Roman Leadership 
Last Updated     11/17/2007      11/16/2007

Over the next 100 years, many leaders tried to improve conditions in Rome.  Some were reformers and others were generals.

The Reformers
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was the first reformer.
He thought making small farmers leave the land was the problem.
133 BC, he became a tribune.
He wanted to limit the amount of land a person could own.
He wanted to divide up public lands and give them to the poor.
Tiberius Gracchus ran for a second term as tribune.
That was aginst the law.
The Senate staged a riot and and killed Gracchus and hundreds of his followers.

Gaius Gracchus
In 123 BC, Gaius Gracchus was elected tribune.
He was the brother of Tiberius.
He wanted to move the poor from the city back to the country.
He had the government take over the sale of wheat.
Soon one out of 3 Romans was receiving free wheat.
In 121 BC, the Senate, feeling threatened, had Gaius killed.

The Generals
General Gaius Marius
In 107 BC, General Gaius Marius became consul.
He was the first lower-class Roman to be lected to a high office.
He was supported by ex-soldiers.
Many of the ex-soldiers had lost their farms when they were in the army.
He wanted to set up a professional army.
In the past, only property owners could be legionaries.
Marius opened up the army to all.
He got the poor to join by offering pay, land, pensions, and booty.
Marius;s plan helped out-of-work Romans.
Instead of loyalty to the government, the soldiers were loyal to Marius.

General Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Marius was opposed by General Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
Sulla was given a command Marius wanted.
marius tried to get the Assembly to give it to him.
Sulla marched on Rome and seized the city.
Civil War broke out.
Sulla began a reign of terror in Rome.
He killed everyone in Rome who had opposed him.
Sulla then made himself absolute dictator.
He wanted to increase the power of the Senate.
He doubled the size of the Senate.
He gave the Senators more more duties.
He weakened the power of the tribunes.
He stopped generals from holding command for more than one year.

Julius Caesar
Triumvirate
In 60 Bc, Sulla retired.
A triumvirate controlled Rome.
Marcus Lucinius Crassus, Gnaeus Pompeius, and Julius Caesar made it up.
Pompey believed in rule by the upper-class.
Caesar blieved in one-man rule.
Crassus died and Pompey was murdered.
In 48 BC, Caesar gained control.

Conquests
58 BC, Caesar named governor of a Roman province.
He built up a strong army.
He conquuered Gaul, Belgium and invaded Britain.
In 50 BC, the Senate ordered Caesar to break up his legions and return to Rome.
Caesar entered Rome at the head of his army.
By 46 BC, he was dictator of Rome.

Achievements of Caesar
Redivided state lands.
Gave land to ex-soldiers by founding new overseas colonies.
He began public works projects.
He built roads, buldings, and drained the marshes around Rome.
This gave jobs to thousands of Romans.
He planned and paid for free gladitorial games.
This gave the poor and idle something to do.
He doubled the size of the Senate.
It gave business people a chance to be a Senator.
He cut back on the activities of publicans.
He gave Roman citizenship to Greeks, Spainards, and Gauls.
He adopted the Julian calendar, based on te Egyptian calendar.

Assasination of Caesar
Some Romans were afraid that Caesar planned to make himself king.
15 March 44 BC, 60 Senators stab Caesar to death on the Ides of March.

End of the Republic
The Roman people turned against the people that had killed Caesar.
Political power passed to Mark Antony, Octavian, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.
Mark Antony was Caesar's closest follower and general..
Octavian was Caesar's adopted son.
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus one of Casar's top officers.
This triumvirate worked for awhile.
Fights broke outin 31 BC, Octavian had won.