The Roman Republic and Empire Comparison Chart

The Roman Republic
The first 500 years

800BC-510BC Those Mysterious Etruscans
Indo-Europeans who settled in Northern Italy around 2nd millennium
Their lives were highly focused on Death given their elaborate burial chambers
They were heavily influenced by Greek colonists
They had a class system
Passed much of what they learned from Greeks onto Latia (Romans)
They created the Roman numerals

Early Latins Patriarchy much more than Etruscans (father absolute head of house)
Children taught civics and loyalty to State and Family
Patricians were their noble class (by birth) representing 10% and owning most land
Plebeians were everyone else (90%)

The Early Republic (509BC-287BC)
509 BC Patricians throw off Tarquin the Etruscan (Last Etruscan King) and set up a two branch republic (Executive and Legislative)
Executive = 2 Consuls that could veto each other
Legislative = Assembly of Centuries (soldiers) and the Senate (serve for life)
494 BC Plebeians strike and start a 200 year struggle for equality
They eventually win their demands for Written Laws (12 Tables) and Representation
(Assembly of Tribes) led by a Tribune-Plebeian power would gradually grow
Italian Conquest and Punic Wars (264-149BC)
Romans treated others on the peninsula liberally, allowing them to keep their forms of government at first )Greek Colonies in Sicily and the Boot Heel, so long as they sent soldiers and paid taxes
Punic Wars start over Shipping control of the Mediterranean and Sicily (Rome v. Carthage)
Of the three campaigns the second would devistate the Italian peninsula as the Carthage General Hannibal burn almost all of Italy until his eventual defeat by Scipio at Zama near Carthage
149 BC Rome destroys Carthage once and for all with salt in the fields

230BC -130BC Conquest of Greece and the East
Phillip V (Macedonian descendant of Alexander sides with Carthage during Punic War
Rome pushes Macedonians out of Greek City States to "protect" them
Corinth Rebels-Rome burns the city state to the ground (and all in it) and militarily occupies Greek City-States (More Fusion)

230BC-130BC (Provincial Plantation Temptations)
As Rome expands it sends out proconsuls as territorial governors. They become greedy and rent huge amounts of land from the state, using slave labor to grow cheap crops. These plantations are called Latifundias
This puts small farmers out of work all over the empire (including Italy)
Farmers crowd into cities looking for work and food
Meanwhile, Patricians and many established Plebeians are becoming very wealthy off of the Latifundia system and abandoning their allegiance to the state for that of profit. This starts to degrade the value civic value system of the republic

133BC-121BC (Two Noble Brothers go Tribunal)
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchi both try political reforms that fail
Tiberius rejects his patrician birth and is elected as a tribune. He introduce radical land reform (giving land back to the people) and is assassinated by other patricians Gaius is elected as a consul and tries both land and price reforms. He too is assassinated by patricians

107BC -81BC (No Controlling Authority)
Marius (a great general) is elected consul in 107BC and starts to pay his army out of his own battle loot. The army now switches allegiance from the republic Marius (the person). Other generals follow this model to the point of competing armies and civil war
Sulla, one of Marius’ soldiers builds his own private army and defeats Marius to rule Rome as its first dictator (Good bye republic in all but name)

70BC-44BC The First Triumvirate
Rome is ruled for a time by three powerful men Crassus, Pompey, and Julius
Julius conquers Gaul (France) for Rome and is told not to return by Pompey.
He returns (crossing the Rubicon) and defeats Pompey’s forces and then declares himself emperor for life
He introduces reforms, granting citizenship to all Italians and others who serve in the army, but he is