Late Republic for Kids - the end of the Roman Republic - Julius Caesar, Pompey, Cicero, Mark Anthony
Rome - the Late Republic
By 146 BC the Romans were
the only important power left in the Mediterranean
Sea, and they controlled almost all of its coastline.
But there was trouble at home. First, two brothers
named Cornelius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus tried to get some of the
Italian land given back to the poor people. But the rich aristocrats
in the Senate didn't want to give the land back. In 133 and 123 BC
the Senators themselves, with a lot of their followers, rushed up to
the brothers and killed them (on two different occasions)! What is worse,
nothing at all happened to those murdering Senators.
Marius
Second, those same
Africans
who had been
attacking Carthage were still
causing trouble. A lot of Roman
traders
who were living in Africa were massacred. So about 100 BC the Romans
went to fight in Africa again. But it was hard to get enough soldiers,
and the general, Marius, ended up taking poor jobless men from Rome,
and telling them he would reward them if they won (which they did).
Sulla
Third, the Italian cities felt that Rome was not
treating them well enough. They wanted to be able to vote more. So in
the 80's BC there was a war with the Italian cities, under a general
named Sulla. This war is called the Social War, from the
Latin
word for allies, "socii". It took a long time, but again the Romans
won.
But then Marius and Sulla got into a fight over who
would be the general to fight in West Asia. Marius won, but Sulla took
his army and marched on Rome, and threatened to have his army attack
Rome unless the Senate gave him the job. It worked: Sulla went to West
Asia, and when he came back he made himself dictator, which meant
he could make anyone do anything he wanted no matter what the Senate
said.
Pompey
Julius Caesar
After Marius and Sulla died, it was clear that the
Roman Senate was no longer powerful enough to run the Roman Empire.
Everyone looked for who the next powerful general would be. To get power,
three men joined forces: Pompey; (a friend of Sulla's), Crassus
(a very rich man), and Julius Caesar (a friend of Marius'). Between
them these men ran the government for about ten years, while Julius
Caesar (SEES-ar) conquered Gaul (modern France). But then Crassus was
killed fighting the
Parthians
in West Asia, and Pompey and Julius Caesar got in a civil war. Again
many men died on both sides, but finally Caesar won at the battle of
Pharsalus (FAR-sa-luss).Pompey fled to
Egypt,
but the Egyptians killed him so Caesar wouldn't be mad at them.
