21H.331
Julius Caesar and the Fall of the Roman Republic
Ancient Rome from 133 to 27 BC. Explores political, social, and economic factors commonly offered to explain the fall of the Roman Republic: growth of the territorial empire, increased intensity of aristocratic competition, transformation of the Italian economy, growth of the city of Rome and dependence of the urban plebs, changes in military recruitment and dependence of soldiers on their generals. Emphasis on the reading of ancient sources in translation, including Cicero, Sallust, Caesar, Augustus, Appian, Plutarch, and Suetonius. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided. Taught in seminar format with emphasis on class participation. Limited to 15.
Spring 2016
Topics
- Introduction: Rome’s City-state Empire
- The Constitution of the Roman Republic
- Impact of Empire: The Elite and the Peasant-soldier
- Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
- The Gracchi as Watershed
- Marius the ‘New Man’: Sallust’s Jugurthine War
- Marius, the Army, and the Politics of Land
- The Social War and the Unification of Italy
- Civil War I: Marius and Sulla
- The Dictatorship of Sulla
- Pompey and the Special Command
- Cicero Saves the Republic: The Conspiracy of Catiline
- The Three-headed Monster: Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar
- Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul
- The Urban Plebs and Publius Clodius
- Pompey the Great
- Civil War II: Crossing the Rubicon
- The Roman Revolution
- Opposing Caesar: Cato & Marcellus
- Plutarch’s Caesar
- The Ides of March
- The Villain of the Piece: Marc Antony
- Civil War III: Antony and Octavian
- The Emergence of the Augustan Principate
- Fall of the Republic: Revolution, Crisis, Transformation
- Conclusion
Readings
- [C] = Caesar. The Conquest of Gaul . Translated by S. A. Handford. Revised with a new introduction by Jane P. Gardner. Penguin Classics, 1983. ISBN: 9780140444339.
- [CA] = Caesar, Julius. The Gallic War (Oxford World’s Classics) . Translated by Carolyn Hammond. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199540266.
- [CM] = Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero . Translated by E.S. Shuckburgh. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016. ISBN: 9781534847071.
- [P] = Plutarch. Roman Lives (Oxford World’s Classics) . Translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780199537389.
- [PO] = Polybius. The Rise of the Roman Empire . Translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert. Penguin Classics, 1980. ISBN: 9780140443622.
- [R] = Rosenstein, Nathan, and Robert Morstein-Marx, eds. A Companion to the Roman Republic . Wiley-Blackwell, 2006. ISBN: 9781405102179.
- [SC] = Scullard, H.H. From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 BC to AD 68 . 5th edition. Routledge, 1982. ISBN: 9780415025270.
- SES #: 1 · TOPICS: Introduction: Rome’s City-state Empire · READINGS: No readings assigned
- [CR] Lintott, Andrew. Chapter 1: The Crisis of the Republic: Sources and Source-Problems.
- [R] North, John A. Chapter 12: The Constitution of the Roman Republic.
- [R] Yakobson, Alexander. Chapter 18: Popular Power in the Roman Republic.
- Hopkins, Keith. “Conquerors and Slaves: The Impact of Conquering an Empire on the Political Economy of Italy.” In Roman Imperialism: Readings and Sources . Edited by Craige B. Champion. Blackwell Publishing, 2003. ISBN: 9780631231196.
- [SC] Chapter 1: Rome at the Cross-roads.
- [SC] Chapter 2: The Gracchi.
- SES #: 5 · TOPICS: The Gracchi as Watershed · READINGS: Badian, E. “Tiberius Gracchus and the Beginning of the Roman Revolution.” In Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (ANRW) / Rise and Decline of the German World Inhaltsverzeichnis mit Autorenregister . Edited by Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Hasse. De Gruyter, 1996. ISBN: 9783110155747.
- [SC] Chapter 3: The Rise and Fall of Marius, pp. 42–51.
- [SC] Chapter 3: The Rise and Fall of Marius, pp. 51–60.
- [CR] Gabba, E. Chapter 4: Rome and Italy: The Social War.
- [SC] Chapter 4: The Rise and Fall of Sulla, pp. 61–68.
- [SC] Chapter 4: The Rise and Fall of Sulla, pp. 68–84.
- Flower, Harriet I. “Am Alternative to a Crisis: Sulla’s New Republic.” Section 7 in Roman Republics . Princeton University Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780691152585.
- [SC] Chapter 5: The Rise of Pompey.
- [SC] Chapter 6: Pompey and Caesar.
- Wiseman, T.P., ed. “Competition and Co-operation.” Chapter 1 in Roman Political Life 90 BC-AD 69 . Liverpool University Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780859892254.
- [SC] Chapter 7: The Domination of Caesar, pp. 126–34.
- [CR] Purcell, Nicholas. Chapter 17: The City of Rome and the Plebs Urbana in the Late Republic.
- SES #: 16 · TOPICS: Pompey the Great · READINGS: [P] “Pompey.”
- [SC] Chapter 7: The Domination of Caesar, pp. 134–43.
- Caesar. “Part 1: The Struggle Begins.” In The Civil War of Caesar . Translated with an introduction by Jane F. Gardner. Penguin Classics, 1976, pp. 35–41. ISBN: 9780140441871.
- Meier, Christian. “The Process of the Crisis without Alternative, Caesar’s Right to the Civil War, his Greatness.” Chapter 12 in Caesar: A Biography . Basic Books, 1997. ISBN: 9780465008957.
- Sutonius. “The Deified Julius Caesar.” In Lives of the Caesars (Oxford World’s Classics) . Translated with an introduction and notes by Catherine Edwards. Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780199537563.
- ———. “Explanatory Notes.” In Lives of the Caesars (Oxford World’s Classics) . Translated with an introduction and notes by Catherine Edwards. Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 297–309. ISBN: 9780199537563.
- Brunt, P.A. “The Army and the Land in the Roman Revolution.” Chapter 5 in The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays . Clarendon Press, 1988, pp. 240–75. ISBN: 9780198148494.
- [SC] Chapter 7: The Domination of Caesar, pp. 143–53.
- SES #: 22 · TOPICS: The Villain of the Piece: Marc Antony · READINGS: [CI] “Philippic II.”
- [SC] Chapter 8: The Second Triumvirate.
- SES #: 25 · TOPICS: Fall of the Republic: Revolution, Crisis, Transformation · READINGS: [R] Chapter 29: The Transformation of the Republic.
- SES #: 26 · TOPICS: Conclusion · READINGS: No readings assigned
- Plutarch. Roman Lives (Oxford World’s Classics) . Translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780199537389.
- Scullard, H.H. From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 BC to AD 68 . 5th edition. Routledge, 1982. ISBN: 9780415025270.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2016
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.