio
Asina lost the first naval skirmish of the war against Hannibal Gisco at Lipara, but his
colleague Gaius Dullius won a great victory at Mylae. He destroyed or captured 44 ships,
and was the first Roman to receive a naval triumph, which also included captive
Carthaginians for the first time.[73] Although Carthage was victorious on land at
Thermae in Sicily, the corvus made Rome invincible on the waters. The consul Lucius
Cornelius Scipio (Asina’s brother) captured Corsica in 259; his successors won the naval
battles of Sulci in 258, Tyndaris in 257, and Cape Ecnomus in 256.[74]
In order to hasten the end of the war, the consuls for 256 decided to carry the
operations to Africa, on Carthage’s homeland. The consul Marcus Atilius Regulus landed
on the Cap Bon peninsula with about 18,000 soldiers. He captured the city of Aspis,
then repulsed Carthage’s counter-attack at Adys, and took Tunis. The Carthaginians
supposedly sued him for peace, but his conditions were so harsh that they continued the
war instead. They hired Spartan mercenaries, led by Xanthippus, to command their
troops.[75] In 255, the Spartan general marched on Regulus, still encamped at Tunis,
who accepted the battle to avoid sharing the glory with his successor. However, the flat
land near Tunis favoured the Punic elephants, which crushed the Roman infantry on the
Bagradas plain; only 2,000 soldiers escaped, and Regulus was captured. The consuls for
255 nonetheless won a new sounding naval victory at Cape Hermaeum, where they
captured 114 warships. This success was spoilt by a storm that annihilated the victorious
navy: 184 ships of 264 sank, 25,000 soldiers and 75,000 rowers drowned. The corvus
considerably hindered ships’ navigation, and made them vulnerable during tempest. It
was abandoned after another similar catastrophe took place in 253 (150 ships sank with
their crew). These disasters prevented any significant campaign between 254 and 252.[76]
Hostilities in Sicily resumed in 252, with the taking of Thermae by Rome. Carthage
countered the following year, by besieging Lucius Caecilius Metellus, who held Panormos

10
(now Palermo). The consul had dug trenches to counter the elephants, which once hurt
by missiles turned back on their own army, resulting in a great victory for Metellus, who
exhibited some captured beasts in the Circus. Rome then besieged the last Carthaginian
strongholds in Sicily, Lilybaeum and Drepana, but these cities were impregnable by land.
Publius Claudius Pulcher, the consul of 249, recklessly tried to take the latter from the
sea, but he suffered a terrible defeat; his colleague Lucius Junius Pullus likewise lost his
fleet off Lilybaeum. Without the corvus, Roman warships had lost their advantage. By
now, both sides were drained and could not undertake large scale operations; the number
of Roman citizens who were being called up for war had been reduced by 17% in two
decades, a result of the massive bloodshed. The only military activity during this period
was the landing in Sicily of Hamilcar Barca in 247, who harassed the Romans with a
mercenary army from a citadel he built on Mt. Eryx.[78]
Finally, unable to take the Punic fortresses in Sicily, Rome tried to win the decision
at sea and built a new navy, thanks to a forced borrowing on the rich. In 242, the 200
quinqueremes of the consul Gaius Lutatius Catulus blockaded Drepana. The rescue fleet
from Carthage arrived the next year, but was largely undermanned and soundly defeated
by Catulus. Exhausted and unable to bring supplies to Sicily, Carthage sued for peace.
Catulus and Hamilcar negotiated a treaty, which was somewhat lenient to Carthage, but
the Roman people rejected it and imposed harsher terms: Carthage had to pay 1000
talents immediately and 2200 over ten years, and evacuate Sicily. The fine was so high
that Carthage could not pay Hamilcar’s mercenaries, who had been shipped back to
Africa. They revolted during the Mercenary War, which Carthage had enormous
difficulties to suppress. Meanwhile, Rome took advantage of a similar revolt in Sardinia
to seize the island from Carthage, in violation of the peace treaty. This stab-in-the-back
led to permanent bitterness in Carthage, and revanchism.[79]

11
 SECOND PUNIC WAR (218–201 BC)

PRELUDE Saguntum·Rhone·Crossing of the Alps

ITALY Ticinus·Trebia·Lake Trasimene·Umbrian

Lake·Ager Falernus·Geronium·Cannae·Silva Litana·1 s t Nola·1 s t
Casilinum·Hamae·1 s t Petelia·2 n d Nola·3 r d Nola·1 s t Beneventum·
2 n d Casilinum·Lucania·Arpi·1 s t Tarentum·2 n d Beneventum·Campi
Veteres·1 s t Capua·Silarus·1 s t Herdonia·2 n d Capua·Sapriportis·
2 n d Herdonia·Numistro·Canusium·Manduria·Caulonia·2 n d Tarentum
·2 n d Petelia·Venusıa·Grumentum·Metaurus·Crotona·Insubria

