The Paradoxical Republic PDF

# The Paradoxical Republic ## 1. Ancestral Voices - Before the Republic, Rome was ruled by kings. - One of these was a tyrant named Tarquin - An old woman visited Tarquin in his palace, offering him nine books for a fabulous price. - Tarquin refused and she left, returning after burning three boo...

# The Paradoxical Republic ## 1. Ancestral Voices - Before the Republic, Rome was ruled by kings. - One of these was a tyrant named Tarquin - An old woman visited Tarquin in his palace, offering him nine books for a fabulous price. - Tarquin refused and she left, returning after burning three books, and offering the remaining six for the same price. - He refused again, and she returned, this time with three books, which he purchased. - The old woman left, never to be seen again. - Her books contained prophecies, and the Romans soon realized that the only possible author was the Sibyl. ## 2. Rubicon - The Sibyl's writings were mysterious and debated. - There was debate whether she was a compound, immortal , or destined to live a thousand years. - Tarquin bought three books from the Sibyl, giving the Romans a window into the future. - Tarquin was overthrown in 509 BC, and Rome became a republic - The Romans consecrated liberty as a birthright. - To prevent future tyrants the founders of the Republic established a remarkable formula: - the power of the exiled Tarquin was divided between two magistrates, elected for one year: - elected consuls - To prevent the ambitions of one man, the Republic established the consulship, with two consuls who guarded against each other's ambitions. - The consuls wore purple like kings. - The Romans found the Sibyl's books to contain prophecies of the future. - They would consult the books only when faced with terrifying prodigies, as the equivalent of bailiffs' duns. - The Romans regarded their piety as a practical way to appease angered heavens and keep the future at bay. - The Republic was both a building site and a junk yard. - The Romans believed 'how else [could we] invest in our city save by holding true to the customs of our ancestors'. - The Roman people never ceased to affect a distaste for change, regarding novelty as sinister. - They preferred to dress up innovation as ancient custom or the will of the gods. - The Republic was both conservative and flexible, with citizens accepting innovation if it was dressed up as the will of the gods or an old custom. - Rome both a building site and a junk yard. ## 3. Luck Be a Lady - The Rivals - The Republic was a stirring expression of the state's guiding principle - that no one man should rule supreme in Rome. - The greatest threat to the Republic came from the ambitions of its citizens. - They sought glory and praise for themselves, and were motivated by a hunger for power. - Although the ambition of citizens was contained within the law and the Republic was relatively stable, there were some challenges. - The most dangerous challenge came from the brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. - Tiberius, in 133 BC, and then Gaius, in 123 BC, used their tribunates to push for reforms favoring impoverished citizens. - These included public land into allotments, and a corn supply at a subsidized rate. - The aristocracy was appalled by what they saw as the unyielding devotion of the Gracchi to the people. - Gaius attempted to stir long-dormant class struggles, believing that the poor could be organized and that the people, not the aristocracy, would become the arbiters of Rome. - Gaius met with the same fate his brother, Tiberius had, he was killed along with thousands of followers. - The event, which was a first since the expulsion of the kings, revealed a growing sense of aristocratic insecurity. - The assassination was carried out on the Aventine, the site where the poor had congregated to strike against the patricians. - The violence suggested that the system was unstable, and that Rome, in the absence of clear rules and stability, could either devolve into anarchy or be overthrown by a tyrant. ## 4. The Sibyl's Curse - Sacker of Cities - After the bloodshed of the Gracchus era, the Sibyl had foreseen it all. - She had a vision of a brutal struggle between Romans, leaving Italy destroyed. - The Sibyl's prophecies were said to have spread from Rome to the Greeks and Jews. - The Roman's reputation for brutality and pride reflected the realities of the Republic. - The Romans, in their lust for power, had begun to conquer the world. - In 149 BC, the Romans decided to eliminate Carthage, the city they had once regarded as their greatest rival. - After a three-year siege, Carthage was destroyed. - In 146 BC, Corinth, a city noted for its art and its courtesans was also destroyed. - The Sibyl's prophecy seemed to be coming true, with Rome on a collision