Roman Civil Wars of 88-30 BCE

At issue: Political domination of the Roman Republic

Date: 88-82, 79-72, 49-45, 43-40, 31-30 b.c.e.

Locations: Italy, Spain, Greece, North Africa, Asia Minor, Egypt

Combatants: Romans and allies vs. insurgent Romans and allies

Principal commanders: Gaius Marius (157-86 b.c.e.), Sulla (138-78 b.c.e.), Pompey the Great (106-48 b.c.e.), Julius Caesar (100-44 b.c.e.), Marcus Junius Brutus (85-42 b.c.e.), Cassius (d. 42 b.c.e.), Marc Antony, also known as Marcus Antonius (83?-30 b.c.e.), Gaius Octavius (Octavian), later known as Augustus (63 b.c.e.-14 c.e.)

Principal battles: Colline Gate, Ilerda, Pharsalus, Munda, Philippi, Actium

Result: The Roman Republic collapsed amid its own internal violence; Octavian established one-man rule (the principate or the empire)

Background

Since the wars of the second century b.c.e., the Roman aristocracy had become increasingly wealthy, and competition for military commands had become highly intense, as campaigns fought against wealthy enemies in Asia Minor or the Greek east promised fortunes in plunder, slaves, and military glory. The resulting wealth for the aristocratic classes was invested in large estates worked by slaves that tended to drive out the small, independent farmers of the Italian countryside. This development bode ill for the Roman army, as soldiers had to meet a basic property requirement in order to qualify for service. Ironically, the very success of the army in winning victories for its generals was proving to be its own ruin. The consul (chief magistrate) in 107 b.c.e., Gaius Marius, abolished the property requirement altogether. Thereafter, soldiers were to enlist in the army with the expectation that their commanders would provide them with land at the end of their service. The poor thus came to see military service as a way to acquire land and status, and the generals looked to the armies as a means to personal prestige and political gain.

Action

Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus launched a devastating invasion of Rome’s eastern territories in 88 b.c.e. A campaign in the richest part of the Mediterranean promised sizable gains for its Roman commander. The command against Mithridates was slated for Sulla. However, Marius used his political influence at Rome to have the command transferred to himself. The army was upset at the loss of opportunities to plunder and loot some of the wealthiest regions of the Mediterranean. Sulla, for his part, was angry at this insult to his dignity and sought to reclaim his command. He and his army marched on Rome, and Marius and his adherents fled. However, when Sulla left for Asia Minor and the campaign against Mithridates, Marius, with the support of the ousted consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna, repeated Sulla’s attack on Rome, capturing the city amid much bloodshed and butchery. Marius’s death in 86 b.c.e. brought a temporary respite to the slaughter, but the domination of Cinna would continue, backed by loyal troops whose presence intimidated the Senate. The army of Cinna was composed in part of the former troops of Sulla. By promising land and lucrative campaigns, Roman generals in the latter part of the Roman Republic frequently made it quite easy for soldiers to change sides.

Sulla’s return from the Mithridatic War in 83 b.c.e. meant a renewal of civil war in Italy. The supporters of Cinna engaged Sulla’s troops at the Battle of the Colline Gate (82 b.c.e.), just outside the city of Rome. Assisted by Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (later Pompey the Great), Sulla’s army defeated a force of nearly 70,000 soldiers. Sulla’s enemies at Rome were declared outlaws and their land confiscated for his veterans. This policy established a pattern that would be repeatedly followed in later years as the problem of where to settle landless soldiers became greater and greater. Sulla retired in 79 b.c.e., having established a precedent for using military force to achieve political ends.

Though still a young man, Pompey eagerly sought military glory and, through his wealth and political connections, became a major political player in Rome. One of Pompey’s most successful arenas was the civil war in Spain. As a postscript to the saga of Marius, one of his generals, Quintus Sertorius, openly rebelled against Rome. Sertorius was supported by the native Spaniard population, and the specter of an invasion of Italy similar to Hannibal’s nearly two centuries earlier led the Senate to grant Pompey a special command against Sertorius.

Normal rules of procedure were ignored in the face of military emergency, and Pompey’s success symbolized the failure of nerve on the part of the Senate as well as the growing power of the military in politics. The powerlessness of the Senate before generals with troops was clearly demonstrated in 71 b.c.e. when, after crushing the slave revolt of Spartacus, Pompey and Crassus used their legions to intimidate the Senate. Their political ambitions were achieved by the mere threat of military violence as well as the sheer size of their forces. Crassus is reported to have remarked that no man can call himself rich until he can afford a private army. Pompey, for his part, turned his attention to the eastern Mediterranean and won a series of victories against the various Hellenistic kingdoms there.

When Pompey returned from the east flushed with victory, Rome held its collective breath, fearing another march on the city in the manner of Sulla. Pompey magnanimously laid down his arms but still needed to find land for his veterans. Pompey’s opponents in the Senate rejected the requests for land allotments, and frustration drove Pompey to make a political arrangement with his old friend Crassus and another frustrated and ambitious politician, Julius Caesar. This informal relationship became known as the First Triumvirate. Pompey’s military success had made him enormously popular with the Roman people, and Crassus was fabulously wealthy. Caesar as consul in 59 b.c.e. used this office to secure the various demands of his partners, along with what he always wanted: a military command in Gaul.

