Historical Study: The Roman Republic

As per usual I tend to get into the sword-and-sandal historical era during the late winter months. I kicked off the video game Elden Ring at the start of 2025, which is a fantasy genre but very much on par with the sword-and-sandal setting. I've thus been watching various shows and movies on par with this game such as Lord of the Rings or anything to do with Vikings and the medieval ages. This turn to Roman fascination began a couple weeks ago after watching Gladiator II. The movie was quite dull in comparison to the original however still had an incredible setting, costumes, and special effects. It thus turned my attention to a deeper dive into Roman history. I started reading Virgil's Aeneid as well as watching more movies, shows, and documentaries about the Roman Empire. 

I've written various times on the topic, such as Rise of The Roman Empire and as a historical enthusiast all roads seem to come from ancient Rome. It's no question that most of civilization as we know it today derived form the mighty Roman Empire. They established law, order, infrastructure and conquest that spread throughout much of Europe, Africa, and Asia. They were the heir apparent to the mighty Greek and Macedonian Empires that would control the Mediterranean. They reigned supreme during the coming of Jesus Christ, and at first they persecuted his movement, but later become key advocates. Thru their conquest of savage, pagan, and barbarian tribes they instituted a new standard of society. Thus some considered Rome as the light, and when it fell the world entered the Dark Ages. 

Rome has such a rich culture of arts, customs, and mythology I hope to later dive into in a separate post. When I think of Rome, I see the Colosseum, gladiators, legionaries, aqueducts, and a thriving capital of society. Of course we all know the story of Julius Caesar, the military dictator who turned the Roman Republic into a Roman Empire. He achieved great military success throughout his career, whilst having an affair with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. However his ambitions were later betrayed by the senate where he was stabbed to death. His vision was upheld however when Augustus Caesar took the helm as first official emperor of Rome in 27 BC. Thus began the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. In this post I want to primarily focus on the era of the Roman Republic which spanned from 509 to 27 BC. 

Fall of The Roman Kingdom

According to tradition the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC along the Tiber River that brought on a new age of kings. Not much is known about these early days of ancient Rome. Legend has it that the twins Romulus and Remus were fed by a she-wolf, before becoming the first kings of Rome. The kingdom had one ruler, one chief priest (they worshipped the mythological gods), one chief legislator (who passed the laws), and one chief judge (who resolved legal disputes). In those days the king was not decided by birth, but rather by an election of the people. The Roman Kingdom also had one of the first functioning senates, however their power was quite limited to the authority of the king. 

Most of the early legendary kings of Rome were not conquering tyrants but rather ruled in peace. That is until 534 BC when Tarquinius Superbus (also known as Tarquin the Proud) stole the monarchy by military force to establish a tyranny. During his reign Tarquin killed all his political opponents and waged war on neighboring regions. Perhaps his only meaningful contribution was erecting the Temple of Jupiter, which became the most iconic building of ancient Rome. Tarquin however became very unpopular and a revolution began against the monarchy. By 509 BC the kingdom was overthrown by the king's nephew Lucius Junius Brutus who helped establish the Roman Republic. Tarquin was thus exiled as the last king of Rome, and the senate now took the governing authority.

Roman Republic expansion in Italy

At this time Rome was still a rather small territory on the western coast of central Italy. They were in the shadows of their northern neighbors the Etruscans who reigned supreme over the Roman Kingdom. However the armies of the Roman Republic began successful campaigns throughout Italy achieving victories over neighboring tribes throughout the Latium territory. Their definitive victory over the Etruscans finally came in 396 BC at the Battle of Veii. However this victory was short-lived when they were sacked by a tribe of Celts known as the Gauls in 387 BC. The Gauls from northern Europe established a big chunk of land near Rome, known as the Cialpine Gaul. However the Roman Republic quickly rebuilt it's city and the sack did not deter them all that much.

While Rome began to achieve military expansion throughout Italy, they had also established an efficient political system of democracy, similar to Ancient Greece. Elections were held to chose local magistrates, however there was still corruption where powerful families would controlled most affairs. This lead to a civil dispute known as the Conflict of Orders where many of these powerful families came opposition of the majority of Roman working class citizens. This was the dawn of political parties, where one side represented the wealth (known as patricians) and the other side represented the common man (known as the plebeians). 