course with its savagery and pride. - The Romans felt unease at the destruction of Corinth but also a degree of smug satisfaction. - They were no longer defending themselves, they were destroying the world in the name of their self-imposed standards of success. -The Sibyl's words suggested that Rome was on a collision course with its own savagery and pride. - She predicted the rise of a world superpower, an empire that would sweep away all previous empires, and that Rome's dominance would breed an inevitable fall, marked by self-destruction. ## 5. Choking on Gold - In 133 BC, Pergamum, a kingdom with a rich history and abundance of wealth was left to the Republic in a will. - The Senate, the governing body of Rome, hesitated to incorporate Pergamum into the Republic. - Eventually, the Republic dispatched an army to Pergamum to bring the region under control. - The Senate, with their traditional suspicion of foreign wealth and a preference for indirect rule, had always maintained a delicate balance between exploitation and disengagement. - The Roman Senate wanted a more direct approach to the exploitation of the newly acquired territory. - In 123 BC, the Senate enacted a law subjecting Pergamum to a direct tax regime, bringing the region directly under Roman control. - The wealth and greed that characterized Roman rule were the seeds of the republic's ultimate destruction. ## 6. The Fight for the Cake - As the Republic's domination expanded across the Mediterranean, the financial concerns of the Roman elite grew. - The Romans, a nation of businessmen, had always held strong views on the commercial virtues of war and the moral obligation of their citizens to contribute to the expansion of the city's wealth. - During the 80s BC, the Roman elite began to look at the tax system as a means of enriching themselves. - The system of farming out the tax collection proved to be highly lucrative for the powerful business cartels and the officials that governed Asia. - The publicani, the businessmen who bought the right to collect taxes, abused their power. - Citizens were targeted by financiers, and the money they owed was compounded through interest rates, and many were enslaved after being bled of their assets through loan schemes. - The publicani grew wealthy, but the Roman cities and individuals who lived in the eastern provinces suffered as a result. - While there were some who felt the need to stand up for those in need, their efforts were unsuccessful. - One such individual was Rutilius Rufus, he was a provincial administrator who sought to protect the Roman people from exploitation by the publicani, but he was convicted of extortion in 89 BC. - The publicani, with their considerable financial resources, managed to influence the Roman courts. - The Roman people, through their own experiences under the publicani, came to see the Senate and the publicani as the same. ## 7. The City That Could Never Be - Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus a kingdom on the Black Sea, decided to declare war on Rome, who he judged had been responsible for the suffering of his people. - He was a ruthless leader, well-equipped, and prepared for a long war. - Mithridates, in 88 BC, ordered the massacre of all Roman citizens in Asia. - The news of the massacre, and how it was carried out, shook Rome. - Aquillius, the commissioner who had provoked Mithridates into war, was captured and publicly tortured. - Mithridates’ actions served as a testament to the hatred, jealousy, and disdain that the provincials had developed for the Romans. - As a result of the conflict, the people of Asia, along with the Italians, were growing disgusted with the Romans' rule. ## 8. The Next Turn of the Wheel - The Roman public was shaken, but they were also determined to fight back. - The most influential general of the time, Gaius Marius, had been eyeing the campaign in Asia since the very beginning. - The Roman Senate knew that they were in for a tough war because they had experience fighting against the Asian armies, who they were aware possessed a great deal of wealth and a reputation for cruelty. - The Roman Senate did not want to risk losing a chance to gain wealth, and thus they were united in their desire to defeat Mithridates. - Marius had a personal interest in the campaign, as he had previously had a standoff with Mithridates. They were both ambitious men with strong personalities and rivalries. - Marius was determined to prove himself, and show the Roman people that his ability as a general could lead the Republic to eventual victory. - Marius’ ambitions and the growing tensions between the Roman classes were only one of the many challenges facing the Republic. - The people were already at war with their Italian allies, and with their own fellow citizens as the conflict between the Senate