History of Roman Republic

The Roman Senate was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in 753 BC).

The Panathenaic Games were held every four years in Athens in Ancient Greece from 566 BC to the 3rd century AD.

Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome, reigning from 535 BC until the popular uprising in 509 BC that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. His reign is described as a tyranny that justified the abolition of the monarchy.

Tarquinius was the son of the fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. In around 535 BC Tarquinius, together with his wife Tullia Minor arranged the murder of Servius. Tarquinius became king in his place.

The executive magistrates of the Roman Republic were officials of the ancient Roman Republic, elected by the People of Rome.

The Senate agreed to abolish kingship. In turn, most of the former functions of the king were transferred to two separate consuls. These consuls were elected to office for a term of one year.

Sextus Tarquinius was the third and youngest son of the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, according to Livy, but by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, he was the oldest of the three. According to Roman tradition, his rape of Lucretia was the precipitating event in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the Roman Republic.

Publius Valerius Poplicola or Publicola was one of four Roman aristocrats who led the overthrow of the monarchy and became a Roman consul, the colleague of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, traditionally considered the first year of the Roman Republic.

Lucius Junius Brutus is the semi-legendary founder of the Roman Republic, and traditionally one of its first consuls in 509 BC. He was reputedly responsible for the expulsion of his uncle the Roman king Tarquinius Superbus after the suicide of Lucretia, which led to the overthrow of the Roman monarchy.

The Centuriate Assembly was supposedly founded by the legendary Roman King Servius Tullius, less than a century before the founding of the Roman Republic in 509 BC.

The constitutional history of the Roman Republic began with the revolution which overthrew the monarchy in 509 BC.

The Battle of Lake Regillus was a legendary Roman victory over the Latin League shortly after the establishment of the Roman Republic and as part of a wider Latin War. The Latins were led by an elderly Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome, who had been expelled in 509 BC, and his son-in-law, Octavius Mamilius, the dictator of Tusculum.

The Battle of Silva Arsia was a battle in 509 BC between the republican forces of ancient Rome and the Etruscan forces of Tarquinii and Veii led by the deposed Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. The battle took place near the Silva Arsia (the Arsian forest) in Roman territory and resulted in victory to Rome but the death of one of her consuls, Lucius Junius Brutus.

The overthrow of the Roman monarchy, a political revolution in ancient Rome, took place around 509 BC and resulted in the expulsion of the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and the establishment of the Roman Republic.

The consul Valerius collected the spoils of the routed Etruscans and returned to Rome to celebrate a triumph on 1 March 509 BC.

Tarquinius, having failed to regain the throne using his allies of Tarquinii and Veii, next sought the aid of Lars Porsena, king of Clusium in 508 BC. Clusium was at that time a powerful Etruscan city.

Lars Porsena was an Etruscan king known for his war against the city of Rome. He ruled over the city of Clusium (Etruscan: Clevsin; modern Chiusi). There are no established dates for his rule, but Roman sources often place the war at around 508 BC.

Porsena sent ambassadors to Rome to offer peace. Terms were negotiated. Porsena requested the throne be restored to Tarquinius, but the Romans refused.

Porsena, with his army, attacked Rome. As his troops were surging towards the Pons Sublicius, one of the bridges over the Tiber leading into the city, Publius Horatius Cocles leaped across the bridge to hold off the enemy, giving the Romans time to destroy the bridge. He was joined by Titus Herminius Aquilinus and Spurius Larcius. Herminius and Lartius retreated as the bridge was almost destroyed. Horatius waited until the bridge had fallen, then swam back across the river under enemy fire.

As the attack had been unsuccessful, Porsena next determined to blockade the city. He established a garrison on the Janiculum, blocked river transport, and sent raiding parties into the surrounding countryside.

In 507 BC Porsena once again sent ambassadors to the Roman senate, requesting the restoration of Tarquinius to the throne. Legates were sent back to Porsena, to advise him that the Romans would never re-admit Tarquinius and that Porsena should out of respect for the Romans cease requesting Tarquinius' readmittance.

Spurius Larcius was one of the leading men of the early Roman Republic, of which he was twice consul. However, his greatest fame was won as one of the defenders of the Sublician bridge against the army of Lars Porsena, the King of Clusium.

Marcus Valerius Volusus was a Roman consul with Publius Postumius Tubertus in 505 BC. He was the son of Volesus Valerius and brother to Publius Valerius Publicola and Manius Valerius Maximus. During his consulship in 505 BC, he successfully conducted the war with the Sabines and both consuls were awarded triumphs.