By the 4th century the Plebeians had gained level ground with the Patricians, which demonstrated the success of Rome's democracy (free of corruption). The legal bill of the Leges Liciniae Sextiae gave the Plebians equal authority to consulship, priest support, and military matters. It also gave more land to the peasants. Also during this time of political progress, the Roman Republic continued it's military expansion against their Latium and Samnite neighbors. By 300 BC Rome had successfully conquered the Etruscans, the Latins, and the Samnites to control most of central Italy. 

The Rising Power of Carthage

By around 400-300 BC Ancient Egypt and Greece had begun to lose their control of the Mediterranean in place of the Roman Republic and Carthage. The city of Carthage was located on the eastern shores of modern day Tunisia and had established one of the most powerful trading hubs during this time. The capital city of Carthage was founded in 814 BC, by migrant colonists from Lebanon known as the Phoenicians, who were escaping Assyrian conquest of Mesopotamia. The city of Carthage also has a legendary origin story, similar to Romulus and Remus. It was founded by the Queen Dido from Tyre who later fell in love with the Trojan hero Aeneas, who broke her heart, and resulted in her suicide. This was of course a Roman legend by the poet Virgil, which represented the eventual fall of Carthage to the Romans.

However prior to it's collapse, Carthage thrived with a booming economy, political system, and naval supremacy. They controlled most of northern Africa, parts of southern Spain, the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and parts of Sicily. The island of Sicily was heavily disputed among the Greeks and the Carthaginians (also known as the Punics). This dispute went on from 580-265 BC known as the Sicilian Wars, it was rather inconclusive but more-or-less ushered in Carthage supremacy over Greece. However the rising power of the Roman Republic also had a vested interest in this territory and so a new conflict arose between Rome and Carthage. 

The Punic Wars

The First Punic War broke out in 264 BC mostly fought over the territory of Sicily. It was the greatest naval battle of it's time with the two leading empires putting forth all their resources into this war. Battle by battle, the Romans gained the advantage and seized control of Sicily by 255 BC. The Punics were able to repel a Roman invasion into their African territory, which resulted in a tragic by the Roman army where their entire fleet of 100,000 soldiers were drowned in a storm. This gave the Punics a much needed victory after years of defeat. However the dispute did not end there and both sides quickly rebuilt theirs armies to resume fighting. The final decisive battle came in 241 where the Romans defeated the Punics at the Battle of Aegates Islands and the land of Sicily was officially annexed by Rome.    

The Second Punic War and probably the most famous began in 218 BC, where the Carthaginian army led by Hannibal waged a war by land against Rome. General Hannibal famously marched his army of 100,000 soldiers and war elephants from Iberia, Spain, across the Swiss alp mountains, and to the northern region of Rome. He easily defeated the Romans of Gaul and enlisted them to join his cause. At this point Rome was forced to cancel their plans to invade Carthage in order to respond to Hannibal's advances. Hannibal achieved another key victory in 217 BC at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in central Italy. Realizing they were facing obliteration, the Romans quickly changed their tactics to a war of attrition known as the Fabian Strategy. By avoiding direct engagements, the Romans were able to buy time to rebuild their army and resources. 

Still Hannibal continued his string of victories at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC where he had now established a strong foothold in southern Italy. By this point Rome was all but surrounded and many outer regions began to swear allegiance to Carthage (including Macedonia and Syracuse). Rome began to enlist slaves and criminals to bolster their numbers and were able to repel Punic advances into Sardinia and Sicily. The war spread slowly on various fronts where Hannibal invaded Italy, his brother Hasdrubal defended Iberia, and various battles throughout northern Africa. In 209 BC, the newly appointed general Scipio Africanus had begun to mount a string of victories throughout Spain. In 208 BC he defeated Hasdrubal to capture the Iberian region in Cartagena. The Romans had now finally gained the advantage and Hannibal was forced to retreat to Calabria in southern Italy. 

