201-481: The First Triumvirate was an informal political alliance among three prominent politicians in the late Roman Republic : Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus , Marcus Licinius Crassus , and Gaius Julius Caesar . The republican constitution had many veto points. In order to bypass constitutional obstacles and force through the political goals of the three men, they forged an alliance in secret where they promised to use their respective influence to support each other. The "triumvirate"
402-547: A Veneti uprising in northwestern Gaul. These campaigns led Caesar to seek a five-year extension of his command; to do this, he too would need the support of his allies once more. Over the summer of 56 BC, Caesar met with the leaders of various factions across Cisalpine Gaul. He met with Crassus at Ravenna and Pompey at the town of Luca , the southern-most city in Cisalpine Gaul . The agreement emerged from three relatively compatible aims: Crassus and Pompey desired
603-616: A great victory for Metellus. Rome then besieged the last Carthaginian strongholds in Sicily, Lilybaeum and Drepana , but these cities were impregnable by land. Publius Claudius Pulcher , the consul of 249, recklessly tried to take the latter from the sea, but suffered a terrible defeat ; his colleague Lucius Junius Pullus likewise lost his fleet off Lilybaeum . Without the corvus , Roman warships had lost their advantage. By now, both sides were drained and could not undertake large-scale operations. The only military activity during this period
804-503: A "three-headed monster"; later historians such as Suetonius and Livy referred to the three as a societas or conspiratio ; the allies themselves "would presumably have referred to it simply as amicitia ". The usage of the term "triumvirate" to describe this political alliance was unattested during the Renaissance . First attested in 1681, the term emerged into widespread use only during the 18th century; for some time, knowledge that
1005-464: A Fellow of Newnham College and the only female lecturer in the classics faculty. The book Rome in the Late Republic , which she co-wrote with Cambridge historian Michael Crawford , was published the following year. John Sturrock , classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement , approached her for a review and brought her into literary journalism. Beard took over his role in 1992 at
1206-500: A Roman Town , submitting remains from the town to forensic tests, aiming to show a snapshot of the lives of the residents prior to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. In 2011 she took part in a television series, Jamie's Dream School on Channel 4 , in which she taught classics to teenagers with no experience of academic success. Beard is a regular contributor to the BBC Radio 4 series, A Point of View , delivering essays on
1407-609: A broad range of topics including Miss World and the Oxbridge interview. For BBC Two in 2012 she wrote and presented the three part television series, Meet the Romans with Mary Beard , which concerns how ordinary people lived in Rome, "the world's first global metropolis". The critic A. A. Gill reviewed the programme, writing mainly about her appearance, judging her "too ugly for television". Beard admitted that his attack felt like
1608-595: A coalition of Latins at the battles of Vesuvius and the Trifanum . The Latins submitted to Roman rule. A Second Samnite War began in 327 BC. The war ended with Samnite defeat at the Battle of Bovianum in 305 BC. By 304 BC, Rome had annexed most Samnite territory and begun to establish colonies there, but in 298 BC the Samnites rebelled, and defeated a Roman army, in a Third Samnite War . After this success, it built
1809-408: A coalition of several previous enemies of Rome. The war ended with Roman victory in 290 BC. At the Battle of Populonia , in 282 BC, Rome finished off the last vestiges of Etruscan power in the region. In the 4th century, plebeians gradually obtained political equality with patricians. The first plebeian consular tribunes were elected in 400. The reason behind this sudden gain is unknown, but it
2010-490: A conflict between optimates and populares , referring to conservative and reformist politicians, respectively. The Social War between Rome and its Italian allies over citizenship and Roman hegemony in Italy greatly expanded the scope of civil violence. Mass slavery also contributed to three Servile Wars . Tensions at home coupled with ambitions abroad led to further civil wars . The first involved Marius and Sulla . After
2211-539: A consequence of an Etruscan occupation of Rome rather than a popular revolution. According to Rome's traditional histories, Tarquin made several attempts to retake the throne, including the Tarquinian conspiracy , which involved Brutus's own sons, the war with Veii and Tarquinii , and finally the war between Rome and Clusium . The attempts to restore the monarchy did not succeed. The first Roman republican wars were wars of expansion . One by one, Rome defeated both
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#17327659337422412-512: A draft proposal for a lex Julia agraria and set it on the senate's agenda. He took a conciliatory approach, respecting the normal order of the senate and also writing a bill that rectified all the criticisms to Rullus' land bill in 63 BC (Cicero opposed that bill in De lege agraria ): Caesar would preserve public lands in Campania, repopulate desolate areas of Italy, move citizens from Rome onto
2613-418: A feature of Roman administration, but this alliance was not counted among them. The term appears nowhere in any ancient source, refers to no official position, and is "completely and obviously erroneous". In the ancient world, the triple alliance was referred to with varying terms: Cicero, contemporaneously, wrote of "three men" ( tris homines ) exercising a regnum ; a satire by Marcus Terentius Varro called it
2814-415: A few months for his provincial assignment to Gaul. His legislative activity, however, came under immediate attack from Domitius and Memmius, who had been elected as praetors during Caesar's electoral comitia the last year, claiming that Caesar had passed the legislation against the auspices. These efforts were utterly unsuccessful – the pro-triumviral consuls allowed debate on the topic for three days – and
3015-491: A generation, the Republic fell into civil war again in 49 BC between Julius Caesar and Pompey . Despite his victory and appointment as dictator for life , Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar's heir Octavian and lieutenant Mark Antony defeated Caesar's assassins in 42 BC, but they eventually split. Antony's defeat alongside his ally and lover Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and
3216-493: A joint consulship; they also wanted good provincial assignments. Caesar needed an extension in his command to prevent a possible usurpation by Ahenobarbus. Some two hundred senators, mostly of lower rank, attended upon the three men, seeking to ingratiate themselves. The conference also forced a re-evaluation of alliances across the wider aristocracy: the Claudii – both Appius and Publius – and Gaius Cato switched sides back to
3417-528: A law ratifying Pompey's settlements after the Third Mithridatic War , and legislation on provincial administration and tax collection. Caesar also was placed in a long-term governorship in Gaul. The early success of the alliance, however, triggered substantial political backlash. Political alliances at Rome reorganised to counterbalance the three men in the coming years. By 55 BC, the alliance
3618-661: A letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue . She was a member of the Labour Party until Tony Blair became leader. In July 2015, Beard endorsed Jeremy Corbyn 's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election . She said: "If I were a member of the Labour Party , I would vote for Corbyn. He actually seems to have some ideological commitment, which could get
3819-464: A long-lasting alliance with Rome. In 262 BC, the Romans moved to the southern coast and besieged Akragas . In order to raise the siege, Carthage sent reinforcements, including 60 elephants—the first time they used them—but still lost the battle . Nevertheless, Rome could not take all of Sicily because Carthage's naval superiority prevented it from effectively besieging coastal cities. Using a captured Carthaginian ship as blueprint, Rome therefore launched
4020-426: A magistrate would address the people) where he requested Bibulus explain his opposition. When Bibulus failed to articulate any meaningful objections, beyond that "he would not permit any innovation", Caesar pled with him before the people, leading Bibulus to exclaim in frustration that "you will not have this law this year, not even should you all want it!", a violation of the norm of popular sovereignty. Seeking to avoid
4221-418: A make-over. In 2015, Beard was again a panellist on BBC's Question Time from Bath. During the programme, she praised Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for behaving with a "considerable degree of dignity" against claims he faces an overly hostile media. She said: "Quite a lot of what Corbyn says I agree with, and I rather like his different style of leadership. I like hearing argument not soundbites. If
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#17327659337424422-433: A massive construction program and built 100 quinqueremes in only two months. It also invented a new device, the corvus , a grappling engine that enabled a crew to board an enemy ship. The consul for 260 BC, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina , lost the first naval skirmish of the war against Hannibal Gisco at Lipara , but his colleague Gaius Duilius won a great victory at Mylae . He destroyed or captured 44 ships and
4623-620: A new elite, called the nobiles , or Nobilitas . By the early 3rd century BC, Rome had established itself as the major power in Italy, but had not yet come into conflict with the dominant military powers of the Mediterranean : Carthage and the Greek kingdoms. In 282, several Roman warships entered the harbour of Tarentum , triggering a violent reaction from the Tarentine democrats, who sank some. The Roman embassy sent to investigate
4824-517: A noblewoman, Lucretia . The tradition asserted that the monarchy was abolished in a revolution led by the semi-mythical Lucius Junius Brutus and the king's powers were then transferred to two separate consuls elected to office for a term of one year; each was capable of checking his colleague by veto . Most modern scholarship describes these accounts as the quasi-mythological detailing of an aristocratic coup within Tarquin's own family or
5025-476: A one-third write-down of the tax bills owed by the publicani for Crassus, and second, for ratification of Pompey's eastern settlement. Both bills were passed with little or no debate in the senate. Lucullus, attempting to oppose Pompey's eastern settlement, was "forced into public humiliation on his knees before Caesar" when the consul threatened prosecution. When Cicero, defending his former co-consul Gaius Antonius Hybrida , made an off-hand remark complaining about
