The Second Most Responsible For The Decline Of The Roman Republic

Though the fall of the Roman Republic is largely attributed to Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon, the seeds of destruction have long been sown. 3 men in particular were especially responsible for the decline of the Republic: Sulla, Scipio Aemilianus, and Gracchus. Through their disregard for the Roman Constitution, abuses of power, and disrespect for political customs, they demonstrated and exploited the weakness of the Roman Republic, opening the door for Caesar to reap the fruits of their efforts and replace the Republic with the Roman Empire. For his egregious actions, Sulla was the most responsible of the 3 for the decline of the Republic, Scipio was the 2nd most responsible by being the first to blatantly disrespect the Republic’s

For these reasons, Sulla is the most responsible man for the Republic’s decline. The second most responsible man for the Republic’s decline was Scipio Aemilianus, for setting the precedent to ignore the Roman Constitution and exploit its weaknesses. Scipio won the office of the consulship without following the Cursus Honorum, or traditional political ladder, and he was too young to be Consul, leading the Senate to attempt to bar his candidacy. The Tribune of the Plebeians, another Roman office, however, vetoed the Senate, and the Plebeian assembly elected him as Consul regardless. Over a decade after his first term, he ran for Consulship again, despite a law forbidding anyone from holding the same office twice, and won. When the Senate deprived him of Consular funds, he simply raised his own army that was loyal to him over the state. Scipio was the first man to blatantly disregard the Roman Constitution in his political endeavors, and his disregard for Roman law and customs set in motion the gradual decline of the importance of the Roman

The third most responsible man for the decline of the Roman Republic was Tiberius Gracchus, who set the precedent for removing political opponents and also exploited weaknesses in the Roman Republic. Gracchus allied himself with Plebeian concerns, though he himself was a Patrician (born to an elite Roman family). Gracchus saw that Patricians were taking land from the Plebeians and refusing to grow grain, leading to hunger issues for the Plebeians. Gracchus decided to capitalize on the opportunity to garner Plebeian support, and he proposed a maximum limit to individual land ownership, with excess land being bought back and given to Plebeians. Gracchus was elected as Tribune of the Plebeians, and when the Senate, composed of Patricians, refused to pass his proposition, he instead brought it to the Plebeian assembly, and when a fellow Tribune opposed it, he got the assembly to remove that Tribune to pass the proposal. Gracchus did not explicitly violate the Roman Constitution in his endeavors, rather his actions either exploited weaknesses in it or simply had never been done before and were thus not covered by the