Chapter 4: The Roman Republic 

Pre-reading

A. Skim and scan the following passage and answer the following questions.

1. What influence did the Etruscans and Greeks have on early Roman history ?

2. What policies and institutions ( 制度 ) help explain the Romans' success in conquering first Italy and then the entire Mediterranean world?

3. What were the characteristics of the Roman family, and how did the family change between the early and the late Republic?

4. How did the acquisition of an empire affect Roman social and economic institutions, values and attitudes, and art and literature?

5. What were the main problems Rome faced during the last century of the Republic, and how were they ultimately resolved?

6. What did the Roman poet Horace mean when he wrote, “Captive Greece took captive her rude conqueror”?

Reading 

Roman history is basically the story of the Romans' conquest of the plain of Latium, then Italy, and finally the entire Mediterranean world.

The Romans were a practical people. Unlike the Greeks, who reserved their citizenship for small, select groups, the Romans often offered citizenship to the peoples they conquered, thus laying the groundwork for a strong, integrated empire. They also did not hesitate to borrow ideas and culture from the Greeks . Their strength lay in government, law, and engineering. They knew how to govern people, establish legal structures, and construct the roads that took them to the ends of the known world. Throughout their empire, they carried their law, their political institutions, their engineering skills, and their Latin language. And even after the Romans were gone, those same gifts continued to play an important role in the civilizations that came after them. Roman history is basically the story of the Romans' conquest of the plain of Latium, then Italy, and finally the entire Mediterranean world.

In 1,000 B.C., a group of Latin-speaking people established a small community on the plain of Latium on the Italian peninsula. This community, called Rome , was merely one of the numerous communities founded by Latin-speaking peoples throughout Latium and the rest of Italy .

The land and environment of Italy provided the Romans with a secure home from which to expand. Italy is a peninsula surrounded on three sides by the sea and protected to the north by the Alps mountain range. The climate is generally temperate , although summers are hot in the south. Rome was part of a region near the Tiber River in central Italy that was called Latium (now part of Lazio). Its Latin-speaking inhabitants originally joined the waves of Indo-European peoples who crossed the Adriatic Sea from the Balkan Peninsula and settled in central Italy about 1000 bc.

To the north, the  Etruscans had established a vigorous civilization in Etruria . These people probably originated in Asia Minor and spoke an entirely different language than neighboring Indo-European peoples. In southern Italy and on the large island of Sicily , the Greeks fleeing from famine and political conflict founded new cities between 800 and 500 bc . The city of Naples derives its name from the Greek words Nea Polis ( New City ).

The Etruscans ( 伊特鲁里亚人 ) had enormous cultural, social, and political influence on early Rome. The origins of this seafaring people remain obscure, but most scholars now believe that the Etruscans brought their language, their religion, and their love of music and dance from the Near East to northern Italy . Their distinctive culture was further shaped in the Italian region of Tuscany , which bears their name.

Tomb paintings provide a record of Etruscan civilization and illustrate their cultural sophistication, intense religious beliefs, and artistic accomplishments. Their skill at urban planning, engineering, and waterworks had a deep influence on the development of Rome . In Rome itself, projects attributed to the Etruscan kings included the building of city walls, the engineering of the Forum, and the construction of the great drain to channel both rainfall and sewage into the Tiber . For centuries the Romans also built and decorated their temples in the Etruscan style. They were in awe of the extraordinary metalwork of Etruscan craftworkers shown in products ranging from iron plows to bronze mirrors, silver bowls, and fine gold jewelry. Elaborate aristocratic tombs in central Italian towns such as Praeneste (now Palestrina) as well as rural drainage trenches cut into rock to preserve topsoil show that Etruscan influences even spread to the countryside around Rome .

Other aspects of Etruscan culture also had a lasting impact on the Romans. The Etruscan cities were controlled by the nobility and ruled by kings. Rods and axes, symbols of civil and military authority, represented royal power to the Etruscans. Later, bundles of rods surrounding an ax, called fasces in Latin, were carried before Roman magistrates in ceremonial processions . Etruscan women possessed a social freedom which scandalized Greek writers, since they were allowed to recline on couches with their husbands at public banquets. Women received greater respect and visibility than in other cultures, and this treatment became an important legacy to the Romans.

The Etruscans had extensive commercial exchanges with the Greeks; for example, Greek pottery reached Etruria , while Etruscan ironwork has been found in Greek sites. The Etruscans also took the alphabet from the Greeks and incorporated the Olympian gods into their own array of deities. Etruscan power reached its peak in the 6th century bc when three successive Etruscan kings ruled at Rome . Under the Etruscan influence, Rome began to change from a pastoral community to an actual city. The Etruscans constructed the first roadbed of the chief street through Rome —the Sacred Way —before 575 B.C. and oversaw the development of temples, markets, shops, streets, and houses. By 509 B.C., the date when the monarchy was supposedly overthrown and a republican form of government was established, a new Rome had emerged, essentially as a result of the fusion of Etruscan and native Roman elements.

