Fiona Brewer
Laura Mackey
Simon McGarr
Fergal Crehan
Gary Malone
Mattie Lennon
Sarah Byam
Anita Kiely
Fred Roe
Keisha Poiro
Emma Pearson
Fluffy Dutton
Donal O'Driscoll

Empires have got a bad name recently. Imperialism is used as an accusation, not a description of what people are doing. Nobody uses it as a term to describe their own actions. But my background includes a reasonably close study of the meaning, causes and effects of empires, both on the conquering power, and the subjugated cultures. And I have always felt that the birth, growth and fall of the Roman Empire still has things to tell us about how we find our world developing today.

Founding Fathers
Once upon a time there was a town on the Tiber. It was a big town, and like most towns, it was ruled by a King. Sometimes, the King would be overthrown, and a new King would be put in his place. This remains the accepted method of getting rid of unwanted kings. In Rome, however, something unexpected happened. A King was killed, but no new King was appointed. (People who kill old Kings usually prove to be the very person who was always meant to be King. It is one of the happy coincidences of history) Instead, a Senate of slightly representative men was appointed to make laws. This was the start of the Roman Republic. The Republic wasn't a democracy as we'd understand it. It was more a compromise between different faction's interests. (Although some might argue that's as good a definition of a democracy as any.)

A Power Elite
There were three recognised classes of people. The Senatorial class was the elite. Their fathers, and their father's fathers before them had been senators. You weren't born a Senator, but it was very difficult to become one if somebody in your family had never been one. It was from this class that legislators, lawyers and army commanders were drawn. Not coincidentally, the one thing you did have to have as a Senator was a minimum quantity of land. A minimum that got bigger over the years until it was a very very large minimum. The next class was the Equites. These were the businessmen- merchants, makers and doers of Rome. Individual Equites might be richer than the Senators sometimes, but they generally stayed in their busy commercial world, and didn't run for state office. If they needed any laws passed, they'd pay some Senators to look after it. The Equites were a class of permanently new money. The Senators looked down on them. They were necessary to make sure the olives were pressed, but you wouldn't want your daughter marrying one of them.

The Plebs
The third class was the plebs. You found them in the Forum. A kind of a cross between rent-a-mob and the voice of the street, they could go on the rampage, behave irrationally and demand to be bribed. They were also, and here is what made Rome different, the final source of all authority. Even if open to outright intimidation, bribery and corruption, all the state positions were filled by election. And this smelly, cranky, fickle mob was the electorate. There were also slaves, but we can ignore them for the moment, as all the Romans did.

An Unbeatable Fighting Force
As Rome got bigger and bigger as the years went by it got richer. And as it got richer, it wanted to control more territory. What made this possible was the army. The Roman army was the most disciplined and professional army in the Ancient world. They were, effectively, unbeatable. You could cause them trouble, and maybe even inflict a few defeats on them, but in the end everyone knew that when you found yourself fighting the Romans, you'd already lost. Unlike all the other fighting forces of the time, which were either tribes protecting their lands, or bandits living as parasites on the locals, the Roman army was paid a wage by the state. Small farmers would be drafted or could join voluntarily if the farm wasn't working out as well as they might have hoped. Then they would do a tour of duty of about 20 years fighting. And then they'd be given a small gratuity and sent back home.

Trouble with France
In this way the Romans' power grew all over the Northern Coast of the Mediterranean. They had territories in Greece, all of Italy and two colonies in Spain. They were having a bit of trouble with France, but everyone knew that it was only a matter of time. There was just one problem. The Roman Republic's political system had been designed to run a city-state. Trying to stretch it to make decisions over half the known world was starting to take a toll. But these tensions were hidden while the Roman state was concerned with their overwhelming fear in the 2nd Century B.C.

The Cold War
Staring at them across the Mediterranean was the only other Great Power in their world. Carthage. If Rome held the North, Carthage held the South. They were a threat to all that Rome had, and they told themselves, a threat to the very idea of freedom their Republic represented. They had no option but to go to war. And a tough set of wars it turned out to be. The Punic Wars as they were called, took Rome to the brink of destruction. Carthage's genius general Hannibal (who loved it when a plan came together) took his elephant-enhanced army through Spain, and into the Italian Alps. This was an attack on the homeland that the Romans had never even imagined possible. To defeat him, the great Roman army had to turn to guerrilla tactics, harrying Hannibal for thirty years, but never engaging with him. Eventually, the Carthaginians were defeated, and had to surrender all their land to the Romans. All they had left was their city.

A War of Revenge
But Rome still felt threatened and hated them. An entire generation of Senators, unable to forget the shock and fear of Hannibal's attacks on their homeland, were determined that emasculating Carthage wasn't enough. Cato, one of the most powerful of the Senators ended every speech, on any topic with the same tag. Delenda est Carthage- Carthage must be destroyed!

And eventually this drip feed of hate and fear worked. The Romans gave the Carthaginians an ultimatum- abandon your city, or else. When the populous didn't leave, they were besieged. In the bloody finale, every single Carthaginian man, woman or child was slaughtered. And then something odd happened. The destruction of Carthage didn't bring Rome the security it had looked for. Instead the lack of an opposing power acting as a scapegoat gave some in the Republic the chance to try to shift the focus onto the problems building within their own systems.

