W kręgu sporów o chronologię procesu upadku Republiki Rzymskiej

Abstract

In historical papers the accepted opinion is that the process of fall of the Roman Republic was initiated by the events of the year 133, that is the performance of Tiberius Gracchus. More substantial divergences are observed as to the date of the end of this process. The several propositions put forward most often suggest somewhere between the years 48—27. There are certain arguments favouring each of these caesurae, though the weight of these arguments is varied. From the formal-legal standpoint the year 27 terminated the Republican era and ushered in the Principatus. However, the battle of Actium in 31 and the death of Antony, following not all of one year later, marked the factual end of the Republic. The time between the years 31—27 was an interim period in which Octavian in reality wielded autocratic power. During the prolonged process of downfall of the Republic there was no lack of events exerting destructive influences on this form of state government. Nevertheless, it would appear that one of the events making clearly inevitable the fall of Republican Rome was the Republic’s defeat at the battle of Philippi in 42. In the years that followed this event the Republic never again succeeded in mounting a defence on a similar scale. The defeat in effect meant the end of efforts to save the ailing Republic. At the same time there came a break with the idea of government based on the increasingly anachronistic nobilitas, the slender elite of the senatorial class.