⚔ Le GUERRE CIVILI e i TRIUMVIRATI - Storia dell'Antica Roma da Mario a Giulio Cesare e Ottaviano 🦅📖

After the Gracchi's agrarian reforms, the Roman Republic was affected by a long period of civil wars between supporters of the plebs and those of the wealthy landowners. Remember that "civil war" always means a conflict fought between citizens (cives, in Latin) of the same state. After the army reform, generals were responsible for ensuring that the troops were paid. Therefore, the army began to become more loyal to the generals than to the republic for which it fought. At the same time, the aristocrats and plebeians also began to rely on generals to support their ideas. Therefore, generals became very important figures. Thus, in 88 BC, the army of Gaius Marius, defender of the plebeians, and that of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who supported the landowners, clashed, starting the FIRST CIVIL WAR. Sulla defeated Marius and was elected dictator for life. Upon Sulla's death, his successor, Gnaeus Pompeius, emerged. He sought to strengthen his power by forming an alliance with the most influential men of the day: Gaius Julius Caesar, a democrat from a noble family much loved by the people, and Marius Licinius Crassus, a member of the aristocracy. In 60 BC, these three influential figures of the time formed a triumvirate, a "three-man government," and divided the territories they governed between themselves. In 59 BC, Caesar was elected consul and given command of the army, with which he aimed to conquer Gaul (France). In eight years of war, from 58 to 50 BC, he managed to defeat all the Gallic tribes. His popularity, however, raised great perplexity in the Senate and sparked the envy of Pompey, who, taking advantage of Crassus's death and supported by the Senate, had himself elected sole consul and ordered Caesar to resign his office and disband his army before returning to Rome. But Caesar, defiantly, did not obey and, crossing the Rubicon, marched toward Rome with his soldiers. And as he crossed the Rubicon River in arms, Caesar is said to have uttered the famous phrase "Alea iacta est" (meaning: "The die is cast") to indicate that the decision had already been made. This extreme gesture sparked the SECOND CIVIL WAR. Pompey, taken by surprise, fled to Greece with his army and was defeated at Pharsalus in Thessaly in 48 BC. He then fled to Egypt, where King Ptolemy, to curry favor with Caesar, had him treacherously murdered on a boat. His head was brought to Caesar on a silver platter as a macabre welcome trophy. However, Caesar never approved of the killing of his rival Pompey, whose valor he admired. So Caesar expelled Ptolemy from Egypt and entrusted the entire kingdom to his sister Cleopatra. Caesar then resumed the war against the Pompeians, who in the meantime had come under the command of Marcus Porcius Cato, and decisively defeated them at Munda, in Spain. He then returned triumphantly to Rome in 45 BC, where he was appointed dictator for life. Caesar was therefore the absolute master of Rome, but the senators and aristocrats, who considered him an enemy of freedom, organized a conspiracy against him and assassinated him with 23 stab wounds on the Ides of March, March 15, 44 BC. C., right under the statue of his rival Pompey. When Caesar, dying, realized that his adopted son Brutus was among the conspirators, he was both astonished and embittered, and uttered the famous phrase: "Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi!", meaning "You too, Brutus, my son." Caesar's assassination plunged Rome into a revolt that the Senate lacked the strength to quell. Thus, power passed into the hands of three men who had been close to Caesar: Octavian, his nephew and adopted son; Mark Antony, his trusted general; and Marcus Lepidus, his friend. In 43 BC, the three formed the Second Triumvirate: they killed the perpetrators of the conspiracy against Caesar, put down the revolt, and divided the government of Rome's territories: Octavian was given control of Rome and the Western provinces, while Lepidus became Pontifex Maximus, head of religious power. Mark Antony, however, was given the provinces of North Africa, including Egypt, where he moved and married the beautiful Cleopatra. Soon, however, a deep rivalry arose between Mark Antony and Octavian, which led to the outbreak of the THIRD CIVIL WAR, which ended in 31 BC with Mark Antony's defeat in the naval Battle of Actium in Greece. Octavian, therefore, found himself alone in Rome's leadership: he transformed the republic into a monarchy, concentrating all political, military, and religious power in his own hands. In 27 BC, the Senate awarded him the title of Augustus, meaning "worthy of honor": thus ended the glorious Roman Republic and began the Empire. 🎂🍰 Follow us on Facebook too!   / pasticciotti.it   and on Instagram: i_pasticciotti_it