Hannah Fudold

HIS 104
SEC 001

Was moral decline the cause of the Roman Republics fall? During this time period, the
way the government was ran was very chaotic and did not obtain a strong base to grow from,
there were many flaws with the morality of the leaders throughout all of them along with many
institutional problems. The institutional problems did outweigh any other problems in seeing
that the fact that the flaws in the institutions was significant enough to cause the Roman Republic
to fall. The Roman Republic fell because of political process and factionalism which were caused
by the institutional flaws in the Roman republic.
The institutions frame in which the way history moved for Rome. As Polybius only
wanted out of being in power was to conquer new places and expand, the structures that were
made were designed specifically for conquering places and not beneficial for any other purposes.
Which later ended up turning against itself. The way the institutions were made does not depend
on who is in charge, but it was the flaws in the institution which ended up turning against itself
later. One of them being the Pentecontateia which brought a lot of new institutional challenges.
Alexander the great conquered a lot of places then died shortly after. In this type of institution
during this time period, since Alexander died, his eldest son would take his position. The only
issue that prevented this from happening was that they were murdered shortly after Alexander
died.
Hannibal was one of the most successful leaders to take power during this time. One of
the most effective methods to conquering places, was once they were defeated, he would burn

everything to the ground to where there was nothing left. Even being the most successful leader,
there were also many costs that arose. One being when Hannibal took over Italy, there was a
significant decline of agriculture, which led to the majority of people fleeing to Rome. Italys
way of life changed significantly, with the population of the wealthy becoming fewer and fewer
people and the population of the poor increasing. The land ownership changed in correlation with
the wealthy classs population, which lead to the increase of the lower class people, the
proletariats. The army also expanded significantly, who would be on station for twelve months
and would only serve for one campaigning season. Another flaws in Romes government was the
fact that there was no judicial system. Which meant that there was also a lack of an
administrative apparatus, so they never developed officials. There was also no civil administer,
so there was no tax system, or someone to collect taxes or run that.
The way the government was set up, there were some elected officials, there were the
consuls, which where similar to generals, who had the right to act as judges in certain scenarios.
There was also the Imperium which had the right to command the generals. There were eight
praetors which were the equivalent to a judge. There were many different officials, each with a
different responsibility, this system could have worked out if there werent so many different
positions that could be held. When there are so many people that hold any amount of power,
issues arise frequently. Rome had too many positions open for people to take, which played a
large role in the failure of their empire. One of the most powerful groups of people elected was
the senate, which was made up of 300 of the most significant officials. They had the power to
assign provincial officials, one of the downsides to being a senator was they could not pass laws.
The senate eventually ended up getting involved in the war in North Africa which ended up
hurting Rome in the end.

Gais Gracchus was elected five times in that time, he ended the war in North Africa then
ended that war within two years of being general. One of the army reforms he enforced was
changing the payment method of the army. He made it so the Generals were responsible for
paying the army instead of the state being responsible for paying them. In doing so, this made the
army loyal to the generals instead of the state. This was one of the main flaws in the institutions
which caused the fall of the Roman republic. This was one way that Gracchus kept himself in
power for so long, another was that he allowed the people that didnt own land to enroll into the
army, which helped in the expansion of the army. No matter how great the general is, if the
institutions of the republic are weak, then it wont matter because they wont have anything to
control.
Sulla was another successful leader that would have made Rome successful, but ended up
adding to the fall of Rome. In order for Sulla to be able to maintain his position in power, he
would have to take illegal actions to control the people. To keep the people under his control he
had to pay the army, in doing so, Sulla used prescriptions to take out the equestrians, receiving
all of their money to pay the army with. Sulla had his eyes set on one thing, which consisted of
expanding his empire more and more, never seeing an end to expansion. What doesnt help the
desire for constant growth, is the way the political system was ran. It was run very similar to the
way a monarchy was ran, where the heir to the person in charge would almost be passed down
what their father gave them. Sulla was a leader who decided that he was going to settle all of
Romes problems. To do this, he had prescriptions, if he killed anyone that opposed him, then
there wouldnt be anyone to oppose him. The sullan reform was one of the most successful
reform to take place during this time period, the only issue why this reform wasnt completely
successful was the lack of strength in the institution as a whole. The Sullan reform included

changing it to 600 senators, along with changing it so the tribunate no longer had the right to
hold legislation, he limited the cosulship, along with many other reforms. One of the most
effective was the prescriptions. Which in this time period, was a smart move on his part,
something Caesar was not careful about doing when he was in control.
In the time where Cesar was in control and his daughter was married to one of his
opponents, as soon as the Cesars daughter died, the husband soon became the enemy of Cesar
once again. The way the government is ran during this time is based on deals and handshakes.
Which was not an idea way to run an entire empire. Another mistake Caesar made was not
eliminating all of the people who oppose him politically, instead of using the prescriptions, he
pardoned all of his enemies, which later would turn against him seeing as he was murdered along
with the air to his power.
Pompey and Crassus were both lieutenants of Sulla in which they both raised armies for
him. Crassus was close with the equestrians, which gave him the opportunity of having easy
access to money. A way he made money was he ran the fire department, when some thing would
catch fire, they would show up and to put out the fire they would have them pay money to put
out the fire. He was very known by the people and was a money many. While on the other hand,
Pompey was a great military leader and was the most popular of the two. There was later a civil
war in the provinces that was when Lepidus tried to revolt then was successful. At the end of the
Sullan reforms they had successfully restored the tribunate, restored the census to remove their
political enemies and resurrected the equestrians after the prescriptions.
There were many flaws with the Roman republic, some being the decline of the morality
but the main cause of the fall was the poorly constructed constitution. There were many

successful leaders who made reforms that benefited the Romans but in the end the republic
ended up failing from the issues that arose in the poorly constructed instutions.