IBERIA Cissa·Ebro River·Ibera·Upper Baetis·

1 st
New Carthage·Baecula·Carmona·Ilipa·Sucro·
Carteia·2 n d New Carthage

SICILY AND SARDINIA Lilybaeum·Malta·Decimomannu·

Leontini·Syracuse·Himera·Agrigentum

NORTH AFRICA Clupea·1st Utica·2nd Utica·Great Plains

(Bagradas)·Cirta·Zama

After its victory, the Republic shifted its attention to its northern border as the Insubres
and Boii were threatening Italy.[80] Meanwhile, Carthage compensated the loss of Sicily
and Sardinia with the conquest of Southern Hispania (up to Salamanca), and its rich
silver mines.[81] This enterprise was the work of the Barcid family, headed by Hamilcar,
the former commander in Sicily. Hamilcar nonetheless died against the Oretani in 228;
his son-in-law Hasdrubal the Fair – the founder of Carthago Nova – and his three sons

12
Hannibal, Hasdrubal, and Mago, succeeded him.[82] This rapid expansion worried Rome,
which concluded a treaty with Hasdrubal in 226, stating that Carthage could not cross
the Ebro river.[83][84] However, the city of Saguntum, located in the south of the Ebro,
appealed to Rome in 220 to act as arbitrator during a stasis. Hannibal dismissed Roman
rights on the city, and took it in 219.[85] At Rome, the Cornelii and the Aemilii
considered the capture of Saguntum a casus belli,[86] and won the debate against Fabius
Maximus Verrucosus, who wanted to negotiate. An embassy carrying an ultimatum was
sent to Carthage, asking its senate to condemn Hannibal’s deeds. The Carthaginian
refusal started the Second Punic War.[87]
Initially, the plan of the Republic was to carry war outside Italy, by sending the
consuls Publius Cornelius Scipio to Hispania, and Sempronius Longus to Africa, while
their naval superiority prevented Carthage from attacking from the sea.[88] This plan
was thwarted by Hannibal’s bold move to Italy. In May 218, he indeed crossed the Ebro
with a large army of about 100,000 soldiers and 37 elephants.[89] He passed in Gaul,
crossed the Rhone, then the Alps, possibly through the Col de Clapier (2,491 meters
high).[90] This famous exploit cost him almost half of his troops,[91] but he could now
rely on the Boii and Insubres, still at war with Rome.[92] Publius Scipio, who had failed
to block Hannibal on the Rhone, sent his elder brother Gnaeus with the main part of his
army in Hispania according to the initial plan, and went back to Italy with the rest to
resist Hannibal in Italy, but he was defeated and wounded near Pavia.
Hannibal then marched south and won three outstanding victories. The first one was
on the banks of the Trebia in December 218, where he defeated the other consul
Sempronius Longus thanks to his brother Mago, who had concealed some elite troops
behind the legions and attacked them from the rear once fighting Hannibal. More than
half of the Roman army was lost. Hannibal then ravaged the country around Arretium
to lure the new consul Gaius Flaminius into a trap, at the Lake Trasimene. He had
hidden his troops in the hills surrounding the lake and attacked Flaminius when he was
cornered on the shore. This clever ambush resulted in the death of the consul and the
complete destruction of his army of 30,000 men. In 216, the new consuls Aemilius
Paullus and Terentius Varro mustered the biggest army possible, with eight legions (more
than 80,000 soldiers) – twice as many as the Punic army – and confronted Hannibal,
who was encamped at Cannae, in Apulia. Despite his numerical disadvantage, Hannibal
used his heavier cavalry to rout the Roman wings and envelop their infantry, whom he
annihilated. In terms of casualties, the Battle of Cannae was the worst defeat in the
history of Rome: only 14,500 soldiers escaped; Paullus was killed as well as 80
senators.[93] Soon after, the Boii ambushed the army of the consul-elect for 215,
Postumius Albinus, who died with all his army of 25,000 men in the Forest of Litana.
These disasters triggered a wave of defection among Roman allies, with the rebellions
of the Samnites, Oscans, Lucanians, and Greek cities of Southern Italy.[95] In Macedonia,
Philip V also made an alliance with Hannibal in order to take Illyria and the area around
Epidamnus, occupied by Rome. His attack on Apollonia started the First Macedonian
War. In 215, Hiero II of Syracuse died of old age, and his young grandson Hieronymus
broke the long alliance with Rome to side with Carthage. At this desperate point, the