The Romans developed many stories about how the city of Rome was founded, two more popular of which are the story of the twins Romulus and Remus, and the tale of Aeneas.

According to Livy, a Roman historian, the twins Romulus  and Remus were the sons of the god Mars and a woman named Rhea Silvia. When they were babies, Romulus and Remus's great uncle set them floating on the Tiber River to die. The great uncle had stolen royal power from the twins' grandfather and did not want the boys to survive to challenge his right to power. But a female wolf found Romulus and Remus and cared for them until a man who looked after sheep (shepherd) discovered them. The man and his wife took the boys in and raised them as their own children. Years later, after restoring their grandfather to his throne, Romulus and Remus decided to found a city of their own. However, the two quarreled, and in the following fight Remus died. Then Romulus named the new city Rome in 753 bc and became its first king.

The other story of  Rome 's founding followed the origins of the city to Aeneas, the son of the female god, or goddess, Venus and the Trojan prince Anchises. Aeneas came from the city of Troy in Asia Minor after Troy was seized by Greek forces during the Trojan War around 13 th century bc . He led a group of Trojan survivors and eventually arrived at Carthage , where the queen, Dido, fell in love with him. But he left her and traveled to Italy , where he founded Rome .

The historian Livy (59 bc – ad 17) described the foundation of the Roman Republic (republic is from the Latin res publica , which means “that which belongs to the people”) as a morality tale. In his account, Roman patriots ( 爱国者 ) overthrew the cruel foreign tyrant Tarquin in 509 bc . The truth was certainly more complex. The Etruscans faced increasing military threats from the Gauls, a Celtic people to the north, and from the Greeks in the south. The fall of the Etruscan kings was part of a much larger story, but only the heroic Roman version survives.

The Roman aristocrats provided the leadership for the establishment of the Roman Republic , and they continued to dominate it for centuries. During the five centuries of the republic, Rome grew from a small city of 10,000 into a great cosmopolitan metropolis of 1 million whose empire of 15 million subjects encompassed the entire Mediterranean basin. Social and political conflict inevitably arose as the conservative Romans attempted to keep their old values and institutions in place while exercising their authority over subjects of many different nationalities.

The Romans adapted to changing circumstances with a great deal of political struggle but relatively little internal violence. Despite the eventual collapse of the republican system of government in the 1st century bc, it was a remarkable achievement both in its length and scope. Even the collapse of the republic did not lessen Rome 's domination of the Mediterranean world, for its empire remained largely intact for another five centuries under the rule of the emperors.

The  Senate  and the citizen Assembly survived from the monarchy into the republic. In theory the Senate played only an advisory role, but because it contained mostly former civil officials, called magistrates ( 行政官 ), it was respected as the repository ( 智囊团 ) of Roman wisdom and tradition. The Senate had such great authority ( auctoritas ) that magistrates consulted it on all-important issues, and it became the dominant force in the areas of religion, foreign policy, and public finance. The Senate did not pass legislation ( 法律的制定 ), but its decrees ( 政令 ) were treated with the greatest respect.

Citizens participated in the Assembly, which could pass laws, elect magistrates, and declare war. Over the centuries the Romans organized these popular assemblies in different ways, but the voting system always favored the rich. For example, one popular assembly, the comitia centuriata, which probably developed in the 6th century bc, consisted of 193 voting blocks, each with a single vote. Citizens were assigned to those 193 “centuries” ( 选举分区 ) on the basis of wealth, and the centuries of the richest class had few members, while the one century reserved for the landless had tens of thousands of members, but could only cast a single ballot. No free discussion took place in Roman assemblies, and citizens could only approve or reject proposals presented by a magistrate.

The kings left the early Romans with a fear of domination by a single ruler. As a result, the Romans replaced the kings with magistrates who were collegial, which meant that several officials held the same office simultaneously, and each could check the others. The Assembly of citizens elected these officials annually. The two chief magistrates, called consuls ( 执政官 ), were invested with the military, judicial, administrative, and even some of the religious powers of the king. They could veto (from the Latin word veto , for “I forbid”) each other's actions, but they usually agreed to share power. Often one consul served in Rome while the other was in command of the army. A consul could not be removed while in office, although he could be prosecuted ( 起诉 ) for corruption after leaving the position.

As  Rome  grew, the creation of other magistracies removed some of the administrative burden from the consuls. Beginning in 443 bc, two former consuls were chosen every five years as censors ( 监察官 ); their primary job was to take the census ( 人口普查 ). These men drew up population and property rolls for the state. The censors also kept a list of senators and could delete names, and in that way expel individuals from the Senate, for financial or moral reasons. Censors were also responsible for awarding public contracts and were held in such esteem that they were the only Roman magistrates to be buried in royal purple.

