Roman Republic Expansion

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The Expansion of the Roman Republic After the overthrow of its monarchy and its last Etruscan king in 509 BC, Rome adopted a new political system, the Republic. Its constitution was designed to govern a city-state with a small, organic society and a compact land-based republic (Backman 176). However, during 500-300 BC, the Republic started expanding its territories. Starting from central Italy, Rome then grew to conquer the entire Mediterranean, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Greece, and what is now modern France (Roman Republic, 2011). Yet a government that was meant for a city of 10,000 inhabitants will not be adequate for an empire of millions. And because of the incapability of the Roman constitution to effectively control and manage …show more content…

After the Republic was formed, the Senate became the highest and most powerful governing body. Primarily, the government was dominated by aristocrats, or better known as patricians. However, the lower-class citizens, or the plebeians, eventually gained enough power and influence to become consuls. Following the Republic’s expansion, many political problems surfaced. Firstly, the conquered lands were organized into provinces. But because of its unexpected success in imperialism, Rome did not have a plan for who will govern these lands. As a result, these provinces were simply turned over to the generals who conquered them, and this required a great supply of money and resources to maintain the armies and rule the provinces (Backman 184). Moreover, with the money given to them, these generals funded campaigns and bought influence, along with the numerous councils, assemblies, and magistrates back in Rome. The Republic assigned the leading magistrates to provincial governships to move them away from the city and sources of power, and to prevent civilians from being bribed. However, this allowed the magistrates to gain their own fortunes and reenter the government. Because of this, the Republic basically tried to prevent corruption by spreading it around (Backman 184). In addition, because of the numerous territories conquered and the excessive …show more content…

This includes its unbridled greed for expansion, which greatly impacted and affected Rome’s government and economy. And because of this excessive conquest for foreign land, the Republic was pushed to its limits that eventually led to its

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