Topic 2 - Politics

Question 1

what predates Roman conquest?

Answer 1

large scale trade between Italy and Gaul predates the Roman conquest

Question 2

who became a major consumer of Italian wine? what evidence do we have?

Answer 2

From the end of the 3rd C BCE, Gaul became a major consumer of Italian wine, Greco-Italic and Dressel I ampharae have been found in large numbers

Question 3

what do we think ‘Roman expansion’ is? are we wrong?

Answer 3

we tend to think that Roman expansion is exclusively military but this shows there was a pre or proto expansion done through trade

Question 4

what is an example of this?

Answer 4

an example being the Gauls love of wine, would often trade with the Italians as they made larger quantities of wine and would pay in slaves for the wine.

Question 5

what grows best in Italy?

Answer 5

what grew best in Italy was grapes, olives and wheat, the Mediterranean triad.

Question 6

what power did they get from being wealthy? what effect did this have?

Answer 6

The power to wealth was political experience, people wanted political powers making politics and thus aristocracy competitive.

Question 7

what position was added during the late republic? what did they do to gain their position?

Answer 7

in the late republic, a new political position was added, the populares/popular politicians. ‘popular’ because they went away from the senate and spoke to the people and told them the senate was not in their best interests so they should vote for them as they’d provide everything they wanted/needed based on their own advantages and ambitions.

Question 8

what did Claudius do?

Answer 8

Claudius, a populares, gave people grain for the first time.

Question 9

what impact did Rome always being at war have?

Answer 9

Roman Italy was constantly at war which was disasterous for Roman agriculture, soldiers were all farmers recruited from Italian towns, not from Rome. These wars allowed the rich to buy up all of the land from the poor.

Question 10

what happened in 140BCE?

Answer 10

in 140BCE, popular politician suggested dividing land up between poorer people, senate did not agree so it was dropped, this was known as the agrarian bill

Question 11

who were Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus?

Answer 11

Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus were from the aristocracy, rich and powerful people who turned to the people for support.

Question 12

what were the views on their motives?

Answer 12

The senate said they wanted more power for themselves, others said they were revolutionary and wanted to support the people.

Question 13

what was general opinion on them? what consequences did this have?

Answer 13

they were loved by the people and loathed by aristocracy becoming disowned by the Scipio family. they also never became consuls as they met violent ends before they were old enough.

Question 14

what did they aim to do?

Answer 14

they aimed to move people out of Rome and back into land and wanted the peoples support. they were concerned with poverty in Rome and the recruitment of the army

Question 15

what bill did Tiberius propose? what did it do?

Answer 15

Tiberius proposed a bill to redistribute public land, a national maximum that local land owners were allowed to occupy land, decided to enforce the 300 acre limit and any excess would be given up and redistributed to the poor in 20 acre sections.

Question 16

what other bill did he propose? what did he do that may or may not have been illegal?

Answer 16

he got a bill through that stated the personal treasury of Asia should be used to distribute land, senate was not happy about this but Tiberius stood for re-election and there was debate over whether or not he could do this.

Question 17

what did the Pontifex Maximus do?

Answer 17

the pontifex maximus gathered an assembly of consuls to march up to Tiberius and kill him and his followers, dumping their bodies in the Tiber.

Question 18

who was Gaius? what did he do?

Answer 18

Gaius was also very popular with the people of Rome and was careful to avoid the mistakes of his brother. However, he lost a lot of support due to a law that extended citizenship to the Allies of Rome and the law was vetoed and he lost his position.

Question 19

who was Marius? what was significant about his position?

Answer 19

Marius was a ‘new man’ - gets elected to the senate when no one in his family had been elected before which is not common, he was not an aristocrat. he made his way up via military endeavors

Question 20

how did he gain his position?

Answer 20

when the Romans got involved in a war with North Africa, he served with Metellus Numidicus and told Senate he was useless gaining his own consulship

Question 21

what did Marius do with the army?

Answer 21

Marius reformed the army and defeated the Germans, saving Rome - the people were very grateful for this gaining him popularity.

Question 22

what happened towards the end of his career?

Answer 22

towards the end of his career everything started to go wrong as he was a general, not a politician

Question 23

who was Sulla? what did he do?

Answer 23

Sulla was an opponent of Marius and took over his position when he was murdered bringing many reforms such as a fixed minimum age for offices, consulship not being held twice within 10 years (to prevent people like Marius who keep retaining the position via illegal means) among other things.

Question 24

when does Caesar come into the picture?

Answer 24

Caesar comes into the picture in 59 when he became consul and was the most important political figure in the late republic

Question 25

who did he marry? for what reason?

Answer 25

he married Sulla’s granddaughter, making efforts to become a populares but also keeping with the aristocracy

Question 26

what was he elected and how? what did the senate think about this?

