The Late Republic, Julius Caesar, and Civil Wa

Question 1

Tiberius Gracchus (133 BCE):

Answer 1

Elected Tribune
Proposed land reforms to address wealth concentration
Senatorial backlash, accused of seeking tyranny
Killed along with supporters

Question 2

Gaius Gracchus (123 BCE):

Answer 2

Elected Tribune in 123 BCE
Instituted radical laws: fixed grain prices, distributed land to the poor
Senatorial backlash, Senatus consultum ultimum
Took his own life before assassination

Question 3

Lessons from the Gracchi

Answer 3

Discontent leads to conflict and violence
Gracchi legislation challenges elite power
Senatorial backlash warns against challenging power structures
Power of the plebs: Assembly and Tribunes influencing state affairs
Beginnings of political violence: elected leaders killed to stop their agenda

Question 4

Looking Forward

Answer 4

Growing political division: Populares vs. Optimates
Populares gain power through plebs; Optimates through the Senate
No formal political parties; loose identities
Leads to next major conflict: Marius and Sulla

Question 5

Gaius Marius

Answer 5

Leading figure in Populares (novus homo)
Successful general, consul six times
Recruitment of poor volunteers; effective leadership
Conflict with Sulla; First large-scale civil war

Question 6

Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Answer 6

Leading figure in Optimates; consul twice
Conflict with Marius; Social War (89 BCE)
First large-scale civil war in Roman history
Marched on Rome in 88 BCE; unprecedented

Question 7

Civil War

Answer 7

Sulla declared dictator with unrestricted power
Brutal exercise of power: executions, proscription lists
Blueprint for empire: individual leaders, personal power, violence as a political tool

Question 8

Triumvirates

Answer 8

Crassus and Pompey, allies of Sulla
Gaius Julius Caesar, relative of Marius, allied with Crassus and Pompey
Caesar elected consul and given legions in Gaul
Mutual interests: gaining military reputation, wealth, and a personal army

Question 9

De Bello Gallico

Answer 9

Commentaries on Caesar’s campaigns (58-50 BCE)
Annual reports on Roman army activities
Ethnographies of conflicted regions
Public-facing, self-fashioning exercise
Covers regions from Switzerland to Britain; claims over a million casualties

Question 10

Alea Iacta Est

Answer 10

Tensions between Caesar and Pompey grow
Crossing the Rubicon in 49 BCE: start of civil war
Holders of imperium immune to lawsuits
Start of conflicts, including the Battle of Pharsalus

Question 11

Caesar Dictator

Answer 11

Pompey defeated at Pharsalus in 48 BCE
Caesar named dictator multiple times with varying term lengths
Dictator perpetuo: permanent dictatorship
Increasing individual control over the state
Public works projects, reformed calendar, coinage with Caesar’s head