Caesar’s victories in Gaul were reported in glamorous detail by Caesar’s own communiques back to Rome. Pompey had spent most of the 50’s in Rome while Caesar was winning battle after battle, endearing himself to his troops and the Roman people. In Rome, enemies of Caesar who feared his growing power aligned themselves with Pompey, and when Caesar requested that he be allowed to run for a consulship while still on campaign, he was rebuffed. Caesar was rightly concerned that if he laid down his power and disbanded his legions, his enemies could prosecute him. Both Caesar and Pompey refused to disband their respective armies. Caesar was then declared a public enemy, and Pompey was called on to save the republic. The stage was set for a new civil war.

Whether Caesar actually uttered the famous words, Alia est iacta (“the die is cast”), his crossing of the Rubicon River, the border of Italy and Gaul, marked a distinct turning point in the history of Rome. As his legions marched toward Rome, Pompey and his supporters fled. Caesar quietly arrived in the city and soon after turned his attention to fighting the adherents of Pompey in Spain.

What was essentially a struggle between two men for political supremacy involved the entire Mediterranean, as various provincial governors and their legions declared for either Pompey or Caesar. Caesar made short work of the Pompeians in Spain, winning a major victory at Ilerda (49 b.c.e.), but his general Gaius Scribonius Curio fared much worse against the Numidian king Juba, who lured Curio and his army into a trap in the Bagradas valley. Curio was killed, his army destroyed, and the province of Africa, a key source of grain for the city of Rome, remained in Pompey’s hands.

Meanwhile Pompey, his senatorial allies, and 36,000 legionaries were in Greece, seeking to add even more resources to his manpower arsenal. To prevent the further increase of Pompey’s army, Caesar had to act fast. With seven legions, he crossed the stormy Adriatic Sea from Italy to Greece in early 48 b.c.e. Marc Antony soon followed with four more legions. Pompey finally confronted Caesar’s legions at Pharsalus, in northern Greece, resulting in a colossal defeat with 6,000 dead and 24,000 captured. The Roman aristocracy was bleeding itself white.

Pompey fled to Egypt, hoping to rally more reinforcements but was murdered as he stepped ashore. Caesar stayed in Egypt and quickly became involved in local politics and with the eighteen-year-old Cleopatra. Meanwhile, the remains of the Pompeians rallied their forces in Africa, and the presence of Caesar at the head of his legions was required. A bloody victory was won at Thapsus (46 b.c.e.), which resulted in new honors for Caesar as well as a magnificent triumph. In 45 b.c.e., the last of the Pompeians were holding out in Spain. The decisive battle was fought at Munda, in which Caesar’s Tenth Legion, which was assisted by Mauretanian cavalry, pushed back the left wing of the Pompeians. The last of the Pompeian forces were eliminated, and Caesar returned to Rome in triumph once more. His military successes were phenomenal, but his politics offended many Roman aristocrats, including former friends. Rome’s greatest warrior fell victim to a conspiracy led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Cassius on March 15, 44 b.c.e.

Marc Antony was Caesar’s colleague in the consulship as well as a close friend. After Caesar’s murder, Antony tried to walk a delicate line between Caesar’s veterans and his murderers. Into this fragile situation came the nineteen-year-old nephew and adopted son of Caesar, Gaius Octavius (Octavian). It soon became apparent that the name of Julius Caesar could work magic with the legions. Antony’s enemies in the Senate sought to use Caesar’s young heir to secure the loyalty of his former soldiers, but after an inconclusive victory against Antony at Mutina (later Modena, Italy) in 43 b.c.e., Octavian realized that he was being used and joined Antony’s side. Octavian, Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate and immediately drew up lists of their enemies in order to use the wealth from their lands to pay their troops. In the eastern provinces, Brutus and Cassius, who had fled Rome, consolidated their combined army of nineteen legions. They were opposed by Antony and Octavian, who had mustered twenty-eight legions, on the battlefield at Philippi (42 b.c.e.) in Greece. The enormous size of the forces was unprecedented, and at the end of the day, large numbers of the Roman elite lay dead. The bloodletting continued.

After the battle, Octavian was given the unenviable task of settling veterans in Italy, a process that involved considerable confiscation of land. Relations between Antony and Octavian gradually deteriorated through the 30’s b.c.e. as Antony, expecting legions from Octavian that never arrived, unsuccessfully engaged the Parthians. Antony’s relationship with Cleopatra did not help his image back in Rome. The final struggle came at Actium (September 2, 31 b.c.e.), off the coast of Greece, in which Octavian’s fleet inflicted a crippling defeat on the forces of Antony and Cleopatra. The couple fled to Egypt, where in 30 b.c.e., they committed suicide as Octavian’s legions approached Alexandria. Octavian (later the emperor Augustus) was now sole master of the Roman world.

Aftermath

After Octavian’s final victory, most Romans were glad to have peace, even if it meant the essential end of the Roman Republic. Several thousands of the Roman political elite were now dead. The Senate, unable to prevent the violence that wracked Rome since the 80’s b.c.e., lost its reputation as well as its freedom of action. Most significantly, from the point of view of military history, Octavian’s reliance on his army was clear to all, especially the soldiers themselves, and the Roman army would go on to play a major role in the political development of the Roman Empire.

Bibliography

Appianus of Alexandria. The Civil Wars. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1996.

Brunt, Peter. The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1988.

Caesar, Gaius Julius. The Civil War. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1967.

Plutarch. The Fall of the Roman Republic. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1958.