From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 (51 page)

1 THE DOWNFALL OF THE REPUBLIC. This subject has been treated in a lecture by R. Syme entitled
A Roman Post-mortem
(Sydney 1950 =
Roman Papers
, 1979, i, 205 ff.), in ch. x of
The Theory of the Mixed Constitution in Antiquity
by K. von Fritz (1954) and in a book by R. E. Smith on
The Failure of the Roman Republic
(1955). Smith attributes the failure largely to the Gracchi and believes that the senatorial class, if left to itself, would have worked out a satisfactory system; this view has not gained wide support. The topic is handled now by Christian Meier in
Res Publica Amissa. Eine Studie zu Verfassung und Geschichte der späten römischen Republik
(1966; 2nd ed. 1980, with long new introduction), who regards the late Republic as a reasonably contented community which was upset by the problems arising from the excessive extension of the territory of the State, and not least from the decline in moral standards among the powerful individuals who found themselves supported by professional armies as the result of exceptional crises; since, in his view, the political classes were reasonably satisfied, there was not sufficient pressure to adapt old institutions to meet the threat from the military
principes
. For a discussion of this book see P.A. Brunt,
JRS
, 1968, 229ff., and E. W. Gray,
Cl. Rev.
, 1969, 325 ff. In ‘The Army and the Land in the Roman Revolution’,
JRS
, 1962, 69 ff., P. A. Brunt has emphasized the continuing need of the poor for land as a major factor in the revolution which transformed an oligarchic Republic into the Principate of Augustus. E. S. Gruen (whose book,
The Last Generation of the Roman Republic
(1974), provides a valuable survey of the political history of the last decades of the Republic) believes that modern historians have tended to regard the ‘downfall’ with too much hindsight: the oligarchical government was stronger than often envisaged and civil war was not anticipated by contemporaries until it was almost upon them; the breakdown was relatively sudden rather than gradual. [p. 1]

2 ROME’S ITALIAN CONFEDERACY. See Tenney Frank,
Roman Imperialism
(1914), chs. i–v; A. J. Toynbee,
Hannibal’s Legacy
(1965), i; H. H. Scullard,
History of the Roman
World, 753–146 BC
⁴
(1980); E. T. Salmon,
The Making of Roman Italy
(1982). On
ius fetiale
see Frank,
op.cit.
, R. Ogilvie,
Commentary on Livy books i–v
(1965), 110 ff., 127 ff., and V. Ilari,
L’interpretazione storica del diritto de guerra romana
(1981), ch. i. [p. 2]

3 ROMAN IMPERIALISM. The earlier view of Rome as Dryden’s ‘old unquestioned pirate of the land’ has long been largely superseded by the idea that Rome’s creation of a Mediterranean empire resulted essentially from a policy of defensive imperialism (see, e.g., Tenney Frank,
op.cit. supra
, and M. Holleaux in
CAH
). This interpretation in turn has recently been challenged by W. V. Harris,
War and Imperialism in Republican Rome, 327–70 BC
(1979), who attributes to Rome a much more aggressive policy (but this reaction may be too strong: see, e.g., A. N. Sherwin-White,
JRS
, 1980, 177 ff.). Some aspects of Roman Imperialism are discussed in
Imperialism in the Ancient World
, ed. R. D. A. Garnsey and C. R. Whittaker (1978), while K. Hopkins,
Conquerors and Slaves
, i (1978), considers the impact of empire on the political economy of Italy. See also the important study by E. Badian,
Roman Imperialism in the Late Republic
²
(1968). [p. 5]

4 THE NOBLES. The true nature of the Roman nobility was revealed in an epochmaking little book by M. Gelzer,
Die Nobilität der römischen Republik
(1912), of which an English translation is now available:
The Roman Nobility
(1969). For some of the ideas and ideals which inspired the nobles see D. Earl,
The Moral and Political Tradition of Rome
(1967), who writes (p. 21), ‘
Virtus
, for the Republican noble, consisted in the winning of personal preeminence and glory by the commission of great deeds in the service of the Roman state.’ In the late Republic men struggled for
fama, gloria, auctoritas
and above all
dignitas:
it was in defence of his
dignitas
, which he asserted to be more important than life itself, that Caesar crossed the Rubicon and marched on Rome. On the
novi homines
see T. P. Wiseman,
New Men in the Roman Senate, 139 BC
–
14
A.D. (1971). See also L. Schatzman,
Senatorial Wealth and Roman Politics
(1975). [p. 6]

