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Slave Revolts in Sicily

p The first striking example of the acute class struggle within the Roman state was the wave of slave revolts in Sicily.

p Sicily had become a Roman province governed by a Roman commander. It was an extremely fertile island, where the large landowner magnates had numerous estates worked by thousands of slaves. The uprising started on the estate of a certain Damophilus, one of these magnates who treated his slaves with exceptional cruelty. Damophilus was murdered and his villa was burnt down.

p This event served as a signal for a mass revolt. The centre of the revolt was the city of Enna, which the slaves succeeded in capturing under the leadership of a Syrian slave named Eunus. Soon afterwards Agrigentum also fell into their hands. Here the insurgent slaves were led by Cleon, a former Cilician shepherd. The terrified slave-owners counted on differences arising between the two leaders and the two sides taking up arms against each other. However, this did not happen—on the contrary, the two camps joined forces. By this time almost the whole of Sicily was in the hands of the slaves. As the majority of the insurgents were Syrians they proclaimed the foundation of a neo-Syrian kingdom and elected Eunus as king, conferring on him the traditional name for Syrian kings, that of Antiochus.

The Roman troops stationed in Sicily were defeated on several occasions by the insurgent slaves. The Romans were obliged to send a large army, led by a consul. However, the struggle was a long and bitter one; altogether fighting lasted for no less than four years (136-132 B.C.). The revolt was suppressed with extreme cruelty. After an interval of about thirty years (104-99) a new slave revolt broke out in Sicily and again the island was in the hands of the slaves for a considerable time. Once again the Romans only succeeded in suppressing the uprising after sending large forces to the island.

The Revolt of the Gracchi

At the time of the first slave uprising in Sicily a wide democratic movement was also growing up in Rome, which came to be known as the movement of the Gracchi brothers.

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p Tiberius Gracchus was born into the plebeian section of the nobility, a descendant of the line of Sempronius and related to the Scipios. In the year 133 he was elected tribune and announced his famous plan for a new agrarian law, the essence of which consisted in a proposal to set up a limit for the size of landed estates, which were not to exceed 1,000 jugers (a juger = about 0.62 acre) per family. He also proposed that surplus land should be confiscated or redistributed among the poorest citizens in lots of 30 jugers. A commission of three persons was to be elected and granted an absolutely free hand.

p When he put forward these plans Tiberius Gracchus was setting himself two tasks: to reconsolidate the impoverished peasantry and to uphold Roman military power, in as far as the basis of this power was a peasant army. However, his proposals were violently opposed by the majority of the senators, who were all important landowners.

p A bitter struggle ensued. One of Tiberius Gracchus’ fellow- tribunes, Marcus Octavius, under pressure from the opponents of the agrarian law made use of his tribune’s veto. In response to this action Tiberius Gracchus forbade all officers of state to put through any state business before the day when the new law would be put to the vote.

p When the day of voting came and the plebeian tribal assembly convened, Tiberius Gracchus put to the assembled the question as to whether a tribune acting against the interests of the people should remain in office. The unanimous answer was negative and Octavius was stripped of his office. After that the new law was passed without any obstruction and Tiberius Gracchus, his brother Gaius and his father-in-law Appius Claudius were elected to form the commission.

p In the course of a year the commission carried out its work in extremely difficult conditions. The wave of hatred of the nobility and senators for Tiberius Gracchus grew and when, desirous of carrying out his reform to the end Tiberius again stood for office at the next elections (132 B.C.), a skirmish broke out in the Popular Assembly. Tiberius Gracchus and about 300 of his supporters were killed and their bodies were thrown into the Tiber.

p After Tiberius’ murder the opponents of the reform triumphed. Howevef, their rejoicing was short-lived. In the year 123 Tiberius’ younger brother Gaius was elected tribune. Gaius who was a figure still more resolute and radical than his brother openly opposed the Senate and in his struggle against it sought suppo.rt from the poorest sections of the city populace. In their interest he put through the so-called corn law which stipulated that grain from the state granaries should be sold at reduced prices. Also in the interest of this social stratum Gaius Gracchus introduced a 101 law for the foundation of a number of colonies. This was a most timely measure, since the lands which had been redistributed after the introduction of the agrarian reform had since been disposed of. A number of colonies were set up in southern Italy and plans were made for founding another on the site of ruined Carthage.