Answer 26

he was elected pontifex maximus through bribery. The senate became very alarmed by Caesars ambition and bribery, aristocracy saw him as trouble so put a rival candidate using lots of bribery

Question 27

who did Caesar conquer and how?

Answer 27

Caesar was the first to conquer Gaul by taking the offensive to them, not just protecting Italy/Rome and became the richest man in Rome

Question 28

when did Caesar finish his campaign, what happened after?

Answer 28

Finishing his campaign in 51, Senate refused to extend his command so he invaded Rome in a civil war defeating Pompey who fled to Egypt and was killed by King Ptolomy. this is when Caesar make himself dictator indefinitely

Question 29

what did he do in his time as dictator?

Answer 29

He put his head on coins but also made many reforms such as debt relief, colonies, public works, more magistrates and the Julian calendar

Question 30

what is oratory?

Answer 30

Oratory (public speaking) was the basis of education and political power for example debates in senate, address to popular assemblies, election speeches etc.

Question 31

what would lower class people do?

Answer 31

lower class people would go to the forum and listen to orators giving speeches

Question 32

who was Cicero?

Answer 32

Cicero was the best oratory talent in Rome at any time, from 26 onward he was very involved in politics speaking for Italians and equertrians, not just for powerful Romans

Question 33

who was Cicero popular among?

Answer 33

he was popular among the equertrians and Italians as he was seen as being on their side, not the side of the aristocracy.

Question 34

where on the political spectrum did Cicero lie?

Answer 34

Cicero remained in the middle where other politicians were extreme one way or another, he remained the voice of reason and sanity.

Question 35

what did he want above all else?

Answer 35

He was a committed republican, all he wanted was for the state to survive, not for it to be taken over by a dictatorship of left or right wing.

Question 36

who did he like and dislike? what did this result in?

Answer 36

he liked Pompey and hared Catiline, Clodius and Mark Antony; he attacked Mark Antony in his final 14 speeches resulting in Mark Antony having him proscribed in 43 BCE

Question 37

what did Sallust write in?

Answer 37

Sallust wrote in Archaic Latin which was seen as appropriate for writing about history, he was a politician before he was a historian

Question 38

who did Sallust attack in his speeches?

Answer 38

in 52 BCE, Sallust made speeches attacking Cicero for defending Milo who killed Claudius, someone Cicero loathed

Question 39

who was Octavius adopted by, what happened?

Answer 39

Octavius was adopted by Caesar in his will and became Octavian and then Augustus later on. he also carried out aspects of Caesars will - distribution of money for Roman citizens

Question 40

what did Octavian do at 19?

Answer 40

At 19, he demanded consulship for himself - so marched on Rome and took it killing 300 senators

Question 41

who did Mark Antony marry? what happened?

Answer 41

Mark Antony marries Octavian’s sister Octavia but still remains in Egypt still seeing/sleeping with Cleopatra - eventually divorcing Octavia and marrying Cleopatra (although this marriage was invalid) this leads to a massive civil war that Octavian wins

Question 42

who was Octavian supported by?

Answer 42

Octavian, when he seized power at 19 was only really supported by Cicero, making it especially nasty when Octavian had him killed

Question 43

what was Octavian’s plan for when he was in power?

Answer 43

Octavian didn’t have a political plan when coming into power (unlike Sulla), it was merely blind ambition

Question 44

what happened with Antony and Cleopatra?

Answer 44

Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide in 30 BCE and Caesarian ( the son of Caesar and Cleopatra) was executed at 17, this is when Octavian took Europe

Question 45

who was the richest province? what did Octavian do with them?

Answer 45

For a while Asia was the richest province but, Egypt surpassed them, so Octavian didn’t give it up as another Provence, he kept it as his own to finance his reign - the money ran out 2 years after he died.

Question 46

how did Octavian keep his power?

Answer 46

he kept his power through political genius not military genius

Question 47

what did he do with his position?

Answer 47

He gave up his consulship and gave himself the powers of the Tribune, presenting himself as a man of the people

Question 48

how influential was Augustus?

Answer 48

the people continued to elect the magistrates, but Augustus recommended candidates. the people also continued to pass laws, but they were put forward by Augustus using his tribunician power.

Question 49

what effect did he have on the protection of Rome?

Answer 49

No commander would come and cease Rome thanks to all the soldiers put in place by Augustus - the standing Army protected Rome from internal and external threats - one of his best ideas.

Question 50

how long did this last?

Answer 50

This lasted until after 69 AD when there was internal conflict between different leaders after Nero

Question 51

what did the army do? what did this essentially turn Augustus into?

Answer 51

This Army was the idea of Augustus and the basis of his power - they swore to protect him highlighting how he was essentially now a monarchy.