Outline Pg. 99-101

Soldiers, Warlords, and Civil War

• With the changes in Rome's society and politics, the character of its armies and their commanders also changed 
• The soldiers began looking for these benefits to their own commanders
• The first of the civil wars took place between 88-82 B.C. 

Sulla abolished the traditional limits on the power of the Senate but also made sure to pay off his soldiers with generous land grants

• Rome's first experiment with one-man rule had not been encouraging, and the Senate and the other institutions of the Republic returned to their traditional functioning 
• Julius Caesar
• Came from an old patrician family 
• Triumvirate: in ancient Rome, an alliance of three politicians that enabled them to control the Republic's decision making

Foreign Conquest, Civil War, and Supreme Power

• With the help of his new friends, Caesar won an appointment as proconsul of a province that included the southern regions of Gaul 
• Meanwhile, on Rome's eastern frontier, Crassus had led an army to crushing defeat by the neighboring empire of Parthia 
• Pompey was hastily commissioned to defend the Senate, but his forces were no match for Caesar's veterans 
• Caesar moved swiftly to make himself supreme ruler of the Republic
• Caesar used his new powers to attack the grave problems facing Rome 

Assassination and Another Caesar

• Romans at home and abroad applauded Caesar's deeds, but there remained a stubborn core of senators who were disturbed by his successes
• Caesar's murder did not restore the Republic, it caused more civil wars
• Mark Antony and Octavian were rival loyalists of Caesar, and each managed to attract some of Caesar's legions, which they used to fight a brutal war against each other in Italy 
• "But that which brought upon him the most apparent and mortal hatred was his desire of being king; which gave the common people the first occasion to quarrel with him, and proved the most specious pretence to those who had been his secret enemies all along." -Plutarch
• The partners then divided the Roman world, with Octavian based in Rome, Lepidus in North Africa, and Mark Antony in Alexandria 
• Finally, in 31 B.C., the rulers of the two halves of Rome's empire went to war