CIVIL WAR

Subject of photo unknown (to me): possibly a Celt and a Roman? The Oak tree was a prominent Celtic symbol, and the Celts lived in similar huts.
From "Rome: A State In Arms", by John Ricker and John Saywell, page 29

Towards the end of the Republic, several large families gained great prominence. These wealthy aristocrats subverted the machinery of the Roman state (and the law) for their own private ends and tried to assume even more power. But there were some noble attempts at reform, designed to put more power into the hands of regular citizens.

The Grachhi brothers were two of the most famous reformers.

In 133 B.C., Tiberius Gracchus was elected Tribune by the people. He initiated land reforms, trying to give small farmers rights to use the vast amount of state-owned land. This was often land confiscated or annexed from conquered peoples in other parts of Italy, won by the swords of the common soldiers. The big families had managed to gain almost exclusive control of all of these resources.This situation was similar to the modern situation in nations such as Canada, Brazil and the U.S., where state-owned forest lands and other properties are essentially given to large corportions for small fees.

During the late Republic, the Senate and the rich manipulated the issue, started a riot, and Tiberius was killed.

His brother Gaius Gracchus later tried to develop even more aggressive land reforms. His ideas included expansive public works like road building and new colonization projects for the poor and unemployed. For non-citizens and conquered provincials, he created a court to put corrupt and dishonest provincial governors on trial.

The Senate and the wealthy opposed his reforms, and they went to great lengths to persecute him. Eventually, after being harassed, he took his own life rather than be publicly executed.

It was clear that perhaps the Roman Republic was already too weak to prevent a hostile takeover by the elite.

When it became clear that peaceful reform was going to be sabotaged by powerful interests no matter what reformers tried, mass violence erupted on a huge scale and and became a regular occurence. Labour conflicts, slave revolts, riots and protests engulfed the whole population. Foreign wars erupted and distracted the people for a time, but the population was exhausted by constant conflict and uncertainty.

The constant state of war with other nations was probably deliberate, on the part of the wealthy and powerful. It's an age-old tactic used by rulers around the world to put down social unrest at home. Some juntas and regimes deliberately maintain a constant state of war for this purpose, conquering other nations because they fear their own people. They do this by whipping the people into a frenzy of nationalistic, ethnic or religious prejudice and fear. Occasional foreign adventurism and prolonged, staged conflicts, arranged to be difficult but not impossible to win, are used by leaders and the aristocracies of all nations to distract the people from demanding more power for themselves.

This was a deliberate strategy, for example, used by both the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war in the 1950's-1980's, when they stalled reform in their own nations by calling up the threat of enemy invasion. Most superpower states spend much of their energy looking for enemies to distract their own population.

The actual Roman armies slowly turned from citizen-militias into cadres of full-time soldiers loyal to specific generals. Rome had always been a highly militaristic state, but in the past the armies had been composed of the city's citizens.

Professional armies and foreign inductees meant that the military took on a whole new dimension of power. The soldiers relied on their generals to secure pensions and salaries for them, and ceased to be directly answerable to the state. Instead, they answered to their general, who was himself bound to answer to the state. When they became primarily loyal to individual leaders rather than the state, civil war led by leaders seeking personal power was probably inevitable.

Brutal civil wars and constant uprisings and rebellions engulfed the dying Republic. Romans fought Romans, subject peoples rose up in desperate defiance, alliances shifted and cities were laid waste. Neighbouring states watched on with fear and smelled opportunities for conquest. Subject peoples and cities sided first one way and then another. Armies survived by extortion and pillage. Bloody violence washed from the far reaches of the Mediterranean to the streets of Rome and back.

The social order was collapsing completely. The Republic, crippled by the Senators and the absence of serious reform, was incapable of responding.

It was a cardinal rule for all military leaders, whether Consuls, Dictators or Proconsuls, to disband their armies outside the walls of Rome. They were absolutely forbidden by all tradition and custom to bring their armies into Rome under arms. This tradition went right back to the expulsion of the last of the kings of Rome, and honoured the freedom of the political institutions of the Republic.

The first man who seized power was Sulla. Elected Consul in 88 B.C., he put down a rebellion in Asia (modern Turkey). When he got back to Rome, his enemies had become very influential, and were threatening to have him removed from his position of influence. Instead of disbanding his armies and facing his foes, he used his now-private army to take control of the city. His brutal rule was marked by the deaths of thousands of his opponents and the seizure of their property, a theme that was to become common after the fall of the Republic.

Instead of reforming Rome, he attempted to push it back into the old days of aristocratic privilege and austere authoritarianism. He systematically crushed any attempts at democratic reforms.