5226-426: A pact was sought – places the formation of the alliance some time between July 60 and January 59 BC. The purpose of the alliance was to secure something that none of the three men could secure alone. If Pompey and Caesar aligned alone, they would not likely be able to overcome opposition to Pompey's proposals in the senate. Pompey and Crassus were personal rivals who could only align through an intermediary. Caesar
5427-541: A place at Newnham College , a single-sex college. She had considered King's , but rejected it when she learned the college did not offer scholarships to women. In Beard's first year she found some men in the university still held very dismissive attitudes regarding the academic potential of women, which only strengthened her determination to succeed. She also developed feminist views that remained "hugely important" in her later life, although she later described "modern orthodox feminism" as partly cant . One of her tutors
5628-474: A policy of confrontation with Caesar. Deteriorating trust through 50 BC, along with the influence of Catonian anti-Caesarian hardliners on Pompey, eventually pushed Caesar into open rebellion in January 49 BC. The term "First Triumvirate", while well-known, is a misleading one which is regularly avoided by modern scholars of the late republic. Boards of a certain number of men such as decemviri were
5829-419: A powerful popular following which the fraying alliance was unwilling to oppose. He also quickly won over the consuls of that year by promising them the plum provincial assignments they needed to avoid bankruptcy. Later in the year 58, Clodius started to openly criticise the triumvirs, especially Pompey, forcing him into self-seclusion in his home. He also attacked Caesar's legislation on religious grounds. Pompey
6030-420: A previous command against Mithridates , Pompey's recent divorce of Celer's half-sister in a failed attempt to form a marriage alliance with Cato, and also by their fear of Pompey's power, led to an obstructive coalition. Lucullus returned from his semi-retirement to demand an in-depth review of every aspect of Pompey's eastern arrangements ; "this would take a tremendous amount of time and would prevent passage of
6231-399: A punch, but swiftly responded with a counter-attack on his intellectual abilities, accusing him of being part of "the blokeish culture that loves to decry clever women". This exchange became the focus of a debate about older women on the public stage, with Beard saying she looked an ordinary woman of her age and "there are kids who turn on these programmes and see there's another way of being
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6432-545: A report in The Times of Oxfam employees engaging in sexual exploitation in disaster zones, Beard tweeted "Of course one can't condone the (alleged) behaviour of Oxfam staff in Haiti and elsewhere. But I do wonder how hard it must be to sustain 'civilised' values in a disaster zone. And overall I still respect those who go in and help out, where most of us would not tread." This led to widespread criticism, in which Mary Beard
6633-487: A respectable academic, Professor Beard was presumably brought in to back up Randi, but her views are interestingly hard to define. She agrees with Picknett's suggestion that 'weird' should be reclassified as 'other', noting this is how the ancient world referred to overseas lands. This suggestion that UFOs should be bracketed with, say, Perth shows why Beard, particularly in this company, is a very modern thinker. In 2010, on BBC Two , Beard presented Pompeii: Life and Death in
6834-478: A second lecture for the same partners, entitled Women in Power: from Medusa to Merkel . It considered the extent to which the exclusion of women from power is culturally embedded, and how idioms from ancient Greece are still used to normalise gendered violence. She argues that "we don't have a model or a template for what a powerful woman looks like. We only have templates that make them men." In 2019, Beard gave
7035-416: A senate . There were annual elections, but the republican system was an elective oligarchy , not a democracy ; a small number of powerful families largely monopolised the magistracies. Roman institutions underwent considerable changes throughout the Republic to adapt to the difficulties it faced, such as the creation of promagistracies to rule its conquered provinces , and differences in the composition of
7236-421: A series of favourable senatorial decrees to provide more funds for his troops in Gaul – above Cicero's objections that Caesar could have paid for them out of his spoils – and granted his request to have ten legates ( decem legati ) sent to aid in administration and senatorial settlement of the region's affairs. Caesar's successes at this point had made him extremely popular among the people and in general across
7437-542: A similar bill distributing land to his veterans; he also had sent subordinates back to Rome to stand for the tribunate in attempts to bring the relevant legislation forward (an attempt in 63 BC was opposed by then-consul Cicero in De lege agraria ). Further attempts in 62 BC had led to his allied tribune fleeing the city. While he was successful in getting one of his men, Marcus Pupius Piso Frugi Calpurnianus , elected consul for 61 BC, an intervening religious scandal had made it impossible for him to push forward
7638-652: A similar revolt in Sardinia to seize the island from Carthage, in violation of the peace treaty. This led to permanent bitterness in Carthage. After its victory, the Republic shifted its attention to its northern border as the Insubres and Boii were threatening Italy. Meanwhile, Carthage compensated the loss of Sicily and Sardinia with the conquest of Southern Hispania (up to Salamanca ), and its rich silver mines. This rapid expansion worried Rome, which concluded
7839-704: A stalemate, with the Treaty of Phoenice signed in 205. In Hispania, Scipio continued his successful campaign at the battles of Carmona in 207, and Ilipa (now Seville ) in 206, which ended the Punic threat on the peninsula. Elected consul in 205, he convinced the Senate to invade Africa with the support of the Numidian king Masinissa , who had defected to Rome. Scipio landed in Africa in 204. He took Utica and then won
8040-623: A third term in 121 but was defeated. During violent protests over repeal of an ally's colonisation bill, the Senate moved the first senatus consultum ultimum against him, resulting in his death, with many others, on the Aventine. His legislation (like that of his brother) survived; the Roman aristocracy disliked the Gracchan agitation but accepted their policies. Mary Beard (classicist) Dame Winifred Mary Beard (born 1 January 1955)
8241-680: A treaty with Hasdrubal in 226, stating that Carthage could not cross the Ebro river . But the city of Saguntum , south of the Ebro, appealed to Rome in 220 to act as arbitrator during a period of internal strife . Hannibal took the city in 219, triggering the Second Punic War. Initially, the Republic's plan was to carry war outside Italy, sending the consuls P. Cornelius Scipio to Hispania and Ti. Sempronius Longus to Africa, while their naval superiority prevented Carthage from attacking from
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8442-415: A tribunician veto, Caesar exposed his alliance, summoning Pompey and Crassus. Pompey, when asked what he would do if opponents should use violence to disrupt the bill's passage, said "he would provide a shield if anyone dared to raise a sword in opposition". Bibulus responded by mobilising three tribunes to veto the bill (alternatively, he may have wanted to declare bad omens to prevent voting, or both). During
8643-500: A tyrant, with "dire warnings of the impending overthrow of the republican government" that discredited the alliance and forced senators to re-evaluate their tacit support. Crassus revelled in Pompey's discomfitures before the people; this unpopularity frayed at the alliance between the three men, which was meant only to secure for them aims which they could not achieve by themselves. Upon the conclusion of Caesar's consulship, he left after
8844-416: A wavering ally, a supporter of the triumvirate ( Gaius Memmius ), and an opponent ( Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus ) banded together. The consuls, concerned that they would be precluded from holding military command due to the lack of a requisite lex curiata , promised to throw their support behind the two candidates in exchange for choice provinces and their securing false testimony from three augurs to swear that
9045-511: A way she deemed authentic. On 4 August 2013, she received a bomb threat on Twitter, hours after the UK head of Twitter had apologised to women who had experienced abuse on the service. Beard said she did not think she was in physical danger, but considered it harassment and wanted to "make sure" that another case had been logged by the police. She has been praised for exposing "social media at its most revolting and misogynistic". In 2017, Beard became
9246-481: A whole, these various elections showed the weakness of the triumviral coalition: Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus were unable to produce consistently favourable results except when their aims were entirely united; the joint consulship in 55 BC was brought about by force and, "thereafter, their [the alliance's] stock with the voters rapidly depreciated". In spring of 53 BC, while Rome dealt with its own political crisis, Crassus launched his invasion of Syria and Caesar
9447-423: A woman", without Botox and hair dye. Charlotte Higgins assessed Beard as one of the rare academics who is both well respected by her peers and has a high profile in the media. In 2013 she presented Caligula with Mary Beard on BBC Two, describing the making of myths around leaders and dictators. Interviewers continued to ask about her self-presentation, and she reiterated that she had no intention of undergoing
9648-481: Is "misleading in equating the position of the 50s with the official triumvirate of Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian", preferring "alliance" and "Big Three". Books by Andrew Lintott and Richard Billows also have avoided invocation of "First Triumvirate". Others add more reasons to avoid its use, for example, Robert Morstein-Marx in the 2021 book Julius Caesar and the Roman People , "it is almost impossible to use
9849-866: Is an English classicist specialising in Ancient Rome . She is a trustee of the British Museum and formerly held a personal professorship of classics at the University of Cambridge . She is a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge , and Royal Academy of Arts Professor of Ancient Literature . Beard is the classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement , for which she also writes a regular blog, "A Don's Life". Her frequent media appearances and sometimes controversial public statements have led to her being described as "Britain's best-known classicist". In 2014, The New Yorker characterised her as "learned but accessible". Mary Beard, an only child,
