The crisis of the Roman Republic was an extended period of political instability and social unrest from about c. The causes and attributes of the crisis changed throughout the decades, including the forms of slavery, brigandage , wars internal and external, overwhelming corruption, land reform, the invention of excruciating new punishments, [ 1 ] the expansion of Roman citizenship , and even the changing composition of the Roman army.
Modern scholars also disagree about the nature of the crisis. Traditionally, the expansion of citizenship with all its rights, privileges, and duties was looked upon negatively by the contemporary Sallust , the modern Edward Gibbon , and others of their respective schools, both ancient and modern, because it caused internal dissension, disputes with Rome's Italian allies, slave revolts, and riots.
More recently, beyond arguments about when the crisis of the Republic began see below , there also have been arguments on whether there even was a crisis or multiple ones. Harriet Flower, in , proposed a different paradigm encompassing multiple "republics" for the general whole of the traditional republican period with attempts at reform rather than a single "crisis" occurring over a period of eighty years.
Each different republic had different circumstances and while overarching themes can be traced, [ 5 ] "there was no single, long republic that carried the seeds of its own destruction in its aggressive tendency to expand and in the unbridled ambitions of its leading politicians". For centuries, historians have argued about the start, specific crises involved, and end date for the crisis of the Roman Republic. As a culture or "web of institutions" , Florence Dupont and Christopher Woodall wrote, "no distinction is made between different periods.
Von Ungern-Sternberg argues for an exact start date of 10 December BC, with the inauguration of Tiberius Gracchus as tribune , [ 10 ] or alternately, when he first issued his proposal for land reform in BC. This was the beginning of civil bloodshed and of the free reign [ sic ] of swords in the city of Rome. From then on justice was overthrown by force and the strongest was preeminent. In any case, the assassination of Tiberius Gracchus in BC marked "a turning point in Roman history and the beginning of the crisis of the Roman Republic.
