The Rise of the Roman Republic

The Republic 265 BCE-133BCE

ObjectivesI. Through what enterprise did Rome come

in contact with Carthage in the 3rd Century BCE

II. How did the military exemplify the importance of citizenship?

III. What were the reasons for the Punic wars?

Expansion/Transformation

I. Between 265 and 133 BCE the success of Rome could be attributed to its Army

II. Army of the Republic – made up of citizens a. Freeholders thought the territory – tax paying men

between the ages of 17-46 had to report when calledb. Red Flag – significance?

III. Army was organized into legions (4000) - 40 companies of 100 men.

IV. Soldiers took an oathV. Discipline was the strength of the army, DecimationVI. Food of the Roman soldier (Wheat bread, water,

vinegar)

Expansion/Transformation

VI. Victorious Legion/soldier returned after a season of fighting with a few gold coins and pride of victory

VII.By 265 BCE Rome had unified the whole peninsula. It would be the growing wealth and power of the republic clashed with new foes outside of Italy.

Expansion/Transformation

VIII.Wars of the Mediterranean1. Confrontation of Carthage was next on the agenda2. Carthage had been founded by the Phoenician

colonists around 800 BCE3. Became a prosperous and diverse cosmopolitan

city4. Population at its height was about 400,000, about

100,000 were from Phoenician heritage5. Skilled sailors and traded along the western coast

of Africa6. Unique modes of trading and trust with the African

tribes.

First Punic WarI. Rome’s clash with Carthage began over who

would control the Sicilian city of Messana, and areas that the Roman’s saw as strategically vital to the security of southern Italy.

II. Carthage resented Rome’s presence in Sicily, in 264 BCE both sides sent troops in an effort to conquer the disputed island

III. It became a Sea war, Rome invaded and concluded an alliance with Syracuse in 263 BCE,

First Punic WarIV. Rome learns to be a Sea Power, taking a

wrecked Carthaginian ship and constructed 20 fast chips build on the models, propelled by 200 oarsmen to ram and sink ships.

V. Invented a new sea warfare, won impressive victories but could not deliver a knockout for more than 20 years

VI. Key to survival was how the Romans survived in the aftermath of storms of their naval Fleets

VII.241 BCE, Rome forced Carthaginian commander Hamilar Barca to surrender

First Punic WarVIII.Results of 1st Punic

1. Carthage paid huge indemnity2. It had to abandon Sicily, Syracuse, Messina

IX. Aftermath of War1. Roman Legions were kept busy for next 2 decades in the

North2. Defeating the Ligurian, on the northeast coast, Celtic Gauls

south of the Alps, and the Illyrians along the Adriatic 3. Carthage caught in internal battles with mercenary armies4. Carthage expanded empire into Spain, trading with Rome

reached a height, tow had weary peace but not friendship5. The 241 Treaty was merely a pause.

Second Punic WarI. The Success of Hasdrubal and Hannibal in

Spain. II. War breaks out in 218 BCE, Hannibal

marches north out of Spain along Mediterranean coast, across the Alps, with elephants.

III. Transported 23,000 Troops 18 war elephants into the plains of Northern Italy

IV. Trebia River in the Po Valley, the Romans lost 20,000 men, 2/3 of their army

V. Political success of the Carthaginian forces brought allies from Roman subjugated powers.

Second Punic WarA. Commanders chosen by Patrician

dominated Senate. Plebs dissatisfied with how the war was going

B. Quintus Fabius Maximus, appointed Dictator

1. Used delaying tactics to slow advance, nickname the Cunctator.

C. New Dictator elected by popular assembly, Gaius Terentius Varrow, elected counsel led the army to the greatest defeat in Roman history at Canne (216 BCE)

Second Punic WarD. What saved Roman State

1. Majority of Roman Armies held firm, Rome’s tradition of sharing fruits of victory with allies, extended the rights of Roman citizenship.

2. Second, the social orders remained amazingly united. Strong family/patronage ties

3. Publius Cornelius Scipio, (aka Scipio the Elder), commander who forced Hannibal from Italy, Later earned title Africanus.

4. Africanus defeated Hannibal by taking the war to the enemy, in Spain and in Africa. These victories drew Hannibal home, where at Zama in 202 BCE the Roman commander destroyed the Carthaginian army

Second Punic WarE. End of the War

1. Carthage forced to pay a large indemnity2. Carthage ceded its colonies to ROME

Third Punic WarI. Final Destruction of Carthage

A. Weakened Carthage was not enough, Senator wanted to completely destroy the enemy to keep the Plebs under senatorial control.

B. Cato the Elder; aka Marcus Porcius Cato, ended his speech “Delendaest Carthago”

C. 149 BCE war was renewed. D. 3rd war was unevenly matched. Rome’s power far surpassed

CarthageE. 146 BCE Scipio Aemilianus, Scipio the Younger adopted

grandson of Scipio Africanas (the elder) overwhelmed CarthageF. Destruction was total, those who survived were sold into

slavery, the entire city was destroyed, plowed, leveled, cursed. Hinterland became the property of wealthy Roman Senators.

Roman ExpansionI. Roman armies conquered the great

center of Mediterranean commerce, Corinth, in the same year it destroyed Carthage.