10050-410: The lex Ovinia transferred this power to the censors, who could only remove senators for misconduct, thus appointing them for life. This law strongly increased the power of the Senate, which was by now protected from the influence of the consuls and became the central organ of government. In 312 BC, following this law, the patrician censor Appius Claudius Caecus appointed many more senators to fill
10251-645: The Arverni tribe of Gaul , and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra . At home, during the Conflict of the Orders , the patricians , the closed oligarchic elite, came into conflict with the more numerous plebs ; this was resolved peacefully, with the plebs achieving political equality by the 4th century BC. The late Republic, from 133 BC onward, saw substantial domestic strife , often anachronistically seen as
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#173276593374210452-469: The Battle of the Great Plains , which prompted Carthage to open peace negotiations. The talks failed because Scipio wanted to impose harsher terms on Carthage to prevent it from rising again as a threat. Hannibal was therefore sent to face Scipio at Zama . Scipio could now use the heavy Numidian cavalry of Massinissa—which had hitherto been so successful against Rome—to rout the Punic wings, then flank
10653-655: The Seleucid Empire made increasingly aggressive and successful attempts to conquer the entire Greek world. Now not only Rome's allies against Philip, but even Philip himself, sought a Roman alliance against the Seleucids. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Hannibal was now a chief military advisor to the Seleucid emperor, and the two were believed to be planning outright conquest not just of Greece, but also of Rome. The Seleucids were much stronger than
10854-545: The Seleucid Empire . In 202, internal problems led to a weakening of Egypt's position, disrupting the power balance among the successor states. Macedonia and the Seleucid Empire agreed to an alliance to conquer and divide Egypt. Fearing this increasingly unstable situation, several small Greek kingdoms sent delegations to Rome to seek an alliance. Rome gave Philip an ultimatum to cease his campaigns against Rome's new Greek allies. Doubting Rome's strength, Philip ignored
11055-620: The Sigmund H. Danziger Jr. Memorial Lecture in the Humanities at the University of Chicago . She was elected Visiting Sather Professor of Classical Literature for 2008–2009 at the University of California, Berkeley , at which she delivered a series of lectures on "Roman Laughter". In 2014, Beard delivered a lecture on the public voice of women at the British Museum as part of the London Review of Books winter lecture series. It
11256-602: The plebs elected tribunes , who were personally sacrosanct, immune to arbitrary arrest by any magistrate, and had veto power over legislation. By 390 BC, several Gallic tribes were invading Italy from the north. The Romans met the Gauls in pitched battle at the Battle of Allia River around 390–387 BC. The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia rivers, 11 Roman miles (10 mi or 16 km) north of Rome. The Romans were routed and subsequently Rome
11457-597: The sesquicentennial Public Lecture for the North American Society for Classical Studies , marking the 150-year anniversary of the organisation. The topic of her presentation was What do we mean by Classics now? She delivered the Gifford Lectures in May 2019 at Edinburgh University , under the title The Ancient World and Us: From Fear and Loathing to Enlightenment and Ethics. In 2020, Beard
11658-460: The Boii ambushed the army of the consul-elect for 215, L. Postumius Albinus , who died with all his army of 25,000 men in the Battle of Silva Litana . These disasters triggered a wave of defection among Roman allies, with the rebellions of the Samnites, Oscans, Lucanians, and Greek cities of Southern Italy. In Macedonia, Philip V also made an alliance with Hannibal in order to take Illyria and
11859-615: The Centre for African Studies at the University of Oxford. Their son Raphael Cormack is an author, editor and translator specialising in Arabic Cultural History and Literature. In 2000, Beard revealed in an essay for the London Review of Books reviewing a book on rape that she too had been raped, in 1978. Her blog, A Don's Life , gets about 40,000 hits a day, according to The Independent (2013). Beard
12060-620: The Labour Party is going through a rough time, and I'm sure it is rough to be in there, it might actually all be to the good. He might be changing the party in a way that would make it easier for people like me to vote for." 2016 saw Beard present Pompeii: New Secrets Revealed with Mary Beard on BBC One in March. While May 2016, brought about a four-part series shown on BBC Two, titled Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit . Beard's standalone documentary Julius Caesar Revealed
12261-528: The Macedonians had ever been, because they controlled much of the former Persian Empire and had almost entirely reassembled Alexander the Great's former empire. Fearing the worst, the Romans began a major mobilization, all but pulling out of recently conquered Spain and Gaul. This fear was shared by Rome's Greek allies, who now followed Rome again for the first time since that war. A major Roman-Greek force
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#173276593374212462-483: The Parthians had given no justification for war". The elections for the year, however, went strongly against the allies. Unwilling to repeat their mob tactics due to their unpopularity, Pompey campaigned for one of his clients, Titus Ampius Balbus, but those efforts were in vain. The voters returned Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus , denied victory by Pompey and Crassus' violence, and Appius Claudius Pulcher . Also elected
12663-450: The Parthians. Still at this point, Caesar and Pompey were on friendly terms. Caesar praised Pompey, for example, for lending one of Pompey's Spanish legions to help against the Gauls, a private military arrangement which Cato criticised in the senate for usurping senatorial prerogatives on legionary assignments. The consuls immediately prepared to hold elections for 52 BC, which proved impossible when they were injured by stones thrown by
12864-455: The Punic army—and confronted Hannibal, who was encamped at Cannae , in Apulia . Despite his numerical disadvantage, Hannibal used his heavier cavalry to rout the Roman wings and envelop their infantry, which he annihilated. In terms of casualties, the Battle of Cannae was the worst defeat in Roman history: only 14,500 soldiers escaped, and Paullus was killed as well as 80 senators. Soon after,
13065-712: The Rhone, sent his elder brother Gnaeus with the main part of his army in Hispania according to the initial plan, and went back to Italy with the rest to resist Hannibal in Italy, but he was defeated and wounded near the Ticino river . Hannibal then marched south and won three outstanding victories. The first one was on the banks of the Trebia in December 218, where he defeated the other consul Ti. Sempronius Longus. More than half
13266-425: The Roman army was lost. Hannibal then ravaged the country around Arretium to lure the new consul C. Flaminius into a trap at Lake Trasimene . This clever ambush resulted in the death of the consul and the complete destruction of his army of 30,000 men. In 216, the new consuls L. Aemilius Paullus and C. Terentius Varro mustered the biggest army possible, with eight legions—some 80,000 soldiers, twice as many as
13467-407: The Romans concluded a peace in the north and moved south with reinforcements, placing Pyrrhus in danger of being flanked by two consular armies; Pyrrhus withdrew to Tarentum. In 279 BC, Pyrrhus met the consuls Publius Decius Mus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio at the Battle of Asculum , which remained undecided for two days. Finally, Pyrrhus personally charged into the melee and won the battle but at
13668-415: The Romans' inability to conceive of plausible alternatives to the traditional republican system in a "crisis without alternative". The second instead stresses the continuity of the republic: until its disruption by Caesar's civil war and the following two decades of civil war created conditions for autocratic rule and made return to republican politics impossible: and, per Erich S. Gruen , "civil war caused
13869-583: The Senate's grant of extraordinary powers to Octavian as Augustus in 27 BC—which effectively made him the first Roman emperor —marked the end of the Republic. Rome had been ruled by monarchs since its foundation . These monarchs were elected, for life, by the men of the Roman Senate . The last Roman monarch was called Tarquin the Proud , who in traditional histories was expelled from Rome in 509 BC because his son, Sextus Tarquinius , raped
14070-598: The Spartan general marched on Regulus, crushing the Roman infantry on the Bagradas plain ; only 2,000 soldiers escaped, and Regulus was captured. The consuls for 255 nonetheless won a naval victory at Cape Hermaeum, where they captured 114 warships. This success was spoilt by a storm that annihilated the victorious navy: 184 ships of 264 sank, 25,000 soldiers and 75,000 rowers drowned. The corvus considerably hindered ships' navigation and made them vulnerable during tempest. It
14271-526: The adoption of Publius Clodius Pulcher into a plebeian clan. Clodius was an independent agent who was adept at playing political enemies off of each other. Soon after Clodius' adoption was ratified, he, against Caesar's wishes, successfully stood for a tribunate for 58 BC. After some slights from Caesar and Pompey relating to assignment of a foreign mission, he broke with them. At the start of his tribunate, Clodius pushed forward four popular bills to expand grain imports, provide free grain to Roman citizens in
14472-691: The affair was insulted and war was promptly declared. Facing a hopeless situation, the Tarentines (together with the Lucanians and Samnites) appealed to Pyrrhus , king of Epirus , for military aid. A cousin of Alexander the Great , he was eager to build an empire for himself in the western Mediterranean and saw Tarentum's plea as a perfect opportunity. Pyrrhus and his army of 25,500 men (with 20 war elephants) landed in Italy in 280 BC. The Romans were defeated at Heraclea , as their cavalry were afraid of Pyrrhus's elephants. Pyrrhus then marched on Rome, but
14673-533: The aftermath of the Social War. In the winter of 138–137 BC, a first slave uprising, known as the First Servile War , broke out in Sicily. After initial successes, the slaves led by Eunus and Cleon were defeated by Marcus Perperna and Publius Rupilius in 132 BC. In this context, Tiberius Gracchus was elected plebeian tribune in 133 BC. He attempted to enact a law to limit
