Roman Republic

Roman Republic

Roman Republic

            The Roman Republic; was the period civilization in ancient Rome, when the government of Rome operated as a republic. This period began with the Roman monarchy overthrow, which is traditionally around 509 BC, and its replacement with by a government, that was headed by two consuls, which were elected annually by the citizens and under the advice of the senate. The ancient state was centred in the Rome city up to the foundation of the republic in 509 BC, through the establishment of the Empire of Rome in 27 BC (McKay et al 174).

            Rome was a hierarchical society Roman society from the onset. The constitution evolved through the influence of the struggles among the patricians and the plebeians. Patricians had exclusive rights due to their nobility birth. However, the emergence of new aristrocacy led to repeal and weakening of this laws by the plebeian society. The new republic had strong morals and traditions that helped them serve the public while acting as patrons during war and peaceful times. Military and political success were linked inseparably[1].

            During the Republic of Rome’s first two centuries of existence, it was able to expand through conquests and alliances. The Italian peninsula became part of the republic and by the third century since its foundation, the Roman Empire spilled over the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, Greece and parts of France. By the first century, Rome was the biggest empire, which covered all of France, and the eastern parts of the Mediterranean. Despite its strong traditional, moral, and legal values, greed led to a small number of politicians who were in constant fights against each other leading to civil wars[2].

Why Roman Republic Collapsed

            There are two major reasons that explain the collapse of the Roman Republic. It all started with Julius Caesar when he conquered Rome during the civil war. He set up trusted people in specific offices and made himself a consul. Normally, there exists two consuls and together, they would brainstorm and choose which actions to make. But by being the only one, he basically became a dictator. Later, a group of senators. assassinated him. His nephew, Octavian, found out that he was adopted. He won the civil war against Antonio. The senators rewarded him; by making him the sole consul. They kept giving him more power, for he was a great ruler and many people were grateful. It is then, that the Roman Empire was formed, and the Republic collapsed. Having much supreme power, he eventually became the emperor and earned the title Augustus. Unfortunately, a bunch of mannequins inherited the supreme power and the Empire came rumbling down (McKay et al 144).

            The lives and influence of Octavian, Cleopatra, Antonius, and even Caesar along with the unending sections of kinsmen like Crassus, Cicero and Pompey, will be scrutinized. A number of events, other than just one, signified the Rome Republic’s collapse. In addition, enormous and quick extension from Rome's establishment as a green city seven hundred years earlier, until the middle of the 1st century BC, formed monumental hovels in the administrative and governing capability of the Council. Commencement of the Roman defeat and Punic wars outside Italy, followed by immense importation of slaves, the appearance of the Roman life changed rapidly than the principal body could handle. Political wrangling was and continually became part of any system, but then, the supreme Romans like; Scipio Africana’s, became the victim of the fads of politicians. The societal instability that stemmed from injustices in the system provided a way to the rise of agitators like Gracchi[3].

            Men like; Sulla and Marius, with their own individual agendas and conflicts wreaked disaster in an already damaged structure. Partisan political affairs of the conservative senators trying to keep authority with the exclusive class, despite the fact that the tactics of the popular considered the support of the lower classes, separated the people as well as the classes into what looked like warring sections. For nearly hundred years, the weather was unpredictable at finest and brutally bloody at worst[4].

            Until the rise of Julius Gaius Caesar, the platform was established for a single person to assume authority and stabilize the Kingdom. Caesar was not the only person responsible for the collapse. His part during the final demise is evident. He did not start the fall or complete it, but he continued a series of actions that made its fall irreversible. Despite Caesar's policies and short reign of stability and reform, the strength of his personality and character held the Republic organized for only the period of his life. The three events the undermined the Republic includes; economic stagnation, slave upheavals and conflict in the military.

[1]John P Mckay et al, “A History of Western Society, Volume 1, From Antiquity to the Enlightment” 10th ed. (Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010) 

[2] John P Mckay et al, “A History of Western Society, Volume 1, From Antiquity to the Enlightment” 10th ed. (Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010) 

[3] John P Mckay et al, “A History of Western Society, Volume 1, From Antiquity to the Enlightment” 10th ed. (Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010) 

[4] John P Mckay et al, “A History of Western Society, Volume 1, From Antiquity to the Enlightment” 10th ed. (Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010)