In 505–504 BC there was war between republican Rome and the Sabines. Although Livy makes no mention of the involvement of the Etruscans.

Opiter Verginius Tricostus served as consul of the early Roman Republic in 502 BC, with Spurius Cassius Vecellinus. He was the first from the powerful Verginia family to obtain the consulship.

Servius Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus was consul at Rome in the year 500 BC with Manius Tullius Longus. He was the first consul of the patrician family of the Sulpicii, which may have taken its name from the town of Cameria or Camerium in Latium. He was the father of Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus, consul in 490 BC. He was also the first man to be clearly identified in ancient literature as a curio maximus, holding the office in 463 BC.

The Conflict or Struggle of the Orders was a political struggle between the Plebeians (commoners) and Patricians (aristocrats) of the ancient Roman Republic lasting from 500 BC to 287 BC, in which the Plebeians sought political equality with the Patricians. It played a major role in the development of the Constitution of the Roman Republic.

Titus Aebutius Helva was a Roman senator and general from the early Republic, who held the consulship in 499 BC. He was magister equitum under Aulus Postumius Albus at the Battle of Lake Regillus. He was the father of Lucius Aebutius Helva, consul in 463 BC.

Quintus Cloelius Siculus was a Roman Republican politician and patrician during the beginning of the 5th century BC. He served as Consul of Rome in 498 BC together with Titus Larcius. His gens originated from Alba Longa and had come to Rome under the reign of Tullus Hostilius. He was the first member of his family to serve as consul.

The Battle of Lake Regillus was a legendary Roman victory over the Latin League shortly after the establishment of the Roman Republic and as part of a wider Latin War.

In 494 BC Rome was at war with three Italic tribes (the Aequi, Sabine and Volsci), but the Plebeian soldiers advised by Lucius Sicinius Vellutus, refused to march against the enemy, and instead seceded to the Sacred Mount outside Rome.

The Dionysia was a large festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central events of which were the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies and, from 487 BC, comedies.

In the years 483 to 476 BC the Veientes waged a war against Rome, assisted by auxiliaries from among the Etruscans. On the Roman side, the members of the gens Fabia featured prominently, and it became almost a personal struggle by that family against Veii. Rome was successful in the war.

The Etruscans took advantage of a lull in the fighting to attack the Roman camp, breaching the defenses of the reserves. However, word of the attack reached the consuls, and Manlius stationed his men around the exits to the camp, surrounding the Etruscans.

In 480 BC, Rome was rent by internal dissension, which encouraged the Veientes to take the field in the hope of breaking Roman power. They were supported by troops from other Etruscan cities.

In 479 BC the war with Veii was assigned to the consul Titus Verginius Tricostus Rutilus, while his colleague Kaeso Fabius was dealing with an incursion by the Aequi.

In 477 BC hostilities were renewed, and the fighting increased, with incursions by the Fabii into Veientine territory, and vice versa. The Veientes devised an ambush, which led to the Battle of the Cremera, most likely on 18 July 477 BC.

The Battle of the Cremera was fought between the Roman Republic and the Etruscan city of Veii, in 477 BC.

The Roman senate sent the consul Titus Menenius Lanatus with an army against the Veientes, but the Romans were defeated once again.

In 475 BC the Veientes together with Sabines commenced hostilities against Rome, only a year after the defeat of Veii in the previous war.

The consul Publius Valerius Poplicola was assigned the conduct of the war. The Roman army was reinforced by auxiliaries from the Latin allies and the Hernici.

In 475 BC the Veientes together with Sabines commenced hostilities against Rome, only a year after the defeat of Veii in the previous war.

Valerius was awarded a triumph for the victory, which he celebrated on 1 May.

The Sabine army was camped outside the walls of Veii. The Roman army attacked the Sabine defenses. The Sabines sallied forth from their camp, but the Romans had the better of the fighting and took the gate of the Sabine camp. The forces of Veii then attacked from the city, but in some disorder, and a Roman cavalry charge routed the Veientes, giving Rome the overall victory. Manlius was awarded an ovation as a result, which he celebrated on 15 March.

In 471 BC the Lex Publilia was passed. It was an important reform shifting practical power from the patricians to the plebeians. The law transferred the election of the tribunes of the plebs to the commit tribute, thereby freeing their election from the influence of the patrician clients.