14874-423: The agreement when Philip's emissaries were captured by a Roman fleet. The First Macedonian War saw the Romans involved directly in only limited land operations, but they achieved their objective of occupying Philip and preventing him from aiding Hannibal. The past century had seen the Greek world dominated by the three primary successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great 's empire: Ptolemaic Egypt , Macedonia and
15075-415: The alliance's formation decisively after Caesar's consular election. Some historians believe Caesar, in his letter to Cicero, may have been coy ("it may also be that Caesar was not yet showing Cicero all of his cards") but it did show that Caesar "was not specifically looking at building a triumvirate, but rather was looking to build as strong a coalition as possible". This evidence – especially disclosure that
15276-493: The amount of land anyone could own and establish a commission to distribute public lands to poor rural plebs. The aristocrats, who stood to lose an enormous amount of money, bitterly opposed this proposal. Tiberius submitted this law to the Plebeian Council , but it was vetoed by fellow tribune Marcus Octavius . Tiberius induced the plebs to depose Octavius from his office on the grounds that Octavius acted contrary to
15477-489: The appropriate land resettlement legislation. Through massive bribes, Pompey also secured the election of more of his men to offices in 60 BC ( Lucius Afranius as consul; Lucius Flavius as one of the plebeian tribunes ), but they too were stymied. Cato the Younger and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer , motivated in part by their dislike of Pompey's having previously and irregularly displaced their friend Lucullus from
15678-628: The area around Epidamnus , occupied by Rome. His attack on Apollonia started the First Macedonian War . In 215, Hiero II of Syracuse died of old age, and his young grandson Hieronymus broke the long alliance with Rome to side with Carthage. At this desperate point, the aggressive strategy against Hannibal the Scipiones advocated was abandoned in favour of a slow reconquest of the lost territories, since Hannibal could not be everywhere to defend them. Although he remained invincible on
15879-412: The arrival of Caesar's soldiers from Gaul on winter furlough, elections were held. Employing force to drive other candidates away and distributing bribes to ensure their victory, Pompey and Crassus were elected consuls. They then used their control over the electoral comitia also to secure the election of their allies to the praetorship (both Milo and Vatinius were returned) while excluding opponents (Cato
16080-437: The assent of the senate. Little reasoned opposition emerged. In general, that an agrarian bill was desirable and "well justified... could not reasonably be denied... many senators must have felt that it was not high time to make good on the promise made long ago to the long-suffering veterans". Some ancient sources describe Caesar's conciliatory tone as a cynical plot to roll over the senators; Caesar's goal may have been to provide
16281-442: The attempt, he was assaulted by a mob, which threw him from the rostra and broke his fasces , symbolically rejecting Bibulus' consular authority. The law was then passed; the next day, Bibulus called a meeting of the senate seeking to annul the law on grounds that it was passed contrary to the auspices and with violence; annulment on such grounds was extremely rare and the senate, regardless, refused. Caesar "provocatively demanded from
16482-459: The attitudes, context and beliefs of their authors, not as reliable sources for the events they address. The other is that she argues that modern histories of Rome must be contextualised within the attitudes, world views and purposes of their authors. In 1994 she made an early television appearance on an Open Media discussion for the BBC, Weird Thoughts , alongside Jenny Randles among others. This
16683-455: The backbone of Rome's economy, as smallholding farmers, managers, artisans, traders, and tenants. In wartime, they could be summoned for military service. Most had little direct political influence. During the early Republic, the plebs (or plebeians) emerged as a self-organised, culturally distinct group of commoners, with its own internal hierarchy, laws, customs, and interests. Plebeians had no access to high religious and civil office. For
16884-408: The battlefield, defeating all the Roman armies on his way, he could not prevent Claudius Marcellus from taking Syracuse in 212 after a long siege , nor the fall of his bases of Capua and Tarentum in 211 and 209 . In Hispania, Publius and Gnaeus Scipio won the battles of Cissa in 218, soon after Hannibal's departure, and Dertosa against his brother Hasdrubal in 215, which enabled them to conquer
17085-518: The bill for the foreseeable future". Without capable allies in the magistracies – both Piso and Afranius were ineffective – Pompey was forced to look elsewhere for allies. Crassus was one of the richest men in Rome, having made his fortune by profiting from the Sullan proscriptions . He was a patron for Rome's equestrian businessmen . With Pompey, he had served as consul in 70 BC. Those public contractors had massively over-bid on tax contracts for
17286-600: The city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world . Roman society at the time was primarily a cultural mix of Latin and Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Ancient Roman religion and its pantheon . Its political organization developed at around the same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece , with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by
17487-568: The city, restore the collegia (professional organisations), regulate the use of auspices as obstructive tactics, and regulate the power of the censors to remove senators. He also moved agitating against Cicero 's illegal execution of the Catilinarian conspirators during his consulship in 63 BC. While Cicero had secured some promises of protection from Pompey, Crassus, Caesar, and the consuls for 58 BC, "the promised assistance... never materialised" because Clodius had quickly gained
17688-693: The consul Appius Claudius Caudex , turned to one of the popular assemblies to get a favourable vote by promising plunder to the voters. After the assembly ratified an alliance with the Mamertines, Caudex was dispatched to cross the strait and lend aid. Messina fell under Roman control quickly. Syracuse and Carthage, at war for centuries, responded with an alliance to counter the invasion and blockaded Messina, but Caudex defeated Hiero and Carthage separately. His successor, Manius Valerius Maximus , landed with an army of 40,000 men and conquered eastern Sicily, which prompted Hiero to shift his allegiance and forge
17889-495: The consuls of 57 and 56 BC were, if not opponents of, indifferent to both Caesar and Pompey; the failure to maintain their political influence put the alliance into a "shambles". Cicero, describing Pompey's plight, mentions the contio -goers estranged, the nobility hostile, and the senate unfair. Without the ability to make allies with the rest of the aristocracy, who had closed ranks against him, Pompey had to double down with his existing allies. Through this whole period, Caesar
18090-401: The consuls of 59 received commands that put them in a holding pattern and Cato secured election of his son-in-law and a personal enemy of Caesar's, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus , as Caesar's co-consul. Caesar won his election handily, but to turn his provincial assignment into glory and defeat Bibulus' obstruction, he would need allies. Scholars have debated the specific date at which the alliance
18291-451: The consulship of 53 BC, he broke with Pompey and launched a prosecution against Scaurus. The alliance's opponents, led by Cato's coterie, also launched a broadside against their supporters in the courts: At least three more supporters of the triumvirate were prosecuted; they too were all acquitted. Cato and his coterie's judicial attacks were unsuccessful "in large part because the complex network of connections among senators meant that
18492-608: The consulship". Against the later literary sources, however, a contemporaneous letter to Cicero, where Caesar asked to form a political alliance, also implies Caesar had not yet reconciled Pompey and Crassus by December of 60, months after his election in the summer. Erich Gruen, in Last Generation of the Roman Republic , believes this letter, combined with the fact that Pompey and Crassus would have alienated each-other with any overt support for Caesar's candidacy, places
18693-457: The cost of an important part of his troops ; he allegedly said, "if we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." He escaped the Italian deadlock by answering a call for help from Syracuse, where tyrant Thoenon was desperately fighting an invasion from Carthage . Pyrrhus could not let them take the whole island, as it would have compromised his ambitions in
18894-589: The crowd. Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( Latin : Res publica Romana [ˈreːs ˈpuːblɪka roːˈmaːna] ) was the era of classical Roman civilization beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire following the War of Actium . During this period, Rome's control expanded from
19095-579: The departure of the Epirote king. Between 288 and 283 BC, Messina in Sicily was taken by the Mamertines , a band of mercenaries formerly employed by Agathocles . They plundered the surroundings until Hiero II , the new tyrant of Syracuse , defeated them (in either 269 or 265 BC). In effect under a Carthaginian protectorate, the remaining Mamertines appealed to Rome to regain their independence. Senators were divided on whether to help. A supporter of war,
19296-659: The development of her personal feminism. Beard graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. As was traditional, her BA was later promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) degree. She remained at Cambridge for her Doctor of Philosophy ( PhD ) degree, completing it in 1982 with a doctoral thesis titled The State Religion in the Late Roman Republic: A Study Based on the Works of Cicero . Between 1979 and 1983, Beard lectured in classics at King's College, London ; she returned to Cambridge in 1984 as
19497-432: The dictator Camillus , who made a compromise with the tribunes: he agreed to their bills, and they in return consented to the creation of the offices of praetor and curule aediles, both reserved to patricians. Lateranus became the first plebeian consul in 366 BC; Stolo followed in 361 BC. Soon after, plebeians were able to hold both the dictatorship and the censorship. The four-time consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus became