Sulla broke the cardinal rule governing all Roman leaders: No general could ever bring his troops into Rome unless they were disarmed. He was even granted the privilege of a triumphal victory parade (a "Triumph"), and celebrated his invasion of the city. His name became a familiar and hated figure in the minds of the people.

But the precedent of his violent takeover was not lost on the future tyrants who sought to control Rome and its empire.

After Sulla died, chaos almost immediately ensued, proving that absolute power can never really provide stability and order. A king can only provide order so long as he lives.

After the dictatorship of Sulla, the institutions of Rome fell more and more into the hands of the elite. The Senate became almost all- powerful, and the tribunate and national assemblies lost much of their influence. Harsh social violence erupted as the common people grew outraged, suffering under the power of a few elite aristocrats.

As the Republic became more and more corrupted, personal political factions emerged. Senators, tribunes, and officials were divided into camps cupporting one or another leader.

In 60 B.C. a secret alliance of influential men ganged up together and tried to take control of the Roman Republic. This Triumvirate was composed of three men.

Pompey "The Great" was a famous general and aristocrat who conquered much of the Eastern Mediterranean and purged the sea of pirates. He was older, but considered very experienced and a good representative of the Senatorial order.

Crassus was a fabulously rich man, noted for being friendly but exceedingly greedy. His wealth came from manipulating the financial and property system of the time. When slaves revolted and tried to flee Roman oppression, he helped put down the famous Slave leader Spartacus and his army of 90,000 slaves.

Julius Caesar was a brilliant, ambitious military leader who conquered Gaul (France) and attempted an invasion of Britain. He first borrowed and later amassed a huge fortune, which he used to become popular. His "De Bellum Gallorum", or "On The War in Gaul", is his famous and important history of his actions in Gaul, written partly to justify his actions. A famous writer and lawyer, Cicero, supported Caesar, because he thought Caesar would defend the Republic from complete collapse. Much of his writing still survives.

These three men divided political power, bought influence and wrested control of the Republic from the people and ancient institutions of Rome.

When war was declared on the ancient Parthian (Persian) Empire, centred in Iran, Crassus went off to battle. The Romans lost a critical battle at Carrhae, in the Middle East, and Crassus was killed. This defeat was one of the worst Roman military disasters ever, and it became infamous for hundreds of years.

Military standards were the symbols for legions. Usually they had a crest (an eagle) and the letters SPQR, which stood for "Senatus PopulusQue Romanus", or "The Senate and People of Rome". These symbols of the Roman legions slaughtered at Carrhae were captured by the Parthians, and Rome was utterly humiliated. Under a later treaty, the standards were returned, but Roman historians never forgot this humiliation.

Pompey was more supportive of some kind of Republican restoration, and towards the end of his life, seemed to play with the idea of Republican government under the authority of the Senate. But he fell into conflict with Caesar, and though the Senate gave him as much aid as they could, Caesar finally defeated him in battle. By 45 B.C., Caesar was the most powerful man in the Western world.

Julius Caesar, in reserved, formal military garb.
>From "Rome: A State In Arms", by John Ricker and John Saywell, page 20

Ironically, to justify his rise to power, Caesar enacted some of the same reforms that the Gracchi had proposed 90 years before. His skills as a politician and his authoritarian reforms bought him quite a bit of credit with the populace. Of course, this was geared towards ensuring his continued power, rather than considering the needs of the Roman people and state first. When analyzed in detail, his reforms seem somewhat hollow and in no way sufficient to stop the impending collapse of the Republic.

Caesar had a famous affair with Cleopatra, the famous Greek queen of Egypt. The Greeks had invaded and occupied Egypt three hundred years before, when the almost invincible armies of Alexander the great conquered most of the ancient Middle East and even parts of India. When Alexander died, the conwuered territory was divided up between his three chief generals. Egypt fell to Ptolemy. Descended from this Greek line, Cleopatra's ruling family had by this time adopted many of the customs of the Egyptians.

Cleopatra was a consummate politician. She knew that power lay in the hands of Rome, and cultivated her connection to Caesar, the most powerful Roman of his time. She had his son, and just so that no one could make a mistake, she named it Caesarion. Many Romans were offended that this foreigner was trying to acquire power and influence for herself in Rome, and Caesar had to distance himself from his Egyptian mistress.

Caesar knew that Egypt was wealthy, and he wanted it to remain firmly under the power of the Egyptian royal family. With Rome's control over the royal family, it would be possible to preserve Egypt as a source of great wealth for Rome and any Roman leaders who needed support.

