rise and fall of republican rome

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Nick Dillon
History 101
19 September 2014 The Roman republic had a set of core beliefs that every citizen tried to model themselves after. A
Roman citizen needed to be willing to do whatever Rome asked of him. A notable example is when Cincinnatus was asked to come to the aid of Rome and be a temporary leader of the state his response was to drop his plough and he went and led Rome until he was no longer needed then he went back and picked his plough up from where he left it supposedly on two separate occasions. This was what every Roman was supposed to do for Rome to be considered a good citizen. Even though Rome’s government was tailored to better serve the wealthy, Rome’s government was truly a people’s government. The Greco­Roman Heroic ideal is someone of wealth or royal birth, in Republican Rome, usually a land owner, who is willing to serve his country however they may be needed especially in its time of need.
Rome was all about honoring one’s family be they alive or dead, this meant serving Rome even if it meant to your death to protect her, this one a part of the Roman ethos. The reach of Rome was vast and even seemed to know no bounds. This was bound to fail due to the fact that at first only people who lived in Rome were considered citizens of Rome, eventually the title of citizen was extended to the entire boot of Italy to help appease more people in the Republic. While the provinces conquered were not considered citizens they still had to pay tribute, usually in grain or other crops, In return Rome would come to the aid of the people should they fall under threat of attack. Rome was able to control and manage the spread of power by letting the conquered people keep their way of life and religion and simply pay tribute, instead of the Greek tradition of forcing the indigenous people to convert to the mother lands religion and erect a temple in a

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certain deity or deities honor, this assimilation kept most of the people in these areas happy with the exception of when the crops did not yield as much as they thought making it difficult to feed one’s family and pay Rome.
Initially when only landowners were allowed to be in the military due to the fact that supplying ones own armaments was a necessity and also not very cheap, it was difficult for the people that did not own land to demonstrate what almost everyone considered to be the ideals of a good
Roman citizen. In order for the Roman republic to work the way it did it required people to be able to own up and pay the price for their actions, like Cincinnatus who retired to the farm mentioned prior to after his son was convicted and Cincinnatus paid a large fine after which he retired to his small farm. The Patricians who in the republic were supposed to essentially have a monopoly power in the political aspect of roman culture came to an end with the Struggle of
Orders. The Plebeians before the Struggle were only meant to have nothing more than the right to vote in the Republic’s assembly, looking at the way the republic started it did not seem like a government that was truly for its people, rather a government that was for the wealthy people that lived under its umbrella. The struggle took place essentially so that all men could be looked upon and treated equal under the law, while this may not have always been the case every time the two were looked at and deemed to be relatively equal legally resulting in the eventual allowance of intermarriage of the two social classes. Even going so far as to allow the Plebeians to have a voice in the say of Rome by becoming a Consul or a senator, this was key in the structure of the republic’s foundation because it made them an even truer form of a republic government much to which the United States was modeled after.

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Pompey and Caesar while rather unknowingly at the time were a large reason as to why The
Republic of Rome fell. Both men felt that they were doing what needed to be done to help salvage Rome from the problems that were growing within. While both men worked to dissolve the constitution that was left behind by Sulla Pompey and Caesar went about in almost two completely different ways. Pompey wanted to salvage the republic by essentially removing the corrupted government officials from office, instead of marching on Rome like Caesar Pompey worked from the inside of Rome from initially persuading the senate to allow him to go to Spain as opposed to disbanding his army. After being allowed to go to Spain, Pompey was able to help in the defeating of the remaining of Marius’ loyalists and would go on to be given half of the credit for the deed of the slaying of the Thracian gladiator Spartacus upon his return from Spain despite he himself not being in the same country at the time Pompey was eager to accept the glory nonetheless. Making him all the more the people’s champion that he needed to be to help repair the republic. Pompey and people he supported resurrected political offices such as the tribunate, along with other political offices that had not been used prior to Sulla’s rule, to aid him in his grab for more power in Rome. These offices gave Pompey even more control in the government than he had as an young consul. Pompey used his army to be granted consulship despite being too young for the title, Caesar did almost the same thing with his armies after the senate had orders his army disbanded and his immediate return to Rome. Where as Pompey used his army to gain consulship Caesar used his army to gain control of all of Rome as a temporary dictator. Caesar made his grab to power on Rome after the order of the disbanding of his army was given, Caesar had the desire to repair the republic to its former glory and that is what lead to his eventual self entitlement of ruler for life. Marcus Cato was a man who believed in the