19698-638: The dominant force in politics and society. They initially formed a closed group of about 50 large families, called gentes , who monopolised Rome's magistracies, state priesthoods, and senior military posts. The most prominent of these families were the Cornelii , Aemilii , Claudii , Fabii , and Valerii . The leading families' power, privilege and influence derived from their wealth, in particular from their landholdings, their position as patrons , and their numerous clients. The vast majority of Roman citizens were commoners of various social degrees. They formed
19899-517: The dynasts. Cicero, dependent on and indebted to Pompey for his return from exile, was also enlisted to lend rhetorical support. The alliance was renewed and expanded to include the Claudii Pulchri, turning Clodius from an opponent to a supporter. In return for their help, the allies would support Appius – whose chances of election to a consulship without their support was slim – in his goal of being elected consul for 54. The remaining opposition
20100-626: The eastern coast of Hispania. But in 211, Hasdrubal and Mago Barca successfully turned the Celtiberian tribes that supported the Scipiones, and attacked them simultaneously at the Battle of the Upper Baetis , in which the Scipiones died. Publius's son, the future Scipio Africanus , was then elected with a special proconsulship to lead the Hispanic campaign, winning a series of battles with ingenious tactics. In 209, he took Carthago Nova ,
20301-451: The economic difficulties of the plebs for their own gain: Stolo, Lateranus, and Genucius bound their bills attacking patricians' political supremacy with debt-relief measures. As a result of the end of the patrician monopoly on senior magistracies, many small patrician gentes faded into history during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC due to the lack of available positions. About a dozen remaining patrician gentes and 20 plebeian ones thus formed
20502-457: The end of the war, the consuls for 256 BC decided to carry the operations to Africa, on Carthage's homeland. The consul Marcus Atilius Regulus landed on the Cap Bon peninsula with about 18,000 soldiers. He captured the city of Aspis , repulsed Carthage's counterattack at Adys , and took Tunis . The Carthaginians hired Spartan mercenaries, led by Xanthippus , to command their troops. In 255,
20703-470: The end pay the price". In a November 2007 interview, she stated the hostility these comments provoked had still not subsided, though she believed it had become a standard viewpoint that terrorism was associated with American foreign policy . By this point she was described by Paul Laity of The Guardian as "Britain's best-known classicist". In 2004, Beard, through internal promotion, became Professor of Classics at Cambridge . In 2007–2008, Beard gave
20904-425: The fact that, in almost every case, former amici of Pompey are first seen to be ranged with the opposition in the year 59... by maintaining a consciously moral posture, driving the triumvirs to extreme measures, and parading their own martyrdom, Cato and his associates ruined triumviral credit among the people and assembled aristocratic collaboration in resistance". Early in 59 BC, Caesar and Pompey had ratified
21105-525: The fall of the republic, not vice versa". A core cause of the Republic's eventual demise was the loss of elite's cohesion from c. 133 BC : the ancient sources called this moral decay from wealth and the hubris of Rome's domination of the Mediterranean. Modern sources have proposed multiple reasons why the elite lost cohesion, including wealth inequality and a growing willingness by aristocrats to transgress political norms, especially in
21306-421: The first plebeian dictator in 356 BC and censor in 351 BC. In 342 BC, the tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius passed his leges Genuciae , which abolished interest on loans, in a renewed effort to tackle indebtedness; required the election of at least one plebeian consul each year; and prohibited magistrates from holding the same magistracy for the next ten years or two magistracies in the same year. In 339 BC,
21507-471: The first time a Roman army had ever entered Asia . The decisive engagement was fought at the Battle of Magnesia , resulting in complete Roman victory. The Seleucids sued for peace, and Rome forced them to give up their recent Greek conquests. Rome again withdrew from Greece, assuming (or hoping) that the lack of a major Greek power would ensure a stable peace. In fact, it did the opposite. In 179, Philip died. His talented and ambitious son, Perseus , took
21708-406: The four patricians in the college. The Conflict of the Orders ended with the last secession of the plebs around 287. The dictator Quintus Hortensius passed the lex Hortensia , which reenacted the law of 339 BC, making plebiscites binding on all citizens, while also removing the requirement for prior Senate approval. These events were a political victory of the wealthy plebeian elite, who exploited
21909-518: The gridlocked state of Roman politics in the years before 60 BC. All three had wanted something but were stymied by their rivals in the senate and assemblies. Pompey, having returned two years earlier from the Third Mithridatic War , wanted ratification of his peace settlements in the east. He also sought lands for his veterans to retire on. After Pompey's return from the Sertorian War from Hispania in 71 BC, he had been able secure
22110-589: The growing unrest he had caused led to his trial for seeking kingly power; he was sentenced to death and thrown from the Tarpeian Rock . Between 376 BC and 367 BC, the tribunes of the plebs Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus continued the plebeian agitation and pushed for an ambitious legislation, known as the Leges Liciniae Sextiae . The most important bill opened the consulship to plebeians. Other tribunes controlled by
22311-408: The image of the city dominated by one man's sole power, unchecked by a colleague". Pompey and Caesar attempted public protests against Bibulus' edicts and seclusion, respectively, to little response from the people. By then, the popular fervour of the agrarian bills had died down and the public likely desired a return to normal politics. The ancient sources claimed that for most of the year, the senate
22512-535: The infantry, as Hannibal had done at Cannae. Defeated for the first time, Hannibal convinced the Carthaginian Senate to pay the war indemnity, which was even harsher than that of 241: 10,000 talents in 50 instalments. Carthage also had to give up all its elephants, all its fleet but ten triremes , and all its possessions outside its core territory in Africa (what is now Tunisia ), and it could not declare war without Roman authorisation. In effect, Carthage
22713-456: The land (reducing the chance of riots), distribute credit for the bill among twenty commissioners (of which Caesar was not to be one), purchase property for redistribution only from willing sellers based on censorial assessments, pay for the entire project from monies won by Pompey, and extend the land grants to Pompey's veterans in return for their service. Caesar had the bill read out line-by-line and promised to make any changes needed to receive
22914-456: The last decade, he was also indebted to Crassus, who was a guarantor of Caesar's debts. Upon his early return from Spain in June 60 BC, he was forced to choose between entering the city to declare candidacy for the consulship, which would dissolve his military command and make him ineligible for a triumph , or staying outside of the city in an attempt to work a triumph from the senate. While
23115-507: The league's surrender. Rome decided to divide Macedonia into two new, directly administered Roman provinces, Achaea and Macedonia . For Carthage, the Third Punic War was a simple punitive mission after the neighbouring Numidians allied to Rome robbed and attacked Carthaginian merchants. Treaties had forbidden any war with Roman allies; viewing defence against banditry as "war action", Rome decided to annihilate Carthage. Carthage
23316-676: The litigants could not be reduced to stark choices between two political parties or ideologies". This year also saw the death of Caesar's daughter, and Pompey's wife, Julia, in childbirth. Caesar offered in marriage his grand-niece Octavia , but was rebuffed. Pompey's refusal, however, did not indicate a break between the two allies. At the time, there was "no demonstrable rupture"; Pompey and Caesar continued to support each other politically for several years. The elections for 53 BC were hugely delayed due to political violence and bribery. Domitius and Appius Claudius engaged in bribery pact with two consular candidates. Thus, an anti-triumviral consul,
23517-439: The magistrates for 57 were friendly; in the elections of 57 (for magistrates in 56) his allies were repulsed from both the aedileship and the praetorship, while his political enemies won two praetorships. Caesar's political support in Rome was largely dependent on Pompey and Crassus, rather than his own legates or allies. By 56 BC, Caesar's enemies were mobilising against him: a tribune attempted to recall him for trial – which
23718-530: The main Punic base in Hispania. The next year, he defeated Hasdrubal at the Battle of Baecula . After his defeat, Carthage ordered Hasdrubal to reinforce his brother in Italy. Since he could not use ships, he followed the same route as his brother through the Alps, but the consuls M. Livius Salinator and C. Claudius Nero were awaiting him and defeated him in the Battle of the Metaurus , where Hasdrubal died. It
23919-477: The manifest will of the people, a position that was unprecedented and constitutionally dubious. His law was enacted and took effect, but, when Tiberius ostentatiously stood for reelection to the tribunate, he was murdered by his enemies. Tiberius's brother Gaius was elected tribune ten years later in 123 and reelected for 122. He induced the plebs to reinforce rights of appeal to the people against capital extrajudicial punishments and institute reforms to improve
24120-533: The most important cities in the Roman Empire. Views on the structural causes of the Republic's collapse differ. One enduring thesis is that Rome's expansion destabilized its social organization between conflicting interests; the Senate's policymaking, blinded by its own short-term self-interest, alienated large portions of society, who then joined powerful generals who sought to overthrow the system. Two other theses have challenged this view. The first blames
24321-740: The most to lose. After alienating the Metelli by divorcing Mucia, Pompey's alliance with Caesar and Crassus alienated some former allies in the 60s as well, including the Cornelii Lentuli. The triple alliance also led to other formerly rivalrous families mending their relationships. The Luculli and Servilii, who had been rivals for decades, "combined to withstand the triumvirs". Similarly, the Scibonii Curiones, Cornelii Sullae, and Memmii switched from supporting Pompey into opposing him and Caesar. In general, "there can be no coincidence in