Praetors   ( 执政官 ) formed another group of magistrates. They were originally established in 367 bc as junior consuls, but their chief function was to preside over trials under civil law. Praetors were responsible for the early development of Roman legal procedure. Since praetors also had military authority, they later served as commanders of Rome 's many armies across the Mediterranean world.

The  dictator  ( 临时任命的行政官 ) was a temporary magistrate who was appointed by the consuls in an emergency, and the title initially held none of its modern negative associations. The dictator exercised full royal power, free of any veto, but could generally hold office for a maximum of six months. The consuls often appointed a dictator when foreign invaders threatened Rome , and they believed that all power should be vested in one general. The office was especially popular in the early republic; it was used infrequently when Rome no longer had enemies in Italy who threatened the state.

Individuals who reached these high offices had extensive political and military experience. Ambitious young Romans could only embark on a political career after ten years in the Roman army, although in early times this military service might have just a few months each year. They could then progress through a series of elected offices. Preparatory positions included quaestors , who served as financial supervisors, and aediles , who were responsible for the upkeep of public buildings as well as the presentation of state festivals and games.

Under the monarchy, the primary social distinction was between landholding nobles, called patricians ( 贵族 ), and their peasant workers known as the plebs ( 平民 ) or plebeians. Probably few patricians had great wealth, since popular stories portray patrician generals as returning from the battlefield to plow their fields, but they did hold substantial political power. Since Roman society excluded the plebs from all political offices and priesthoods, their demands for more privileges produced a “struggle between the orders ( 社会阶层 )” which lasted for centuries.

In 475  bc,  the Etruscans threatened Rome and the newly independent city had to recruit infantry ( 步兵 ) for its army. The need to draw soldiers from the plebs gave these downtrodden people their first opportunity to secure power for themselves. Plebs refused to do military or agricultural work until the Senate agreed to recognize them as a distinct element within the Roman state, with rights to an assembly and their own officials called tribunes ( 民众领袖 ). The result was the tribuni plebis, or people's tribunes, who could veto decrees of the Senate or proposals of magistrates

The plebs were particularly angry at the arbitrary use of unwritten custom by aristocratic officials, so the Senate made an important concession with the publication of a code of Roman law, known as the Law of the Twelve Tables , in 451-450 bc . But the law remained harsh to debtors, and intermarriage between plebeians and patricians was still forbidden. It took further social unrest over the next two centuries to produce additional reforms. Eventually, Rome admitted plebeians to all offices including the consulship and the priesthoods. From 287 bc decrees of the plebeian assembly ( plebiscita ) had the force of law over the entire state. Thus, the struggle between the orders concluded with the apparent triumph of the plebs.

Roman families forever remained either patrician or plebeian, but the practical importance of the division slowly diminished, since the widening gap between the rich and the poor became more significant. Soon, the popular assembly was organized into “classes” on the basis of wealth. Further class conflict lay primarily in the future, however, and Rome experienced its first extended period of social peace between 287 and 133 bc .

At the beginning of the Republic,  Rome  was faced with the threats from the surrounding enemies. The desire for expansion and acquisition of new territory drove the Romans to adopt an aggressive military policy. By 340 B.C., they had crushed the Latin states in Latium .

During the next 50 years, the Romans waged a fierce struggle with the Samnites, who conducted frequent raids against the cities of Campania . The conquest of the Samnites gave the Romans firm control over the Etruscans in northern Italy and involved them in the wars against the Greek cities of southern Italy . By 267 bc Rome completed their conquest of southern Italy . After crushing the remaining Etruscan states to the north in 264 B.C., Rome had conquered all of Italy except the extreme north.

To rule Italy , the Romans devised the Roman confederation, giving full citizenship to the people of the Latin cities ; most other remaining communities were made allies enjoying more limited privileges such as intermarriage and trading rights. Rome required these cities to pay taxes and to supply detachments for the Roman army, but otherwise allowed self-government in internal affairs. Rome also established military colonies throughout the peninsula to ensure loyalty and protect the coast from pirates and invaders.

The Romans were generous in granting citizenship to freed slaves. They were slower in extending citizenship to newly conquered peoples. That generosity and Rome 's adaptability to new circumstances perhaps mainly account for the success of this small city in conquering, and ultimately transforming, so many neighbors.

After its conquest of Italy, Rome next came into conflict with the most dangerous enemy it had ever encountered, Carthage ( 迦太基 ). Merchants from the coast of Phoenicia ( 腓尼基 modern Lebanon) had established the city of Carthage on North Africa's Gulf of Tunis about 800 bc . Carthage grew into the greatest military power of the western Mediterranean . Its armies were composed of hired soldiers known as mercenaries and led by generals from hereditary military families. Carthage founded its own colonies, subdued ( 征服 ) nearby Africans to gain access to their rich agricultural lands, and controlled trade across the western Mediterranean.