13
aggressive strategy against Hannibal advocated by the Scipiones was abandoned in
favour of delaying tactics that avoided direct confrontation with him. Its main
proponents were the consuls Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, nicknamed Cunctator (“the
delayer”), Claudius Marcellus, and Fulvius Flaccus. The “Fabian Strategy” favoured a
slow reconquest of the lost territories, since Hannibal could not be everywhere to defend
them.[96] Although he remained invincible on the battlefield, defeating all the Roman
armies on his way, he could not prevent Claudius Marcellus from taking Syracuse in 212
after a long siege, nor the fall of his bases of Capua and Tarentum in 211 and 209.
However, in 208 the consuls Claudius Marcellus and Quinctius Crispinus were ambushed
and killed near Venusia.
In Hispania, the situation was overall much better for Rome. This theatre was mostly
commanded by the brothers Publius and Gnaeus Scipio, who won the battles of Cissa in
218, soon after Hannibal’s departure, and Dertosa against his brother Hasdrubal in 215,
which enabled them to conquer the eastern coast of Hispania. In 211 however, Hasdrubal
and Mago Barca successfully returned the Celtiberian tribes that supported the Scipiones,
and attacked them simultaneously at the Battle of the Upper Baetis, in which the
Scipiones brothers died.[97] Publius’ son, the future Scipio Africanus, was then elected
with a special proconsulship to lead the Hispanic campaign. He soon showed outstanding
skills as a commander, by winning a series of battles with ingenious tactics. In 209, he
took Carthago Nova, the main Punic base in Hispania, then defeated Hasdrubal at the
Battle of Baecula (208).[98] After his defeat, Hasdrubal was ordered by Carthage to
move to Italy. Since he could not use ships, he followed the same route as his brother
through the Alps, but this time the surprise effect was gone. The consuls Livius Salinator
and Claudius Nero were awaiting him and won the Battle of the Metaurus, where
Hasdrubal died.[99] It was the turning point of the war. The attrition campaign had
indeed worked well: Hannibal’s troops were now depleted; he only had one elephant left
(Surus) and retreated to Bruttium, on the defensive. In Greece, Rome contained Philip
V without devoting too many forces, by setting an alliance with the Aetolian League,
Sparta, and Pergamon, which also prevented Philip from aiding Hannibal. The war
resulted in a stalemate, with the Treaty of Phoenice signed in 205.
In Hispania, Scipio continued his triumphal campaign at the battles of Carmona in
207, and Ilipa (now Seville) in 206, which ended the Punic threat on the peninsula.[100]
Elected consul in 205, he convinced the Senate to cancel the Fabian Strategy, and instead
to invade Africa by using the support of the Numidian king Massinissa, who had defected
to Rome. Scipio landed in Africa in 204. He took Utica, then won the Battle of the Great
Plains, which prompted Carthage to recall Hannibal from Italy and open peace
negotiations with Rome. The talks nevertheless failed because Scipio wanted to impose
harsher terms on Carthage, in order to avoid it from rising again as a threat to Rome.
Hannibal was therefore sent to face Scipio at Zama. Scipio could now use the heavy
Numidian cavalry of Massinissa – which had hitherto been so successful against Rome –
to rout the Punic wings, then flank the infantry, as Hannibal had done at Cannae.
Defeated for the first time, Hannibal convinced the Carthaginian Senate to pay the war
indemnity, which was even harsher than that of 241: 10,000 talents in 50 instalments.

14
Carthage furthermore had to give up all its elephants, all its fleet but ten triremes, all
its possessions outside its core territory in Africa (what is now Tunisia), and could not
declare war without the authorisation of Rome. In effect, Carthage was condemned to
be a minor power, while Rome recovered from a desperate situation to dominate the
Western Mediterranean.

ROMAN SUPREMACY IN THE GREEK EAST (200–188 BC):

MACEDONIAN WARS

I Apollonia·1 s t Lamia·2nd Lamia·Mantinea

II Aous·Cynoscephalae
ROMAN–SELEUCID WAR
Thermopylae·Corycus·Eurymedon·
Myonessus·Magnesia
III Callinicus·Pydna
IV Pydna (148 BC)

Rome’s preoccupation with its war with Carthage provided an opportunity for Philip V
of the kingdom of Macedonia, located in the north of the Greek peninsula, to attempt to
extend his power westward. Philip sent ambassadors to Hannibal’s camp in Italy, to
negotiate an alliance as common enemies of Rome.[101][102] However, Rome discovered

15
the agreement when Philip’s emissaries were captured by a Roman fleet.[101] The First
Macedonian War saw the Romans involved directly in only limited land operations, but
they ultimately achieved their objective of preoccupying Philip and preventing him from
aiding Hannibal.
The past century had seen the Greek world dominated by the three primary successor
kingdoms of Alexander the Great’s empire: Ptolemaic Egypt, Macedonia, and the
Seleucid Empire. In 202, internal problems led to a weakening of Egypt’s position,
thereby disrupting the power balance among the successor states. Macedonia and the
Seleucid Empire agreed to an alliance to conquer and divide Egypt.[103] Fearing this
increasingly unstable situation, several small Greek kingdoms sent delegations to Rome
to seek an alliance.[104] The delegation succeeded, even though prior Greek attempts to
involve Rome in Greek affairs had been met with Roman apathy. Our primary source
about these events, the surviving works of Polybius, do not state Rome’s reason for
getting involved. Rome gave Philip an ultimatum to cease his campaigns against Rome’s
new Greek allies. Doubting Rome’s strength (a reasonable doubt, given Rome’s
performance in the First Macedonian War) Philip ignored the request, and Rome sent
an army of Romans and Greek allies, beginning the Second Macedonian War.[105]
Despite his recent successes against the Greeks and earlier successes against Rome,
Philip’s army buckled under the pressure from the Roman-Greek army. In 197, the
Romans decisively defeated Philip at the Battle of Cynoscephalae, and Philip was forced
to give up his recent Greek conquests.[106] The Romans declared the “Peace of the
Greeks”, believing that Philip’s defeat now meant that Greece would be stable. They
pulled out of Greece entirely, maintaining minimal contacts with their Greek allies.[107]
With Egypt and Macedonia weakened, the Seleucid Empire made increasingly
aggressive and successful attempts to conquer the entire Greek world.[108] Now not only
Rome’s allies against Philip, but even Philip himself, sought a Roman alliance against
the Seleucids.[109] The situation was made worse by the fact that Hannibal was now a
chief military advisor to the Seleucid emperor, and the two were believed to be planning
an outright conquest not just of Greece, but of Rome itself.[110] The Seleucids were much
stronger than the Macedonians had ever been, because they controlled much of the former
Persian Empire, and by now had almost entirely reassembled Alexander the Great’s
former empire.[110]
Fearing the worst, the Romans began a major mobilization, all but pulling out of
recently pacified Spain and Gaul.[110] They even established a major garrison in Sicily
in case the Seleucids ever got to Italy.[110] This fear was shared by Rome’s Greek allies,
who had largely ignored Rome in the years after the Second Macedonian War, but now
followed Rome again for the first time since that war.[110] A major Roman-Greek force
was mobilized under the command of the great hero of the Second Punic War, Scipio
Africanus, and set out for Greece, beginning the Roman–Seleucid War. After initial
fighting that revealed serious Seleucid weaknesses, the Seleucids tried to turn the Roman
strength against them at the Battle of Thermopylae (as they believed the 300 Spartans
had done centuries earlier).[109] Like the Spartans, the Seleucids lost the battle, and
were forced to evacuate Greece.[109] The Romans pursued the Seleucids by crossing the

