Human Legacy Course/The Foundations of Rome/Problems in the Roman Republic & the Responses

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Human Legacy Course I
The Foundations of Rome
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Problems in the Roman Republic

Terms to Know

• Publicans are people who collect taxes.
• Proconsuls are individual governors of a individual province, having similar power to the consul.
• Latifundia - Large estates (including houses and lots of farmlands) rented to the wealthy by Roman governors.

Problems with Latifundia

• Uses slave labor, which is cheap and drives food costs down BUT there is a spread of slavery in the agricultural system
• Drives the small farmers out of business.
• Migration of the small farmers to the cities, where there are no jobs and no room (more crime and dirtier cities).

Benefits of the Latifundia

• Brings money into the provinces.
• Improves the economy for the rich.

Attempts to Reform the Roman Republic

Gracchi Brothers

The Gracchi Brothers

Together, Gaius and Tiberius are called the Gracchi brothers.

Tiberius Gracchus- 133 BCE

• Well-to-do (wealthy) tribune, this means that he is a plebeian.
• He wants to:
  • Limit the size of the Latifundia
  • Have land reform for the poor
• The Senate opposed both.
• The Assembly of Tribes passes both.
• Assassinated with his 300 supporters.

Gaius Gracchus- 123 BCE

• Tiberius' brother (also a tribune)
• He wants to:
  • Give land to farmers
  • Create gov't program to sell grain at a low cost
  • Establish new courts to convict corrupt officials
• Assassinated in 121 BCE, and the reform dies.

Gaius Marius- 107 BCE

Gaius Marius

• Creates professional army:
  • How? He pays the poor to serve him: homeless farmers, etc.
• What's the problem?
  • Army owes its allegiance to the generals who pay them and not the Roman Republic.
• What happens to Marius?
  • 88 BCE: Exiled by the consul, Sulla.
• Now because of Marius' idea armies can easily intimidate and control the Senate/Republic.
• Who will use this idea?
  • Julius Caesar