Essays on Roman Republic

“Et tu, Brute?” Many people recognize this pithy question as Julius Caesar’s last words upon seeing Roman senator Marcus Julius Brutus, with whom he had a relationship akin to that of a father and son, among his murderers on March 15, 44 BC. The phrase roughly translates to, “You too, Brutus?”. However, there is no historical evidence these were Caesar’s last words; more likely; they were popularized by William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in the sixteenth century. Known as the Ides of March, Caesar’s death is one of the most famous political overthrows in all of ...

The Late Republic the period following the rise of the Gracchi was known largely as a time period where chaos, disorder and the breakdown of tradition conspired to break down the Roman state that had functioned largely harmoniously since the end of the conflict of the orders and especially during the Middle Republic a time period ruled by the crisis of the Punic Wars. The Roman state and its Constitution were ruled not by any set of written down laws, but by tradition and the power of prestige.  The Late republic was marked for a general breakdown of this ...

The Influence of the Repeal of the British Usury Laws

Introduction The recent few years have experienced a dramatically high growth in the interest rates globally, which is also believed to have reach a historically high rate. This growth, with specific reference to the existing interest law, has resulted in serious concerns related to the development of credit markets. The reasons behind the efforts on developing credit markets is essentially due to the reason that in quite a few jurisdictions, the restrictions on usury or the interest have normally stayed at the lower level of interest rates that were formerly established. The ultimate outcome of this is that debtors ...

Pompey was made sole consul in 52 BC. To what extent did he engineer the situation so that he would be called upon to "save the state?

Introduction:

Rome in 52 AD was a rather parlous state as it was still reeling from the effects of the slave revolt a few years earlier which had been crushed by Crassus and the constant bickering and infighting between himself, Julius Caesar and the same Crassus. Becoming First Consul in 49 BC was obviously important and crucial to the continued well being of the Republic and Pompey obviously felt very much in control when faced ...

Introduction

The transition of Rome to an empire was characterised by many battles and constant struggles. The civilization was majorly established around the dictatorship forms of governance as well as the big defensive holdings around the Mediterranean and European territories. The imperial Roman Republic was marred by civil wars which had weakened the governance system prior to the transition to a roman empire. Thucydides writes on the historical accounts of an Athenian general regarding the war that had been experienced about 2000 years ago and dwells on the aspects of human nature. As the foregoing shows, both the Rome’s transition ...