16
Hellespont, which marked the first time a Roman army had ever entered Asia.[109] The
decisive engagement was fought at the Battle of Magnesia, resulting in a complete Roman
victory.[109][112] The Seleucids sued for peace, and Rome forced them to give up their
recent Greek conquests. Although they still controlled a great deal of territory, this defeat
marked the decline of their empire, as they were to begin facing increasingly aggressive
subjects in the east (the Parthians) and the west (the Greeks). Their empire disintegrated
into a rump over the course of the next century when it was eclipsed by Pontus.
Following Magnesia, Rome again withdrew from Greece, assuming (or hoping) that the
lack of a major Greek power would ensure a stable peace. In fact, it did the opposite.[113]

Conquest of Greece (172–146 BC)

In 179 Philip died.[114] His talented and ambitious son, Perseus, took the throne and
showed a renewed interest in conquering Greece.[115] With her Greek allies facing a major
new threat, Rome declared war on Macedonia again, starting the Third Macedonian War.
Perseus initially had some success against the Romans. However, Rome responded by
sending a stronger army. This second consular army decisively defeated the Macedonians
at the Battle of Pydna in 168[114][116] and the Macedonians duly capitulated, ending the
war.[117]
Convinced now that the Greeks (and therefore the rest of the region) would not have
peace if left alone, Rome decided to establish its first permanent foothold in the Greek
world and divided the Kingdom of Macedonia into four client republics. Yet, Macedonian
agitation continued. The Fourth Macedonian War, 150 to 148 BC, was fought against a
Macedonian pretender to the throne who was again destabilizing Greece by trying to re-
establish the old kingdom. The Romans swiftly defeated the Macedonians at the Second
battle of Pydna.
The Achaean League chose this moment to fight Rome but was swiftly defeated. In
146 (the same year as the destruction of Carthage), Corinth was besieged and destroyed
in the Battle of Corinth (146 BC), which led to the league’s surrender.[118] After nearly
a century of constant crisis management in Greece, which always led back to internal
instability and war when she withdrew, Rome decided to divide Macedonia into two new
Roman provinces, Achaea and Macedonia.

THIRD PUNIC WAR (149–146 BC)

Lake Tunis·1 s t Nepheris·Port of Carthage·

2 n d Nepheris·Carthage

Carthage never recovered militarily after the Second Punic War,[119] but quickly did so
economically and the Third Punic War that followed was in reality a simple punitive
mission after the neighbouring Numidians allied to Rome robbed/attacked Carthaginian
merchants. Treaties had forbidden any war with Roman allies, and defence against
robbing/pirates was considered as “war action”: Rome decided to annihilate the city of

17
Carthage.[120] Carthage was almost defenceless, and submitted when besieged.[121]
However, the Romans demanded complete surrender and removal of the city into the
(desert) inland far off any coastal or harbour region, and the Carthaginians refused. The
city was besieged, stormed, and completely destroyed.
Ultimately, all of Carthage’s North African and Iberian territories were acquired by
Rome. Note that “Carthage” was not an ‘empire’, but a league of Punic colonies (port
cities in the western Mediterranean) like the 1st and 2nd Athenian (“Attic”) leagues,
under leadership of Carthage. Punic Carthage was gone, but the other Punic cities in the
western Mediterranean flourished under Roman rule.

SOCIAL TROUBLES AND FIRST CIVIL WAR (146–60 BC)

Rome’s rapid expansion destabilized its social organization and triggered unrest in the
heart of the Republic, which ultimately led to political violence, unrest in the provinces,
and ultimately a breakdown in the traditional social relations of Rome that created the
Augustan Empire. The period is marked by the rise of strongmen (Marius, Sulla, Pompey,
Crassus, and Julius Caesar), who turned military success into political power.

