Fall of the Roman Republic

The Crisis of the Roman Republic refers to an extended period of political instability and social unrest that culminated in the demise of the Roman Republic and the advent of the Roman Empire, from about 134 BC to 44 BC.

The exact dates of the Crisis are unclear because "Rome teetered between normality and crisis" for many decades.

Likewise, the causes and attributes of the crises changed throughout the decades, including the forms of slavery, brigandage, wars internal and external, land reform, the invention of excruciating new punishments, the expansion of Roman citizenship, and even the changing composition of the Roman army.

Modern scholars also disagree about the nature of the crisis. Traditionally, the expansion of citizenship (with all its rights, privileges, and duties) was looked upon negatively by Sallust, Gibbon, and others of their schools, because it caused internal dissension, disputes with Rome's Italian allies, slave revolts, and riots. However, other scholars have argued that as the Republic was meant to be res publica—the essential thing of the people—the poor and disenfranchised can not be blamed for trying to redress their legitimate and legal grievances.

For centuries,historians have argued about the start, specific crises involved, and end date for the Crisis of the Roman Republic. As a culture (or "web of institutions"), Florence Dupont and Christopher Woodall wrote, "no distinction is made between different periods." However, without question, the Romans lost liberty through plunder, by "their morally undermining consequences."

Harriet I. Flower and Jurgen Von Ungern-Sternberg argue for an exact start date of 10 December 134 BC, with the inauguration of Gracchus as tribune, or alternately, when he first issued his proposal for land reform in 133 BC.Appian of Alexandria wrote that this political crisis was "the preface to... the Roman civil wars".Velleius commentated that it was Gracchus' unprecedented standing for re-election as tribune in 132 BC, and the riots and controversy it engendered as the start of a crisis:

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