Roman+Politcians

Politicians:

753 B.C.E-Romulus: Romulus was the first of the seven kings of Rome.

503 B.C.E-Brutus: Brutus overthrew the last king of Rome, Tarquinnus Superbus, and started the Roman Republic, which lasted from 503-31 B.C.E

280's B.C.E-Pyrnus: Pyrnus was a Greek king who helped most of southern Italy revolt against Rome.

218-201 B.C.E-Hannibal: Hannibal was the main general in the Carthiginian army in the 2nd Punic War. While Rome was busy preparing an army to attack Carthage, Hannibal lead a huge army through the alps, in which many died of hypothermia. He was able to defeat almost every city and town in Italy, but kept avoiding Rome itself. Because of his large army, Hannibal was forced to move throughout Italy to find food to supply his troops, which made him unable to lay seige to Rome. While Hannibal's army was in Italy, Scipio Africannus attacked Carthage and won the war for Rome in 201 B.C.E. After this, Hannibal moved throughout the mediterranean in order to escape the Romans. When he was finally found, he poisoned himself to escape torture.

133-132 B.C.E-Tiberius Gracchus: In 133 B.C.E, Tiberius Gracchus, a tribune, proposed the Lex Aguaria, a law that would force anyone who owned over 300 acres of land would have to return the excess to its rightful owners, to the senate. Being the ones directly affected by this law, the senate refused to even discuss it. In return, Tiberius vetoes every law, basically shutting down the government, until the senate would listen to him. The senate still refused to discuss this law, so Tiberius broke the Cursus Honorem and took his law directly to the assembly, who accepted the law. Although the law had been passed, the senate refused to fund it, so Tiberius got funding from a Greek king. After his year as a tribune had run out, Tiberius decided to run again in 132 B.C.E because he needed the protection a tribune was garunteed. On election day, a huge riot erupted against Tiberius and his supporters, in which Gracchus was beat to death.

123-121 B.C.E-Gaius Gracchus: Gaius Gracchus, Tiberius Gracchus's younger brother, ran for consulship in 123 B.C.E. After being elected, he made laws that ensured a more just judicial system, regulated grain prices, and made the government buy armor for their soldiers, which gave the poor jobs. He was so popular that he was able to run and get elected as consul again in 122 B.C.E, breaking the Cursus Honorem like his brother. He ran for consulship again in 121 B.C.E, but was attacked by opposing armies and killed himself.

107-86 B.C.E-Marius: Marius was elected as consul in 107 B.C.E. He reinforced Gaius's law that enabled all people to join the army, and after won a large war in Numidia. Several years later in 105 B.C.E., the Germans invaded Italy. Needing a talented general, Rome elected Marius as consul from 105-100 B.C.E. After winning the war against Germany, Marius gave land to his soldiers and established a strong patron-client relationship with his army. His powerful and potentially dangerous connections gave Marius several enemies, who attempted to assassinate him in 100 B.C.E. After this, Marius retired from politics until 86 B.C.E., when he took over the city of Rome while Sulla, the consul at the time, was away at war. He was elected as consul again, but died partway through his term.

91-78 B.C.E-Sulla: Sulla was the consul during the Social War, which lasted from 91-88 B.C.E. he started to dismantle Marius's reforms, which provoked Marius into rallying his many clients. In retaliation, Sulla rallied his allies, too, and went to Asia Minor to plan while Marius went to Greece. During this time, negotiators were sent to both men. When they came to Asia Minor, Sulla had them stoned to death. Soon after, he invaded Rome with his army and killed most of Marius's supporters. But, being the consul, Sulla had to leave to visit/conquer other nations, during which Marius took over Rome. After Marius died in 86 B.C.E, Sulla took over Rome again. In 80 B.C.E., Sulla was elected as dictator, but instead of his power lasting for the lawful six months, he stayed dictator for two years. In this time, he made laws that made people abide the Cursus Honorem, got rid of the tribunes' veto power, and prevented governors from leaving their land with an army. He died in 78 B.C.E.

78-61 B.C.E-Pompey/Crassus: Crassus and Pompey were two powerful political allies. Pompey was known for being an amazing general while Crassus was known for being outrageously wealthy. Crassus owned some of the first insurance companies, became rich through tax farming (getting taxes out of people and keeping the extra money), and controlled the fire department of Rome. In the slave revolt in 74 B.C.E., Pompey and Crassus lead the army that defeated Spartacus and his soldiers. In 70 B.C.E., Pompey was elected as consul, even though he was not legally old enough (he was only 30). At the time, Rome had lots of problems with pirates, so Pompey was given infinite imperium, which he used to conquer and invade surrounding lands for the following 9 years.

60 B.C.E-46 B.C.E-The First Triumvirate (Pompey, Crassus, Caesar): Julius Caesar, a young politician, formed an alliance with Crassus in 60 B.C.E. By the end of the year, Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar decided to form a triumvirate. This granted everyone's needs: Pompey was granted to land to give to his soldiers and got his treaties approved, Crassus was made the tax farmer for new territories, and Caesar was elected consul (the election was rigged) in 59 B.C.E. After being elected, Caesar was given 10 years to conquer Gaul. While Caesar was away, Pompey and Crassus continued rigging elections to elect consuls who would do what they wanted. Soon, Crassus felt that he wasn't getting enough fame, and tried to invade the Parthian Empire (Persia). His army was no match for the Parthians and ended up getting killed. With only two remaining in the triumvirate, the tension between Pompey and Caesar started to build. When Caesar had finished conquering Gaul, he brought his entire army back with him, breaking the law. When he returns home, Caesar is elected consul again while Pompey was in Greece, building an army. A civil war started between the two. Pompey retreated to Egypt, which at the time was not part of the Roman Empire, where the Egyptian government killed him almost immediately. After this, Caesar conquers Egypt and is made dictator in 46 B.C.E.