The Gracchi (133–121 BC)

1 s t Servile War·2 n d Servile War·3 r d Servile War

In 135, the first slave uprising, known as the First Servile War, broke out in Sicily. After
initial successes, the slaves led by Eunus and Cleon were annihilated by the consul
Publius Rupilius in 132 BC.
In this context, Tiberius Gracchus was elected tribune in 133 BC. He attempted to
enact a law which would have limited the amount of land that any individual could own.
The aristocrats, who stood to lose an enormous amount of money, were bitterly opposed
to this proposal. Tiberius submitted this law to the Plebeian Council, but the law was
vetoed by a tribune named Marcus Octavius. Tiberius then used the Plebeian Council
to impeach Octavius. The theory, that a representative of the people ceases to be one
when he acts against the wishes of the people, was counter to Roman constitutional
theory. If carried to its logical end, this theory would remove all constitutional restraints
on the popular will, and put the state under the absolute control of a temporary popular
majority.[122] His law was enacted, but Tiberius was murdered with 300 of his
associates[123] when he stood for reelection to the tribunate.
Tiberius’ brother Gaius was elected tribune in 123. Gaius Gracchus’ ultimate goal
was to weaken the senate and to strengthen the democratic forces.[124] In the past, for
example, the senate would eliminate political rivals either by establishing special judicial
commissions or by passing a senatus consultum ultimum (“ultimate decree of the senate”).
Both devices would allow the Senate to bypass the ordinary due process rights that all
citizens had. Gaius outlawed the judicial commissions and declared the senatus
consultum ultimum to be unconstitutional. Gaius then proposed a law which would grant

18
citizenship rights to Rome’s Italian allies. This last proposal was not popular with the
plebeians and he lost much of his support.[125] He stood for election to a third term in
121, but was defeated and then murdered by representatives of the senate with 3,000 of
his supporters on Capitoline Hill in Rome.[123]
In 121, the province of Gallia Narbonensis was established after the victory of
Quintus Fabius Maximus over a coalition of Arverni and Allobroges in southern Gaul in
123. The city of Narbo was founded there in 118 by Lucius Licinius Crassus.

RISE OF MARIUS

Jugurthine War

Cirta·Suthul·Muthul·Zama·Thala·Muluccha·2 n d Cirta

The Jugurthine War of 111–104 was fought between Rome and

Jugurtha of the North African kingdom of Numidia. It
constituted the final Roman pacification of Northern
Africa,[126] after which Rome largely ceased expansion on the
continent after reaching natural barriers of desert and
mountain. Following Jugurtha’s usurpation of the throne of
Numidia,[127] a loyal ally of Rome since the Punic Wars,[128]
Rome felt compelled to intervene. Jugurtha impudently bribed
the Romans into accepting his usurpation. Jugurtha was finally
captured not in battle but by treachery.
In 118, King Micipsa of Numidia (current-day Algeria and
Tunisia) died. He was succeeded by two legitimate sons, V Bust of Gaius Marius,
instigator of the Marian
Adherbal and Hiempsal, and an illegitimate son, Jugurtha. reforms
Micipsa divided his kingdom between these three sons.
Jugurtha, however, turned on his brothers, killing Hiempsal and driving Adherbal out of
Numidia. Adherbal fled to Rome for assistance, and initially Rome mediated a division
of the country between the two brothers. Eventually, Jugurtha renewed his offensive,
leading to a long and inconclusive war with Rome. He also bribed several Roman
commanders, and at least two tribunes, before and during the war. His nemesis, Gaius
Marius, a legate from a virtually unknown provincial family, returned from the war in
Numidia and was elected consul in 107 over the objections of the aristocratic senators.
Marius invaded Numidia and brought the war to a quick end, capturing Jugurtha in the
process. The apparent incompetence of the Senate, and the brilliance of Marius, had been
put on full display.[130] The populares party took full advantage of this opportunity by
allying itself with Marius.

19
 Cimbrian War

Noreia·Burdigala·Arausio·Tridentum·Aquae Sextiae·Vercellae

The Cimbrian War (113–101) was a far more serious affair than the earlier clashes of 121.
The Germanic tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutons[131] migrated from northern Europe
into Rome’s northern territories,[132] and clashed with Rome and her allies.[133] At the
Battle of Aquae Sextiae and the Battle of Vercellae both tribes were virtually annihilated,
which ended the threat.

SULLA’S CIVIL WARS

In 91 the Social War broke out between Rome and its former allies in Italy when the
allies complained that they shared the risk of Rome’s military campaigns, but not its
rewards. Although they lost militarily, the allies achieved their objectives with legal
proclamations which granted citizenship to more than 500,000 Italians.
The internal unrest reached its most serious state, however, in the two civil wars
that were caused by the clash between generals Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla
starting from 88. In the Battle of the Colline Gate[134] at the very door of the city of
Rome, a Roman army under Sulla bested an army of the Marius supporters and entered
the city. Sulla’s actions marked a watershed in the willingness of Roman troops to wage
war against one another that was to pave the way for the wars which ultimately
overthrew the Republic, and caused the founding of the Roman Empire.

First Mithridatic War

Amnias Protopachium Mount Scorobas Rhodes Athens and Piraeus

Chaeronea Tenedos Orchomenus

Several years later, in 88, a Roman army was sent to put down an emerging Asian power,
king Mithridates of Pontus. The army, however, was not defeated and won. One of
Marius’ old quaestors, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, had been elected consul for the year, and
was ordered by the senate to assume command of the war against Mithridates. Marius,
a member of the “populares” party, had a tribune revoke Sulla’s command of the war
against Mithridates. Sulla, a member of the aristocratic (“optimates”) party, brought his
army back to Italy and marched on Rome. Sulla was so angry at Marius’ tribune that
he passed a law intended to permanently weaken the tribunate.[135] He then returned
to his war against Mithridates. With Sulla gone, the populares under Marius and Lucius
Cornelius Cinna soon took control of the city.