p As a result of his introduction of all these measures Gaius achieved that which had eluded his brother—he was elected tribune a second time, in 122 B.C. Yet Gaius’ political enemies were not standing idle. They made the most of the fact that Gaius was planning to set up a colony in Carthage, on which an eternal curse had been laid. Apart from this, during the second year of his tribuneship Gaius Gracchus proposed that the rights—and hence the privileges as well—of Roman citizens be granted to all the Italic peoples. Gracchus’ enemies, the supporters of the Senate, did not find it particularly difficult to convince the Romans that the introduction of such a law would not be in their interests, since apart from other reasons the Italics would then be able to lay just as much claim to all types of military booty as the Romans themselves.

p Before the elections for the next year, 121 B.C., almost the whole population of Rome was divided into two hostile camps. Gracchus’ supporters seized the Aventine Hill and prepared for a siege. The Senate declared a state of war in the city and sent special troops to storm the Aventine. The resistance of Gracchus’ men was soon suppressed. Not wishing to be captured by the enemy alive Gracchus ordered one of his slaves to kill him. The victors avenged themselves most cruelly and slew three thousand of Gracchus’ supporters.

The movement led by the Gracchi brothers was suppressed, but its impact was to make itself felt in the subsequent history of Rome. It sowed the seeds for a broad revolutionary movement which started in Rome and then spread over the whole of Italy among the peasantry and the city poor. This movement was a fight for land, political rights and a more democratic state.

Roman Society at the End of the Second
and Beginning of the First Century. The Social War

p A feature of Roman society at this period was the hostile relations between the various classes and estates. The main hostile camps, as we have seen, were those of the slave-owners and slaves. But apart from these two basic groups, there existed another class best referred to as the class of free producers, which included the middle and poor peasants and a wide assortment of artisans.

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p The Romans themselves did not divide society up into these classes as such but defined a number of estates which sometimes corresponded almost exactly with the above class divisions. The highest estate in Roman society was that of the nobility or senators, which included the noble and rich families which had always played an important part in state affairs. The main source of these families’ wealth was their landed estates. Representatives of this estate often occupied the highest posts and were members of the Senate. The second most important estate was that of the so-called equites. This name did not imply at all that they served in the cavalry: the term was a relic from the past and by this stage of Roman history was applied to rich citizens not of noble descent, traders and money-lenders. Finally, the rest of the population was referred to by the traditional term of plebs. In the country, the plebs meant the peasants and in the towns the artisans, small traders, master craftsmen and shop-keepers. Slaves in the Romans’ eyes did not form a separate estate, although in practice they made up a separate, self-contained estate, deprived of any rights.

p In the political life of Rome it was the senators who always pursued the most reactionary, anti-democratic course. The bastion of democracy both in town and country were the plebs. The equites occupied a position between the two. They often supported the plebs, especially in the towns, but when they considered that the plebs were taking too revolutionary a stand, then they would go over to the side of the aristocracy. The slaves occupied a position of negligible importance in Roman political life.

p After the revolt of the Gracchi, despite the hard measures adopted by the nobility, the democratic forces in Roman society started to take a firmer stand. It proved impossible to altogether halt the movement which had been started by the Gracchi brothers. Moreover, the senators had seriously compromised themselves during the war with the Numidian King Jugurtha. It turned out that this war had been waged inefficiently and without success because Jugurtha had bribed various Roman senators and even generals. The war took a different course only after the command had been entrusted to a military commander who was not of noble descent but extremely talented and a favourite with democratic circles—Gaius Marius. He not only succeeded in subduing Jugurtha, but also in averting a much greater danger threatening Rome from the north—the threat of invasion by the Cimbri and the Teutons (tribes of Gallic and Germanic origin).

p Marius introduced extremely important military and political reforms. Since the laws of Servius Tullius had been adopted only members of the five propertied classes had been eligible for military service, while proletarii had been excluded. Marius did 103 away with these restrictions and this resulted in radical changes in the social structure of the army. While hitherto the main bulk of the army had been made up of more or less prosperous peasants, the role and influence of the poorer social strata now started to make themselves felt much more.

p At the end of the second and beginning of the first century B.C. the democratic movement consolidated still further. A number of tribunes, followers of the Gracchi, came to play an important role in Roman politics. For example, in the year 100 Saturninus introduced a law for the distribution of land to Marius’ soldiers and a new reduction in the price of bread. Then in 91 B.C. Marcus Livius Drusus put forward a proposal for making the Italics fullyfledged citizens. Yet at this period the forces of reaction, in particular the Senate, were still strong enough to resist such reforms. Drusus was murdered: yet on this occasion his murder served as a signal for a popular uprising throughout Italy.

p The civil war which swept over the whole of Italy lasted for two whole years (90-88 B.C.), and never before had Rome found itself in such a dire predicament. Rome’s victory on this occasion was only a formal one—only after the Italics had been promised equal rights did they agree to cease hostilities, and this issue after all had been the cause of the war.