Scipio then began an offensive on Africa in 205 BC and Hannibal was forced to pull his army from Italy to defend their capital city of Carthage. The penultimate battle finally came at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC where Scipio Africanus decisively defeated Hannibal thus ending his very impressive military campaign. This marked the end to the Second Punic War, by which Carthage was stripped of it's European territories in Spain and Italy. Over the next 50 years Carthage lost it's power and influence to the mighty Roman Republic. In 149 BC, Rome decided to deliver the crushing blow to Carthage in response to a Punic dispute with their Numidian allies. The Third Punic War was mostly fought in Tunisia, and although the Punics did achieve some minor victories, it was mostly a swift conflict that resulted in the complete destruction of Carthage. 

Roman-Greek Wars

As Rome and Carthage were on the rise, so too was the Macedonian Empire under Philip II and his son Alexander the Great. From 359 to 336 BC Philip II conquered the Greek city-states to become the new power in the Balkan region. His son Alexander the Great furthered this expansion with a military campaign into Asia Minor. During his reign from 336 to 323 BC, Alexander achieved many victories to establish one of the largest empires of it's time. He later intended to continue his campaign westward to face the Romans, however he died at the age of 30. His kingdom was thus divided and swallowed up by various Greek states as well as the emerging might of the Roman Republic. 

For the next 250 years the Roman Republic fought against the Greek and Macedonian empires to their east, while fighting against the Carthaginians to their west. The first major Roman war against Greece was the Pyrrhic War in 280 BC. King Pyrrhus of Epirus, Greece led a campaign into Southern Italy to support the Lucanians against Roman conquest. Pyrrhus was a fierce commander and won several victories with his army of war elephants. However his resources quickly ran dry in foreign territory and his was forced to withdraw his military campaign. By 275 BC the war came to an end, and the Greek supported region of Lucania came under Roman control.

During the Second Punic War in 214 BC, King Philip V saw an opportunity to press an advantage for Macedonia. He thus allied with Carthage and led an invasion by sea on the territory of Illyria (which was on the Balkan coast of modern day Albania). Hannibal's hope was that the Macedonian army would secure begin invading southern Italy from the Adriatic Coast, but this never came to pass. However the First Macedonian War was nothing more than a series of skirmishes that ended in a ten year stalemate. Macedonia was never able to conquer the territory and failed to come to Hannibal's aid. After the end of the Second Punic War in 201 BC, the Romans were now able to give their full attention to Macedonia and waged a campaign to liberate the Greek states. The Second Macedonian War was a crushing defeat for Philip V, who was forced to give up all Greek city-states to Roman control. 

As Greece and Macedonia began to lose it's influence in the Balkans, a new power arose in the eastern lands of Antioch (Turkey) known as the Seleucid Empire. The empire was established by a Macedonian general Seleucus Nicator in 312 BC who served under Alexander the Great. At it's height the empire spanned beyond Persia and parts of Asia Minor and into the Balkan regions of Thrace and Macedonia. It was only a matter of time before this new rising power in the east would meet head on with the rising power of Rome in the west to fight over the lands of Greece. Thus the Roman-Seleucid War broke out in 192 BC under the leadership of King Antiochus III the Great. After several years of fighting his Selecuid army was soundly defeated at the Battle of Magnesia in 189 BC. This marked an end to the power struggle by which the Seleucid Empire was forced to give up their Balkan territory which lead to their slow demise, whilst the Roman Republic reigned supreme.

Despite the decisive Roman victories in the Second Macedonian War and the Seleucid War, the fight over Greece continued in 171 BC. The ambitious King Perseus, sought to avenge his father King Philip V and restore glory to Macedonia. He refused to give in to Roman control, which led to the Third Macedonian War. The conflict was fought entirely in Macedonia and ultimately furthered Rome's grasp on the region. Twenty years later in 150 BC, Andriscus attempted to restore the Macedonian kingdom in face of Roman occupation which kicked off the Fourth Macedonian War. The uprising however was quickly crushed and lead to the final annexation of Macedonia by Rome. 

With Macedonia now under Roman control, the Roman Republic turned it's attention to the final strongholds of Greece. The Archaean League was a confederation of Greek city states, and about the last opposition to Roman dominance in the Mediterranean. By 146 BC, tensions arose between the Archaea League and Rome, who were just looking for a reason to swallow up this region. The Archaean War was a quick victory for Rome, who easily conquered the capital of Corinth and annexed all of mainland Greece. This was around the same time that the Romans had conquered Carthage bringing an end to the Punic Wars. Thus by 146 they had defeated all their rivals (Carthage, Macedonia, Greece, and the Selecuid Empire) to retain total control of the Mediterranean. 

