The Fall of the Roman Republic - Essay Example

The Fall of the Roman Republic The Roman aristocracy of the second century had distinct ideologies and ethos which can be called noble and honorable from today’s perspectives. The aristocracy put premium on such ideals as courage and bravery and even carried such ideals to the extreme. The flourishing of such noble ideals among the aristocracy was largely shaped by practices such as ensuring that deeds of valor and the holding of high offices were glorified, eulogized and chronicled for posterity by their descendants in public. In addition and unlike today, there was a low regard for the naked acquisition of wealth especially if done dishonorably. According to Polybius, a Greek aristocrat born in Achaea but banished to Rome, and source of the historical account in that city in the second century especially where the elites are concerned, the nobility of Rome put the greatest premium on courage. Although courage was as important is all other states as well, this was the most true in the Roman aristocracy value system. The emphasis on courage was illustrated most especially during the funeral rites of the deceased in which their acts of bravery would be eulogized. According to Polybius, a kin of the deceased would wear his mask, and some other men would wear masks of all the dead ancestors of the deceased. The relative wearing the mask of the deceased, dressed in robes preceded each by the symbol of the particular ancestor, would then deliver a speech glorifying his achievements, after which eulogies for each of the deceased ancestors would follow. These after-death honors given to deceased and his ancestors served to inspire the young men in doing their best in their endeavors so as to earn the same honor in their deaths (Erdkamp 2007 p 134). As a result, an intense pressure, psychological or not, was placed on the shoulders of the young aristocrats to achieve glory even beyond their capabilities. Plutarch recounted that the son of the Cato the Elder lost his sword during a battle in 168 in Pydna and rather than endure shame, he went into the midst of the fighting to search for the missing sword, which was found however after the dust of the battle had settled, under the pile of the enemies’ dead corpses. There were members of the great aristocracy who were able to achieve glory out of acts of valor and thus, achieve fame and recognition: Marcus Claudius Marcellus who saved his brother’s life during a battle, and; P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus killed an enemy in a duel in Spain when he was in his 30s. Such feats were first glorified in speeches of the generals who acknowledged the young men’s acts of valor and subsequently by decorations awarded to them like headless, spears, medallions, crowns like the corona civic which were made of oak leaves given to individuals who had saved another person’s life by killing the enemy, the corona muralis, a crown of gold given to the person who scaled the enemy’s wall first. To make known to the world that a person was victorious because of his great courage, all the spoils he gathered from his enemies were embellished on the outside of his front door (Erdkamp 2007 p 134). Almost always, these acts of valor evidenced by these trophies guaranteed a man’s success in other fields like politics and position in the government. After the disaster experienced by Rome in the hands of Hannibal in 216 at Cannae, many of the senators died and thus had to be replaced in a special supplementary selection process, the task of which was especially given to Marcus Fabius Buteo, a magistrate. Buteo immediately filled up the vacancies by selecting first those who held minor offices and then those who had spoils of the enemies embellished outside their doors and those awarded with trophies for acts of valor. Thus, men of valor were able to rise up the ranks on the strength of their reputation of courage and bravery: Marcellus was catapulted to the office of the curule aedile; Gaius Marius was unanimously elected to the first offices as he rose up the political ladder, and; Scipio became a consul at a very young age (Erdkamp 2007 p 135). The Roman aristocrats spent their young years in the military without which they cannot run for public office. In the second century, aristocrats were required to render ten years of military service but even in the military, a discrimination brought about by economic status was a marked practice: duties in camp, higher rates of pay, larger share of booties, and bigger shares of lands upon establishment of colonies. From the beginning, aristocrats in the military were distinguished from the positions they held. Those whose families owned more than 1,000,000 asses (or 62,500 pounds of bronze) were designated to the cavalry or those with mounted horses. The cavalry had two divisions: the equites equis suis or those provided their own horses, and; the equites equo public or those provided horses using public money. The latter was a smaller group numbering about 1,800 and constituted a social and political elite whose membership were reserved for members of the Senate. A practical reason also served the drawing of the cavalrymen from the richest populace: they were quite an expensive position considering the fact that they required three mounts and the attendance of two slaves (Erdkamp 2007 pp 135-136). There is evidence that would indicate that second century aristocrats despised the naked acquisition of wealth and even wealth itself. Livy, a great historian took note of the enactment of the Lex Claudia, a Roman law, in 218 which forbade senators to profit from overseas trade and the phrase of an old principle of which was described therein was used to explain it: omnis quaestus patribus indecorus visus (all financial gain was thought unsuitable for senators). A clearer and more accurate description though of the aristocratic perspective of wealth can however be gleaned from the funeral eulogy of L. Caecilius Metellus, a pontifex maximillus and twice consul. Metellus’ son, who delivered the eulogy, described his father as an achiever of ten great things, among which was “pecuniam magnam bono modo invenire,” Latin for acquisition of great wealth through honorable means. The implication is that so long as the acquisition of wealth was honorable, like inheritance for instance, it was not something totally despicable to the Roman aristocratic ethos (Champion 2004 p 24). The practice of Roman aristocratic families to eulogize their deceased and their ancestors was just one of the illustrations that the aristocratic ethos of the second century was self-conscious of their power and took care that their deeds of valor and power were declared publicly and chronicled for posterity. In the case of L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, a funerary epitaph was engraved on a stone sarcophagus where his body was contained. The sarcophagus was then placed in an underground chamber which contained all other celebrated ancestors and descendants of the family. The inscriptions on these sarcophaguses as earlier mentioned glorified the deeds and offices held by the deceased (Forsythe 2005 p. 560). Barbatus inscriptions, for example, stated in part: “Lucius Cornelius Scipio Long-Beard, Gnaeus’ begotten son, a valiant gentleman and wise, whose fine form matched his bravery surpassing well, was aedile, consul and censor among you; he took Taurasia and Cisauna from Samnium; he overcame all the Lucanian land and brought hostages therefrom” (Warmington p. 5) Finally, the aristocratic or nobility did not tolerate the mixing of elections and politics and tried to keeping them as distant from each other so as not to make the populares, whose proposals were quite popular, gain influence over elections. Thus, in the second century, there was a ban to hold legislative assemblies immediately before elections, to prevent this influence from happening (Yakobson 1994 p 179). References Champion, Craige Brian. Roman Imperialism: Readings and Sources. Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Erdkamp, Paul. A Companion to the Roman Army. Blackwell Publishing, 2007 Forsythe, Gary. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War. University of California Press, 2005. Warmington, E.H. (translator). The Scipionic Epitaphs. Remains of Old Latin, Vol. IV, Loeb Classical Library Yakobson, Alexander. Elections and Electioneering in Rome: A Study in the Political System of the Late Republic. Franz Steiner Verlag, 1994. Read More