This civil war was to play a major role in the subsequent history of Rome. In as far as all the inhabitants of Italy had now become Roman citizens, the city of Rome and its people lost their previous importance and their privileged position. In fact, the outcome of this war represented a victory for Italy as a whole over Rome.

The Struggle Betwen Marius and Sulla

p While the civil war was still going on, new hostilities flared up in the East. Here the Romans found themselves in an extremely dangerous predicament. The Pontic King, Mithridates VI, came forward as the champion of the interests of the peoples of the East.

p Mithridates VI was undoubtedly an outstanding figure. Extremely tall and strong, he possessed a wide education including a command of 22 languages. He succeeded in extending the frontiers of his kingdom to include the Kingdom of the Bosporus, Colchis and Little Armenia. In the year 88 he invaded the Roman possessions in Asia Minor with a large army. The local population welcomed him as a liberator and when Mithridates gave the signal, 30,000 Romans in the cities of Asia Minor were slain in one day. On this mounting tide of success Mithridates then advanced to occupy Greece.

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p The command of the Roman army sent to meet Mithridates was entrusted to Sulla, who had been elected consul in the year 88. He had gained a reputation as a gifted military commander in the course of the recent civil war. However, Sulla was known to be a supporter of the Senate, and the people of Rome led by the tribune Sulpicius Rufus opposed the choice of Sulla. The Popular Assembly decided to appoint Marius in Sulla’s place to lead this campaign.

p When Sulla learnt of this decision—at the time he was in the south of Italy with his army—he made a speech to the soldiers. After winning them round to his point of view Sulla marched on Rome with his army. Fighting broke out in the streets of the city: Sulpicius Rufus was killed and Marius fled. Thus for the first time in its long history Rome was captured by rebel Roman soldiers. After this, Sulla set out with his troops for Greece, where he spent almost three years and won a number of victories over Mithridates, which enabled him to drive all enemy forces out of Greece. Sulla did not march as far as Asia Minor, since Mithridates had already sued for peace. Sulla by this time also needed to bring hostilities to an end, since during his absence Marius had seized power in Rome and circumstances demanded his speedy return.

The coup d’etat which had taken place in Rome had been led by Cinna and Marius, who had been elected consul for the seventh time. However, soon after entering office Marius died. Nevertheless Sulla was obliged to take Rome by force once again. In the spring of 83 B.C. he landed with his army in the south of Italy and this marked the beginning of the next stage of the Italian civil war. Sulla emerged the victor and after marching on Rome for the second time he succeeded in setting up a dictatorship. In order to mete out punishment to his political opponents he introduced what were known as proscriptions, special lists of persons Sulla chose to outlaw and whom anyone could kill and even receive a reward for doing so. In this way more than 100 senators and 2,500 equites were slain. Sulla introduced a number of anti-democratic laws, which limited the powers of the tribunes, forbade corn doles, etc. However Sulla’s reign of terror did not last long and the laws he introduced were soon abolished.

The Spartacus Revolt

p The revolt of the slaves led by Spartacus was the most dramatic and large-scale slave uprising in the whole history of the ancient world. It started in the year 73 and lasted until 71 B.C.

p The initial conspiracy of approximately 200 slaves took place in 105 one of the gladiator schools in the town of Capua. The conspiracy was discovered, but a small group of slaves numbering about 80 managed to escape. They set up their camp on Mount Vesuvius and chose Spartacus to lead them. He was a truly gifted leader, a talented organiser and military commander. He came from Thrace and seems to have served in the Roman auxiliary forces before being sold into slavery for desertion.

p At first little importance was attached to this conspiracy and the escape of the gladiators. However, Spartacus’ forces quickly grew, and the Romans eventually sent out a detachment three thousand strong against him. This detachment gained control of the sole descent from Vesuvius thus cutting off the slave army’s communications. However, this gave Spartacus a chance to put his talents as a military commander to the test for the first time. At his command the slaves made ropes out of grape vine tendrils and under cover of night a small group of them made their way to the rear of the enemy camp and succeeded in routing the Roman troops. Soon Spartacus’ army numbered several thousand and before long the slaves had overrun almost the whole of southern Italy.