20
 Sulla’s second civil war

Mount Tifata Asio River Sacriporto Sena Gálica Saturnia Glanis

River Espolecio 1 Clusium 1 Espolecio 2 Faventia Fidentia Clusium 2
Colline Gate Praeneste Neápolis Utica Norba Caesarina Nola
Volterras

During the period in which the populares party controlled the city, they flouted
convention by re-electing Marius consul several times without observing the customary
ten-year interval between offices.[136] They also transgressed the established oligarchy
by advancing unelected individuals to magisterial office, and by substituting magisterial
edicts for popular legislation. Sulla soon made peace with Mithridates. In 83, he returned
to Rome, overcame all resistance, and recaptured the city. Sulla and his supporters then
slaughtered most of Marius’ supporters. Sulla, having observed the violent results of
radical popular reforms, was naturally conservative. As such, he sought to strengthen
the aristocracy, and by extension the senate.[137] Sulla made himself dictator, passed a
series of constitutional reforms, resigned the dictatorship, and served one last term as
consul. He died in 78.

POMPEY’S DOMINANCE: SEE ALSO: SECOND CATILINARIAN

CONSPIRACY

The third and final slave uprising was the most serious,[138] involving ultimately between
120,000[139] and 150,000[140] slaves under the command of the gladiator Spartacus.

Second and Third Mithridatic Wars

II Magnesia on the Maeander Amasra Halys

III Chalcedon Cyzicus Rhyndacus Lemnos Heraclea Cabira
Tigranocerta Artaxata Zela Lycus Pelorus Abas Jerusalem

Mithridates the Great was the ruler of Pontus,[141] a large kingdom in Asia Minor, from
120 to 63. Mithridates antagonised Rome by seeking to expand his kingdom,[141] and
Rome for its part seemed equally eager for war and the spoils and prestige that it might
bring.[141][142] In 88, Mithridates ordered the killing of a majority of the 80,000 Romans
living in his kingdom.[143] The massacre was the official reason given for the
commencement of hostilities in the First Mithridatic War. The Roman general Lucius
Cornelius Sulla forced Mithridates out of Greece proper, but then had to return to Italy
to answer the internal threat posed by his rival, Gaius Marius. A peace was made between
Rome and Pontus, but this proved only a temporary lull.
The Second Mithridatic War began when Rome tried to annex a province that
Mithridates claimed as his own. In the Third Mithridatic War, first Lucius Licinius
Lucullus and then Pompey the Great were sent against Mithridates and his Armenian

21
ally Tigranes the Great.[144] Mithridates was finally defeated by Pompey in the night-
time Battle of the Lycus.[145]

Rome against the Cilician pirates

The Mediterranean had at this time fallen into the hands of pirates,[145] largely from
Cilicia.[146] The pirates not only strangled shipping lanes but also plundered many cities
on the coasts of Greece and Asia. Pompey was nominated as commander of a special
naval task force to campaign against the pirates.[144][145] It took Pompey just forty days
to clear the western portion of the sea of pirates and restore communication between
Iberia (Spain), Africa, and Italy.
In 77, the senate sent one of Sulla’s former lieutenants,
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (“Pompey the Great”), to put down
an uprising in Hispania. By 71, Pompey returned to Rome after
having completed his mission. Around the same time, another
of Sulla’s former lieutenants, Marcus Licinius Crassus, had just
put down the Spartacus-led gladiator/slave revolt in Italy.
Upon their return, Pompey and Crassus found the populares
party fiercely attacking Sulla’s constitution.[147] They
attempted to forge an agreement with the populares party. If
both Pompey and Crassus were elected consul in 70, they would
dismantle the more obnoxious components of Sulla’s
VI A Roman marble bust of
constitution. The two were soon elected, and quickly
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Musei dismantled most of Sulla’s constitution.[148]
Capitolini, Rome
Around 66, a movement to use constitutional, or at least
peaceful, means to address the plight of various classes
began.[149] After several failures, the movement’s leaders decided to use any means that
were necessary to accomplish their goals. The movement coalesced under an aristocrat
named Lucius Sergius Catilina. The movement was based in the town of Faesulae, which
was a natural hotbed of agrarian agitation.[150] The rural malcontents were to advance
on Rome,[151] and be aided by an uprising within the city. After assassinating the consuls
and most of the senators, Catiline would be free to enact his reforms. The conspiracy
was set in motion in 63. The consul for the year, Marcus Tullius Cicero, intercepted
messages that Catiline had sent in an attempt to recruit more members. As a result, the
top conspirators in Rome (including at least one former consul) were executed by
authorisation (of dubious constitutionality) of the senate, and the planned uprising was
disrupted. Cicero then sent an army, which cut Catiline’s forces to pieces.
The most important result of the Catilinarian conspiracy was that the populares
party became discredited. The prior 70 years had witnessed a gradual erosion in
senatorial powers. The violent nature of the conspiracy, in conjunction with the senate’s
skill in disrupting it, did a great deal to repair the senate’s image.[151]