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traditional ideology of Rome, this meant he was almost constantly going against everything
Pompey was trying to accomplish in Rome. After Pompey had became a member of the three headed monster, political and military figures consisting of Crassus and Caesar as well, it became apparent that Pompey was a man who hated opposition even being called the youthful executioner in his early days as a military leader. It was during Caesar's rule that Cato decided that rather than live an untraditional Roman life he would sooner take his own life in the year
c.46 BCE. Caesar executed plans to try and create a peaceful and prosperous nation with Rome restored to it’s proper glory and to once again be worthy of the capital city of an honorable nation. Caesar used his rule to initiate the building of a public hall across from the forum, a business park/public square. Caesar had also made plans to help with the flooding of the Tiber river, and to increase the road maintenance, the draining of the Pomptine marsh, and most importantly the reconstruction of the Roman harbor at Ostia. All of this was of course to be paid for by the wealth that Caesar had accumulated during his war conquests and the wealth of Egypt that Caesar discovered, some believe that these projects were thought up by Caesar to help raise his image even higher in the public eye. Regardless of Caesar’s reasoning for the building projects they served as a tool to create more jobs for the people allowing them to be able to earn money for themselves instead of relying on government handouts to feed their families.
Unfortunately for him Caesar was beginning to lose favor among his supporters, even Cicero’s favor towards Caesar was beginning to fade. Cicero had joined Caesar’s side after the civil war in the hopes that he would be able to return the republic to its former glory, it became clear to
Cicero in the years C.44­45 BCE that Caesar was no longer the healing had that Rome needed and most likely never was. Caesar was set to begin his eastern campaign on March 18, having

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made all the proper arrangements for his absence which included leaving two men in charge making it so any request or question for Caesar had to go through those two men. This proved to be problematic due to the fact that the men left in charge were not even senators. Caesar had turned into a tyrannical ruler of Rome and it was the hope of those who conspired to kill him that the republic would heal itself, which we know today did not work as originally intended.
Many civilizations have taken to modeling themselves after the Republican Rome, Hitler for example used Rome for some of the core values in which he ruled and even some of their traditions such as the eagle. The founding fathers of the United States of America looked closely at early Rome on how to shape the constitution so that they may avoid the corruption of a tyranical monarch that they were so desperatlytrying to escape from. The republic began its decent into darkness and eventual collapse due to the fact that it allowed to many people to come in and take power without opposition. When our nation first began and Rome was our model errors were made to some degree by allowing one man to be viewed as the man with the power.
While initially the president had very little power and it truely was a government for the people, with each passing president the power of the title grew. The founders should have designed our government more closely to Rome only leaving out the restrictions of the social classes in an effort to perfect the republican system. All these years after the constitution was drafted the president has become an untouchable tyranical power similiar to that of Julius Caesar in the respect that while there are checks and balances in place to limit his power it is to easy for them to just bypass the senate altogether. The corruption of Rome was undoubtably a result of one man with to much power controlling an entire nation without opposition of restrictions and no one being willing to stand up and fight agianst him. The founding fathers faced the threat of a

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tyranical government that was across an ocean but they chose to fight back for their rights to stop the unbrandish hand of the monarch. in Today’s society the people are faced with another tyranical leader and instead of them living thousands of miles away they are living on the same continent as them but are deciding to do nothing about it while traditional values and constitutions are being violated. American citizens have the right to fight against the tyranny of government like our founding fathers did along withe the senators of Rome who stood against
Caesar. With the opposition of Caesar came the ending of a tyrant and the end of a government, the similarities between Rome and the United States are more similar than most people even realize or just choose to disregard entirely while tradition is trampled on and the people are led like lambs to the slaughter. In Rome if you had money and desired a politicl office all you had to do is buy your vote from the lower classes, the lower class would jump at the opportunity so that they may feed their families a proper meal. Today senators, members of the house, and the president are doing the same thing by making promises to lower taxes, create more jobs, and other things that the people want to hear. They are buying your vote by telling you these things so you are more likely to vote for them, paying thousands of dollars for comercials that either promise you things or bash the opponent by telling the people what they dont want is what the other person will give them, and even still going state to state and talking about these things and answering questions about their plans while in office just like a Roman would go person to person and offer a few gold coins for the vote. The Roman republic fell because too much power was given to one person and the people of Rome were to late to stop it, today American citizens are letting the same thing happen to them. The longer the American people wait the harder it is going to be to tell when the leader will finally lose favor with the masses and people try to fix it.

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The damage was done to the Roman republic and it could not be salvaged thus giving way to the
Rise of the Empire. The Roman empire was the repeating of a cycle of monarchs that had always continued to fail and cause more bloodshed amongst the people than there should ever need to be in civilized society. The American people are sitting back and watching history repeat itself because since the time of the founders, the people have forgotten what tyrannical government does. The more we forget of the past the more doomed we are to repeat the same mistakes our predicesors made, without true opposition from the poeple the American President will only continue to grow in power has his cabinet has with each passing election which will only lead to more corrupt government's and the downfall of this civilization leaving behind a history of our rise and fall just like both the republic and the empire of the mighty Rome.