p At this stage however a split took place in the insurgent slave army, which can most probably be accounted for by the fact that Spartacus’ army included slaves of various nationalities—- Thracians, Greeks, Gauls and Germans. Two detachments split away from the main army, and were soon defeated by the Romans. Spartacus meanwhile moved north, and later near the town of Mutina scored a further resounding victory, which marked the high-point of his success. Soon after this his army totalled 120,000 men.

p After the battle of Mutina Spartacus turned towards Rome. True panic broke out in the city, such as the Romans had probably not experienced since the time of Hannibal. The Senate accorded emergency powers to an extremely rich slave-owner Marcus Crassus and sent him to lead the legions against Spartacus.

p Spartacus however by-passed Rome and marched south. It is most probable that he was planning to set sail for Sicily. However, this proved impossible to organise due to the lack of ships, and the rafts which the slaves built for this purpose were wrecked by a storm. By this time Crassus and his army had succeeded in catching up with the slaves. The decisive battle was to take place in the year 71 in southern Italy. Before the battle began Spartacus’ men brought their leader a horse but he drew his sword and killed it, declaring that if he was to be victorious then there would be an abundance of the finest horses at his disposal and if he was to lose then he would not need any horse at all. After a bloody 106 battle in which losses were high on both sides, the slaves were defeated. Spartacus himself, after putting up a heroic fight was killed on the field.

The slave revolt was brutally suppressed. By way of revenge and to rub in their triumph the victors had six thousand slaves crucified along the road leading from Capua, the town where the uprising had started, to Rome. The Spartacus revolt was indicative of just how acute the contradictions between the two main classes of Roman society—the slaves and the slave-owners—had grown.

Pompey’s Eastern Campaign

p At almost the same time as the outbreak of the Spartacus revolt a new war began against Mithridates (74-64 B.C.). For the first seven years of this war Rome’s Eastern army was commanded by the experienced Lucullus. He scored a number of major successes but was unable to crush Mithridates completely. In addition, his extreme severity evoked strong dissatisfaction on the part of the soldiers. This led to the Popular Assembly (against the wishes of the Senate) giving the command of the Eastern army to Pompey.

p Gnaeus Pompey had made a name for himself when Sulla was still in power and consolidated his reputation during the civil war. Later he was sent to help Crassus put down the Spartacus revolt. He did not succeed in joining forces with Crassus in time for the main battle but after Spartacus had been slain he encountered and routed a large detachment of the slave army which had escaped and was moving north. In the year 67 he won great popularity as a result of his energetic and successful campaign against the pirates terrorising the whole of the Mediterranean coast. Pompey was to carry out his next task—the defeat of Mithridates—equally successfully. He not only routed the army of the Pontic king but entered Armenia and succeeded in turning it into a vassal kingdom, gave support to the uprising in the Kingdom of the Bosporus, after which Mithridates committed suicide, and finally conquered Syria and Judaea. In Asia Minor he re-established and refounded a number of Rome’s small subject states. As was proclaimed at the time of his triumphal entry into Rome after the campaign, Pompey had defeated 22 kings, conquered 1,538 towns and fortresses and subjugated some 12 million people. Pompey’s Eastern Campaign completed the subjugation of the Hellenistic East (with the exception of Egypt) which had begun after the Second Punic War.

p At the time when Pompey returned to Rome with his army the Catiline conspiracy was exposed and crushed. Lucius Sergius 107 Catiline member of a long line of patricians, led a movement which aimed at carrying out a coup d’etat and abolishing debts This secondary aim of the conspirators attracted both the younger generation of the aristocracy, which was up to its eyes in debt, and the poorer sections of the townspeople.

The famous orator Cicero who had been elected consul in 63 B.C. actively opposed Catiline and his accomplices. First he succeeded in having Catiline banished from Rome and later in having the remaining leaders of the conspiracy who had stayed behind arrested. At a specially convened meeting of the Senate their lot was decided and on that same evening they were all executed. Meanwhile Catiline gathered together a small army in Etruna, against which the Senate sent out troops under consul Antonius. During the gnm battle that ensued Catiline and some three thousand of his supporters met death bravely.

