The Collapse of the Roman Republic

Rape of Sabine Women

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Gov’t in the Roman Republic

What caused the Roman Republic to fall?

Why is this significant?

I. The Punic Wars

• When?

• Where?

• Who?

• What?

• Why?

www.bible-history.com/rome/ map_punic_wars.gif

See map in Noble p. 156

• First Punic War (264-241)• Begins over Sicily; imitatio and corvus

• Second Punic War (218-201)• Hannibal’s march; Fabian strategy; Scipio

Africanus attacks at Zama

• Third Punic War (149-146)• Carthago delenda est (Cato)

First Punic War

Second Punic War

Hannibal’s March

Third Punic War (149-146 BC)

• The main spurt of Roman expansion occurred between 264 and 133 B.C., when most of the Mediterranean fell to Rome, followed by the conquest of Gaul and the eastern Mediterranean by 44 B.C.

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Roman Expansion Under the Empire

• ‘View Show' to view and zoom map

II. Tiberius & Gaius Gracchus(died 133, 122 BC)

• “But the men who fight and die for Italy enjoy nothing but the air and light; without house or home they wander about with their wives and children. . . . [T]hey fight and die to protect the wealth and luxury of others; they are styled masters of the world, and have not a clod of earth they can call their own.”

• Reformist Tribunes

• Land reform, debt relief, new colonies, etc.

• Murdered by Senators

III. The Generals Control Rome

• Marius

• Sulla

• Julius Caesar

• [Octavian (Augustus)]

• See Noble, pp. 160-166

Marius, “The First Man in Rome”

• Equestrian popularis• Military success• Repeated consulships

Giovanni Tiepolo, The Triumph of Marius

Sulla

• Patrician optimas• Political contradiction

Julius Caesar

• See Noble, pp. 163-166

From Republic to Empire: Julius Caesar & Augustus

Julius Caesar (100-44 BC)

• General, dictator, orator, historian, reformer. . . • “the sole creative genius ever produced by

Rome”• As famous in death as in life. . .

Caesar’s career

• First Triumvirate (60-53 BC)

• Pompey, Caesar, Crassus

• Military victories in Gaul (60-53)

• Commentaries on Gallic War

• Crossing the Rubicon (49)

• Civil War (49-45)• Dictator in Rome (45-44)• Assassinated

• Ides of March, “et tu, Bruti?”

Map of Julius Caesar’s career

Caesar’s accomplishments

• Expanded Roman citizenship to provinces

• Expanded Senate• Founded colonies for

soldiers • Public building

program in Rome• Julian calendar

Caesar in popular culture

• “Veni, vidi, vici”• Shakespeare’s play• Caesarian birth• Caesar/Kaiser/Tsar• Caesar salad• Little Caesar’s pizza