Carthage 's historical importance was based on its confrontations with Rome rather than its culture. The Romans used the adjective Punic to describe the people of Carthage , who were known as Poeni because of their Phoenician descent. Rome 's eventual victory in its struggles against Carthage ensured that Greco–Roman rather than Near Eastern civilization would dominate in the western Mediterranean region.

The Carthaginians, like their Phoenician ancestors, were seafarers and traders, and the earliest treaties between Rome and Carthage concerned commercial rights. The city of Carthage controlled the coast of Spain as well as the islands of Malta , Sardinia, and much of Sicily . Rome 's spectacular growth during the 3rd century bc caused concern for its rival, even though Rome 's empire was land-based, while Carthage relied on naval supremacy for dominance.

First Punic War (264-241 bc ) began in the Sicilian city of Messina . The mercenary ( 雇佣的 ) soldiers who controlled that city initially invited Carthage to provide military support against King Hiero II of Syracuse, but they then appealed to Rome for aid against the Carthaginians. At the time fighting broke out in 264 bc, Carthage was wealthier than Rome . It also had the greatest navy in the Mediterranean . The Romans suffered many setbacks, but their tenacity carried them through the war, and finally they defeated the Carthaginian navy off Sicily . Carthage surrendered. With these naval victories, Rome became the leading power in the western Mediterranean .

After the war, Carthage made an unexpected recovery and extended its domains in Spain to make up for the territory lost to Rome . It developed a formidable land army for a second war with Rome , as it realized that defeating Rome on land was essential to victory. When Rome encouraged one of Carthage's Spanish allies to revolt against Carthage, Hannibal , the greatest of the Carthaginian generals, struck back, beginning the Second Punic War (218--201 bc) .

The Romans expected to fight the war in Spain , but Hannibal surprised them and invaded Italy first. In one of the great marches of military history, he brought his army with its African war elephants across southern France and through the Alps mountains into northern Italy —all in only five months. He lost one-third of his own troops during the icy crossing, but the remaining army posed a real threat. The Romans lost an army of almost 40,000 men at Cannae in 216 bc . But the battle proved to be a turning point in the Roman military effort. The Roman began to regain the great cities of southern Italy and Sicily . Rome  carried its offensive to Spain in 209 bc , when the Roman troops cut the Carthaginian supply lines. The following year, the Romans drove the Carthaginians out of Spain .

Roman troops next invaded Africa, and Hannibal was recalled from Italy to defend Carthaginian territory. In 202 bc at the Battle of Zama, the Romans defeated Hannibal and the war was over. By terms of the peace treaty signed the following year, Carthage lost Spain , agreed to pay an indemnity, and promised never to offend Rome . Spain was made a Roman province. Rome became the dominant power in the western Mediterranean .

But some Romans wanted even more. The conservative Roman senator Marcus Cato was so obsessed with a fear of Carthage that for decades he ended every speech with the statement: “And Carthage must be destroyed.” Rome finally seized on a minor offense to wage their third war (149-146 bc ) against Carthage . After a difficult three-year siege, the city fell to the Romans, and the territory was made a Roman province called Africa .

During the Punic War, Rome became aware of the Hellenistic states of the eastern Mediterranean when the king of Macedonia allied itself with ( 与 … 结盟 ) Hannibal after the Roman defeat at Cannae, but Rome was too busy then in the war against the Carthaginians. After the defeat of Carthage , Rome became involved in the Hellenistic politics as a protector of the freedom of the Greek states. Support of the Greek cities soon drew Rome into conflict with both Macedonia and the kingdom of the Seleucids. Roman military victories and diplomatic negotiations rearranged the territorial boundaries of the Hellenistic kingdoms and brought the Greek states their freedom in 196 B.C. For 50 years, the Romans tried to be a power broker in the affairs of the Greeks without direct control of their lands. When the efforts failed, the Romans changed their policy.

The Greeks and Macedonians tried to rebel against Roman rule, but they failed. In 146 bc, the Roman armies razed the ancient city of Corinth , took its treasures to Rome , and sold its inhabitants into slavery. In a single year Rome had destroyed both Carthage and Corinth . The king of Pergamum deeded ( 立契转让 ) its kingdom to Rome, as Rome's first province in Asia in 133 bc . Rome was now master of the Mediterranean Sea .

Rome 's empire was built in three stages: the conquest Italy , the conflict with Carthage and expansion into the western Mediterranean, and the involvement with and domination of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the eastern Mediterranean . Rome did not have a master plan for the creation of an empire; much of its continued expansion was opportunistic, in response to perceived threats to their security. The more the Romans expanded, the more threats to their security appeared on the horizon, involving them in more conflicts. The Romans liked to portray themselves as declaring war only for defensive reasons or to protect allies. It is also likely that at some point a group of Roman aristocratic leaders emerged, who favored expansion both for the glory it offered and for the economic benefits it provided. Certainly, by the second century B.C., aristocratic senators perceived new opportunities for profitable foreign commands, enormous spoils ( 掠夺物 ) of war, and an abundant supply of slave labor for their growing landed estates ( 大片土地 ). The destruction of Corinth and Carthage by that same time indicates that Roman imperialism had become more arrogant and brutal as well. Rome 's foreign success also had enormous repercussions for the internal development of the Roman Republic .