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The First Triumvirate and the Gallic War

p Soon after the Catiline conspiracy had been crushed political power in Rome was seized by three outstanding commanders who formed the First Triumvirate (60 B.C.)—a coalition of three rulers—which was soon to be aptly christened "the three-headed monster”. Its members were Pompey, Crassus and Julius Caesar.

p Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) was not yet such a prominent figure as Crassus and Pompey. However, he was a man of tremendous ambition, energy and talent. He soon became the virtual leader of the Triumvirate, particularly after being elected consul in 59 B.C. As consul, Caesar tried to pursue the policies of the democratic tribunes. He introduced an agrarian law which decreed that plots of land should be allotted to Pompey’s former soldiers (veterans).

p However, Caesar realised that the democratic sections of the population, i.e., the plebs both in the towns and in the country could not provide him with the firm support he required to further his ambitious drive for power. This required devoted and well-armed troops. This led Caesar to go out of his way to gain the governorship of the province of Gaul for five years. Since Gaul still had to be conquered, Caesar was given permission to assemble an army.

p The conquest of Gaul took seven years. The first enemy to be encountered by Caesar was the tribe of the Helveti (living on the territory of present-day Switzerland). Then he was faced by the Suebi led by Ariovistus. Finally, after a long fight against the Belgae, Gaul was conquered and declared a Roman province. In honour of these victories the Senate ordained thanksgiving rites lasting for fifteen days.

p In the spring of the year 56 in Luca (northern Etruria) a meeting of the triumvirs took place and Caesar’s powers in Gaul were extended for a further five years. In 55 B.C. Caesar carried out an expedition to the Rhine to subdue Germanic tribes there and in 54 B.C. he landed in Britain.

p However, it soon emerged that Gaul was far from subdued. In the year 54 a wide-scale Gallic uprising broke out. The initiators of this uprising were the Arverni tribes led by Vercingetorix. The Romans were in a very difficult position. Caesar only had 60,000 men against the enemy’s 300,000. It was Caesar’s skilful manoeuvring, his talent for organisation and military leadership and subtle diplomacy, helped by a feud in the ranks of the insurgent army, which enabled the Romans to emerge victorious from this battle. In the year 51 B.C. the last insurgent strongholds were crushed.

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The harvest of the conquest of Gaul was tremendous. Caesar subjugated 300 tribes, took 800 towns by storm and took a million prisoners. He also brought back to Rome tremendous booty: in Rome the price of gold dropped steeply and it was sold by the pound. All these factors helped to increase Caesar’s popularity.

The Civil War

p By the end of the Gallic War the First Triumvirate had virtually ceased to exist following the defeat and death of Crassus in Parthia. As for Caesar and Pompey, the more successful and popular the former became, the colder and more hostile were the relations between them. After Caesar’s term of office in Gaul had come to an end it was required of him that he disband his legions.

p However, this Caesar did not do and the Senate then declared him an enemy of the fatherland and instructed Pompey to muster an army in Italy to counter him.

p Caesar did not waste time waiting for Pompey. In January of 49 B.C. with one of his legions he crossed the Rubicon which marked the boundary between the territory under Caesar’s command and Italy. According to tradition, he crossed the Rubicon with the words "The die is cast”, since he realised that his action marked the beginning of a new chapter of civil war.

p The towns of northern Italy put up hardly any resistance to Caesar’s troops. Pompey, who had not had time to make the necessary preparations for war, took refuge in the Balkans where he was followed by a large number of the senators. Caesar entered Rome without resistance. There was no sense in his remaining there for long though, and so he set off with his troops for Spain, where there were seven legions loyal to Pompey. Having defeated them and thus made sure of his rear, Caesar decided to cross over to the Balkans.

p At the outset Caesar’s campaign against Pompey was rather unsuccessful. On one occasion Caesar suffered a major defeat, but his opponent did not follow up his victory with sufficient energy, and Caesar was able to retain the bulk of his army. The decisive battle was fought in 48 B.C. near the town of Pharsalus. Pompey’s army was defeated and he fled to Egypt where he was treacherously murdered.

p Caesar followed Pompey to Egypt. Here he interfered in local affairs of state and intrigues, coming to the aid of Queen Cleopatra against her brother. This led to the outbreak of an uprising in Alexandria which Caesar was hard put to it to suppress. After that Caesar was obliged to move east against Pharnaces, son of 110 Mithridates. Caesar brought this campaign to a successful conclusion with lightning speed, in a mere five days, and then sent to the Senate his famous message "Veni, vidi, vici".