and the Roman people intensified. - While the Republic was reeling from the loss of control over its own territory, the Sibyl's prophecy seemed to be coming true. ## 9. The People vs. the Gods - The Struggle - The Sibyl's prophecy predicted the fall of Rome, as it succumbed to its own pride and savagery. - Rome was now in the midst of fulfilling the Sibyl's prophecy and was on a direct collision course with its own destruction. - The city was now struggling to maintain its hold on its empire. - The destruction of Carthage and the massacre of the Roman citizens in Asia had demonstrated the power of Rome, but also its tendency for barbarity. - The Romans were beginning to understand the true price of their success. - The conflict between the Romans and their allies, along with the conflicts within the Roman itself, had all begun under the shadow of the Sibyl's ominous prophecy. ## 10. A City in Fragments - The city of Rome had grown since its founding. - The city was populated by Romans, Greeks, other Italian subjects, and foreigners. - This growth had been fueled by the expansion of the empire, and by the influx of wealth and resources. - The city was characterized by its great buildings, its teeming streets, and its chaotic crowds. - Rome was no longer a city of a few hills, it was a sprawling metropolis, where the old and the new co-existed. - The city was filled with temples, palaces, houses, and shops. - But within the city, there were also poverty, disease, crime, and a growing sense of social inequality. ## 11. The Law of the Labyrinth - The Roman Republic was a complex society, filled with contradictions. - Citizens, as a collective, were granted a great deal of power, having the ability to elect, vote, and to decide policies that affected the whole of the Republic. - But the reality of the Republic was a vastly different story. - Only those with wealth and privilege could participate in politics and maintain political power, and the class divisions within Roman society were starkly different from what existed on the surface, and these divisions were increasingly evident in the 90s BC. - There was a sense of unrest among the plebeians — the poor, working-class citizens of Rome. - Their resentment was growing, and they recognized the inequalities, the hypocrisy, and the exploitation that characterized the Republic. - Some citizens tried to rise up in protest against the conditions of the Republic. - In 89 BC, with the rise of Mithridates, the Republic's dominance began to crumble. - Mithridates managed to unite the enemies of the Republic against the Romans, forging a massive and formidable alliance that included not only the Italian allies, but also the armies of Pontus and even some Greeks. - The Roman Republic was at an inflection point in its history. ## 12. The First Crack in the Giant - Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, was an ambitious, powerful, and dangerous enemy. - He had the wealth and military resources to challenge Rome. - There was a growing sense of anger and resentment among the provinces of the Republic. - The publicani and their greed had also fueled the resentment of Rome’s rule. - The Romans, for all their power, were vulnerable, as their enemies were united by the shared grievances of exploitation. - The Romans were fighting on multiple fronts and were increasingly under pressure, with the city of Rome becoming more and more fragmented. ## 13. The End of the Old Order - The Roman armies in Italy had been successful in quelling the revolt of the Italian allies, but the tension in Rome was growing. - Mithridates, with the support of a wide alliance, had crushed the Roman authority in Asia. - Mithridates and his allies then began to lay siege to Italy itself. - The Romans, with their own internal strife, were now facing a war on two fronts. ## 14. The March of the Jugurthine War - Gaius Marius, the Roman general, had been waiting for this moment. - Marius had ambitious goals, and he wanted to be seen as the savior of the Republic. - He believed that he was the only one who could defeat Mithridates, put down the rebellion in Italy, and restore order. - Marius also sought to prove his own power and influence, as well as to consolidate his position in Roman society. ## 15. The Sibyl’s Curse - The Sibyl’s prophecy was coming true. - The Roman Empire, once a symbol of strength and prosperity, was now teetering on the brink of collapse. - The signs were clear: the armies of the Republic were disintegrating from within, and the enemies of Rome were united and strong. - The Republic was moving towards the precipice of its own destruction. - The city of Rome was now facing a monumental challenge, not just to its own security, but to its very existence. - The Republic’s future would be determined by the choices that its people made.