The Battle of Mount Algidus was fought in 458 BC, between the Roman Republic and the Aequi, near Mount Algidus in Latium. The Roman dictator Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus turned an expected Roman defeat into an important victory.

Marcus Horatius Pulvillus was an aristocrat before and during the early Roman Republic at the time of the overthrow of the Roman monarchy.

The Battle of Corbio took place in 446 BC. General Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus and legatus Spurius Postumius Albus Regillensis led Roman troops to a victory over the Aequi tribes of north-east Latium and the Volsci tribes of southern Latium.

Caeso Fabius Ambustus was a four-time consular tribune of the Roman Republic around the turn of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Caeso was sent as ambassador to the Gauls when the latter was besieging Clusium and participated in an attack against the besieging Gauls. The Gauls demanded that the three should be surrendered to them for violating the law of nations.

The Aurunci were an Italic tribe that lived in southern Italy from around the 1st millennium BC. They were eventually defeated by Rome and subsumed into the Roman Republic during the second half of the 4th century BC.

By 390, several Gallic tribes were invading Italy from the north. The Romans were alerted to this when a particularly warlike tribe, the Senones, invaded two Etruscan towns close to Rome's sphere of influence.

The Battle of the Allia was a battle fought c. 387 BC between the Senones – a Gallic tribe led by Brennus, who had invaded northern Italy – and the Roman Republic.

In 385, the former consul and savior of the besieged Capitol Marcus Manlius Capitolinus is said to have sided with the plebeians, ruined by the Sack and largely indebted to patricians.

In 367, they carried a bill creating the Decemviri sacris faciundis, a college of ten priests, of whom five had to be plebeians, thereby breaking patricians' monopoly on priesthoods.

The Patrician era came to a complete end in 287 BC, with the passage of the Hortensian law. When the Curule Aedileship had been created, it had only been opened to Patricians.

The Sextian-Licinian Rogations were a series of laws proposed by tribunes of the plebs, Lucius Sextius Lateranus and Gaius Licinius Stolo and enacted around 367 BC. Livy calls them rogatio – though he does refer to them at times as lex – as the plebeian assembly did not at the time have the power to enact leges (laws).

Rome declared war on Tarquinii after forces from that city had raided Roman territory. Consul Gaius Fabius Ambustus was assigned to that war.

The four-time consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus became the first plebeian dictator in 356 and censor in 351.

The Sidicini were one of the Italic peoples of ancient Italy. Their territory extended northward from their capital, Teanum Sidicinum (modern day Teano), along the valley of the Liri river up to Fregellae, covering around 3,000 square kilometers (1,200 square miles) in total.

Livy is the only preserved source to give a continuous account of the war which has become known in modern historiography as the First Samnite War. In addition, the Fasti Triumphales records two Roman triumphs dating to this war and some of the events described by Livy are also mentioned by other ancient writers.

In the Latin War (340–338), Rome defeated a coalition of Latinos at the battles of Vesuvius and the Trigonum.

In 339, the plebeian consul and dictator Quintus Publilius Philo passed three laws extending the powers of the plebeians.

In 337 BC, a war broke out between the Aurunci and the Sidicini. The Romans decided to help the Aurunci because they had not fought Rome during the First Samnite War.

After about two decades and after the agreement of 341 BC, the clash between Rome and the Samnites renewed, and this time their presence as central powers on the Italian peninsula. And after previous victories, to expand in regions and establish new achievements abroad. The two peoples sought to achieve one advantage at the expense of the other, which caused a lot of tension and friction, which led to the outbreak of the second war.

Originally the chief magistrates, the consuls, appointed all new senators. They also had the power to remove individuals from the Senate. Around the year 318 BC, the "Ovinian Plebiscite" gave this power to another Roman magistrate, the censor, who retained this power until the end of the Roman Republic.

In 312, following this law, the patrician censor Appius Claudius Caecus appointed many more senators to fill the new limit of 300, including descendants of freedmen.

The Battle of Bovianum was fought in 305 BC between the Romans and the Samnites. The result was a Roman victory and the end of the Second Samnite War.

By the beginning of the 3rd century, Rome had established herself as the major power in Italy but had not yet come into conflict with the dominant military powers of the Mediterranean: Carthage and the Greek kingdoms.