24522-564: The new limit of 300, including descendants of freedmen, which was deemed scandalous. Caecus also launched a vast construction program, building the first aqueduct , the Aqua Appia , and the first Roman road, the Via Appia . In 300 BC, the two tribunes of the plebs Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius passed the lex Ogulnia , which created four plebeian pontiffs, equalling the number of patrician pontiffs, and five plebeian augurs, outnumbering
24723-415: The old kingdom. The Romans swiftly defeated the Macedonians at the second battle of Pydna . The Achaean League , seeing the direction of Roman policy trending towards direct administration, met at Corinth and declared war "nominally against Sparta but in reality, against Rome". It was swiftly defeated: in 146, the same year as the destruction of Carthage , Corinth was besieged and destroyed , forcing
24924-447: The passage of a law granting to Caesar the provinces of Illyricum and Cisalpine Gaul for five years. Doing so replaced Caesar's assigned province of the woods and paths of Italy with Gaul; this was in response to growing tensions between the republic and the recent victors of a power struggle in Gaul, which had destabilised the geopolitical situation in the region. After the death of the governor of Transalpine Gaul – one of Cato's allies –
25125-467: The patricians vetoed the bills, but Stolo and Lateranus retaliated by vetoing the elections for five years while being continuously reelected by the plebs, resulting in a stalemate. In 367 BC, they carried a bill creating the Decemviri sacris faciundis , a college of ten priests, of whom five had to be plebeians, thereby breaking patricians' monopoly on priesthoods. The resolution of the crisis came from
25326-462: The people would be too gracious to Caesar for bringing the bill and that the current situation was fine. The extent to which Caesar's prestige during his first consulship was a topic of debate is unclear; the later sources may here be injecting their knowledge of Caesar's later victories into the narrative. Caesar, seeking to break the filibuster, therefore threatened to have Cato sent to the carcer , Rome's small jail, which elicited mass indignation from
25527-485: The people's welfare. While ancient sources tend to "conceive Gracchus' legislation as an elaborate plot against the authority of the Senate... he showed no sign of wanting to replace the Senate in its normal functions". Amid wide-ranging and popular reforms to create grain subsidies, change jury pools, establish and require the Senate to assign provinces before elections, Gaius proposed a law that would grant citizenship rights to Rome's Italian allies. He stood for election to
25728-533: The persistent Sabines and the local cities. Rome defeated its rival Latin cities in the Battle of Lake Regillus in 496 BC, the Battle of Ariccia in 495 BC, the Battle of Mount Algidus in 458 BC, and the Battle of Corbio in 446 BC. But it suffered a significant defeat at the Battle of the Cremera in 477 BC, wherein it fought against the most important Etruscan city, Veii ; this defeat
25929-458: The phrase 'First Triumvirate' without adopting some version of the view that it was a kind of conspiracy against the republic... Nomenclature matters... I eschew the traditional 'First Triumvirate' altogether". Classicists writing for more general audience also have shied away from use of the term "First Triumvirate". Mary Beard , for example, uses "Gang of Three" in her 2015 book SPQR . Yet others, such as Adrian Goldsworthy , have not, staying with
26130-493: The plebeian consul and dictator Quintus Publilius Philo passed three laws extending the plebeians' powers. His first law followed the lex Genucia by reserving one censorship to plebeians, the second made plebiscites binding on all citizens (including patricians), and the third required the Senate to give its prior approval to plebiscites before they became binding on all citizens. During the early Republic, consuls chose senators from among their supporters. Shortly before 312 BC,
26331-442: The political class; Cicero, who had been sullen during Caesar's consulship, sang his praises, saying "If perhaps Gaius Caesar was too contentious in any matter, if the greatness of the struggle, his zeal for glory, if his irrepressible spirit and high nobility drove him on [that] should be tolerated in the case of a man of his quality". This popularity, however, did not translate into political victories for his political allies: none of
26532-523: The political situation, his "deadly enemy P. Clodius [had] his long-obstructed 'transition' to the plebs rushed through by Caesar... in good time to stand for the tribunate". Caesar then moved to lift the exemption of Campania from his agrarian bill some time in May; its passage may have proved the last straw for Bibulus, who then withdrew to his house. Pompey, shortly thereafter, also wed Caesar's daughter Julia to seal their alliance. An ally of Caesar's, Publius Vatinius (then-plebeian tribune), also secured
26733-445: The poorest, one of the few effective political tools was their withdrawal of labour and services, in a " secessio plebis "; the first such secession occurred in 494 BC, in protest at the abusive treatment of plebeian debtors by the wealthy during a famine. The patrician Senate was compelled to give them direct access to the written civil and religious laws and to the electoral and political process. To represent their interests,
26934-521: The province of Asia (parts of modern western Turkey ) because they failed to account for the devastation of the Third Mithridatic War . His clients demanded a reduction in the taxes they were contractually obliged to deliver to the treasury, a goal also stymied by Cato and Celer in December 61 BC. While senators such as Cicero personally believed "it was ridiculous for [the tax farmers] to seek to have their contracts renegotiated or cancelled simply because they had overestimated their potential profits",
27135-532: The request of Ferdinand Mount . Shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center , Beard was one of several authors invited to contribute articles on the topic to the London Review of Books . She opined that many people, once "the shock had faded", thought "the United States had it coming", and that "[w]orld bullies, even if their heart is in the right place, will in
27336-559: The request, and Rome sent an army of Romans and Greek allies, beginning the Second Macedonian War . In 197, the Romans decisively defeated Philip at the Battle of Cynoscephalae , and Philip was forced to give up his recent Greek conquests. The Romans declared the "Peace of the Greeks", believing that Philip's defeat now meant that Greece would be stable, and pulled out of Greece entirely. With Egypt and Macedonia weakened,
27537-673: The requisite lex had been passed. When Memmius exposed the conspiracy, likely to implicate Domitius, all four were indicted for bribery. The senate delayed elections to hold an inquiry, but the specific steps forward became quickly contested and various tribunes vetoed the elections. Coupled with raging street battles in the city between Milo and Clodius' armed gangs, elections were finally held after more than seven months without any magistrates, in July 53 BC. Dio attributed these delays to tribunician vetoes against elections of interreges designed to incite appointment of Pompey as dictator. Pompey
27738-616: The returned Cicero's support, was able to secure a prestigious command over Rome's grain supply in September 57 BC. However, Pompey's very success renewed the coalition against him: a coalition of the Claudii, including Clodius, the Lentuli, and the Catonians – with little meaningful opposition from Caesar and Crassus – were able to shut off any hope of Pompey being granted a new military command in Egypt to restore Ptolemy XII Auletes to
27939-583: The sea. This plan was thwarted by Hannibal's bold move to Italy. In May 218, he crossed the Ebro with a large army of about 100,000 soldiers and 37 elephants. He passed in Gaul , crossed the Rhone , then the Alps , possibly through the Col de Clapier . This exploit cost him almost half of his troops, but he could now rely on the Boii and Insubres, still at war with Rome. Publius Scipio, who had failed to block Hannibal on
28140-400: The senate an oath of obedience to the law and got it" after some pushing and resistance from Cato and some of his allies. Some time after passage of the agrarian bill, Bibulus withdrew from public business to his home to declare unfavourable omens on all future voting days; the specific time in the year he did so, however, is not known. Caesar moved two further bills, first, for ratification of
28341-470: The senate had been on the verge of approving the legislation before Celer's intervention. Crassus, a personal enemy of Pompey, also opposed Pompey's settlements and land bills in 60 BC, successfully mobilising his support among the lower-ranked senators to defeat Pompey's proposals. His opposition to Pompey may have been in attempt to win over the senators blocking his own goals, but this was evidently unsuccessful. Passing renegotiation of these tax contracts
28542-477: The senate had regularly permitted candidacies in absentia , Cato filibustered Caesar's request; Caesar, shockingly, gave up his triumphal eligibility to declare his candidacy. Caesar was the known favorite for the consulship; to hobble him, Cato and his allies took two actions. They sought to assign the yet-to-be-elected consuls of 59 BC to home defence in Italy and sought the election of an uncooperative consular colleague. In both respects, they were successful:
28743-572: The senate house and prevented the other from entering the Forum with an obstructive mob. With the bill passed, they also made good on their promise to Caesar, putting forward legislation extending Caesar's term in Gaul for five more years. Pompey threw lavish games in September as part of his dedication of the Theatre of Pompey . News also came of Caesar's expedition beyond the Rhine to Britain; for these,
28944-502: The senate rejected the claims. In later years, Caesar's laws were accepted writ large (perhaps with the exception of Bibulus), disregarding any technical religious objections: "If Cicero and Cato both went along with the laws of Vatinius and Caesar, we can fairly assume the rest of the senators did so as well... For Bibulus, it was something of a personal campaign to seek to undermine... Caesar's legislation... but his protests in 59 and later hardly 'kept [it] technically invalid'". Pompey had
29145-530: The senate voted him twenty days of thanksgiving. The opposing tribunes attempted to obstruct recruitment for Crassus and Pompey's armies, but were unsuccessful. When Crassus left the city in November, escorted by Pompey, they announced bad omens, attempted to arrest him, and cursed him at the city's gate. Part of the justification against Crassus' campaign was in terms of immorality: "several in Cato's circle argued...
