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

Human Legacy Course I The Foundations of Rome LECTURER: -Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 15:33, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

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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.

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

 * 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