In 300, the two tribunes of the plebs Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius passed the Lex Ogulnia, which created four plebeian pontiffs, therefore equalling the number of patrician pontiffs, and five plebeian augurs, outnumbering the four patricians in the college.

Early in 298 BC a Lucanian delegation went to Rome to ask the Romans to take them under their protection as the Samnites, having failed to bring them into an alliance, had invaded their territory. Rome agreed to an alliance. Fetials were sent to Samnium to order the Samnites to leave Lucania.

In 299 BC, the Etruscans, possibly due to the Roman colony set up at Narnia in next-door Umbria, prepared for war against Rome. However, the Gauls invaded their territory, so, the Etruscans offered them money to form an alliance.

Pyrrhus was a Greek king and statesman of the Hellenistic period. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house, and later he became king of Epirus. He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome and regarded as one of the greatest generals of antiquity. Pyrrhus was a Greek king and statesman of the Hellenistic period. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house, and later he became king of Epirus. He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome and regarded as one of the greatest generals of antiquity.

The Roman army of the mid-Republic, also called the manipular Roman army or the Polybian army, refers to the armed forces deployed by the mid-Roman Republic, from the end of the Samnite Wars (290 BC) to the end of the Social War.

In 282, several Roman warships entered the harbor of Tarentum, thus breaking a treaty between the Republic and the Greek city, which forbade the Gulf to the Roman navy.

The Battle of Populonia was fought in 282 BC between Rome and the Etruscans. The Romans were victorious, and the Etruscan threat to Rome sharply diminished after this battle.

Pyrrhus sends Cineas to Rome as the ambassador of Pyrrhus to negotiate peace or a truce.

Pyrrhus and his army of 25,500 men (and 20 war elephants) landed in Italy in 280; he was immediately named Strategos Autokrator by the Tarentines.

Pyrrhus withdraws and gets close to Campania. Laevinus confronts him with an army. Pyrrhus refuses battle and returns to Tarentum.

Pyrrhus then marched on Rome, but could not take any Roman city on his way; facing the prospect of being flanked by the two consular armies, he moved back to Tarentum.

The Battle of Heraclea took place in 280 BC between the Romans under the command of consul Publius Valerius Laevinus, and the combined forces of Greeks from Epirus, Tarentum, Thurii, Metapontum, and Heraclea under the command of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus.

Polybius discovered the documents of a series of treaties between Rome and Carthage in a library in Rome.

The Battle of Asculum took place in 279 BC between the Roman Republic under the command of the consuls Publius Decius Mus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio, and the forces of King Pyrrhus of Epirus.

During his second consulship, after Pyrrhus went to Sicily, Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, is sent against the rebel garrison at Rhegium. He seizes the city and restores it to its people. The surviving rebels are taken to Rome and executed for treason.

Pyrrhus received a head wound but managed to overcome the Mamertines. He arrived in Tarentum in the autumn of 276 BC with 20,000 men.

Pyrrhus engaged the Romans despite the lack of Samnite support. The two consuls for 275 BC, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus and Manius Curius Dentatus, were fighting in Lucania and Samnium respectively.

The consul Manius Curius Dentatus expelled a contingent in Croton and seized the city.

The Battle of Beneventum was the last battle of the Pyrrhic War. It was fought near Beneventum, in southern Italy, between the forces of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus in Greece, and the Romans, led by consul Manius Curius Dentatus. The result was a Roman victory and Pyrrhus was forced to return to Tarentum, and later to Epirus.

When Pyrrhus returned to Italy in 275 BC, he fought the Battle of Beneventum against the Romans, which was to be the last battle of the war.

In 275, Pyrrhus left the island before he had to face a full-scale rebellion. He returned to Italy, where his Samnite allies were on the verge of losing the war, despite their earlier victory at the Cranita hills.

The war began with the Romans gaining a foothold on Sicily at Messana (modern Messina).

In 262, the Romans moved to the southern coast and besieged Akragas. In order to raise the siege, Carthage sent reinforcements, including 60 elephants – the first time they used them, but still lost the battle.

Romans launched an invasion of North Africa in 256 BC, which the Carthaginians intercepted at the Battle of Cape Ecnomus off the south coast of Sicily. The Carthaginians were again beaten.

The Battle of Cape Ecnomus or Eknomos was a naval battle, fought off southern Sicily, in 256 BC, between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic, during the First Punic War. The Carthaginian fleet was commanded by Hanno and Hamilcar; the Roman fleet jointly by the consuls for the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus.