Civil Conflicts and the Rise of Caesar

After many years of foreign conquest the Roman Republic entered a period of domestic crisis in 133 BC. This was brought on by political instability thru corruption, social unrest, and slave revolts. The Servile Wars were a series of slave uprisings from 135-132 BC, 104-100 BC, and 73-71 BC (which was the most famous led by the gladiator Spartacus). There was also an outbreak of social class war during the Marsic Rebellion of 91 to 87 BC. The Roman Republic was still able to sustain control during these civil conflicts and managed to conquer the Kingdom of Pontus (along the Black Sea) in 63 BC and the African Kingdom of Numidia in 46 BC.

The civil conflict however continued to gain steam and had now divided the members of the Senate. In 63 BC, the Catilinarian Conspiracy was a failed coup d'état by members of the senate to gain control of the government. However this gave way to the powerful alliance known as the First Triumvirate of three prominent military generals; Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar. The senate and government was now under the authority of these three men, by which the Roman Republic was now moving towards a dictatorship. Caesar became the most popular of the three after achieving major victories during the Gallic Wars of 58 to 50 BC. He also led the first campaigns into Britain but did not acquire any territory. Meanwhile General Crassus was defeated and killed during the Parthian Wars in Mesopotamia. 

With the death of Crassus the Triumvirate was splintered and soon Pompey and Caesar found themselves at odds. This tension reached a new height when Pompey's wife died in childbirth, which happened to be the daughter of Julius Caesar. Realizing this tension, Pompey turned to politics to win the support of the senate and withdraw Caesar's consul authority. This act thus lead to the Roman Civil War of  49 to 45 BC fought between Caesar and Pompey. The Pompeian army achieved a significant victory at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 48 BC where Caesar was forced to retreat into Thessaly, Greece. At this point it seemed Pompey had the military advantage with the larger army and the full support of the Roman senate. And yet somehow he was soundly defeated a few months later at the Battle of Pharsalus in Greece by Caesar's army. This was Caesar's decisive victory by which Pompey was quickly hunted down and assassinated later that year in Egypt. 

From this point on many prominent Roman senators such as Junius Brutus and Cicero switched their support of Pompey to Caesar. The civil war continued for a few more years throughout Asia Minor, Africa, and Spain until Caesar returned to Rome in 44 BC as the newly recognized dictator of Rome. This ultimately marked the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of a Roman Empire, where Caesar became the first sole ruler of the mighty Rome. However before his vision could be realized he was assassinated by the Senate who hoped to retain their system. This lead to a power vacuum which became the fateful transition of Roman Republic into Roman Empire. 

The Second Triumvirate

Following the death of Caesar, three of his prominent allies established a second Triumvirate in oppisition to the Senate. This included the general, statesman, and high priest known as Lepidus; the general Mark Antony, and the nephew of Julius Caesar, Augustus Octavius. These three worked together to crush all of Caesar's opponents within the senate. This period known as the Liberator's Civil War was ultimately waged in 43 BC to avenge the assassination of Julius Caesar. Prominent senate members such as Brutus and Cassius were killed during this time. Following this purge of the senate, the second Triumvirate reigned supreme for nearly ten years. Mark Antony established new alliances with Ptolemaic Egypt, while Octavius fought against Sextus Pompey during the Bellum Siculum Civil War of 42 o 36 BC. Lepidus quickly lost influence within the triumvirate as he dealt with affairs in northern Africa.

Octavius became the more popular of the three after defeating Pompey in the Roman Civil War of Bellum Siculum. Meanwhile Mark Antony was defeated in his military campaign against the Parthian Empire of Mesopotamia in 36 BC. Soon after the Triumvirate began to crumble and a power struggle for the sole control of Rome took place. Mark Antony began a love affair with Egypt's Queen Cleopatra, hoping to gain her support in a civil war against Octavius. However he was no match for the might of Octavius Roman force, and was soundly defeated at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Cleopatra and Mark Antony committed suicide shortly after and thus Octavian Augustus became the undisputed leader of Rome. He was granted lifetime dictatorship by the senate which was essentially a declaration of a new imperial regime. by 27 BC the Roman Republic had come to an end and Augustus became the first emperor of the Roman Empire.