Essay on Fall of the Roman Republic

Submitted By coowpow
Words: 686
Pages: 3

The Fall of The Roman Republic The Ancient Roman Republics downfall can be linked to the corruption of the government. Conflicts of the government powers lead the government to become inefficient thusly leading to its fall. The Roman Constitution was unwritten; it was more of a collection of oral traditions and laws that was passed down, and over time parts became vague and undefined. Being that they weren’t written down lead to conflicts of interpretation and obstruction of the traditions and laws. Disputes over jurisdiction were common with how vague the laws were, but the willingness to compromise and the Romans desire for a consensus kept that to a minimum. The Roman government was made up of the magistrates, the tribunes, and the senate. The magistrates were a group of 4 quaestors, 4 aediles, 2 consuls, 2 censors, and a praetor. The tribunes originally consisted of only two people but later moved up to a total of ten people. The senate consisted of a large group of people who greatly influenced the policies of the Roman Republic. The officials were not paid and had to get by with their own personal earnings, other patricians or wealthy plebians would bribe the officials to get what they wanted from the political system. Almost anyone could bribe officials, so in the end they didn’t have as much power as it should have. This caused internal conflict and ended up being one of the affairs that lead ultimately to the fall of the Roman Republic. The next factors would have to be the three crises that the empire had. The first crisis involved Tiberius Gracchus and the fact that his land distribution program became a law and this caused instability between Gracchus and the senate thus causing him and his 300 supporters to be killed. The second crisis involved Gaius Gracchus, he implemented programs and laws that helped the commoners, and provided for the economic development of Rome as a whole. Violence was used by the senators and wealthy plebians to rally against. Gracchus and 3,000 people died due to the fact that he used force to resist them. The third crisis involved the man Saturninus, he was originally a tribune, but ended up a dictator. His use of mass violence and appeals to achieve great power succeeded for him. However, a man named Marius used his soldiers to beat Saturninus and restore order in Rome. All three of these crises just added to the deterioration of Rome’s government and split it apart more. Rome’s military problems are the third factor in to its fall. The Comitia Populi