Hostilities in Sicily resumed in 252, with the taking of Thermae by Rome. Carthage countered the following year, by besieging Lucius Caecilius Metellus, who held Panormos (now Palermo).

Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus was a two-time consul of the Roman Republic and a noted general who conquered Macedon, putting an end to the Antigonid dynasty in the Third Macedonian War.

The Battle of the Trebia (or Trebbia) was the first major battle of the Second Punic War, fought between the Carthaginian forces of Hannibal and a Roman army under Sempronius Longus on 22 or 23 December 218 BC.

The Second Punic War, which lasted from 218 to 201 BC, was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC.

The Battle of Lake Trasimene was fought when a Carthaginian force under Hannibal ambushed a Roman army commanded by Gaius Flaminius on 21 June 217 BC, during the Second Punic War.

In 216, the new consuls Aemilius Paullus and Terentius Varro mustered the biggest army possible, with eight legions (more than 80,000 soldiers) – twice as many as the Punic army – and confronted Hannibal, who was encamped at Cannae, in Apulia.

The Battle of Cannae was a key engagement of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and Carthage, fought on 2 August 216 BC near the ancient village of Cannae in Apulia, southeast Italy.

In 215, Hiero II of Syracuse died of old age, and his young grandson Hieronymus broke the long alliance with Rome to side with Carthage.

The First Macedonian War was fought by Rome, allied with the Aetolian League and Attalus I of Pergamon, against Philip V of Macedon, contemporaneously with the Second Punic War against Carthage.

The Battle of Baecula was a major field battle in Iberia during the Second Punic War. Roman Republican and Iberian auxiliary forces under the command of Scipio Africanus routed the Carthaginian army of Hasdrubal Barca.

In 208 the consuls Claudius Marcellus and Quinctius Crispinus were ambushed and killed near Venusia.

The Battle of the Metaurus was a pivotal battle in the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage, fought in 207 BC near the Metauro River in Italy.

The Battle of Ilipa was an engagement considered by many as Scipio Africanus’s most brilliant victory in his military career during the Second Punic War in 206 BC.

The Battle of the Great Plains was a battle between a Roman army commanded by Scipio Africanus and a combined Carthaginian-Numidian army late in the Second Punic War.

The Battle of Zama was fought in 202 BC near Zama, now in Tunisia, and marked the end of the Second Punic War. A Roman army led by Publius Cornelius Scipio, with crucial support from Numidian leader Masinissa, defeated the Carthaginian army led by Hannibal.

The 2nd century BC saw the dawn of the "golden age" of Roman winemaking and the development of grand cru vineyards (a type of early first growths in Rome).

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was a Popularis Roman politician best known for his agrarian reform law entailing the transfer of land from the Roman state and wealthy landowners to poorer citizens. Against stiff opposition in the aristocratic Senate, this legislation was carried through during his term as tribune of the plebs in 133 BC.

The Romans pressed on to besiege the city of Carthage. The Roman campaign suffered repeated setbacks through 149 BC.

Later in 149 BC, a large Roman army landed at Utica in North Africa.

The Third Punic War was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between Carthage and Rome.

The Battle of Lake Tunis was a series of engagements of the Third Punic War fought in 149 BC between the Carthaginians and the Roman Republic.

In 147 BC, the Romans blockaded Carthage and effectively cut off all supplies being sent to the defenders at Nepheris whose defense was being conducted by Diogenes of Carthage. Scipio surrounded the Carthaginian camp, forcing them to come out and give battle against the smaller Roman army.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the republic to seize power through force.

In 135, the first slave uprising, known as the First Servile War, broke out in Sicily. The First Servile War was a slave rebellion against the Roman Republic, which took place in Sicily.

The Gracchi brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, were Romans who both served as tribunes of the plebs between 133 and 121 BC. The Gracchi brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, were Romans who both served as tribunes of the plebs between 133 and 121 BC. They attempted to redistribute the occupation of the ager publicus— the public land hitherto controlled principally by aristocrats—to the urban poor and veterans, in addition to other social and constitutional reforms.

Tiberius' brother Gaius was elected tribune in 123. Gaius Gracchus' ultimate goal was to weaken the senate and to strengthen the democratic forces.

In 121, the province of Gallia Narbonensis was established after the victory of Quintus Fabius Maximus over a coalition of Arverni and Allobroges in southern Gaul in 123.