29346-443: The senate was persuaded also to assign to Caesar that province as well. Both bills were met with little resistance, likely due to Cato and his allies' boycotting of public business. By the summer, however, popular opinion had started to turn against Caesar's methods. Pompey also was distancing himself from Caesar. This was in part due to the success to Cato and Bibulus' campaign: Bibulus' choice to confine himself to his home "presented
29547-573: The senate. Unlike the Pax Romana of the Roman Empire, throughout the republican era Rome was in a state of near-perpetual war. Its first enemies were its Latin and Etruscan neighbours, as well as the Gauls , who sacked Rome in 387 BC. After the Gallic sack, Rome conquered the whole Italian Peninsula in a century and thus became a major power in the Mediterranean. Its greatest strategic rival
29748-405: The senators an opportunity to "adopt symbolic leadership and demonstrate its solicitude for the interests... of the people... [giving] the body a chance to co-opt the cause of agrarian legislation in its own favour". Whether a cynical ploy or not, the senate voiced little opposition until the speaking order eventually wound its way to Cato; Cato immediately started a filibuster, arguing instead that
29949-411: The senators. In doing so, Cato succeeded in provoking Caesar into giving credence to Cato's claims that Caesar was a would-be tyrant. Recognising the mistake, Caesar quickly had Cato released. After facing these hurdles in the senate, Caesar moved to bring the agrarian law before the people on his own authority, without senatorial consent. Moving to the forum, Caesar summoned a contio (a meeting wherein
30150-432: The subordinate stature of Pompey's other amici ", defeat the political opposition, and win a profitable command. It was well known prior to Caesar's assumption of the consulship with the new year that he would propose a lex agraria . With powerful and secret political allies, Caesar started his consulship of 59 BC relatively traditionally. After ordering that minutes of the senate's debates be published, he published
30351-400: The success of Cato and Bibulus' tactics at discrediting Caesar and Pompey made the two greatly unpopular during and after the summer: "[Caesar and Pompey's] public appearances were received coldly or with open antagonism... Bibulus, far from being a pitiable figure, had never enjoyed such wide repute". Cato and Bibulus, for their part, mobilised a large propaganda campaign seeking to brand Caesar
30552-557: The target of considerable online abuse after she made the case that Roman Britain was more ethnically diverse than is often assumed. The source of the controversy was a BBC educational video depicting a senior Roman soldier as a black man, which Beard defended as entirely possible after the video received backlash. There followed, according to Beard, "a torrent of aggressive insults, on everything from my historical competence and elitist ivory tower viewpoint to my age, shape and gender [batty old broad, obese, etc etc]." In 2018, in response to
30753-600: The term was a modern coinage was unknown, "revealed" only in 1807. By the 19th century, usage was somewhat regular – mostly in English and French sources, though not in German ones, – usually prefaced with clarifications that the term did not refer to any official position. More recently, scholars have started to avoid the term in publications altogether. Harriet Flower in Roman Republics writes that "First Triumvirate"
30954-476: The threat of Domitius' consulship by asking Crassus to stand and veto any actions to take away his command. Pompey chose to stand for the consulship as well, possibly unilaterally, met with the support (if not entirely willing), of his allies. However, by the time this arrangement was decided, the current consul – Marcellinus – refused to accept their candidacy on grounds that they had passed the deadline. Faced with political disaster, they decided instead of "scuttle
31155-471: The throne and showed a renewed interest in conquering Greece. With its Greek allies facing a major new threat, Rome declared war on Macedonia again, starting the Third Macedonian War . Perseus initially had some success against the Romans, but Rome responded by sending a stronger army which decisively defeated the Macedonians at the Battle of Pydna in 168. The Macedonians capitulated, ending
31356-440: The throne. In a clash of mutually exclusive proposals raised by different factions in January 56 BC, all proposals were unacceptable to at least one party, leading to nothing being done about Egypt. At the same time, Pompey's grain command had not produced reduced prices, further reducing his popularity; under attack by Clodius, whom Pompey suspected Crassus was supporting, the conservatives around Bibulus and Curio watched. All
31557-595: The traditional nomenclature while explaining that the term is inaccurate. The fourth edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary , for example, similarly says "the coalition formed between Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus in 60 BCE was wholly unofficial and never described at the time as a triumvirate... 'First' and 'Second Triumvirate' are modern and misleading terms". The alliance between Pompey , Crassus , and Caesar emerged due to their failure to pass various core portions of their programmes in
31758-497: The use of naked force and chaos to achieve political ends, Crassus died in 53 BC during his failed invasion of Parthia . Caesar and Pompey, the two remaining allies, maintained friendly relations for a few years. They remained allies even after Pompey's assumption of a sole consulship in 52 BC and the death of Julia (Caesar's daughter and Pompey's wife). Pompey, however, moved to form alliances to counterbalance Caesar's influence after Crassus' death. These drew him slowly into
31959-644: The verge of losing the war. Pyrrhus again met the Romans at the Battle of Beneventum . This time, the consul Manius Dentatus was victorious and even captured eight elephants. Pyrrhus then withdrew from Italy, but left a garrison in Tarentum, to wage a new campaign in Greece against Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedonia . His death in battle at Argos in 272 BC forced Tarentum to surrender to Rome. Rome and Carthage were initially on friendly terms, lastly in an alliance against Pyrrhus, but tensions rapidly rose after
32160-443: The war. Convinced now that the Greeks (and therefore the rest of the region) would not have peace if left alone, Rome decided to establish its first permanent foothold in the Greek world, and divided Macedonia into four client republics. Yet Macedonian agitation continued. The Fourth Macedonian War , 150 to 148 BC, was fought against a Macedonian pretender to the throne who was again destabilizing Greece by trying to reestablish
32361-523: The western Mediterranean, and so declared war. The Carthaginians lifted the siege of Syracuse before his arrival, but he could not entirely oust them from the island as he failed to take their fortress of Lilybaeum . His harsh rule soon led to widespread antipathy among the Sicilians; some cities even defected to Carthage. In 275 BC, Pyrrhus left the island before he had to face a full-scale rebellion. He returned to Italy, where his Samnite allies were on
32562-508: The whole election process" for 56 BC. Election of Pompey and Crassus was by no means certain. By the time of the conference, to produce the conditions needed for victory, the alliance stoked mob violence and interposed a permanent tribunician veto – courtesy of Clodius' ally, Gaius Cato, who was tribune that year – to block elections until the following year. The terms of the consuls having expired, elections were conducted instead by temporary extraordinary magistrates, interreges , and with
32763-628: Was Carthage , against which it waged three wars . Rome defeated Carthage at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, becoming the dominant power of the ancient Mediterranean world. It then embarked on a long series of difficult conquests, defeating Philip V and Perseus of Macedon , Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire , the Lusitanian Viriathus , the Numidian Jugurtha , the Pontic king Mithridates VI , Vercingetorix of
32964-441: Was Joyce Reynolds . Beard has since said that "Newnham could do better in making itself a place where critical issues can be generated" and has also described her views on feminism, saying "I actually can't understand what it would be to be a woman without being a feminist." Beard has cited Germaine Greer 's The Female Eunuch , Kate Millett 's Sexual Politics , and Robert Munsch 's The Paper Bag Princess as influential on
33165-503: Was soundly defeated by Catulus. Exhausted and unable to bring supplies to Sicily, Carthage sued for peace. Carthage had to pay 1,000 talents immediately and 2,200 over ten years and evacuate Sicily. The fine was so high that Carthage could not pay Hamilcar's mercenaries, who had been shipped back to Africa. They revolted during the Mercenary War , which Carthage suppressed with enormous difficulty. Meanwhile, Rome took advantage of
33366-517: Was Cato for a praetorship; the next year, he would chair the court on extortion. The new consul Appius Claudius Pulcher seemed an ally, but as the political winds blew against the alliance, he quickly defected. Early in the year, he cooperated with them in securing the appointment of a Pompeian ally as one of Caesar's tribunes and obstructed Gabinius' prosecution (for the bribes received to induce his invasion of Egypt), but seeing Pompey's support for one Marcus Aemilius Scaurus rather than his brother for
33567-431: Was abandoned after another similar catastrophe in 253 BC. These disasters prevented any significant campaign between 254 and 252 BC. Hostilities in Sicily resumed in 252 BC, with Rome's taking of Thermae. The next year, Carthage besieged Lucius Caecilius Metellus , who held Panormos (now Palermo). The consul had dug trenches to counter the elephants, which once hurt by missiles turned back on their own army, resulting in
33768-488: Was accused of racism. In response, Beard posted a picture of herself crying, explaining that she had been subjected to a "torrent of abuse" and that "I find it hard to imagine that anyone out there could possibly think that I am wanting to turn a blind eye to the abuse of women and children". Beard married Robin Cormack , a classicist and art historian, in 1985. Their daughter Zoe is an anthropologist and historian based at
33969-521: Was almost defenceless, and submitted when besieged. But the Romans demanded complete surrender and removal of the city into the desert hinterland, far from any coastal or harbour region; the Carthaginians refused. The city was besieged and completely destroyed . Rome acquired all of Carthage's North African and Iberian territories. The Romans rebuilt Carthage 100 years later as a Roman colony, by order of Julius Caesar. It flourished, becoming one of
34170-462: Was also able to secure election of two allies – one was Caesar's soon-to-be father-in-law ( Lucius Calpurnius Piso ) and the other was Pompey's supporter Aulus Gabinius – to the consulship. Also passed during Caesar's consulship was the lex Julia de repetundis , which was a wide-ranging reform on corruption in the provinces and before the republic's permanent courts. During the Caesar's consulship,
34371-464: Was also further reinvigorated. Cato had returned from a provincial assignment in Cyprus in late 56 and supported Domitius' campaign for the consulship. After 55 BC, when Pompey and Crassus assumed a joint consulship by violence, the political fortunates of the triple alliance quickly soured. The development of the specific terms of their renewed agreement may have taken some time. Caesar responded to
34572-569: Was appointed a trustee of the British Museum. In 2023, Profile Books published Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World . Writing for Literary Review , Harry Sidebottom called it "her best book so far". University of Chicago classicist Clifford Ando described Beard's scholarship as having two key aspects in its approach to sources. One is that she insists that ancient sources be understood as documentation of
34773-550: Was born on 1 January 1955 in Much Wenlock , Shropshire. Her mother, Joyce Emily Beard, was a headmistress and an enthusiastic reader. Her father, Roy Whitbread Beard, worked as an architect in Shrewsbury . She recalled him as "a raffish public-schoolboy type and a complete wastrel, but very engaging". Beard was educated at Shrewsbury High School , a girls' school then funded as a direct grant grammar school . She
