Middle Roman Republic

  General Description   The last of the Roman kings, the tyrannical Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (’the Arrogant’), was expelled by a revolt of some of the leading Roman aristocrats in 509 BCE. Vowing never again to allow a single person to amass so much authority, the revolutionaries established in place of the monarchy a republican system of governance, featuring a senate composed of aristocratic men and a series of elected political and military officials. The Roman Republic was a remarkably stable and successful polity, lasting from 509 BCE until it was transformed into an imperial state under Augustus in 31 BCE (though the exact date is debated, as this was not a formal transformation). We divide the Republic into an early (509-264 BCE), a middle (264-133 BCE), and a late (133-31 BCE) period.
During the 3rd century BCE, Rome fought two separate wars (264-241 BCE and 218-201 BCE) against the Punic people, inhabitants of a former Phoenician colony in North Africa, Sicily, and southern Spain. The latter conflict featured a bitter contest against the famous Punic general Hannibal, who nearly defeated the Romans on his dramatic march through Italy from 218 to 216 BCE. However, Rome recovered, won control of Punic holdings in Sicily and Spain, and established what were essentially vassal kingdoms in North Africa. In the early 2nd century BCE, Rome became embroiled in another series of wars in Greece, Macedonia, and Anatolia. The 3rd and 2nd centuries were a somewhat chaotic time in the eastern Mediterranean, following the fragmentation of Alexander the Great’s Macedonian Empire after his death in 323 BCE. Alexander’s Empire had essentially dissolved into a series of successor states, which engaged in near-constant warfare in their attempts to expand at the others’ expense. ^[1] By 148 BCE, at the conclusion of the fourth and final Macedonian War, Rome was either in possession of or was firmly established as hegemon over the entire Mediterranean basin, from Spain in the west to Anatolia in the east, and France in the north to Libya and Egypt in the south. This position brought new territory along with a flood of new peoples, culture, and wealth from the ancient civilizations in Greece, Egypt, and Anatolia. By the end of the Middle Republic period, Rome was virtually unchallenged by external enemies, although this newfound wealth and power was accompanied by the period of internal turmoil that characterized the Late Republic.
Population and political organization
Rome during the Republican period possessed no written constitution, but was governed largely through the power and prestige of the Senate, with a clear respect for precedent and for maintaining Rome’s traditions. ^[2] A primary goal of the early Republic was to establish clear checks on the power of any single ruler - the military office of chief commander was in fact split between two generals (consuls), while the chief priestly and legislative posts were split among different people (individuals were restricted from holding multiple offices at once) - and popular assemblies voted on new laws.
Romans of this period did not distinguish between what is today termed ’secular’ and ’sacred’ authority; although individual magistracies had distinct functions, the same person often held both religious and political offices over the course of their lifetime, as they were thought to be part of essentially the same sphere of governance. The Republic featured a substantial array of religious offices and institutions intended to determine the will of the gods or to please them through the proper performance of rituals and the maintenance of large public temples. ^[3] These public auspices were the basis of magisterial power in the Republic. ^[3] Auspices were sometimes taken by consuls and other officials, for example before important military engagements, ^[3] but were mainly managed by specialist elected priests and full-time priestesses (such as the Vestal Virgins) and other priestly offices supported by the state. ^[4]
The Middle Roman Republic saw many firsts in Rome’s economic development. The first paved road was the likely the military road to Capua known as the Appian Way, commissioned around 312 BCE. The first Roman coins (large cast bronze coins) appear around 270 BCE, followed by struck bronze and silver coins imitating Greek forms. ^{[5] [6]} ​​​​ This period also saw a further population increase in the total population of Roman-controlled Italy to between about three and five million people, with Rome itself likely supporting over 200,000 people by the end of the 3rd century BCE. ^[7]

[1]: (Eckstein 2006, chapter 4) Arthur M. Eckstein. 2006. Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[2]: (Brennan 2004, 31) Corey T. Brennan. 2004. ’Power and Process under the Republican "Constitution"’, in The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, edited by Harriet I. Flower, 31-65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[3]: (Brennan 2004, 37) Corey T. Brennan. 2004. ’Power and Process under the Republican "Constitution"’, in The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, edited by Harriet I. Flower, 31-65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[4]: (Culham 2004, 131) Phyllis Culham. 2004. ’Women in the Roman Republic, in The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, edited by Harriet I. Flower, 139-59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[5]: (von Reden 2010, 50) Sitta von Reden. 2010. Money in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[6]: (Crawford 1974, 6-11) Michael H. Crawford. 1974. Roman Republican Coinage. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[7]: (Scheidel 2008) Walter Scheidel. 2008. ’Roman Population Size: The Logic of the Debate’, in People, Land, and Politics: Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy, 300 BC-AD 14, edited by L. de Ligt and S. J. Northwood, 17-70. Leiden: Brill.