p Pompey’s main forces were now in Africa and with them was Caesar’s inveterate enemy Cato the Younger. In the year 46 B.C. an important battle took place near Thapsus on the eastern coast of the Roman province of Africa, near present-day Tunis. Pompey’s army was routed once and for all and Cato committed suicide. Soon afterwards Caesar succeeded in subduing Numidia and in the summer of that same year he returned to Rome where lavish celebrations were held in honour of his victories over Gaul, Egypt, Pontus and Numidia.

p However, the struggle against Pompey’s supporters was not yet over. Pompey’s sons succeeded in renewing the fighting, this time in Spain. In the year 45, at the battle of Munda, Caesar dealt the final blow to his enemies, although only after a long struggle costing many lives. Caesar himself admitted that on this occasion he had fought not for victory but for his very life.

p So the civil war was over at last and Caesar was made dictator for life. There seemed now to be no limits to his power. The Popular Assembly obediently carried out his wishes and state offices were allotted in accordance with his recommendations.

p Monarchistic leanings in Caesar’s behaviour gradually came more and more to the fore. On several occasions his closest followers tried to persuade Caesar to accept the crown. When Caesar began to prepare for an expedition against the Parthians to avenge Crassus’ death, rumours started to spread in Rome that only a king could conquer Parthia.

All this led to dissatisfaction not only among the people but also among a number of senators who regarded Caesar as a tyrant. A conspiracy was organised against him and on March 15th, 44 B.C. Caesar was murdered in the Senate, stabbed to death by a group of conspirators led by Brutus and Cassius. Twenty-three wounds were found in his body.

The Second Triumvirate

p Unrest broke out after Caesar’s murder. Public sympathy in Rome was against the conspirators, and Brutus and Cassius were obliged to flee the city. The virtual master of Rome after this was Mark Antony, one of Caesar’s closest friends who had been elected consul in 44 B.C.

p Soon afterwards a dangerous young rival appeared on the scene. This was Caesar’s nineteen-year-old adopted son Octavian. At first Mark Antony treated him with scorn but Octavian 111 replied by concluding a temporary alliance with the Senate. Cicero put his eloquence at the service of Octavian and directed all the blows of his skilful oratory against the new tyrant Mark Antony. The last chapter of the civil wars now opened. The Senate commissioned Octavian to take up arms against Mark Antony, who was defeated. While the Senate was making ready to celebrate its success, Octavian betrayed them and came to an agreement with Mark Antony and another well-known supporter of Caesar’s, Lepidus, to set up a Second Triumvirate. This alliance ( unlike the First Triumvirate) was officially recognised by the Popular Assembly. The triumvirs unleashed a reign of unprecedented terror—many thousands perished as victims of their proscriptions and one of the first of these was Mark Antony’s implacable enemy, Cicero.

p Meanwhile the former leaders of the conspiracy against Julius Caesar—Brutus and Cassius—had collected together a large army in the Balkans. The triumvirs set out against them and in the year 42 the two armies met near Philippi in Macedonia. In the battle which ensued Brutus and Cassius were killed in what represented a final defeat for the supporters of the former Senate republic.

p As was the case with the First Triumvirate, so now once again serious friction arose between the triumvirs. Lepidus, indeed, never represented a force to be contended with, but Mark Antony who had set off for the East made an alliance with Cleopatra and set himself up not only as Roman governor but as a new autocrat, if not successor to Alexander the Great. He disposed of Rome’s eastern territories as if they were his personal possessions making gifts of whole provinces to Cleopatra’s children.

p All these acts led up to the final split between Octavian and Antony. The Romans officially declared war on Cleopatra and in the autumn of 31 B.C. the Egyptian fleet was defeated at the battle of Actium. Soon afterwards Octavian’s troops put in at Alexandria and Antony and then Cleopatra committed suicide. Thus Egypt, the last of the Hellenistic Mediterranean states, became part of the Roman state. Its sole ruler possessing unlimited powers was Octavian. The civil war was finally at an end.

On January 13th, 27 B.C. Octavian made a crafty move, hypocritically declaring in the Senate and the Popular Assembly that he was preparing to reject his emergency powers and "re- establish" the republic. However, the senators persuaded him to retain state power and bestowed on him the honorary title of Augustus. That day marked the beginning of the rule of Augustus Caesar, the first Roman Emperor. The republic had ceased to exist and the era of the Roman Empire had begun.