Having conquered Greece, the Romans were in turn conquered by its culture,
this culture was less of abstract Greek philosophy than a taste for Greek
wine and Literature. Roman conquest over the Mediterranean world formed
greater and greater gap between the poor and the rich people. Romans who
were grown up under the great influence of traditional Roman culture ,that
is, authority, patriotism, piety and simplicity couldn't withstand the
attraction of Hellenistic civilization with its wealth, luxuries and individual
values. Finally, the Roman government cold not restrain the ambitions of
its oligarchs or protect the interests of its ordinary citizens and this
ignited beginning of the end of the Roman Republic.
The real winners that
is ones who were most benefited after the conquests were optimates
whose wealth and power growth beyond imagination. in fact the minority
of the society were the winners. There were also the losers , tens of thousands
of people who were sold into slavery, farmer soldiers who were obligated
to serve in the army and lost their homes and prosperity and the Italian
allies who had to serve in the army but have not got the rights of Roman
citizens as a result there were many revolts throughout the history
of the Roman Republic. Roman government and as a part of it the Roman republican
constitution remained insufficient to meet the demands of the expansion
and the new problems .
To prevent these revolts
and stop the recession of the Republic reforms were tried to be introduced
by some Roman politicians and commanders. These reforms focused on the
subjects of land and extension of citizenship. For instance,
Tiberius Gracchus descended from the aristocracy wanted give away
the huge tracts of land to Roman veterans but much of the state was in
the hands of aristocracy and senators and they opposed this reform.
Land act passed with the help of tribunes however Senators who were furious
at being circumvented killed Tiberius and 300 of his supporters.
There were several other reformers who followed Tiberius and shared
the same unfortunate end. This reveals one of the deficiency of
the Constitution that there were no laws to protect these reformists
and also reveals that although Tiberius Land Act was law, it
was essentially ignored which means the circumvention of the
constitution.
During this period,
Roman politicians forged close bonds with the soldiers of their armies.
Individual commanders, not the state or the Senate, ensured that their
recruits received their pay, obtained land upon their retirement. In turn,
the soldiers became fanatically devoted to their commanders and the Republican
armies became personal armies, potent tools in the hands of ambitious politicians.
As a result, great bloody civil wars occurred when the Senate and
a powerful commander or two commanders got into conflict because
of their personal benefits and ambitions. One of these commanders Lucius
Cornelius Sulla became a dictator in 82 B.C. defeating 100.000 army
of the Senate. Once he had implemented all the reforms he thought
necessary, the dictator resigned in 79 and retired to his estates. He
returned control of Rome to the Senate and refused to be drawn
back into politics. He died the following year. After his death since there
was no law of succession in the Constitution powerful generals and the
Senate got into conflict this resulted in civil wars.
Main causes
of the failure of Roman Republic Constitution can
be summarized as follows . Roman law and politics was unable to deal with
the political gangs, the assassinations, the terrorism, the proscriptions.
The end of this covers a quarter century of almost unbroken civil war.
Few political structures could survive that. The acquisition of numerous
large provinces required new laws about land reforms and extension
of citizenship. Even though several reformist tried to realize part
of these reforms they did not made a complete revolution in the constitution
since there were no law of succession in the Constitution these partly
reforms did not last after the death of reformist. Hence, Roman Republican
Constitution fail to function properly in the period from 146 to 31 B.C.