22
 TRIUMVIRATES AND END OF THE REPUBLIC (60–27 BC)

FIRST TRIUMVIRATE (60–50 BC)

In 62, Pompey returned victorious from Asia. The Senate, elated by its successes against
Catiline, refused to ratify the arrangements that Pompey had made. Pompey, in effect,
became powerless. Thus, when Julius Caesar returned from a governorship in Spain in
61, he found it easy to make an arrangement with Pompey. Caesar and Pompey, along
with Marcus Licinius Crassus, established a private agreement, now known as the First
Triumvirate. Under the agreement, Pompey’s arrangements would be ratified. Caesar
would be elected consul in 59, and would then serve as governor of Gaul for five years.
Crassus was promised a future consulship.[152][153]
Caesar’s consular colleague in 59, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, was an extreme
aristocrat. Caesar submitted the laws that he had promised Pompey to the assemblies.
Bibulus attempted to obstruct the enactment of these laws, and so Caesar used violent
means to ensure their passage.[152] Caesar was then made governor of three provinces.
He facilitated the election of the former patrician Publius Clodius Pulcher to the
tribunate for 58. Clodius set about depriving Caesar’s senatorial enemies of two of their
more obstinate leaders in Cato and Cicero. Clodius was a bitter opponent of Cicero
because Cicero had testified against him in a sacrilege case. Clodius attempted to try
Cicero for executing citizens without a trial during the Catiline conspiracy, resulting in
Cicero going into self-imposed exile and his house in Rome being burnt down. Clodius
also passed a bill that forced Cato to lead the invasion of Cyprus which would keep him
away from Rome for some years. Clodius also passed a law to expand the previous partial
grain subsidy to a fully free grain dole for citizens.[154]

GALLIC WARS

Magetobriga (63 BC) Arar (58 BC) Bibracte (58 BC) Vosges (58
BC) Axona (57 BC) Sabis (57 BC) Atuatuci (57 BC) Octodurus (57–56
BC) Britain (55-54 BC) Ambiorix’s revolt (54–53 BC) Avaricum (52
BC) Gergovia (52 BC) Lutetia (52 BC) Alesia (52 BC) Uxellodunum
(51 BC)

During his term as praetor in the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain),
Pompey’s contemporary Julius Caesar defeated two local tribes in battle.[155] After his
term as consul in 59, he was appointed to a five-year term as the proconsular Governor
of Cisalpine Gaul (part of current northern Italy), Transalpine Gaul (current southern
France) and Illyria (part of the modern Balkans).[155][156] Not content with an idle
governorship, Caesar strove to find reason to invade Gaul (modern France and Belgium),
which would give him the dramatic military success he sought. When two local tribes
began to migrate on a route that would take them near (not into) the Roman province

23
of Transalpine Gaul, Caesar had the barely sufficient excuse he needed for his Gallic
Wars, fought between 58 and 49.
Caesar defeated large armies at major battles 58 and 57. In 55 and 54 he made two
expeditions into Britain, the first Roman to do so. Caesar then defeated a union of Gauls
at the Battle of Alesia,[157] completing the Roman conquest of Transalpine Gaul. By 50,
all of Gaul lay in Roman hands.
Clodius formed armed gangs that terrorised the city and eventually began to attack
Pompey’s followers, who in response funded counter-gangs formed by Titus Annius Milo.
The political alliance of the triumvirate was crumbling. Domitius Ahenobarbus ran for
the consulship in 55 promising to take Caesar’s command from him. Eventually, the
triumvirate was renewed at Lucca. Pompey and Crassus were promised the consulship
in 55, and Caesar’s term as governor was extended for five years. Beginning in the
summer of 54, a wave of political corruption and violence swept Rome.[158] This chaos

24
reached a climax in January of 52 BC, when Clodius was murdered in a gang war by
Milo.

Roman–Parthian Wars

Carrhae Campaign (53 BC) Caesar’s planned invasion (44 BC)

Pompeian–Parthian invasion (40–38 BC) Antony’s Parthian War (40–
33 BC) War over Armenia (58–63) Trajan’s Parthian campaign (115–
117) War of 161–166 Campaign of Septimius Severus (198) Caracalla’s
Parthian War (216–217)

In 53, Crassus launched a Roman invasion of the Parthian Empire (modern Iraq and
Iran). After initial successes,[159] he marched his army deep into the desert;[160] but
here his army was cut off deep in enemy territory, surrounded and slaughtered at the
Battle of Carrhae in which Crassus himself perished. The death of Crassus removed some
of the balance in the Triumvirate and, consequently, Caesar and Pompey began to move
apart. While Caesar was fighting in Gaul, Pompey proceeded with a legislative agenda
for Rome that revealed that he was at best ambivalent towards Caesar[161] and perhaps
now covertly allied with Caesar’s political enemies. Pompey’s wife, Julia, who was
Caesar’s daughter, died in childbirth. This event severed the last remaining bond between
Pompey and Caesar. In 51, some Roman senators demanded that Caesar not be
permitted to stand for consul unless he turned over control of his armies to the state,
which would have left Caesar defenceless before his enemies. Caesar chose civil war over
laying down his command and facing trial.

