Plutarch, Life of Tiberius Gracchus
What happened with Tiberius in Numantia?
What did the Romans do with land they gained by conquest?
What subsequently happened to that land?
What official post did Tiberius hold when he instigated his PUBLIC land
reform?
What does Gaius allegedly say was Tiberius' motive?
Who helped Tiberius draw up his legislation? How were they related to
Tiberius? What official posts did they hold?
Who was M. Octavius? What did he try to do?
How did Tiberius try to compel the passage of his legislation?
How did the consuls try to stop Tiberius (after stealing the voting urns
seemed to fail). Try to visualize Jimmy Carter before Dick Cheney doing
what the consuls did before Tiberius Gracchus. What does this suggest
about Roman politics?
Did Tiberius try to do as the consuls requested?
What happened to Octavius?
After Octavius is dealt with, what happens with Tiberius proposed legislation?
Who were the commissioners?
How did Tiberius' opponents try to stop him from carrying out his reform
after it passed?
How did Tiberius outmaneuver the senate once again?
How did Tiberius justify his actions against Octavius?
Why did Tiberius run for office again?
What did Favlius Flaccus tell Tiberius was going to happen to him?
What did Tiberius' enemies report to the senate?
What did Nasica suggest?
What did the consul reply?
What did Nasica do next?
What weapons did each side possess?
What happened to Tiberius' successors after Tiberius died?
How might Blossius' response to Tiberius' question have caused the Romans
some anxiety?
What happened to Tiberius' legislation after he died?
What happened to Nasica?
Plutarch, Life of Gaius Gracchus
How are the circumstances in Gaius' death different from his brother's?
Note, in particular, the post held by his great enemy Opimius, the weapons
in use by both sides.
What temple did Octavian build after the death of Gaius Gracchus?
How were the Gracchi treated after their deaths?
Boatwright, et al., 156-165
Much of what Boatwright et al. say about Tiberius also appears in Plutarch.
Use the textbook to reinforce the ancient evidence.
What was the date of Tiberius Gracchus' tribunate?
Note that Tiberius' legislation only deals with PUBLIC land, not privately
owned land.
How did Tiberius' triumvirate of commissioners differ from previous allocators
of public land?
In the middle paragraph on page 157 Boatwright et al. suggest a few motives
of Tiberius (these are aslo found in the ancient texts). What are the
larger historical issues. For example, how did Rome get into this mess
in the 1st place? What is this mess? What is the relevance of fame and
rivalry?
This evidence is also available in Plutarch, but who are Tiberius' political
allies?
Please note that Box 5.2, the excerpt from Appian, is also ancient evidence
and can and should be discussed along with Plutarch's lives.
Since we are not reading much of Plutarch's Life of Gaius, please
note the reforms that Gaius tries to pass and whom they benefit, especially
with regard to citizenship.
When did the war with Jugurtha occur?
Who is Jugurtha?
Where is Numidia?
Know Metellus, Marius and Sulla.
Which reforms of the army are credited to Marius?
Marius is a novus homo. What does that mean?
What was Marius' relationship with Metellus? What was Metellus' response
to Marius' intention to bid for the consulship? Why?
Whom did Marius enroll in the army and what might the eventual consequences
have been?
Who was Saturninus?
How were provinces administered? What laws did provincial governor live
by? Who accompanied provincial governor? How much independent political
authority did a provincial governor have? How do you think a provincial
governor might have felt back in Rome under the direct eye of the senate?
What were the opportunities for exploitation? Who were the publicani?
How did they help and hinder the administration of territorial empire?
What was the purpose of the quaestio perpetua de repetundis and
did it achieve its goals?
Skim "The Tribunate of Livius Drusus."
What motivated the social war and what was the outcome?
What was Sulpicius' proposal? Who opposed him and who supported him? How
did he try to pass the proposal?
Plutarch, Life of Marius translator's comments, 3-4, 6-13, 28-33
What does the translator suggest are the failings of Plutarch's biography
of Marius?
How do you know that the poverty of Marius' family is almost certainly
overstated?
What supposedly distinguished Marius in his early military career?
Who helped Marius reach the tribunate and what was his relationship with
Marius?
In section 4 we see some complicated relationships between tribunes, senate,
assemblies and consuls. What do you make of this evidence?
Into what family did Marius marry and what do you think were the motives
on each side?
How would you describe relations between Marius and Metellus? How can
the actions of each of them be understood in the context of the patron/client
relationship and the fact that Metellus is old nobility and Marius is
a novus homo? I will ask you to talk about this in class.
What were Marius' reform with regard to the army?
Who were the Gauls? Why might the Romans take extraordinary action to
defend against them
Why is wearing triumphal robes into the senate problematic?
Who were Glaucia and Saturninus?
From what source does Plutarch get evidence for Marius' exile of Metellus
and why might this be problematic?
What action did Marius take against Saturninus and Glaucia?
How was Marius' relationship with Sulla? Why?
Plutarch, Life of Sulla 3-6
As whose quaestor did Sulla serve and where did he serve his term?
