Transcript Political - Merkspages

Carthage
Result was the three
Punic Wars
264-146 BC
Carthage
had been
founded as
Phoenician
colony 500
years earlier
Dispute over control
of Sicily and trade
routes in the western
Mediterranean
brought Rome into
conflict with the
powerful North
African city-state of
Carthage
FIRST PUNIC WAR
• Primarily a naval war
– Tactics involved
maneuvering your ship
in such a way so that
you could ram and sink
enemy
• Carthage very good
at this because of
long experience as
naval power
• Rome had small navy
and little experience
in naval warfare
– Defeated time and
time again by
larger and more
experienced
Carthaginian navy
ROME WINS THE FIRST ONE
• Rome would not surrender
– Finally turned the tables
on Carthage by changing
rules of naval warfare
• Equipped ships with
huge hooks and
stationed soldiers on
ships
– Would hook enemy
ship, pull it nearby,
and board it with
soldiers
– Converted naval warfare
into mini-land battles
• Something Rome was
very good at
• Won First Punic War as
a result
SECOND PUNIC WAR
• Carthagian general Hannibal
surprises Romans, leads army
from Spain, through southern
France and the Alps, and
invades Italy from the north
– Defeats Roman armies sent
to stop him several times
but hesitates to attack
Rome itself
• Too well fortified
• Settles instead on war of
attrition in hope of
destroying Roman
economic base
ROME WINS THIS ONE TOO
• Unable to defeat Hannibal in
Italy, a Roman army sailed
across the Mediterranean,
landed in North Africa, and
headed for Carthage
– Led by patrician general
Scipio Aemilius Africanus
– Hannibal forced to leave Italy
to protect Carthage
• Defeated at the Battle of
Zama, fought outside the
walls of Carthage
Hannibal
THIRD PUNIC WAR
• Carthage finished after Second
Punic War
– Hannibal committed suicide
– Economy shattered
– Lost all territory to Rome
– But some Romans feared it
might revive someday and
challenge Rome again
• Notably Cato the Elder
– Pushed for another war
that would wipe Carthage
off the face of the map
Cato the Elder
ROME WINS A THIRD TIME
• Due to Cato’s persistent
efforts, Rome declares war
against defenseless
Carthage
– Wins easily
– Entire population of city
sold into slavery
– Everything of value
carried back to Rome
– Everything else burned
and dumped into the
sea
– Site sown with salt so
that nothing would ever
grow there again
– Carthage completely
disappeared
Took over Greece,
Rome
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Later, the conquests of Gaius Marius,
Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompey
Magnus, and Julius Caesar would add
more territory
Gaul, the rest of Asia Minor,
Mesopotamian, Mediterranean Middle
East, Belgium
ROMAN REPUBLIC
• Was not a static institution
but rather a continually
evolving structure
– Political participation and
eligibility to run for office
widened over time
– Powers of various
assemblies and elected
officials also changed with
time
– But it also became
increasingly corrupt
BIG PROBLEM
Lucius
Cornelius Sulla
Julius Caesar
• Ambitious politicians (who
were also always military
commanders) all tried, and
eventually succeeded, in
subverting republican
institutions in order to
achieve personal
dictatorial power over the
empire and its wealth
– Marius, Sulla, Publius
Clodius, Pompey,
Marcus Crassus, Julius
Caesar, Marc Antony,
and Octavian/Augustus
FALL OF THE REPUBLIC
• Civil wars racked the empire
during the last century BC
– Marius vs Sulla; Pompey vs
Caesar; Octavian vs Marc
Antony
– Together they ultimately
destroyed the Republic
• Accompanied by
increased level of political
violence within Rome, the
murder of political
opponents, the destruction
of property, physical
intimidation, riots, armed
clashes
– All became part of
everyday politics and
contributed to decay
and death of the
Republic
Publius
Clodus
Cicero
Titus
Milo
Pompey
Magnus
PATRICIANS
• Original aristocracy of Rome
– Had been distinguished citizens who
advised Latin kings
– Played leading role in overthrowing
Etruscans
• Control strengthened by institution of
clientage
– Client was a free man who pledged himself
to a patrician (called patron)
• Honor-bound to serve interests and
obey wishes of patron
– In return the client received favors
– Originally used to create political bases for
patricians
• Wealth based primarily on ownership of
farmland and/or urban real estate
– Originally possessed monopoly on
membership in Senate and various elected
offices
PLEBEIANS
• Free men who could not trace
their ancestry back to advisors of
Latin kings
– Did not become clients
– Number swollen by
immigrants who moved to
Rome during Etruscan period
– Many were well-off and served
in the army under Etruscans
• Etruscans had promoted
their interests and
protected their civil status
– With overthrow of Etruscans
they lost protector
• Patricians would not let
them share in government
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL
EVOLUTION
• Result was long-term power struggle within Rome as
patricians attempted to preserve their exalted status
and monopoly of political power and plebeians tried
to gain a share of power that corresponded to the
contribution they made to Rome’s success and
prosperity
– Result was a blurring and mixing of original social
distinctions and gradual emergence of a new
hierarchy based on wealth
– Parallel political evolution in which the patrician
monopoly on government gave way to the
domination of the wealthy (whether patrician or
plebeian)
ROMAN CITIZENSHIP
• Entitled a man to vote in
elections
• Could not be flogged as
punishment
• Entitled to the Roman trial
process and had right of
appeal
• Originally, both parents
had to be citizens for that
person to be considered a
citizen
– Later, only a person’s
father had to be a
citizen to qualify his
offspring as citizens
A NEW SYSTEM
• By the late Republic, citizens divided into five classes and
a large group known as the capite censi (Head Count)
• Membership in a class was based on wealth determined by
a “means test” given every five years
– First Class was wealthiest, then Second Class, etc.