One of the most noticeable aspects of Roman culture and society is the impact of the Greeks. The Romans had experienced Greek influence early on through the Greek cities in southern Italy . By the end of the third century B.C., Greek civilization was playing an ever-increasing role in Roman culture. Greek ambassadors, merchants, and artists traveled to Rome and spread Greek thought and practices. After their conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms, Roman military commanders shipped Greek manuscripts and artworks back to Rome . Many educated Greek slaves were used in Roman households. Virtually every area of Roman life, from literature and philosophy to religion and education, was affected by Greek models. Rich Romans hired Greek tutors and sent their sons to Athens to study. As the Roman poet Horace said, “ Captive Greece took captive her rude conqueror .” Greek thought captivated the less sophisticated ( 世故的 ) Roman mind, and the Romans became willing transmitters of Greek culture —not, however, without some resistance from Romans who had nothing but contempt for Greek politics and who feared the end of old Roman values. Even those who favored Greek culture blamed the Greeks for Rome's new vices ( 恶习 ), including a taste for luxury and homosexual practices.

The earliest Romans were primarily an agricultural people and focused their religion on spirits who, according to their beliefs, presided over nearly every aspect of the natural world, including springs, forests, and rivers. Some of these deities survived over time to become the gods honored with small shrines at crossroads throughout Italy . Early superstitions, such as the magical power of the evil eye, also continued long after the Romans introduced new religious practices. Some taboos, such as those that prohibited the high priest of the god Jupiter from touching a horse or dog, were mysterious even to the Romans themselves and were attributed to the remote past. To these primitive beliefs the Romans added such Etruscan practices as interpreting the will of the gods by the flight of birds ( auspices ) or by the study of an animal's liver.

The Etruscans had also adopted gods from the Greek pantheon , or family of gods, and many of these divinities were passed on to the Romans. Zeus, the Greek god of the skies, for example, had a counterpart in the Roman god Jupiter, while Hera, the wife of Zeus and queen of the gods, became the Roman goddess Juno. Other Greek gods with Roman equivalents included Aphrodite, the goddess of love, known to the Romans as Venus, and the Greek god of war, Ares, who was called Mars by the Romans.

The ancients believed that religion held the Roman state together. Kings, and later civil magistrates, were obligated to ensure that the community remained at peace with the gods. Public pageantry emphasized the importance of devotion to the gods and included prayers, festivals, and sacrifices. A certain element of reciprocity existed in religion, as the Romans expected their gods to respond to offerings. The Latin phrase quid pro quo (one thing for another) which described such an exchange is still used today. Gradually, groups of priests and priestesses took responsibility for the worship of specific gods and goddesses. The most notable of these groups were the vestal virgins who served Vesta, the goddess of the hearth.

The Roman calendar was fundamentally a religious document. Some months were named after gods, including January for Janus, who presided over beginnings, and March for Mars, the war god. Other months were merely numbered. The Roman calendar originally began with March, so the seventh month, September, took its name from the Latin word septem for seven. The name of the eighth month, or October, derived from octo for eight, and others followed suit.

The Romans also named the days of the week for gods. The Romance languages continue to use Roman gods for these days, while in English the names of their ancient Germanic counterparts are used. Hence Friday, the day of the goddess of love, Venus, is vendredi in French, but takes its English name from Freia, the German goddess of love. In 45 bc when Julius Caesar acted as the dictator of Rome , he revised the calendar to reflect the solar year, making it 365 days long and adding an extra day every fourth or leap year. See also Calendar: The Roman Calendar

Like the calendar, Roman religion did not remain static. The Romans adopted new gods whose specific powers were needed by the people. At the siege of the Etruscan city of Veii in 396 bc , the Romans tried to entice Juno, the patron goddess of the Veians, to their side. When Veii fell, the Romans claimed that the goddess had deserted the people of that city and so they erected their own temple to Juno in Rome . Further Roman conquests brought other gods into its pantheon. This flexibility in Roman religion mirrored a similarly flexible attitude toward political institutions during the era of the Roman Republic .

Roman slavery differed in several important aspects from that of ancient Greece . Roman masters had more power over their slaves, including, by law, the power of life and death. Slavery was also far more necessary to the economy and social system of Rome than it had been in Greece . Wealthy Romans, often maintaining large city and country homes, depended on numerous slaves for the efficient operation of these households. Imperial conquests and expansion eventually strained the native Roman workforce, so great numbers of foreign slaves had to be imported to fill agricultural labor needs.