34974-470: Was brought by an allied tribune, Gaius Trebonius , to grant for five years Crassus and Pompey the provinces of Syria and Hispania (they would draw lots for the specific assignment). Crassus envisioned possible campaigns against Egypt or the Parthians; Pompey envisioned similar campaigns against the Spanish hinterlands. Fearing vetoes from two of his tribunician colleagues, Trebonius had one of them locked in
35175-405: Was characterised in an article in 2021 as follows: Weird Thoughts , where Tony Wilson chairs a panel of experts debating why the 1990s seem so very strange. There are a lot of familiar faces here – the late James Randi , Fortean Times founder Bob Rickard , esoteric scholar Lynn Picknett – but today the biggest name is the one hovering around the back of the gathering: a young Mary Beard. As
35376-479: Was condemned to be a minor power, while Rome recovered from a desperate situation to dominate the western Mediterranean. Rome's preoccupation with its war with Carthage provided an opportunity for Philip V of Macedonia , in the north of the Greek peninsula , to attempt to extend his power westward. He sent ambassadors to Hannibal's camp in Italy, to negotiate an alliance as common enemies of Rome. But Rome discovered
35577-440: Was created by a fan. Beard is known for being active on X (formerly Twitter), which she sees as part of her public role as an academic. Beard received considerable online abuse after she appeared on BBC's Question Time from Lincolnshire in January 2013 and cast doubt on the negative rhetoric about immigrant workers living in the county. She asserted her right to express unpopular opinions and to present herself in public in
35778-532: Was dealing with a military crisis as the Gauls rose up. From the perspective at Rome, news of ambushes against in Gaul arrived first: Caesar abandoned his civil functions in Cisalpine Gaul to rescue his legions wintering in the Eburones ' territory (near modern Belgium). A few months later, news of the disaster at the Battle of Carrhae arrived, reporting that Crassus and much of his army had been killed by
35979-670: Was fighting in the Gallic Wars . By early 56 BC, he had won enormous popularity both with the senate and the people: in 57, Caesar requested thanksgivings for his victory over the Belgae and, at a motion of Cicero, received fifteen days of supplicationes , a new record. In his narrative of his campaign, Commentarii de Bello Gallico , by 57, Caesar reported pacification of the whole region. These military achievements had undercut any political will to undermine Caesar's acta from his first consulship, and during 56 itself, Caesar received
36180-411: Was formed. Plutarch , Livy , and Appian placed the formation of the alliance before Caesar's election; Vellius , Suetonius and Cassius Dio instead put its formation after his election. During the elections to the consulship, Caesar certainly received support from both Pompey and Crassus, though "each for his own reasons... Crassus cultivated promising adherents[;] Pompey needed a strong figure in
36381-567: Was fraying. The three men, however, came together in mutual interest to renew their pact. By force and with political disruption aided by their allies, they delayed consular elections into 55 BC and intimidated the comitia into electing Pompey and Crassus again as consuls. Caesar's command in Gaul was then renewed for another five years; plum provincial commands placed Pompey in Spain and Crassus in Syria . Amid even stronger backlash at Rome against
36582-446: Was later avenged at the Battle of Veii in 396 BC, wherein Rome destroyed the city. By the end of this period, Rome had effectively completed the conquest of its immediate Etruscan and Latin neighbours and secured its position against the immediate threat posed by the nearby Apennine hill tribes. Beginning with their revolt against Tarquin, and continuing through the early years of the Republic, Rome's patrician aristocrats were
36783-596: Was later renamed Inside Culture and is broadcast on BBC Two. She also released The Shock of the Nude - a two-part TV documentary tackling controversies surrounding the naked body in the arts, from ancient classics to the visual cultures of today. In April 2013 she was named as Royal Academy of Arts Professor of Ancient Literature. Beard was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford University in June 2018. She also received an honorary degree from Yale University in May 2019. In 2018, an unofficial Lego figure of Beard
36984-439: Was limited as patrician tribunes retained preeminence over their plebeian colleagues. In 385 BC, the former consul and saviour of the besieged capital, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus , is said to have sided with the plebeians, ruined by the sack and largely indebted to patricians. According to Livy, Capitolinus sold his estate to repay the debt of many of them, and even went over to the plebs, the first patrician to do so. Nevertheless,
37185-530: Was mobilized under the command of the great hero of the Second Punic War, Scipio Africanus , and set out for Greece, beginning the Roman–Seleucid War . After initial fighting that revealed serious Seleucid weaknesses, the Seleucids tried to turn the Roman strength against them at the Battle of Thermopylae , but were forced to evacuate Greece. The Romans pursued the Seleucids by crossing the Hellespont ,
37386-451: Was not a formal magistracy, nor did it achieve a lasting domination over state affairs. It was formed among the three men due to their mutual need to overcome opposition in the senate against their proposals in the previous years. Initially secret, it emerged publicly during Caesar's first consulship in 59 BC to push through legislation for the three allies. Caesar secured passage of an agrarian law which helped resettle Pompey's veterans,
37587-447: Was not called and that the people and senators were intimidated and cowed into passing whatever the three allies put before them. These claims are incompatible with the attested events of that year. For example, in that year, Caesar's ally Vatinius was defeated in an election to the augurate and later elections for the magistracies returned Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Memmius , both opponents of Pompey and Caesar, as praetors. He
37788-500: Was not in the city; his return in the summer and his declining of a dictatorship, however, may have stabilised the city sufficiently – both by his presence and by his starting a rapprochement with Cato's conservative faction – to allow for elections. By July, the alliance's support for Scaurus, along with Gaius Memmius , had gone nowhere. The comitia instead returned candidates supported by a coalition of triumviral enemies: Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus and Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus . As
37989-547: Was not). These strong-arm tactics were exceptional and resulted from the alliance's realisation that failure to secure the consulship in this year would result in their political extinction. While they certainly won a temporary victory, the longer-term fallout of intimidation tactics and the validation of Cato's warnings proved especially harmful "among the basically conservative Roman voters". Pompey and Crassus moved first to elect censors and pass new legislation regulating juries and punishing bribery. The main piece of legislation
38190-431: Was recorded and broadcast on BBC Four a month later under the title Oh Do Shut Up, Dear! . The lecture begins with the example of Telemachus , the son of Odysseus and Penelope , admonishing his mother to retreat to her chamber. (The title alludes to Prime Minister David Cameron telling a female MP to "Calm down, dear!", which earned widespread criticism as a "classic sexist put-down". ) Three years later, Beard gave
38391-528: Was sacked by the Senones . There is no destruction layer at Rome around this time, indicating that if a sack occurred, it was largely superficial. Second Samnite War Third Samnite War From 343 to 341 BC, Rome won two battles against its Samnite neighbours, but was unable to consolidate its gains, due to the outbreak of war with former Latin allies. In the Latin War (340–338 BC), Rome defeated
38592-399: Was set to retire in 2022 and started a scholarship as a "retirement present" worth £80,000 in order to support two disadvantaged students' classical studies at Cambridge. Beard has been a Labour Party member and describes herself as having a socialist disposition, being a committed feminist and an anti-racist. In August 2014, Beard was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to
38793-463: Was shown on BBC One in 2018. In March, she wrote and presented "How Do We Look?" and "The Eye of Faith", two of the nine episodes in Civilisations , a reboot of the 1969 series by Kenneth Clark . In 2019, Beard appeared in an episode of The Grand Tour , having dinner with host James May , in his effort to get his car photographed by paparazzi. In 2020, Beard became the host of the newly developed topical arts series Lockdown Culture , which
38994-400: Was somewhat successful in checking Clodius' influence when he formed a coalition to overturn Cicero's banishment, but Clodius' attacks continued, tacitly supported by Crassus and one Gaius Porcius Cato (a relative of Cato the Younger). Pompey also responded by supporting Titus Annius Milo and Publius Sestius , who raised their own urban mobs to contest the streets from Clodius' mobs, and, with
39195-440: Was taught poetry by Frank McEachran , who was teaching then at the nearby Shrewsbury School , and was the inspiration for schoolmaster Hector in Alan Bennett 's play The History Boys . During the summer she would join archaeological excavations , though the motivation was, in part, just the prospect of earning some pocket-money. At 18 she sat the then-compulsory entrance exam and interview for Cambridge University , to win
39396-402: Was that intermediary. Crassus' motives are less clear. He must have wanted more than simply renegotiation of tax contracts. Crassus' additionally would be one of the administrators for the Pompeian land grants and, in doing so, "the preeminence which Crassus could not quite attain on his own [came] within his grasp". Caesar needed the alliance as well: he would fully become his own man, "escap[ing]
39597-438: Was the first Roman to receive a naval triumph, which also included captive Carthaginians for the first time. Although Carthage was victorious on land at Thermae in Sicily, the corvus gave a strong advantage to Rome on the waters. The consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio (Asina's brother) captured Corsica in 259 BC; his successors won the naval battles of Sulci in 258, Tyndaris in 257 BC, and Cape Ecnomus in 256. To hasten
39798-409: Was the landing in Sicily of Hamilcar Barca in 247 BC, who harassed the Romans with a mercenary army from a citadel he built on Mt. Eryx . Unable to take the Punic fortresses in Sicily, Rome tried to decide the war at sea and built a new navy, thanks to a forced borrowing from the rich. In 242 BC, 200 quinqueremes under consul Gaius Lutatius Catulus blockaded Drepana. The rescue fleet from Carthage
39999-416: Was the turning point of the war. The campaign of attrition had worked well: Hannibal's troops were now depleted; he only had one elephant left ( Surus ) and retreated to Bruttium , on the defensive. In Greece, Rome contained Philip V without devoting too many forces by allying with the Aetolian League , Sparta , and Pergamon , which also prevented Philip from aiding Hannibal. The war with Macedon resulted in
40200-442: Was vetoed, as he Caesar was legitimately on government business, – while Domitius only "declared his intention to terminate Caesar's command as soon as possible". Furthermore, Caesar's land bills were under attack by a tribune – perhaps under Pompey's influence – who wanted to deny Caesar's veterans from receiving land under his lex Julia agraria upon their retirement. And in the summer, fighting started back up, with campaigns against
40401-399: Was vital for Crassus: "his reputation and influence depended on his ability to act as a champion for the powerful equestrian order". Caesar in 60 BC was the recently returning governor of Hispania Ulterior . At this point, he was the least powerful of the three, although he had, in an upset, won election as pontifex maximus in 63 BC. Energetic and a capable supporter of Pompey for
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