• Political power determined by class membership
– Only members of First Class could become senators
and highest officials in Rome
• By 100 BC, only 12 patrician families had means to be in
First Class
– Patricians still possessed certain social distinctions but
their automatic and unquestioned domination of society
and politics was a thing of the past
• Historians don’t know precise economic criteria for
membership in each class
– But even the 5th class was wealthy enough to at least
arm and equip itself and serve in army
THE HEAD COUNT
• Too poor to arm and equip
themselves for military
service
– Even after they became
eligible for military service
with the reforms of Gaius
Marius, they were still
considered as a group too
poor to be included in the
five classes
– Most clients drawn from
this group
– Freed slaves with
citizenship belonged to this
group
• Below them came non-citizen
resident foreigners and slaves
SENATE
• Most powerful
governmental
institution in Rome
during the Republic
– Made up of 300
members
– Descended from
the ancient
advisory body to
Septimontium
kings
SOURCES OF POWER
• Since most elected magistrates
served one-year terms, while
senators had lifetime terms, the
Senate was the only governmental
body that could maintain a
continuous policy
• Senators had to be members of the
First Class
– Only richest and most powerful
men, with hordes of clients, sat
in the Senate
• Almost all candidates for elected
office were selected from the
Senate
– Giving it indirect control over
entire government
– Elected officials returned to
Senate once their term was up,
making it a reservoir of political
experience and wisdom
LIMITS AND STRENGTHS
• Also had limits of power since it was an advisory body, not
a legislature
– Did not possess initiative
– Could not convene itself or initiate discussion
• However, once a senator’s advice was requested, he
was free to talk about anything he wanted
• Opinions were requested of each senator in set order
– Process continued until a viable proposal was produced
• After a passing vote, it was a senatus consult (decree
of the Senate)
• Senate did reign supreme in certain areas
– Controlled treasury
– Declared war and appointed military commanders
– Appointed provincial governors and regulated affairs
– Had right, in times of civil emergency, to override all
other bodies of government and establish martial law
• Senatus consultum de republica defenda
ELECTED OFFICIALS
• Consuls
– 2 elected each year
– Dual chief executives
• Censors
– 2 elected ever 5 years
– Kept and updated voting lists
– Conducted means test for class
membership and Senate
• Praetors
– 6 elected each year
– Served as state’s attorneys
• Quaestors
– 12 elected each year
– Oversaw financial matters
• Aediles
– 4 elected each year
– Organized public ceremonies
POLITICS
• Candidates for public office seldom offered a
program and organized political parties did not exist
– Men were generally elected by the amount of
bribes they offered, the lavishness of their public
entertainments, the prestige of their family name,
and their family connections
– They also saw nothing wrong in using their
elected office to get richer and oppose every
measure aimed at helping the poor
• Such as cheap grain, distribution of free land,
and cancellation of debts
POWER TO THE PEOPLE?
• Members of the Head Count also held political
power (at least in theory)
– Their assemblies, the Centuriate Assembly and
Tribal Assembly, held the power to elect
magistrates, ratify treaties, and pass laws
– Yet the structure of these assemblies was
rigged to give the wealthy good control of them
too
• These were the same men who already
controlled the Senate and monopolized
elected offices
CENTURIATE ASSEMBLY
• Every citizen in Rome belonged to it
– Regardless of economic status
– Its main job was to elected magistrates
• Voting in assembly was not done on individual basis
– All citizens were divided into voting units called
centuries
• Each century had one vote in Assembly
• Centuries were not equal in size
– Entire Head Count in Rome (300-500,000 people)
were lumped together in one century
– The wealthy divided into numerous small
centuries
• Whenever a vote was taken, the wealthy, given their
control of the majority of centuries, always won
TRIBAL ASSEMBLY
• Primary function was to pass laws
• Voting also not done on an individual basis
– Done according to tribe
• 35 in all; each having one vote
• Rich and poor fairly equally distributed in each tribe
• Two stumbling blocks
– Many members of Head Count did not attend meetings
because that meant taking off work
• Attendance at Assembly therefore tended to be
dominated by the wealthy and their clients
– Assembly could not do anything without the
collaboration of a tribune
• Who only could introduce legislation
• Any tribune of the ten could veto legislative proposal
– All ten had to agree before a bill became law
» Not hard for wealthy to find one tribune to do
their dirty work for them
SUMMARY
• Roman Republic was strongly rigged to work only
in the interests of the wealthy classes
– No way a sincere reformer could “work within
the system” to change things
• Everything was stacked against him
• The only way to effect change within this rigged
system was to either threaten or use violence
against the ruling class
• The rigged structure of government in republican
Rome was therefore the first factor that
contributed to the growth of political violence in
the city-state