Who celebrated the triumph over Jugurtha?
what was the image on Sulla's signet ring and how might this have had
implications for his relationship with Marius?
How did Sulla make the best political hay out of his defeat in running
for the praetorship?
What was the cause of Sulla's quarrel with Marius immediately preceding
the outbreak of the Social War?
Whose daughter did Sulla marry?
Note at the end of chapter 6 the extent of the involvement of women in
political matters.
What motivated Sulla to march on Rome the first time? When did Sulla
march on Rome? Why did his soldiers follow him?
What were the consequences of being declared an enemy of the state (hostis)?
Skim "Cinna's Rule," but note with whom Cinna allied himself
and what relations with Sulla were like and the fighting that was looming
on the horizon.
What motivated Sulla to march on Rome the second time? Whenwas this?
What role did Pompey play in this civil war? What was his relationship
with Sulla? What did he want?
What were the proscriptions? Stop and imagine what it must have been like in Rome when they were occurring. What happened to the children of the proscribed (when they were not also killed)?
What was the charge to the dictator Sulla? How long would he hold his
office?
How did Sulla reform the senate?
What rules did he make regarding magistrates?
How did Sulla treat the tribunate? Why? Think about his own personal experiences
of the tribunate when he had been about to set out to fight Mithridates.
What were the consequences of his rules regarding the tribunate?
How did Sulla treat the equestrians (equites)?
How did Sulla view the urban poor?
What did Sulla do for his veterans?
How did Sulla try to manage the governing of provinces?
When did Sulla retire? Why?
What do you foresee as the consequences of Sulla's activity?
Plutarch, Life of Marius translator's comments, 34-36, 41-46
Plutarch, Life of Sulla translator's introduction, 1, 7-10, 22-25, 27-36, 38
Name at least one source that Plutarch used in his biography. Why is
this significant?
How does Plutarch describe Sulla's early life?
Where was Sulla headed when his command was taken away from him?
Who was Sulpicius and what did he do for Marius? How did he do it?
Who tried to stop Sulla from marching on Rome?
What did Sulla do when he arrived in Rome? What did Marius do?
Who did Sulla have, in Plutarch's words, "pass a death sentence on
Marius"?
What happened to Sulpicius' servant and why?
Why do you think the senate "kept their feelings hidden"?
Who were Cinna and Virginius and what did each of them do? How did Sulla
respond?
Do you think "the people" had a voice in electing the consuls?
According to Plutarch, how were Cinna and Carbo behaving in Rome?
What evidence do you have of the involvement of women in these activities?
What were the conditions imposed upon Mithridates?
How did Mithridates change his mind?
What were the impositions on Asia?
What oath did Sulla make his troops take before returning to Italy? Why?
What is the relationship between Sulla and his trooops? Is this important?
Which generals were on Sulla's side in the civil war?
I don't really care much about the details of the fighting, but note its
intensity and its breadth.
How did Sulla devote "himself entirely to the work of butchery"?
What motivated Sulla's writing of a list of those to be condemned (proscription)?
How did Sulla's proscriptions have an impact on Roman families?
What else happened to the proscribed besides their deaths?
How might wealth endanger a person?
What happened to the Younger Marius?
What magistracy did Sulla hold?
What specific powers did he have?
What was the role of marriage alliances?
What happened to Lucretius Ofella and why?
What knickname did Sulla take after his military triumph?
How did Sulla's dictatorship come to an end?
What did Sulla allegedly think of the election of Lepidus? Note, this
same Lepidus will appear in the textbook reading for next time.
Note Sulla's sumptuary legislation ( ie., not spending excessive money
on luxuries).
What might you say about the relationships between men and women given
the stoies of Metella and Valeria?
What was Sulla's funeral like? What part did women play in it?
Boatwright, et al., 204-208, 211-223
Skim the sections of Lepidus, Sertorius and Spartacus, but be able to
write a sentence telling who each of these men was and what each did.
In what year did Crassus and Pompey share their first consulship?
How was Pompey exceptional?
What do the events of their consulship mean for the stability of Sulla's
reorganization?
How did Pompey and Crassus get along?
Note the date and the seriousness of piracy and then pass over Pompey's
activities with the pirates.
Note the location and general time span of the wars against Mithridates
of Pontus, and note which Romans were engaged in them, but then pass over
them.
What were the political consequences of Pompey's successes in the east?
Who were the consuls in 63?
Who was L. Sergius Catilina (Catiline)?
Who was M. Tullius Cicero?
How did his rise to power compare with that of Marius (another novus
homo)? In other words, how was his claim to fame different from Marius?
Their two success stories (novus homo to the consulship) symbolize
the two primary activities of Roman politicians.
What was the economic condition in Rome and Italy and how did it come
about? What legislation was proposed to alleviate it?
Where did Cicero spend his time during his consulship and what did he
"give up" to do that?
With what was Gaius Rabirius charged?
Who became pontifex maximus in 63?
How did Catiline react in his second bid for the consulship? What did
Cicero do and what were the various reactions to Cicero's activities?
Know the names of all the players in this event, and know on which side
they stood.