The Roman household included slaves who labored beside the family in the fields. The earliest slaves were poor peasants who were reduced to slavery by debt. Slavery had no ethnic or racial basis: birth, conquest, or debt condemned men and women to that condition. Early slaves were thought to be part of the family and were treated reasonably well. Slaves were permitted to keep some private savings ( peculium ), with which they might eventually purchase their freedom. After emancipation a freed slave became a Roman citizen. Freedmen often remained with families as paid laborers on farms or in households.

It was only much later, in the 2nd century bc, that huge numbers of foreign captives were brought to Rome to work on immense plantations. Romans then began to treat slaves with a cruelty that eventually provoked several terrible slave revolts. One of the most famous leaders of slave uprisings was Spartacus, an army deserter who was sold into slavery as a gladiator. He and his followers defeated Roman forces several times, including a series of battles known as the Third Servile War, or Gladiators' War, before Spartacus was killed. Despite insurrections, slavery survived as an institution throughout Roman history.

Beginning with the era of the kings, the Roman family mirrored the patriarchal nature of the Roman state in the absolute and lifelong power ( patria potestas ) that the father ( paterfamilias ) exercised over his wife, children, and slaves. Each father was the priest of the cult of his ancestors and of the hearth gods of the family. Ancestor worship focused on the genius of the family ( gens ) which was the inner spirit passed on from one generation to another. Their genius bound Romans to their ancestors and their descendents in a single continuous community. The primary purpose of Roman marriage was to produce children, and all legitimate offspring belonged only to the father's family. In event of divorce, children remained with the father. For centuries a father had the right to abandon an infant at birth. Usually this unwanted child was a deformed boy—or a girl whose family wished to avoid paying a dowry. The law even allowed a father to execute a grown son for treasonous behavior.

Despite the father's extreme authority, Roman writings provide evidence of warm family feeling. Parents were closely involved with the education of their children; Roman boys would accompany their fathers to the forum to observe public meetings as preparation for citizenship. When members of the Roman nobility died, their sons delivered speeches in praise of the deceased and also their ancestors, while masks of these loved ones were displayed. This custom helped to sustain family pride and cultivate family myths, but as the statesman Cicero later commented, “the history of Rome has been falsified by these speeches for there is much in them that never happened.”

Within the Roman family, there was also much greater intimacy between a husband and wife than in Greece , where men and women saw relatively little of each other. After marriage, a Roman girl left her father's authority to enter the household of her husband (or father-in-law, if he was still alive). A girl was usually between 14 and 17 years of age at her wedding, while her husband was often in his mid-20s. Young Roman children would not be forced to enter marriage unwillingly, but few could refuse parental arrangements. In early Rome divorce was rare and only happened if the husband desired it; later, divorce became more frequent among the upper classes. A shortage of women resulted from the abandonment of infant girls and deaths during childbirth. Roman women could almost always find husbands, even for second or third marriages. No unmarried women were recorded among the aristocratic class in Republican Rome.

Roman women could attend public and private banquets and enjoyed far more social freedom than their counterparts in Greece . Mothers were in charge of domestic servants and played an important role in child rearing, providing strong moral guidance to sons as well as daughters. According to earliest Roman law, daughters shared equally with sons in the estate of a father who died without a will, and they were usually included in their father's bequests. The moral strength and loyalty of Roman women became an important theme in literature as wives stood by husbands through civil wars and exile.

One of Rome 's chief gifts to the Mediterranean world of its day and to succeeding generations was its development of law. The Twelve Tables of 450 B.C. were the first codification of Roman Law. This code set forth simple rules suitable for an agricultural community; it established equal law for patricians ( 贵族 ) and plebs ( 平民 ) and was prized by the Romans as the source of all public and private law. The legal system established under this code, and the body of rules that developed around it, applied exclusively to Roman citizens and was known as the jus civile (city law) .

Conquest over the Mediterranean basin compelled the Romans to work out a new system of law. Each conquered territory had its own system, and a body of law was required that would be applicable to both citizens and foreigners. In 242 B.C., special rules were made known as the law of nations. But the influence of Greek philosophy, primarily Stoicism, led Romans in the late Republic to develop the idea of the law of nature—or universal divine law derived from right reason. The Romans came to view their law of nations as derived from this law of nature, thus giving Roman jurists a philosophical justification for systematizing Roman law according to basic principles.

Roman literature developed quite slowly. The first literary work in Latin was a translation of the Greek poet Homer's Odyssey by Andronicus (284?-204 bc ). The first works in Latin that survive in their entirety are 20 plays of the earthy writer of comedy, Plautus (254?-184 bc ).

By the 1st century  bc, Roman writers and intellectuals were reading widely in Greek philosophy and literature. Among these poets of the late Republic were Catullus (84?-54? bc ) , Horace , Virgil and Ovid . Catullus was much influenced by the elegance and intimacy of Greek poetry. He is best known for his cycle of 25 love poems addressed to a mysterious woman whom he calls Lesbia, describing his passionate love and hatred for her. The love affair described in the Lesbia poems was genuine, and these verses convey the poet's ecstasy and despair with immediacy ( 直接 ) so that they still strike the readers after 2,000 years.

