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Octavian and the Second Triumvirate
Caesar's assassination caused political and social turmoil in Rome;
without the dictator's leadership, the city was ruled by his friend and
colleague, Mark
Antony. Soon afterward, Octavius,
whom Caesar adopted through his will, arrived in Rome. Octavian
(historians regard Octavius as Octavian due to the Roman
naming conventions) tried to align himself with the Caesarian
faction. In 43 BC, along with Antony and Marcus
Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar's best friend,[57] he
legally established the Second
Triumvirate. This alliance would last for five years. Upon its
formation, 130–300 senators were executed, and their property was
confiscated, due to their supposed support for the Liberatores.[58]
In 42 BC, the Senate deified Caesar as Divus
Iulius, (note that Divusmeans
"deified", and not "god". The Latin word for god is Deus;
this word is used for real deities as Jupiter and Apollo.
However, a Divusis
not a deity, but a remarkable person who was as important to Rome asRomulus was.)
Octavian thus became Divi
filius,[59] the
son of the deified. In the same year, Octavian and Antony defeated both
Caesar's assassins and the leaders of the Liberatores, Marcus
Junius Brutus andGaius
Cassius Longinus, in the Battle
of Philippi.
The Second Triumvirate was marked by the proscriptions of many senators
and equites:
after a revolt led by Antony's brother Lucius
Antoniusmore than 300 senators and equites involved
were executed on the anniversary of the Ides
of March, although Lucius was spared.[60] The
Triumvirate proscribed several important men, including Cicero,
whom Antony hated;[61] Quintus
Tullius Cicero, the younger brother of the orator; and Lucius
Julius Caesar, cousin and friend of the acclaimed general, for his
support of Cicero. However, Lucius was pardoned, perhaps because his
sister Julia had intervened for him.[62]
The Triumvirate divided the Empire among the triumvirs: Lepidus was left
in charge of Africa,
Antony, the eastern provinces, and Octavian remained in Italia and
controlled Hispania and Gaul.
The Second Triumvirate expired in 38 BC but was renewed for five more
years. However, the relationship between Octavian and Antony had
deteriorated, and Lepidus was forced to retire in 36 BC after betraying
Octavian in Sicily.
By the end of the Triumvirate, Antony was living in Egypt, an
independent and rich kingdom ruled by Antony's lover,Cleopatra
VII. Antony's affair with Cleopatra was seen as an act of treason,
since she was queen of another country. Additionally, Antony adopted
lifestyle considered too extravagant and Hellenistic for a Roman
statesman.[63]
Following Antony's Donations
of Alexandria, which gave to Cleopatra the title of "Queen of
Kings", and to Antony's and Cleopatra's children the regal titles to the
newly conquered Eastern territories, the
war between Octavian and Antony broke out. Octavian annihilated
Egyptian forces in the Battle
of Actium in
31 BC. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. Now Egypt was conquered
by the Roman Empire, and for the Romans, a new era had begun.
Founding myth Main article: Founding of Rome
Main article: Roman
Kingdom
The city of Rome grew from settlements around a ford on the riverTiber,
a crossroads of traffic and trade.[23] According
toarchaeological evidence,
the village of Rome was probably founded some time in the 8th century
BC, though it may go back as far as the 10th century BC, by members of
the Latin
tribe of
Italy, on the top of thePalatine
Hill.[24][25]
The Etruscans,
who had previously settled to the north in Etruria,
seem to have established political control in the region by the late 7th
century BC, forming the aristocratic and monarchical elite. The
Etruscans apparently lost power in the area by the late 6th century BC,
and at this point, the original Latin and Sabine tribes reinvented their
government by creating a republic,
with much greater restraints on the ability of rulers to exercise power.[26]
Roman tradition and archaeological evidence point to a complex within
the Forum
Romanum as
the seat of power for the king and the beginnings of the religious
center there as well. Numa
Pompilius was
the secondking
of Rome, succeeding Romulus.
He began Rome's great building projects with his royal palace the Regia and
the complex of the Vestal
virgins.
Republic
Main article: Roman
Republic
According to tradition and later writers such as Livy,
the Roman
Republic was
established around 509 BC,[27] when
the last of the seven kings of Rome, Tarquin
the Proud, was deposed by Lucius
Junius Brutus, and a system based on annually electedmagistrates and
various representative assemblies was established.[28] Aconstitution set
a series of checks
and balances, and a separation
of powers. The most important magistrates were the two consuls, who
together exercised executive authority as imperium,
or military command.[29] The
consuls had to work with thesenate,
which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, orpatricians,
but grew in size and power.[30]
Other magistracies in the Republic include tribunes, quaestors,aediles, praetors and censors.[31] The
magistracies were originally restricted to patricians, but were later
opened to common people, orplebeians.[32] Republican
voting assemblies included the comitia
centuriata (centuriate
assembly), which voted on matters of war and peace and elected men to
the most important offices, and the comitia
tributa (tribal
assembly), which elected less important offices.[33]
In the 4th century BC Rome had come under attack by the Gauls, now
extending their power in the Italian peninsula beyond the Po Valley and
through Etruria. On 16 July 390 BC, a Gallic army under the leadership
of a tribal chieftain named Brennus, met the Romans on the Banks of the
small Allia River just ten miles north of Rome. Brennus defeated the
Romans, and the Gauls marched directly to Rome. Most Romans had fled the
city, but some barricaded themselves upon the Capitoline Hill for a last
stand. The Gauls looted and burned the city, then laid siege to the
Capitoline Hill. The siege lasted seven months, the Gauls then agreed to
give the Romans peace in exchange for 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of gold.[34] (According
to later legend, the Roman supervising the weighing noticed that the
Gauls were using false scales. The Romans then took up arms and defeated
the Gauls; their victorious general Camillus remarked
"With iron, not with gold, Rome buys her freedom.")[35]
The Romans gradually
subdued the
other peoples on the Italian peninsula, including the Etruscans.[36] The
last threat to Romanhegemony in
Italy came when Tarentum,
a major Greek colony,
enlisted the aid of Pyrrhus
of Epirus in
281 BC, but this effort failed as well.[37][38] The
Romans secured their conquests by founding Roman
colonies in
strategic areas, thereby establishing stable control over the region of
Italy.[39]
Punic Wars
Main article: Punic
Wars
In the 3rd century BC Rome had to face a new and formidable opponent:Carthage.
Carthage was a rich, flourishing Phoenician city-state that intended to
dominate the Mediterranean area. The two cities were allies in the times
of Pyrrhus, who was a menace
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