46-44 B.C.E-Julius Caesar: Caesar was elected dictator in 46 B.C.E. At first, this title was only supposed to last 10 years, but was extended to life. When he returned to Rome, he was given four triumphs at once. During this time, the senate started to get jealous of Caesar's power. Brutus and Cassius made a plan for the entire senate to stab Caesar to death, so that way no one person would be guilty. When Caesar was murdered, their plan backfired because in his will, Caesar left 1/4 of his wealth to the Roman public. At his funeral, Mark Antony, Caesar's right-hand man, started a riot against the politicians responsible for Caesar's death and killed them.

44-30 B.C.E-The Second Triumvirate (Octavian, Antony, Lepidus): The second triumvirate decided that the reason the first triumvirate fell apart was because they were too nice. To prove that they were a brutal force, the triumvirate had all of their enemies killed. To solidify the alliance, they all married into each other's families. The empire was split into three parts: Octavian got the west empire, Antony go the east, and Lepidus got the old Carthiginian empire (this was extremely unequal). This left Octavian with the political center, Antony with the rich, shipment center, and Lepidus with not much at all. Lepidus quickly got jealous and in 36 B.C.E tried to attack Octavian but was killed. After this, the triumvirate turned into two opposing forces. Octavian used a combination of military victories and propaganda to defeat Antony by 30 B.C.E.

30-14 A.D-Augustus: Octavian was renamed as Augustus after his victory over Antony, and was named dictator for life. To give the impression that there was still a democracy in Rome, Augustus at first refused dictatorship but eventually took it. There were also rigged elections held to keep up a pretense of a democracy. Augustus controlled 80% of the army, public spending, food shipment, and religion. Although he had ultimate power, Augustus gave himself the name princeps, meaning first citizen, to make people think that he was not a dictator. He also started propaganda that he was descended from Venus, the god of love. He created the Praetorian Guard, an army force dedicated to protecting rome. Augustus died in 14 A.D

14-37 A.D-Tiberius: Tiberius was Augustus' adopted son and heir. Unlike Augustus, Tiberius was not good with words, which lost him lots of public support. Along with this, people didn't like Tiberius because he did not waste money, so was viewed as greedy, and also moved to the island of Capri for the last 10 years of his life. He left the Praetorian Guard in charge. Tiberius died in 37 A.D.

37-41 A.D-Caligula: Tiberius' heir, Caligula was a psychopathic emperor. He was reported to suffer from brain fever, or periodic fits of insanity. Because of many instances that easily proved he was not fit to be an emperor, including stories saying that he made his own horse a senator, the Praetorian Guard had Caligula assassinated in 41 A.D.

41-54 A.D-Claudius: Because Caligula was extremely paranoid and killed all who might threaten his power, Claudius pretended to be useless until Caligula died. When he was elected emperor, Claudius gave more power to the senate and conquered Britain. He married Agrippina, who had a son named Nero. Agrippina wanted her son to be emperor, so she poisoned Claudius in 54 A.D.

54-68 A.D-Nero: Nero, unlike previous emperors, did not keep up the pretense of being equal. He openly called himself the //imperator//, or emperor. Nero told everyone he was a living god and demanded to be worshipped like one. People suspect that he was responsible for the great fire of Rome.

200-284 A.D-Third Century Crisis: During this time, there was a frequent change in rulers. The average ruling time was two years. There were 52 emperors in this time.

284-305 A.D-Diocletian: Diocletian raised through military ranks until he was elected emperor in 284 A.D. He fixed many problems that had aroused in the previous century. He fixed inflation and high priced commodities by setting a fixed rate on essential items and had set salaries for specific jobs. He locked families into jobs by making it required to do the same job your father did. He also created the tetrarchy, in which the empire was divided into east and west. Each side had one head emperor and one emperor-in-waiting who would take over after the present emperor died, solving the problem of constant assassinations. He also persecuted Christians.

324-337 A.D-Constantine: After Diocletian died, the four emperors went to war to gain total power. After an 18-year civil war, Constantine gained complete power of the Roman empire. He moved the capitol to Byzantium because it offered more protection and renamed it Constantinople. At the Milvian Bridge, a battle took place that allowed Constantine to take over Rome. At this battle, Constantine claimed to have seen a cross superimposed on the sun. From then on, Constantine was Christian. He made Christianity legal in rome and decided the official beliefs of the catholic church. After he died in 337 A.D., there was another civil war.

392-395 A.D-Theodosius: Theodosius was the last emperor of a united Roman empire. He made Christianity the official religion of Rome and tore down all symbols of Rome's previous religion. After his death, Rome was constantly invaded by barbarians. The last Roman emperor was in 476 A.D., and was then replaced by a Germanic king.