Caesar managed to acquire so much influence and power that he started to threaten the old Republican institutions. He may have realized that the power available to him under the old Roman constitution was insufficient to serve his great ambition, and desired to take full power for himself. Perhaps he had nobler intentions. Of course, we don't know.

There was a strong current of resitance to dictatorship in Rome. When it was obvious that he intended to assume absolute control and become a permament dictator, a Republican party decided that Caesar had to be eliminated. Cassius, a member of the faction, approached Brutus and convinced Brutus to be the leader of their plot.

Brutus was a noble and respected Roman. We was considered a staunch defender of the Republic and totally incorruptible. He began his rise to military prominence while under Caesar's command in the conquest of Gaul. Julius Caesar may have been under the impression that Brutus was his son, through complicated sexual relations about the time of Brutus' birth (the more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems). In any event, he actively courted Brutus' respect. Brutus wasn't entirely fond of Caesar, and loathed his arrogance and ambition for power. Even though many advisors warned against it, Caesar tried to draw Brutus away from Brutus' friends and bring him under his own influence. They became limited friends.

Hundreds of years before Brutus and Caesar, a man named Brutus led a revolt against the tyrrany of the Roman kings and liberated Rome, and established the Republic. According to historians, the conspirators admonished Brutus to "live up to your namesake, Brutus, the ancient liberator of Rome."

Led by Brutus and his ally Cassius, Republican partisans staged a well-planned, vicious assasination meant to show the people that Caesar was dead. Legend has it that Caesar's assasination had been foretold; "Beware the Ides of March". Maybe the assasins used this to their advantage. On March 15th, the "Ides of March", in 44 B.C., they drew Caesar away from his supporters at a gladiatorial show, and stabbed him repeatedly. Another story says that as he saw Brutus, he cried out, "ET TU, BRUTE?"-- "You too, Brutus?".

Shakespeare immortalized the story of Brutus and Julius Caesar in his play, "Julius Caesar".

When this attempt to rule Rome fell apart, a second cabal of three would-be dictators emerged.

Caesar's good friend and military companion Marc Antony is famous, along with Caesar, for being the lover of Egypt's Greek ruler, Cleopatra. He apparently fell madly in love with her, and she parlayed this into a political opportunity for her and her kingdom.

Lepidus was a well-known Roman politician, but little is remembered abotu him today. He was an influential politician and had significant public support.

Octavius Caesar was Julius Caesar's great-nephew and adopted son, the most junior member of the conspiracy. He had not yet done anything terribly remarkable at that point in his career.

Supported by the Senate, Brutus led a struggle to restore the Republic. Unfortunately for ther Republic, the forces of Antony and Octavian finally destroyed the Republican armies of Brutus and Cassius on the northern coast of the Aegean Sea. Brutus committed suicide in his tent. The dictators had so much respect for the noble Roman that they ordered the dead Republican general's body to be treated with honour. Some authors wrote that Octavian was very affected by the death of Brutus.

Lepidus lost influence while the others gained military victories and became little more than an appendage on the coattails of the other two leaders. He was eventually exiled.

The last two would-be dictators had great disagreements about how power was to be shared. To ease tensions, Antony married into Octavian's family. But he spurned his Roman aristocrat wife and lived instead with Cleopatra, Caesar's former lover and joint ruler of Egypt (the other ruler was her young son). Many in Rome were outraged that Antony spent so much time with a foreign mistress, and thought that he might try to unite Rome and Egypt into some kind of kingdom under his rule and the rule of the Egyptian royal family.

Civil war broke out, with Antony and Octavian leading the largest forces. Though Antony had all the money and power of the Egyptian throne behind him, his forces were routed at every turn by Octavian's armies and fleets. The loss of naval battles in Greece was critical, and though many stayed in their alliance with Antony, the war took on a desperate tone.

In 31 B.C., Octavius defeated Antony in battle off the coast of Greece, and Antony and Cleopatra fled with their money. Antony committed suicide, and while Cleopatra valiantly tried to manipulate Octavian as she had done Caesar and Antony, her efforts failed and she, too, committed suicide after threatening to burn and destroy the riches of the Egyptian monarchy.

Octavius, only 32, became the most powerful man in Mediterranean politics. He took the name of "Augustus" in 27 B.C., which meant "revered".

One man was absolute ruler of Rome and its vast Empire. The Senate proclaimed all types of honours for him, and conferred massive powers on the new leader. In the story made famous by authors throughout the centuries, Cleopatra committed suicide and then Egypt, and most of the Mediterranean, passed into the hands of Rome under Augustus Caesar's control.