Minerva

I guess this is where i should have come first but idiot me just jumped into the discussions which by the way are pretty interesting. I descovered the site while researching on the Grachchi about 8 months back but found the forum only a week ago! Amazing site. It's really useful because upto-date information on either Ancient Greece or Rome is more or less non existent in my part of the world.

Maybe this was part of the 'system' anyway - could it be that favours were given such as governorship of a province, whereby the benefactor not only lined his own pockets, but was expected to from the outset? Was Spain not governed like this in republican times? Lining their pokets is one thing but bleeding the province dry or acting like "Tarquin"was simply asking for trouble and thats what governers like Galba did. The treacherous massacre of the Lucitanians by him in his capacity as governer of Spain was a smear on Roman ideals of trust and honour. Small wonder that Cato denounced Galba!

"It's actually an important point, as the leaders of the early republic lust after power as well (see for example the Patricians-Plebs struggle) why doesn't the Romans of the late republic could reach compromise without bloodshed like there ancestors?" I see several possible answers. At this point it was mainly a case of individuals vying for power. Therefore cessation which was the plebs' weapon would not have worked out. An individual walking out would simply be voluntary exile. Rome had enough militia to afford the threat of even a group of the populance walking out. Plus, The usage to which the tribunes' veto power was put made it impossible to get a political solution legally. And as Marius' army reforms had made private armies possible and in such circumstances violence was the best way to gain power.

Taking bribes was unscrupulous, but let's not overlook the fact that, with or without bribes, non-Roman heads of state (i.e., client kings) typically had patrons in Rome. Plus in Jugurtha's case he was connected to the Scipionic family having served under Scipio in the spanish Numantine war. With such high connections and natural cunning bribing wouldn't have been hard. Jugurtha is also to have said of Rome "Oh city you would sell ourelf if only you could find a buyer" Infact bribery seems to have been a peice of cake!

Agreed! It was definitely increasing greed for power that caused political corruption, civil wars and ultimately toppled the republic. Unless you consider "power" a luxury, luxurious living can't be considered the sole or main cause of the republic's corruption. And I don't think that Marius, Sulla, or any member of either triumvirate who made a grab for power considered it a luxury (Spartacus might have though)

Definitely Carthage. Not just Archimedes' amazing and original technology and the long drawn out war. For me the though Carthage was ultimately reduced the longterm socio-economic problems that occured as a result of or were aggravated by Hannibals 15 years in Italy were the most severe blow to Romes stability. Thanks to the Hannibalic war much of the countryside and farms were destroyed. prolonged military service lead to neglect of agriculture. The end of the war was marked by rural depopulation, over crowding of Rome which in turn lead to the formation of the idle rabble that lived off selling votes. Giving up small farms ravaged by war lead to the increase of 'lati fundia' These were evils that Rome was saddled with for right till the fall of the republic and attempts at correction lead to violence. Hannibal died and Carthage fell but their legacy to Rome lasted much longer

The 1st triumvirate started off as a private agreement without any sanction. It was a secret alliance at first unlike it's successor the 2nd triumvirate and came to light only later when the members had to gain approval for passing laws concerning settling Pompey's veteran's.

Thanx for the offer - hahsarlsaisktate ;female

As a result of being conquered by rome many diverse European countries came to share common aspects in fields such as law, culture and government not to mention the several languagescommonly called Romance languages that evolved through Latin. As many modern nations either came under her sway or were created from her overtrow Rome became a great connecting link.