Research Paper on Rome

In my attempt to answer question number 1 I am going to say that there was not enough democracy. First of all I want to identify what democracy is. Democracy is government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives. I just want to start with a broad idea of how can the optimates believe that they could portray themselves as representing the true essence of Rome? Only if the true essence of Rome was to limit the power of the poor and boast the power of the rich, where the optimates truly betraying the essence of Rome. But I do not believe that the true essence of Rome was that. I believe that the true essences of Rome lay in the hands of the populares. They represented the people and what they believed in.

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I want to state that I do not think that there was enough democracy in Rome. One idea to back this up was stated very clearly by Polybius, "For if one fixed one's eyes on the power of the consuls, the constitution seemed completely monarchical and royal; if on that of the senate it seemed again to be aristocratic; and when one looked at the power of the masses, it seemed clearly to be a democracy." The consul and senate held nearly all power in Rome around130BC so that shows you how Polybius fells that it seemed to be more like a monarchical. But I believe when Tiberius Gracchus came into power in 133BC he tried to give some of the rights back to the masses. He proposed a land reform that would reclaim public land that was taken from peasant farmers. There was much opposition to this idea by the senate, because it would take much land from wealthy land owners. One of the tribunes tried to veto the idea Tiberius had Octavius removed. "If the assembly could pass laws after they had been opposed by the senate and vetoed by a tribune, then Rome would no longer be an oligarchical republic but a direct democracy." This shows that Tiberius was trying to bring Rome to a democracy. But since he had lost his protection of his office, he tried to run for a second term at tribune. The rest of the tribunes fearing a tyrant had him killed. Showing even more that the optimates did not want democracy. The term that Tiberius had served showed that if someone had the backing of the masses then he could gain political power. This started the idea of populares and optimates.

Next to come to power was Tiberius's brother Gaius. He continued where his brother left off with trying to make Rome into a democracy. "He revived efforts to redistribute public land; when supplies of land proved insufficient, he proposed new colonies; and he put through a law stabilizing the price of grain in Rome." All of these efforts where for the populares group and was very frowned upon by the optimates. The senate again fearing a democracy had a Gracchus killed.

The tide begins to turn to the side of the populares when C. Marius was elected to consul. He opens the army to the poor, which scared the senate because his army thought more of him then they did Rome, so the senate allowed Marius to be elected consul six consecutive times. After Marius came Pompey he had gained more power then any Roman in past history. The senate again fearing democracy or as they would state a dictatorship, they seek help. They find help in the form of a rich yet of the popular party, Caesar. This gave the senate a way to rally the people. Cicero was the opposition to Caesar. He hoped to create an alliance between the senate and the equestrians that would give all power to the optimates. Again showing that the optimate party was not representing the true essence of Rome but trying to deepen their own pockets.

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