The Fall of the Roman Republic 78–31 BC

The Fall of the Roman Republic 78–31 BC is one of the Historical Periods options in Section IV (25 marks). You write one extended response (one of two alternatives), about 1,000 words. Study the period through the written and archaeological evidence, organised around:

• Historical context: the institutions of the Republic and the legacy of Sulla.
• The nature of power and authority: the Senate, magistrates, tribunes and assemblies; optimates and populares; the great commands; the army and its loyalty to generals.
• Significant individuals and developments: Pompey, Crassus, Cicero, Cato, Catiline, Clodius, Caesar, Antony and Octavian; the alliance of 60 BC; the conquest of Gaul; political violence; civil war; Caesar's dictatorship; the Second Triumvirate.
• The end of the Republic: from the Ides of March 44 BC to Actium in 31 BC.
• Evidence and interpretations: Cicero, Sallust, Caesar, Plutarch, Appian, Suetonius, Cassius Dio; modern debate about why the Republic fell.

All dates are BC.

• Institutions: annual magistrates (quaestor, aedile, praetor, consul — the cursus honorum), each with colleagues; the Senate of former magistrates, which advised and controlled finance and foreign policy; tribunes of the plebs, who could propose laws and veto; assemblies that elected magistrates and passed laws.
• Values: nobles competed for dignitas (standing) and gloria; libertas meant freedom from domination by one man.
• Problems: an empire governed by short-term governors; armies of poor volunteers since Marius, loyal to generals who could get them land; violence since the Gracchi (133, 121).
• Sulla marched on Rome (88), won a civil war, ruled as dictator and strengthened the Senate: tribunes lost most of their powers and could not hold later office, juries were all senators, rules on the cursus honorum were tightened. He died in 78.

The great commands

Extraordinary commands — long, with large resources, sometimes given to men without the normal offices — were the Republic's answer to big problems (Sertorius, the pirates, Mithridates, Gaul). They gave generals wealth, clients and loyal armies greater than the Senate's. Pompey's eastern settlement (Syria a province, 64–63) needed ratification and his veterans needed land; when the Senate refused, he joined Crassus and Caesar.

Optimates and populares

Not parties but methods. Optimates (Catulus, Cato, Bibulus) defended the Senate's authority; populares (Caesar, Clodius) worked through tribunes and the assemblies. Leaders moved between methods to suit their interests — Pompey used both.

The alliance of 60 BC (‘First Triumvirate’)

An informal, private agreement — not an office. Pompey gained ratification and land; Crassus a one-third reduction for the tax-farmers of Asia; Caesar the consulship and a five-year command in Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum (Transalpine Gaul added by the Senate). It was renewed at Luca (56) and broke down after the deaths of Julia (54) and Crassus (53).

Violence in the 50s

Clodius' laws (58) built a following among the urban plebs; gangs of Clodius and Milo fought in the streets; elections were postponed (no consuls at the start of 53 or 52). The murder of Clodius (January 52) and the burning of the Senate house led to Pompey's sole consulship.

The road to civil war

The issue was the end of Caesar's command and his wish to pass straight to a second consulship, so that he could not be prosecuted as a private citizen. The law of the ten tribunes (52) let him stand in absence. The optimates wanted him recalled; Pompey drifted towards them (marriage to Cornelia, daughter of Metellus Scipio). In December 50 the Senate voted 370 to 22 that both men give up their armies, but the consul Marcellus ignored the vote. The final decree (January 49) and the flight of the tribunes Antony and Cassius gave Caesar his justification to cross the Rubicon.

Caesar's dictatorship

Reforms: a larger Senate (about 900), more magistrates, colonies for veterans and the poor, debt measures, the Julian calendar (from 45), citizenship grants. Honours seen as monarchical (dictator for life; statue among the kings; his portrait on coins) contributed to his assassination by about 60 senators led by Brutus and Cassius.

The triumvirs and the end

The Lex Titia (November 43) made Antony, Lepidus and Octavian triumvirs ‘for restoring the state’. Proscriptions killed many senators and equestrians, including Cicero. After Philippi (42) the triumvirs divided the empire; Lepidus was removed (36).

• Antony in the east: his failed Parthian campaign (36) and partnership with Cleopatra; the Donations of Alexandria (34) gave eastern lands to Cleopatra and her children, including Caesarion.
• Octavian in the west: control of Italy and Rome; Agrippa's victories; public building.
• The propaganda war (33–32): Octavian read out Antony's will (seized from the Vestal Virgins), which asked to be buried in Alexandria; Italy and the western provinces swore an oath of loyalty to Octavian; war was declared on Cleopatra, not Antony, so it appeared a foreign war.
• Actium (31) and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra (30) left Octavian in sole power.

• Cicero: speeches (e.g. Against Catiline, For Milo — published in revised form), letters to Atticus and others, and philosophical works; vivid contemporary evidence but partisan.
• Sallust (The War with Catiline, about 42–40): a Caesarian who blames moral decline and greed.
• Caesar (Gallic War, Civil War): self-justifying accounts written in the third person.
• Plutarch (Lives, about AD 100), Appian (Civil Wars, 2nd century AD), Suetonius, Cassius Dio: later narratives drawing on lost sources.
• Material evidence: coins (e.g. the EID MAR denarius of Brutus, 43–42), inscriptions, the remains of Pompey's theatre (dedicated 55).
• Modern views (credited if used): Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (1939) — a struggle of great men and factions; Erich Gruen, The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (1974) — the Republic was still functioning, and civil war, not long decline, destroyed it; P. A. Brunt — social and economic causes, including the army.

1. Unpack the question: the command verb and the focus (e.g. a person, the commands, violence, the army, the causes of the fall).
2. Thesis: a clear judgement at the start, e.g. ‘The great commands were the main mechanism of the Republic's fall, but they became fatal only because…’.
3. Paragraphs by argument, each with dated evidence and analysis linked to the question.
4. Weigh factors — individuals against institutions, short-term against long-term.
5. Use sources as interpretations: Cicero, Sallust and Caesar all had reasons to tell the story their way.
6. Conclusion: answer the question.

• Calling the alliance of 60 BC a legal office (that was the Second Triumvirate of 43).
• Confusing the lex Gabinia (67, pirates) with the lex Manilia (66, Mithridates).
• Treating optimates and populares as organised political parties.
• Narrating from 78 to 31 BC instead of arguing.
• Forgetting the period after 44 BC when the question covers the whole option.

• Memorise ten anchor dates (78, 70, 67, 63, 59, 52, 49, 44, 43, 31).
• Use terms accurately: imperium, dignitas, auctoritas, senatus consultum ultimum, proscription, cursus honorum, optimates, populares.
• For ‘why did the Republic fall?’ questions, use a framework: long-term weaknesses → the commands and armies → violence and breakdown → individual choices in 49 and after 44.

• Julius Caesar and Tiberius Gracchus (Personalities): detailed studies of individuals in and before this period.
• The Augustan Age: how Octavian built a new system on the ruins of the Republic.