Caesar’s Civil War and dictatorship (49–44 BC)

Corfinium Brundisium Curicta Massilia (land)

Ilerda Massilia (naval) Utica Bagradas Salona
Dyrrhachium Gomphi Pharsalus Nicopolis Alexandria
Tauris Nile Zela Ruspina Thapsus Hippo Regius
Carteia Munda Corduba Lauro Apamea Baetis

On 1 January 49, an agent of Caesar presented an ultimatum

to the senate. The
ultimatum was rejected, and the senate then passed a resolution
which declared that if Caesar did not lay down his arms by July of
that year, he would be considered an enemy of the Republic.[162]
Meanwhile, the senators adopted Pompey as their new champion VII The Tusculum
portrait, a Roman
against Caesar. On 7 January of 49, the senate passed a senatus sculpture of Julius
consultum ultimum, which vested Pompey with dictatorial powers. Caesar, Archaeological
Museum of Turin, Italy
Pompey’s army, however, was composed largely of untested
conscripts.

25
 On 10 January, Caesar with his veteran army crossed the river Rubicon, the legal
boundary of Roman Italy beyond which no commander might bring his army, in violation
of Roman laws, and by the spring of 49 swept down the Italian peninsula towards Rome.
Caesar’s rapid advance forced Pompey, the consuls and the senate to abandon Rome for
Greece. Caesar entered the city unopposed. Afterwards Caesar turned his attention to
the Pompeian stronghold of Hispania (modern Spain)[163] but decided to tackle Pompey
himself in Greece.[164] Pompey initially defeated Caesar, but failed to follow up on the
victory, and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48,[165] despite
outnumbering Caesar’s forces two to one, albeit with inferior quality troops.[166] Pompey
fled again, this time to Egypt, where he was murdered.
Pompey’s death did not end the civil war, as Caesar’s many enemies fought on. In
46 Caesar lost perhaps as much as a third of his army, but ultimately came back to
defeat the Pompeian army of Metellus Scipio in the Battle of Thapsus, after which the
Pompeians retreated yet again to Hispania. Caesar then defeated the combined Pompeian
forces at the Battle of Munda.
With Pompey defeated and order restored, Caesar wanted to achieve undisputed
control over the government. The powers which he gave himself were later assumed by
his imperial successors.[167] His assumption of these powers decreased the authority of
Rome’s other political institutions.
Caesar held both the dictatorship and the tribunate, and alternated between the
consulship and the proconsulship.[167] In 48, Caesar was given permanent tribunician
powers. This made his person sacrosanct, gave him the power to veto the senate, and
allowed him to dominate the Plebeian Council. In 46, Caesar was given censorial
powers,[168] which he used to fill the senate with his own partisans. Caesar then raised
the membership of the Senate to 900.[169] This robbed the senatorial aristocracy of its
prestige, and made it increasingly subservient to him. While the assemblies continued to
meet, he submitted all candidates to them for election, as well as all bills for enactment.
Thus, the group became powerless and were unable to oppose him.[clarification
needed][170]

Caesar’s assassination

Caesar began to prepare for a war against the Parthian Empire. Since his absence from
Rome would limit his ability to install his own consuls, he passed a law that allowed him
to appoint all magistrates, and later all consuls and tribunes. This transformed the
magistrates from representatives of the people to representatives of the dictator.[169]
Caesar was now the primary figure of the Roman state, enforcing and entrenching
his powers. His enemies feared that he had ambitions to become an autocratic ruler.
Arguing that the Roman Republic was in danger, a group of senators led by Gaius
Cassius and Marcus Brutus hatched a conspiracy and assassinated Caesar at a meeting
of the Senate on 15 March 44.[171] Most of the conspirators were senators, who had a
variety of economic, political, or personal motivations for carrying out the assassination.
Many were afraid that Caesar would soon resurrect the monarchy and declare himself

26
king. Others feared loss of property or prestige as Caesar carried out his land reforms in
favor of the landless classes. Virtually all the conspirators fled the city after Caesar’s
death in fear of retaliation.

Second Triumvirate

The civil war that followed destroyed what was left of the Republic.[174]
After the assassination, Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) formed an alliance with
Caesar’s adopted son and great-nephew, Gaius Octavianus (Octavian), along with
Marcus Lepidus. Known as the Second Triumvirate,[175] they held powers that were
nearly identical to the powers that Caesar had held under his constitution. As such, the
Senate and assemblies remained powerless, even after Caesar had been assassinated. The
conspirators were then defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42. Although Brutus defeated
Octavian, Antony defeated Cassius, who committed suicide. Brutus did likewise soon
afterwards.
However, civil war flared again when the alliance failed. The ambitious Octavian
built a power base of patronage and then launched a campaign against Mark Antony.[171]
At the naval Battle of Actium in 31 off the coast of Greece, Octavian decisively defeated
Antony and Cleopatra of Ptolemaic Egypt. Octavian was granted a series of special
powers including sole “imperium” within the city of Rome, permanent consular powers
and credit for every Roman military victory, since all future generals were assumed to
be acting under his command. In 27 Octavian was granted the use of the names
“Augustus”, indicating his primary status above all other Romans, “Princeps”, which he
used to refer to himself as in public, and he adopted the title “Imperator Caesar” making
him the first Roman Emperor.[176]

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