The Lost Republic: Crisis and Continuity in the Late Roman Republic (146-46 BC)

This course introduces the Late Republic as a historical period and field of study, with a particular focus on ancient sources, source problems, and explanatory models for the historical processes and transformations in the period. In 146 BC the Romans destroyed Carthage and Corinth. In 133 BC a plebeian tribune was beaten to death in front of the Capitol by a mob led by the pontifex maximus (chief priest). At the other end of the period, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC and three years later crushed his enemies at the battle of Thapsus, celebrating his victory with an unprecedented quadruple triumph.

Despite recurring and threatening crises, Rome survived – as the capital of an increasingly large and organised Mediterranean empire, its constantly growing populace more and more diverse, its richest citizens vastly wealthier, its cityscape ever more monumental. But the tradition of the ancestors, the rule of the aristocracy, the armies and their recruitment, the sources of wealth, the cultural horizons of the literate, the government of allies and subjects, the idea of a Roman citizen, the landscape of Italy,and Roman identity itself had all changed for ever. This class examines how that happened.

This course includes an examination of relevant literary and documentary sources,especially the work of Sallust, letters and speeches of Cicero, Caesar’s Gallic War, and contemporary inscriptions and coins.