Plutarch - Fall of the Roman Republic - Research Paper Example

Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic Mestrius Plutarchus or more popularly known as Plutarch is considered today as a major source of historical accounts for the Greek and Roman periods. His historical accounts are but some of the many academic contributions which he has given during his lifetime. Plutarch was also a “philosopher, biographer, and essayist.”1 And although he was a historian he never intended “to write a chronicle of great historical events, but to examine the character of great men as a lesson for the living.”2 One of his most notable works is the recounting of the end of the Roman Republic by assessing the lives of major historical figures that contributed greatly to facilitating such an end. Despite the person based accounts, which to an extent seem like a mere collection of biographies, Plutarch provides a detail discussion on the underlying forces and factors that undermined and eventually ended the Roman Republic. Plutarch discusses historical figures not as mere personages of history but as prime movers of events. Plutarch’s style in which discussions of historical events are pegged on the lives of individuals has influenced historical references up to today. An example is the analysis of the Agricultural Crisis in Rome where “Hannibal’s invasion had destroyed farms and farmland.”3 At the center of the Agricultural Crisis were the Gracchus4 Brothers, “Tiberius Gracchus elected tribune in 133 B. C. promised to help the farmers. He called for taking of public land and distributing it among the landless farmers.”5 This clearly contains Plutarch’s style wherein individual persons are at the center of major events most especially events that precipitated to the decline and eventual end of the Roman Republic. Moreover analysis of the period of decline up to the end of the Roman Republic centers on the personas of the individuals that were identified to being so influential and powerful that their personality, life and ideas forged the destiny of Rome. 1. "Plutarch," New World Encyclopedia, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Plutarch. (April 27, 2010) 2. Ibid. 3. Marvin Perry, A History of the World (Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin COmpany, 1989), 100 4. Pronounced as Grah-kus 5. Perry, A History of the World, 100 “The disintegration of the Roman Republic is the first example in European history of the collapse of a constitutional system. One school of thought contends that individual generals and would be dictators like Julius Caesar and Pompey destroyed the traditional political system of Rome through ruthless ambition. According to this view, the Commanders of the Roman army, acting like feuding Mafia dons, turned their armies inward upon the Constitutional system.” 6 From another source, “Julius Caesars adoptive son, Octavian, became, as Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. According to modern ways of looking at things, this or the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March 44 B.C. marked the official end of the Republic of Rome. The collapse of Republican Rome had been long and gradual. Some claim it started with the expansion of Rome begun during the Punic Wars. More traditionally, it begins with Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus (the Gracchi), and their social reforms. It all came crescendoing to a head around the time the triumvirate of Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus came to power. While it was not unheard of for a dictator to assume total control, the triumvirate grabbed power that was supposed to belong to the Senate and the Roman people.” 7 This again resonate the style and influence of Plutarch I the sense that major events and shifts in socio – cultural as well as political trends in status quo are attributed to individuals who are not only part of the actual events but are also directly involved in its continued transformation. The growing factionalism in Rome that would later destroy the Roman Republic as assessed as based on the ambitions of individuals or families whose aims still are steered by individuals. Hence Plutarch’s characterization of the Fall of the Roman Republic holds much merit in this area of discussion. Despite this some authors would approach the scenario in a broader sense. 6. "Fall of the Roman Republic I", http://www.suu.edu/faculty/ping/pdf/FALLOFTHEROMANREPUBLICI.pdf. (April 28, 2010) 7. N. S. Gill, "About.com: Ancient Classical History," End of the Republic of Rome, http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romerepublic/p/endRepublic.htm (April 27, 2010) “The senatorial nobility was linked together by ties of family and marriage, but was not by the close of the second Punic War a coherent group; its formerly strong corporate sense had been overtaken by the ambitions of individuals and factional groups. These ambitions, however, tended not to manifest themselves in the formation of ‘parties’ in a modern sense, offering a choice of policies. Rather, individuals and groups set out to rival each other simply in the amassing of voting clients and thus in their hold on power, whilst their policies could be virtually identical. It is a common error of modern commentators to attach to these factional groups such labels as ‘right wing’, ‘left wing’, ‘reactionary’ and ‘progressive’; these terms do not describe the distinctions between Roman groups.”8 Despite certain academic authorities in history would want to deviate from the method and style of Plutrach they are unable to completely do so. Aside from the reason that Plutarch’s style is efficient in analyzing that particular period in history his account is the most viable in the sense that it is the most coherent and most accurate. An author put forward the idea that:” On the Ides of March 44 BC Julius Caesar died, and with him the Roman Republic fell. But the dissolution of the Republic had been going on gradually for many centuries before that dreadful day. It’s dissolution had started when the society which had been built as a cohesive collection of families firmly united in the furtherance of the family of all families, the state, began to lose the moral foundation upon which this particular society relied.”9 In life like the individuals recounted by Plutarch, “…Caesar was putting down rebellions in Gaul, the political climate in Rome was disintegrating…. Caesar himself contributed to the problem by funding thugs like Clodius to look after his political interests in his absence. In fact, in the summer of 54 B.C. two of Caesars candidates for consul were caught redhanded bribing the two seated consuls (presumably with Gallic cash) to help them win the election. Cicero grew so despairing at the state of affairs that he lamented in a letter to his brother, "There really is no republic in existence."10 8. David Sotter, The Fall of the Roman Republic (London: Routledge, 1994), 17 9. J. A. Macaluso, "The Philosophy of the Good", The End of the Roman Republic – The Decline and Fall of Trust, http://www.caius-ebook.com/TheEndOfTrust.htm (April 28, 2010) 10. Richard Abels, “WAR, THE MILITARY, AND POLITICAL SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE AND LATE ROMAN REPUBLIC,” http://www.usna.edu/Users/history/abels/hh205/fall%20of%20the%20republic.htm (April 28, 2010) Bibliography "Plutarch." New World Encyclopedia. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Plutarch. (April 27, 2010) "Fall of the Roman Republic I". http://www.suu.edu/faculty/ping/pdf/FALLOFTHEROMANREPUBLICI.pdf. (April 28, 2010) Richard Abels. “WAR, THE MILITARY, AND POLITICAL SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE AND LATE ROMAN REPUBLIC.” http://www.usna.edu/Users/history/abels/hh205/fall%20of%20the%20republic.htm . (April 28, 2010) N. S. Gill. "About.com:Ancient Classical History." End of the Republic of Rome. http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romerepublic/p/endRepublic.htm (April 27, 2010) J. A. Macaluso. "The Philosophy of the Good." The End of the Roman Republic – The Decline and Fall of Trust. http://www.caius-ebook.com/TheEndOfTrust.htm (April 28, 2010) Perry, Marvin. A History of the World. oston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company. Sotter, David. The Fall of the Roman Republic. London: Routledge.1994. Read More