5 GROUP POLITICS. On the nature of political life in the Roman Republic in general see R. Syme,
The Roman Revolution
(1939); L. R. Taylor,
Party Politics in the Age of Caesar
(1949); H. H. Scullard,
Roman Politics, 220–150 BC
. (1951, 2nd ed. 1973); E. Badian,
Foreign Clientelae, 264–70 BC
(1958); A. E. Astin,
Politics and Policies in the Roman Republic
(Belfast, 1968), a lecture; E. S. Gruen,
Roman Politics and the Criminal Courts, 139–70 BC
(1968); and a balanced assessment by T. R. S. Broughton, ‘Senate and Senators of the Roman Republic: The Prosopographical Approach’,
Aufstieg
, I, i, 250 ff. (with relevant bibliography). See also R. Seager on
factio, JRS
, 1972, 53 ff. Much of this modern work stems from F. Münzer’s study of Roman aristocratic parties and families,
Römische Adelsparteien und Adelsfamilien
(1920), which in turn developed some of Gelzer’s ideas (though not all in a way acceptable to Gelzer himself) and thus gave rise to the ‘prosopographical’ interpretation of Roman politics. While most historians would now agree on the essentially personal nature of Roman political life and on the absence of anything like modern political parties, they remain divided on the extent to which groups, based on family connexions, formed around outstanding individuals, and above all on how permanent such groupings, which were held together by ties of family and
amicitia
(political alliance), might be. An extreme view of the essential unimportance of such coteries is advanced by Chr. Meier,
Res Publica Amissa
(see above n. 1), who believes that in the late Republic senators were divided into coteries only on everday matters in general (though occasionally on greater issues) and that conflicting interests led to constant changes in such groups which must be regarded not as enduring family alliances but as ephemeral kaleidoscopic entities. E. S. Gruen (
op.cit. supra
.) on the other hand, though cautious, finds ‘a strikingly consistent structure of political alliances for the 140s and 130s … the factional
structure of senatorial politics admits of no doubt’ (p. 25. See further below ch. II, n. 8). [p. 6]

6 OPTIMATES AND POPULARES. See Ch. Wirszubski,
Libertas as a Political Idea at Rome
(1950), ch. 2. On the Populares see Chr. Meier, Pauly-Wissowa,
Realencyclopaedie
, Suppl. x, 550 ff., and
Res Publica Amissa
, 116–50 on ‘the methods of the populares and the great political themes of the late Republic’; also R. Seager,
Cl. Qu.
, 1972, 328 ff., on Cicero’s use of
popularis
and on Livy’s use
Cl. Qu.
, 1977, 377 ff. On the
Optimates
see H. Strasburger, Pauly-Wissowa, xviii, 773 ff. [p. 6]

7 THE TRIBUNATE. There had been exceptions to the general docility of the tribunes, especially in the two decades before the Gracchi. One cause of trouble was a widespread dissatisfaction with the military levy, especially for service in Spain, which on appeal was sometimes voiced by tribunes on behalf of the dissentients. On two occasions, in 151 and 138, feelings reached such a pitch that the tribunes had temporarily thrown the consuls into prison. This was open sedition, even if of brief duration (cf. p. 14). It is against the background of such ‘forerunners of the Gracchi’ as they have been dubbed in an article with that title by L. R. Taylor (
JRS
, 1962, 19 ff.) that the revolutionary use of the tribunate by the Gracchi should be seen. On the tribunate see J. Bleiken,
Das Tribunat der klassischen Republik
(1955).

On the relationship of the Roman citizens to the structure of the State in the second and first centuries B.C. see the detailed study by C. Nicolet,
The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome
(1980). [p. 7]

8 THE MIXED CONSTITUTION. See K. von Fritz,
op. cit.
, n. 1, and C. O. Brink and F. W. Walbank,
Cl. Qu.
, 1954, 97 ff. [p. 7]

9 THE EQUITES. On the history of the Equestrian Order during the Republic see H. Hill,
The Roman Middle Class
(1952); ‘The establishment of the
equester ordo
’ by M. I. Henderson (
JRS
, 1963, 61 ff. = Seager,
Crisis
, 69 ff.); C. Nicolet,
L’ordre équestre à l’époque republicaine
, i (1966), ii (1974); and P. A. Brunt, ‘The Equites in the late Republic’ in
Deuxième conférence internationale d’histoire économique, Aix-en-Provence, 1962
, i (1965), 117 ff. (= Seager,
Crisis
83 ff.); E. Badian,
OCD
²
s.v. Equites,
Roman Imperialism in the late Rep.
(1968), vii ff. and especially
Publicans and Sinners
(1972).