Domestic Economic Problems
Now, as we all know, all roads lead to Rome. Or at least they do after the Romans have built them. But roads go both ways, and they can carry more than armies and goods. The poor and unemployed all started migrating to Rome itself, drawn by the hope of something better. But when you fill a crowded city with even more people, but don't add any more jobs for them, they start to get a bit restless. Normally, when you have a king, if the populous gets restless you send in the men with pikes to sort it out. When the mob effects who gets elected however, things run slightly differently.

Far below the lofty heights of senator or consul there was the post of Tribune. The seven Tribunes were to be the voice of the people. And in the 2nd Century BC there was an election. Amongst the tribunes elected was Tiberius Gracchus. One of two ambitious political brothers, the Gracchi saw the Tribunacy as a way of pacifying the shouting mob, and maybe at the same time buying themselves a bit of popularity. To relieve the poverty of most of the city plebs, Tiberius, the older brother, introduced the Corn Dole. This was, quite simply, a ration of free corn, given to the plebs of Rome, to relieve their desperate state.

A Threat to the State
The problem was that this was a very expensive ongoing commitment for the Roman state. The real solution would be if you could somehow tempt the poor out of the city onto little plots of land. Let them work the land, and fend for themselves. Gaius, Tiberius' younger brother, looking out of his carriage window on the way through the Italian countryside was suddenly struck by the thought that it might be much safer for the state too. As far as his eye could see, people were working huge estates. But they were all slaves. And what might happen one day if there were only slaves on the land? What if they revolted? Wouldn't it be safer to claim this land and hand it out in parcels to needy Roman citizens? Maybe it was thinking like this that got the Gracchi in trouble with the Senators, who also happened to own all that land he was planning to redistribute. Because one day, after a particularly fraught political battle, they marched out of the Senate house, and beat Tiberius to death with chair legs.

Rights Suspended
When Gaius pressed on with their reforms, he was blocked. When he continued to agitate for changes, the Senate took fright and passed an extraordinary law. It was intended to ensure the security of the state at a time of turmoil, as the Senators saw it. Called the Last Decree, it allowed the Senate's officials to take any action they felt necessary to ensure the security of the state, without fear of prosecution. In the future, this decree would be passed to permit behaviour which ran increasingly contrary to the Republic's political culture. But the tone was set on this first occasion, when Gaius, like his brother before him, was murdered. And this time, the Senate had 3,000 of his supporters killed for good measure.

It seemed as though the power of the Senators was permanently cemented.

Clashes With The Allies
By the time the Gracchi were killed, Rome was already begun the task of colonising all of Italy and beyond. One of Gaius' most controversial suggestions had been to extend the benefit of Roman citizenship to all Rome's Italian Allies. As part of the agreement with these nominally independent states, The Allies had pledged to follow Law, and the Romans agreed to trade with them at good terms. Their people could come to the city from the country freely.

Rome also pledged to look after security- so the Allied lands didn't have to worry about fighting wars. The Roman army, it was acknowledged, was one of the best in the world. And certainly was the very best in all of Italy. After the attacks by Hannibal, this had seemed reason enough to shelter from under Rome's protective umbrella. Eventually, even Greek settlements, like Pompeii on the Bay of Naples in the South found that doing one of these deals with the Romans seemed like a good deal all round.

But there was a problem. Roman law differentiated between Roman citizens and foreigners. As Gaius had understood, the Allies didn't like being classed as foreigners. They wanted all the benefits Roman citizenship could bring. After all, as the Roman's had always said part of their destiny was to civilise barbarous nations, why shouldn't those they conquer then enjoy the full benefits of that civilisation? This was the source of the Social War. The Allies were tired of being treated as second-class people and rose up against the Romans, to press home their demands.

But then the Allies found that not bothering to have an army yourself, because the Romans were looking after things could have negative consequences when you wanted to go to war with Rome. And conversely, Rome found that it had become very reliant on the surrounding lands to feed its growing population, to make trade with, and to spread the rule of Roman law. The war was one that couldn't be won, despite Rome's vast military superiority. The fighting only ended with a deal to grant Roman citizenship to everyone who lived under Roman rule. You could speak Greek or be an Etruscan or one of the innumerable other tribes who made up Italy at the time. But you were also now a Roman.

To Be Continued...
And that's where we'll leave it for the moment. Roman democracy has been destabilised by the very people sworn to uphold its traditions. The people's elected will has been thwarted but they can't revolt without the risk of starving by losing the minor safety net the state has given them. The institutions of the state are starting to feel the strain of trying to control half of Europe, instead of the medium sized town they were designed for. And outside Rome a barely recognised menace, totally alien to the foreign powers the Roman army was used to confronting, is festering, as resentment turns into hopeless hatred. They will soon stop waiting for a chance to attack.

In our next installment... Rome appoints an official Dictator. A full civil war breaks out, twice. The Senators are eclipsed. And the Republic acknowledges it has become an Empire.

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