The development of Roman prose to perfection was contributed by one of Rome 's greatest writers, Cicero (106-43 bc ), who was also a noted orator, statesman, philosopher, and essayist. Cicero 's speeches and letters are most widely known, but he also wrote essays on the history and practice of oratory. Cicero created a philosophical vocabulary in Latin by translating and adapting Greek philosophical works. Cicero 's works influenced the development of political philosophy, rhetoric, and prose style through the centuries and exceeded the impact of any other Roman writer.

The Romans were dependent on the Greeks for artistic inspiration. More Roman sculpture has survived from the Republic. The earliest artists were Etruscan, and from the 3rd century bc sculpture seen in Rome came primarily from defeated Greek cities. Most Roman marble sculpture continued to be in the Greek style. The outstanding exceptions were Roman portrait-busts ( 半身像 ) , which showed great originality and were far more realistic than their idealized Greek equivalents. The tradition of realistic representation probably originated in the terra-cotta ( 陶瓦 ) busts of ancestors, which had long been displayed at the funerals of Roman aristocrats.

The Romans were excellent in architecture. They not only employed Greek styles and made use of colonnades, rectangular structures, and post-and lintel construction, but also created their own styles, making use of curvilinear forms: the arch, vault, and dome. They pioneered the use of concrete covered by brick as the basis for most monumental buildings, including baths, amphitheaters ( 圆形剧场 ), aqueducts ( 导水渠 ), and markets. These same skills were put into the construction of Rome 's aqueduct to bring water to the city from nearby hills and the construction of thousands of miles of paved highway throughout Rome 's empire.

As Rome transformed itself from a small city-state to the ruler of the Mediterranean after almost four centuries of successful adaptation, the Roman elite no longer retained their traditional values as evidenced by laws against electoral bribery and provincial corruption, luxury, and excessive victory processions. Nor did they understand that republican institutions could not administer an empire of millions. For example, Rome had no adequate financial system and relied on annual income from tribute ( 贡品 ) and taxes as operating capital. When income and, thus, expenditures declined, severe economic crises could result. Roman senators were unwilling to address the problems of the army, the noncitizen Italian allies, the urban poor, the exploited provincials, or the brutality of the slave plantations. They responded only to crisis, and they would soon be confronted by the greatest internal crisis in centuries.

The Romans themselves believed that the century of civil war that destroyed the republic originated in the changes brought about by the success of Roman imperialism. Some blamed the gross economic inequalities that had emerged: farmers without land, laborers without jobs as a result of slave labor, and Italian allies without the rights of citizenship. Others criticized the corruption of Greek culture and the pride and ambitions of aristocratic families who put personal glory before the common good. Still others saw the transformation of the army and urban mobs into instruments of political power as the death knell ( 丧钟 ) for traditional senatorial government.

The social conflict that eventually destroyed the Roman Republic first erupted with the election of Tiberius Gracchus as tribune in 133 bc . Tiberius came to believe that the underlying cause of Rome 's problems was the decline of the small farmers. He bypassed the Senate, where he knew his rivals would oppose his proposal, and had the council of the plebs pass a land reform bill that authorized the government to reclaim ( 收回 ) public land held by large landowners and to distribute it to landless Romans. Many senators, who were large landowners with estates including large tracts of public land, were furious, and a group of senators took the law into their own hands and assassinated Tiberius.

In 123  bc  Tiberius's younger brother, Gaius was elected tribune and proposed a more radical program of social and political reform. However, many senators were hostile to his reforms and fearful of his growing popularity. They instigated mob action that resulted in the death of Gaius and his supporters. The attempts of the Gracchus brothers to bring reforms had opened the door to more instability and further violence. 

In the closing years of the second century B.C., a series of military disasters gave rise to a fresh outburst of popular anger against the old leaders of the senate. Military defeats in North Africa under a senate-appointed general encouraged Gaius Marius to run for the consulship. Marius won and became a consul in 107 bc . He recruited a large army by enrolling and providing arms to landless volunteers. After Roman troops won the war in Africa, the people repeatedly reelected Marius consul, expecting him to defeat raiding Germanic peoples in southern Gaul . Marius left a fatal legacy of professional armies whose soldiers were loyal to the general who recruited them and promised them land in return for their political support. Politicians had found a powerful new weapon: a personal army that was no longer loyal to the Senate and the Roman people.

Marius represented the interests of the Populares, a party that stood for agricultural reform and the interests of the common people, and his career was marked by a bitter rivalry with Lucius Sulla , who led the Optimates, the aristocratic party. Eventually the conflict between the two resulted in a civil war. Sulla won and seized Rome in 83 bc . A frightened Senate appointed Sulla dictator. Then Sulla tried to protect the Senate against military leaders like himself. He packed the Senate with his own supporters and proposed reforms to ensure senatorial authority in the future. As a result of these reforms, consuls had to wait ten years before standing for reelection, and proconsuls could only hold office for a single year. By restricting the term of office, Sulla hoped to prevent officeholders from building up loyal troops and undermining the Senate, as both he and Gaius Marius had done. In 80 bc Sulla retired. None of his successors who attained such power would give it up so quietly.