The Equites were not of course a monolithic block: the most prominent in Rome were naturally those
publicani
who helped in the public finances, as described above (see p. 8), and indeed the business men and traders in general, but in addition there were the country gentry of the towns of Italy who preferred the interests of their landed estates and the affairs of their local communities to both the glamour of political life in Rome and the risks of business. It is the publicans, described by Cicero as the ‘flower of the equestrian order’ who in the main began to clash with the Senate in the political arena. See further below p. 177 f. and n. 7. [p. 8]

10 GREEK INFLUENCES ON ROME.
Rome et la Grèce
by G. Colin (1905) is a most useful collection of material for the period from 200 to 146 B.C. See also N. K. Petrolochos,
Roman Attitudes to the Greeks
(Athens, 1974). [p. 9]

11 THE BACCHANALIA. See A. H. McDonald,
JRS
, 1944, 26 ff. [p. 9 f.]

12 STOICISM. See E. V. Arnold,
Roman Stoicism
(1911); M. Pohlenz,
Die Stoa
, 2 vols. (1948); J. Rist,
Stoic Philosophy
(1969); F. H. Sandbach,
The Stoics
(1975). [p. 10]

13 THE SCIPIONIC CIRCLE. On this so-called coterie see A. E. Astin,
Scipio Aemilianus
(1967), 294 ff. H. Strasburger,
Hermes
, 1966, 60 ff., argues that Polybius does not mention any member of the ‘circle’ and implies that Scipio’s interest in philosophy was more moral than intellectual; he believes therefore that the ‘circle’ is an invention of Cicero. This would seem to be going rather far, though perhaps the links between the members of the alleged group were less communal, if not weaker, than is sometimes
supposed. See also E. Rawson, ‘Scipio, Laelius and the ancestral Religion’,
JRS
, 1973, 161 ff. and ‘Religion and Politics in the late second century B.C. at Rome’,
Phoenix
, 1974, 193 ff. (the Optimates used the official religion for political propaganda; the Populares used less official cults). [p. 11]

14 SLAVERY. See W. L. Westermann,
The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity
(1955), 57 ff. Cf. P. A. Brunt,
JRS
, 1958, 164 ff., and eleven papers on various aspects, entitled
Slavery in Classical Antiquity
(1960), edited by M. I. Finley; J. Vogt,
Ancient Slavery and the Ideal of Man
(1975); K. Hopkins,
Conquerors and Slaves
, i (1978);
Greek and Roman Slavery
(1981) by T. Wiedermann contains a translation of a large number of passages dealing with slavery from the ancient sources. [p. 11]

15 SICILIAN SLAVE WAR. Two interesting documents survive: the little bronze coin, struck at Enna, on which Eunus styles himself King Antiochus (cf.
CAH
, Plates IV, p. 2), and the sling-bullets found there bearing the name of Piso (Greenidge,
Sources
²
, p. 10). J. Vogt,
Struktur d. ant. Sklavenkriege
(1957); P. Green,
Past and Present
, 1961, 10 ff. (reprinted in
The Shadow of the Parthenon
(1972), 192 ff.); W. Forrest,
ibid.
, 1962, 87 ff. [p. 12]

16 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. The references are Polybius, vi, 56, 14, and Cicero,
In Verr
. ii, i, 2. In general see G. H. Stevenson,
Roman Provincial Administration
(1939) and E. Badian,
Publicans and Sinners
(1972). On the lex Calpurnia see E. S. Gruen,
Rom. Pol.
, 13 ff., who does not believe that the motive in establishing the new court was concern for the provincials; ‘politics provided a decisive impetus’, i.e, senatorial interests. E. Badian on the other hand (
Roman Imperialism in the late Republic
²
(1968),9) thinks that the Senate was taking its responsibilities towards the provincials seriously. On the ways in which the Romans, through ties of patronage or friendship, relied on local rulers beyond the frontiers of the empire to help maintain peace see P. C. Sandys,
The Client Princes of the Roman Empire under the Republic
(1908) and M. R. Cimma,
Reges socii et amici populi Romani
(1976). [p. 13]

16a ALLIED TROOPS. On the method by which Rome called up allied troops (
formula togatorum
) and the numbers in relation to those of the Romans see P. A. Brunt,
Italian Manpower
(1971), 545 ff., 677 ff.; on their pay see C. Nicolet,
Papers Brit. Sch. Rome
, 1978, i ff. [p. 14]