Between 204 and 188 B.C., Rome became the big power in the Mediterranean basin. Rome was not the great empire that she would become, but, Rome had changed as a result of all of these wars, and not necessarily for the better. These changes can be viewed in a couple of ways, but all of them led to a very different Rome, both in terms of her government and her foreign policies. So, let’s look at the changes in Roman economics and government first.

Remember that the early Romans had a simple agricultural economy; most Romans were small farmers who grew enough food to provide for the needs of the immediate family. As a result of the Roman conquests this traditional system was replaced by a far more advanced economy.

To begin with, the Roman conquests made it possible for Rome and Italy to develop extensive trade. Roman contact with the East created a demand for luxury goods which Romans had not known about before. Romans be paid for these goods with money which had been brought into Rome by conquest.

Also, by 200 B.C. it was becoming harder and harder for small farmers to make a living. There were several reasons for this, but the most important grew out of Roman expansion and warfare. In the early period, most Roman soldiers were farmers who farmed in the winter and fought in the summer. This was easy since the wars took place close to home. But when the Romans begin fighting far away in, say, in Spain, or Greece, or Africa, many soldiers were forced to stay away from their farms for years at a time. When the men went to war their farms went untended and ultimately had to be sold.

Wealthy Romans bought these farms and combined them into larger estates called latifundia. Unlike early Roman farms, the latifundia were mainly intended to produce a cash crop that could be sold for profit. Major products were cattle, wine and olive oil. Latifundia were operated by slaves, and the owner might only visit them once or twice a year. He looked on it has an investment. The slaves who worked on these estates were non-Romans who had been taken prisoner by the Romans in war.

These changes caused serious disruptions to Roman society. Those farmers who were forced to sell their land had to move to the cities, and the urban population rose rapidly in Italy after 200. In the cities work was scarce for free Romans as slaves did most of the unskilled labor. There were not enough jobs available so the unemployed either had to beg or steal to make ends meet. Therefore, urban poverty and crime became a serious problem. While a growing number of Roman citizens got poorer, other Romans became extremely wealthy.

The winners in this new economy had varied backgrounds. Most senators made money, but there were also others who became rich as well. These men were wealthy enough to afford to serve in the army as cavalry, so they were called equestrians. Wealthy Romans lived in unprecedented luxury: they had expensive houses and clothes, many slaves. They could afford to provide better education for their children. They often sent their sons to study in Greece. In short, the lives of wealthy Roman leaders became increasingly distinguished from the lives of poor Roman citizens.

These social and economic difficulties were aggravated by political problems. After 200 B.C., the important Roman offices were increasingly monopolized by a few better known and better organized families. They fell into the class of wealthy Roman Senators called nobiles, which means notable or well known persons. These families dominated the Senate which made the government less responsive to the new social and economic problems. The Senate had no real interest in the problems of  the poor and no desire to  share power with the equestrians who wanted a greater role in government.

Moreover, the nobiles interfered with the administration of conquered lands outside Italy. These lands were divided up into administrative districts called provinces, and each province was entrusted to a Roman general known as a proconsul. The Senate appointed men to hold these posts.

The Senate was supposed to supervise these men, but for various reasons it failed to do so. As generals, these proconsuls had wide military powers equivalent to those of consuls in Rome itself. Proconsuls collected taxes, administered justice, and led the Army in their province. Since the proconsuls were themselves nobiles, the Senate was reluctant to keep too close a watch over them.

The governors were often guilty of very serious abuses. They collected more taxes than they were entitled to and skimmed the excess profits into their own purses (togas do not have pockets). They extorted the people of their province. They provoked frontier wars and build up large armies under their personal command.

Corruption grew in the Empire, as did a callousness about foreign expansion and diplomacy that Romans had not shown in the past. This can be illustrated by two events that both took place in 146 B.C. The first was in Greece. Roman leaders pushed the Greeks until, in desperation, Southern Greece revolted against Roman influence. Instead of resorting to diplomacy in what was a fairly minor difference, the Roman consul Lucius Mummius invaded and destroyed the city of Corinth. He had no immediate strategic reason to do so except to loot the city and send the booty back to Rome. That same year Rome declared war on Carthage without much more provocation except that it still existed. The great city of Carthage was defeated, destroyed so that “not one stone was left standing on another,” and Roman soldiers sowed the ground with salt so that nothing would grow there. Truly, by 146 B.C. Rome WAS the 400-pound gorilla on the Mediterranean block, and it was out of control.

From 146 to 133 BC, all of the political and social problems grew steadily worse. Then after 133, a series of internal struggles broke out which gradually undermined the whole structure of the Roman state. The conflict was ignited by the action of two brothers named Tiberius Gracchus (d 133) and Gaius Gracchus (d.121), who tried to remedy the problems which had arisen. These two men came from a very distinguished Senatorial family, But there were still anxious to solve the problems which had arisen at Rome in the previous century.

The chance came in 133 BC when Tiberius Gracchus was elected to the office of Tribune of the People. This office had originally been set up to protect the interests of the lower classes, and Tribunes had the right to propose laws for the benefit of poorer Romans. Tiberius decided to use this power to relieve unemployment. He proposed to divide parts of the Roman public land in Italy to provide farms to unemployed Roman citizens. This had been done in the past without problems; but by 133 BC, many Senators had rented the public land from the government for their own use, and they did not want to give it up. The law met with great resistance from the Senate, so Tiberius used his power as tribune to take the measures directly to the Roman assembly where laws passed. When Tiberius Gracchus tried to run for reelection as Tribune, some senators and their supporters rioted and killed him.

After the death of Tiberius, there was peace in the city until 123 BC, when his brother Gaius became Tribune. Gaius Gracchus introduced many new reform measures which were intended to appeal to a much wider group of Roman citizens. He proposed more new land for the unemployed, but he also wanted to give political privileges to the equestrians. Some of the proposals passed and some did not. This time, the Senate was much more cautious. They took no immediate action. Gaius held the tribuneship for two years. After he had left office in 121, the Senate repealed all of his reforms. When the Senate met to repeal the reforms a riot broke out. The Senate accused Gaius of treason and used the army to kill him and many of his supporters. This action shows the true colors of the Senate; they were willing to use any means to defeat reform and maintain their own dominance over the state.

The Senate’s flagrant use of the army to support their monopoly of power created a precedent that, at first, protected the nobiles, but ultimately would bring about their downfall, and nearly tear Rome to pieces.