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Roman Military Rule

Decent Essays

Rome was the most powerful empire that has ever existed in the history of mankind, spanning for over a thousand years. What was most important and threatening about the Roman civilization was its military. For many moments in the Roman civilization, the state only existed to provide for its military; however, even its strong military had rules placed upon it. One very important rule that the Romans had over their military was that the Roman state required that their soldiers own property. However, this rule did not last forever as certain social, economic, and political developments made this rule impossible to enforce and keep a strong military. Abolishing this rule brought about many changes upon the Roman political life and helped change …show more content…

During this time, many large estates were forming around the countryside, specifically on the main roads and highways. This was economically efficient for the large estates because the food that was being produced here was easily exportable to the major cities and could easily be sold. Tiberius Gracchus, a future plebeian tribune, was roaming the countryside when he realized how empty the land had become and “how those who tilled the soil or tended the flocks were barbarian slaves introduced from abroad.” The countryside used to consist of natives working and selling/trading their crops with other natives; however, as time passed, rich landowners were able to have these large estates and hire barbarian slaves to work upon them. This caused all the natives that used to work here to have to either provide for themselves or move to the big cities. Many of them still tried to provide for themselves by having small farmlands, which at the time was enough to provide for these small families. But as time went by, these small families began to grow and these small farmlands were not enough to provide for them. So eventually these families that tried to provide for themselves had to pack up their bags and move to the big cities. When these small families were forced to move to the big cities, it made it harder for them own land and because of …show more content…

He then decided to run as a plebeian tribune, a step down from his current position, so that he could use his current political backing as a way to eventually become a consul. Tiberius saw that many people were angry with how these rich business folk were able to own such large estates and have slaves work them, forcing the natives to have to move to the big cities to be able to provide for their families. Tiberius said that if elected he would make land reforms, which would ensure that there would be land redistribution so that the wealthy could not own all of these huge estates, while the poorer must suffer. Tiberius used the fact that they had to abandon their law of having their soldiers own land to propel his political viewpoint; however, Tiberius’ plan to take the land from the wealthy and redistribute it could be potentially disastrous to the Roman political life. Most of the large estates were not owned by Roman citizens, but were instead owned by Italian allies. The relationship between the Romans and their allies had always been strong. The Romans would not interfere in their business as long as the allies provided Rome with military help whenever they needed it. This law, however, meant that land would be taken from the Italian allies and given to Roman citizens, thus benefitting the Italian allies in no way. This could potentially harm the relationship

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