For the next fifty years , Roman history would be characterized by two important features : the struggle for power by a number of powerful individuals and the civil wars generated by their conflicts . Three individuals came to hold enormous military and political power— Crassus , Pompey and Julius Caesar , who in 61  bc  formed a three-way political compact called the First Triumvirate ( 三人执政 ). Pompey received land to reward his troops, and a command in Spain , Crassus received a command in Syria , and Caesar a command in Gaul . Over the course of a decade, Caesar subdued great portions of Gaul , built roads, captured a million prisoners, and took vast amounts of the region's wealth. When leading senators considered Pompey as the less harmful to their cause and voted for Caesar to lay down his command and return to Rome as a private citizen, Caesar refused. Therefore, the leading senator relied on Pompey for support and naively expected Italy to rise up against Caesar. Caesar marched on Rome , starting a civil war, eventually defeated Pompey and gained complete control of the Roman government.

In 47 B.C. Caesar was officially made dictator. In the following years, he routed the rebellious king in Asia Minor, defeated Pompey's remaining forces in Spain and Africa . He returned to Rome , and in 44 bc he assumed the position of dictator for life. Caesar initiated a legislative whirlwind. Through numerous social and economic measures he attempted to control debt, regulate traffic in Rome , and impose import tariffs to help Italian industry. He started an ambitious building program to accommodate public business. He also took measures to prevent the flooding of the Tiber River . Caesar's Julian calendar remains the calendar in use today. He established many colonies and was generous in his extension of citizenship to cities in Gaul and Spain . Caesar became one of the first leaders to conceive of Rome as an empire rather than merely as a city-state with overseas possessions.

On March 15, 44  bc ,  a group of leading senators who resented his domination assassinated him in the belief that they would take Roman government out of the hands of the generals and restore senatorial domination. It did not happen. For decades murder and civil war followed the Caesar's death, and two men had divided the Roman world between them—Octavian, Caesar's heir and grandnephew, taking the west, and Antony, Caesar's assistant, the east. The two men eventually came into conflict. Antony allied himself with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII, with whom he fell in a love. Octavian took advantage of Roman prejudice against eastern peoples to attack Antony and provoke civil war. In 31 bc in a sea battle in Greece he defeated Antony and Cleopatra, who fled to Egypt , and committed suicide. Octavian became the supreme leader over the Roman world at the age of 33. The civil wars were ended. And so was the Roman Republic .

The republic was a tottering political system well before Augustus solidified his power, but despite its weaknesses republican rule had also led Rome to her positive advancements. The empire, built on the important legacies of the republic, helped to preserve its reputation in the minds of future generations.

Under the republic, the Romans had conquered the Mediterranean , but they were increasingly unable to administer it. Jealousy and factionalism among the elite stood in the way of efficient government. After the armies became involved in civil conflict, it was clear that only a single autocratic ruler could solve the social, economic, and political crises of the late republic .

The republic collapsed, but this political change did not disrupt many areas of Roman life. Social organization, the status of citizens, family ties, and cultural and intellectual influences did not change significantly. People living in the provinces even observed an improvement in Roman administration after the fall of the republic. Wealthy Italians felt better accepted in senatorial society, soldiers were better paid, and the urban masses better fed. Only the old nobility, and their intellectual heirs, mourned the loss of freedom.

The  Roman   Republic  became an ideal that remained intact in the minds of historians, poets, and political theorists. The problems of the republic were soon forgotten as people looked back in admiration at its legacy of political freedom and influence. That visionary republic , which had been described by the historian Polybius and defended by Cicero , was later imitated by the city-states of Renaissance Italy and admired in 18th-century republics in France and America .

Another important legacy of the Roman Republic was the growth in power and prestige of the city of Rome . During the 2nd century bc, the population of the capital swelled with eastern slaves and dispossessed peasants. Also, during the 2nd century bc, Rome became the political capital of the Mediterranean world. By the 1st century bc, Rome was becoming a great intellectual and cultural center, which even attracted Greek philosophers and writers. The last decades of the republic saw the development of monumental public complexes in the center of the city, setting a pattern followed later by the emperors.

The  Roman   Republic  was a dynamic and flexible political organism that was a noble system of government for a small city-state. It made Rome a world power, but it was unsuitable for a large and diverse empire. Furthermore, it had become rigid in the hands of a tiny elite by the time Julius Caesar swept it away. Although some institutions such as the Senate and magistrates survived, Caesar's successor, Augustus, created a new government that allowed Rome and its people to survive, to grow, and to prosper.

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