II. Expanded into Greece and the rest of the Hellenistic world

III. Greek states were in a state of disarray and and asked the Roman Senate to arbitrate their disputes.

Roman ExpansionIV. Philip of Macedon forced into war, due to his role in a

treaty, defeated in 197 BCEV. Seleucid Antiochus III of Syria suffered same fate,

Rome declared free the Greek cities of AsiaVI. The Greeks venerated the Roman commander as a

God (Titus Quinctius Flaminius). In reality the control for the cities lay in the hands of local oligarchs

VII. Corinth falls in 146 BCE, same year as ZamaVIII. By 146 BCE Roman Republic controlled whole rim of

the Mediterranean from Rhodes in the east across Greece, Dalmatia, Italy, southern Gaul, and North Africa, Even Syria and Egypt.

Republican CivilizationA. Farmers and Soldiers

1. Sudden conquest , influx of unprecedented riches

2. Limitations prevented the republic from resolving its internal social tensions and the external problems caused by the burden of empire

3. Most Roman farmers were small farmers with as few as 10 acres of land, (hogs, beans, wheat/grain, Hogs)

4. Most important crop: Roman soldier, allies provided reconnaissance

Republican CivilizationB. Roman Infantry: the Main Roman fighter

1. Greek Phalanx transformed into Roman Legion2. A flexible unit composed of 30 companies of 120 men each, Legions

maneuvered in three rows of squares of men, each containing 120 soldiers3. Constant training, and execution was the mainstay4. Engineers, bridges, siege machines, catapults, by the late republic Roman

armies could construct identical camps each night, and build a strong square fort 2150 feet long on each side. Camps were reconstructed exactly

C. Hardships of Roman Soldier1. War became international expeditions lasting years2. Men unable to work land while gone, or mortgaged farm to support family

while gone3. Aristocrats, amassed vast landed estates worked by imported slaves, 4. Ordinary Romans and Italians lacked small family farm capable of

supporting themselves5. Without land, their sons excluded from military service, became

disenfranchised citizens.

Republican CivilizationA. Roman Family, Basic unit of society

1. Paterfamilias, master of the family – women children, slaves-

2. Authority lasted until death, only then could sons achieve financial independence

3. Women were never free from paternal authority, divorce

4. Women had informal authority, moral education of children, direction of household, control over dowries. Widows might have greater, if informal authority in the raising of children

Republican CivilizationB. Paternal authority over children,

Absolute1. All children born into a marriage became

members of the family2. 12 tables allowed defective children to be

killed for good of family3. Infants had to be accepted by father4. Life and death of children was up to father5. Abandoned Children would go to childless

couples, often ended as slaves or prostitutes6. Not all sons born into family: adoption

trademark

Republican CivilizationC. Slaves

1. Part of the household property w/o personal rights2. Paterfamilias had authority over the slaves3. Paterfamilias could free salve, slaves would still have obligations

to owner for lifeD. Domus

1. Center of Roman family the home, early Etruscan architecture2. Houses looked inward, presenting nothing but blank walls to the

outside world3. Visitors entered through Atrium, with a collecting pool in which

rain water for household use flowed from the roof through terra cotta drains

4. Niches or nooks stood wax or terra cotta busts of ancestors or statues, the walls constructed of stone blocks, and were often painted in bands of different colors to imitate marble

ExpansionI. Social Effects

A. Family environment changes after many conquests

B. Women began to take a more active role in public life

C. Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus, after husbands’ death refused to remarry, devoting herself to raising her children, administering their inheritance, directing their political careers

D. Some women escaped authority of their husbands, whose fathers did not transfer authority

ExpansionE. Upon their father’s death, some women could become

independent w/o the consent of their husbandsF. Women had weaker sentimental bonds, it meant that a

wife’s relationship to her children was also weak, Roman mothers had never been legally related to their children

G. Wives/mothers not fully apart of their husband’s families, brothers’ families were natural heirs

H. Marriage to daughters sealed alliances between men. Fathers could force daughters to divorce.

I. By second century women became temporary visitors in their husbands’ homes.

ExpansionJ. Overtime the Atrium in the home would grow and be more

lavish among the richK. Frescos, mosaics and painting would decorate walls/floorsL. Not everyone could afford a Domus, in aftermath of great

conquests, the Romans had a housing shortage for the poor, Shopkeepers began to have homes attached to shops, peasants forced into cities and off land.

M. The small buildings for the poorer were structures that families would crowd into 10 x 10 rooms, shared common enclosed courtyard, these buildings were not hidden away and ere often side by side with shops and other multistory apartment buildings

N. Rich and poor rubbed elbows everyday making the tensions ever present

ExpansionII. Roman Religion

A. Worshipped many Gods, the more the better, reverence for authority and order

B. Gods were AnthropomorphicC. Outside the home Gods were worshipped and future

readings were doneD. Roman priests, however, were not a special caste, but

important members of society of the elite who held priesthoods in addition to other public offices

E. As Rome expanded so did the absorption of the Roman Gods

F. Absorption only went so far, as the secret rituals of Dionysus, later to be called Bacchus, caused a stir as Livy tells us.

ExpansionIII. Roman Letters

A. Rome absorbed many things from Etruscans, Alphabet, the one that Most Western Languages use today

B. Birth began with Rome’s exposure to Greek civilizationC. Timaeus was the first Greek historian serious about the

new western power, wrote a Roman history up to the Pyrrhic war. Interviewed Roman and Greek witnesses

D. Polybius was the Greek historian to record Rome’s rise to power, gathered information first hand,

E. Polybius’ history is both the culmination of the traditions of Greek historiography and its transformation.