Roman Republic
The Roman Republic is the term used to refer to the second era of Roman history, between the kingship and the empire. The origins of the Republic are dubious and legendary at best, and utterly fictional at worst. However, the Romans had a concrete sense of the foundation date of their city, and referred to it frequently in histories. From Roman reckoning, historians place the pivotal events of the beginning of the Roman Republic at 509 B.C.
Historians also debate the time of the fall of Rome, based on their private conceptions of what Roman republicanism truly meant. In a sense, the end of the Republic was inevitable after the rise of Marius, but the true end of the Republic is often placed at either the death of Julius Caesar (when Republican government first truly ceased), the Battle of Actium (Augustus' victory over Marc Antony), or the Constitutional Settlement of Augustus Caesar, which recognized that ruler as princeps, or "first citizen," with plenary power over Roman holdings. Most historians agree to use the date of the Constitutional Settlement as the date when all possibility of the restoration of the Republic finally ended, bringing the Republic to its true close, in 27 B.C.
Contents
- 1 A Short Primer on Eturian Influence on Rome
- 2 The Rape of Lucretia, and Overthrow of the Tarquins
- 3 The Gauls and Other Foundation Myths
- 4 The Conquest of Italy
- 5 The Struggle of the Orders: the Gracchi
- 6 The Punic Wars: Nascent Roman Imperialism
- 7 The Jugurthine War, Marius, and the Beginning of the End
- 8 Sulla and Pompey: "More Worship the Rising Sun than the Setting"
- 9 The First Triumvirate
- 10 The Fall of the Republic
- 11 Republican Overtones in the Early Empire
- 12 Republican Terminology and Symbology Today
- 13 References