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The Breakdown of the Late Republic, 88–31 BC

The roles of Sulla, Lepidus, Crassus and Pompey

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Overview

Recall questions on Sulla's damaging precedent, conservative revolution and administrative legacy, the significance of Lepidus' rising, the sources and limits of Crassus' power and his eastern ambitions, Pompey's irregular career, his greatest achievement and central weakness, his alliance with the Senate in 52 BC, and his share of blame for the fall of the Republic.

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Key term

Why is Sulla's dictatorship sometimes called a conservative revolution?

Questions from this subtopic

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  1. 1

    Assess Sulla's most damaging legacy to the Republic.

    Model answer

    He demonstrated that a Roman army would follow its general against Rome itself, a precedent every later commander could invoke.

  2. 2

    Why is Sulla's dictatorship sometimes called a conservative revolution?

    Model answer

    He used entirely unconstitutional means, including proscription and a dictatorship without a term, in order to restore the Senate's traditional supremacy.

  3. 3

    Give one argument that Sulla strengthened the state.

    Model answer

    His enlarged Senate, expanded court system and clearer rules on office-holding and provincial command gave Rome an administrative framework it had lacked.

  4. 4

    Why did the rising of Lepidus matter beyond its own failure?

    Model answer

    It showed within two years of Sulla's death that his settlement commanded no real loyalty, and it handed Pompey his first irregular command.

  5. 5

    What does the career of the consul Lepidus reveal about the Sullan Senate?

    Model answer

    A man who had profited from the proscriptions could turn on the settlement at once when popular grievances offered him a road to power.

  6. 6

    What was the basis of Crassus' political power?

    Model answer

    Immense wealth, built from proscribed property, city rents and lending, which put a very wide range of men under obligation to him.

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