Populares, Optimates, and Roman Concrete
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
―Tacitus,The Annals of Imperial Rome
The Populares (populists) and Optimates (best men) were two rival factions fighting for control of Rome, and thus most of the Mediterranean world, prior to the creation of the office of Emperor. The two factions destroyed the Republic when they decided to have Emperors veto Roman law with their legions, and loot fellow Romans. In many ways, we are living through similar times with Democrats and Republicans voting for who should be Caesar every 4 years. However, the Founders studied Roman history. Like Roman concrete, the Constitution of the USA was created to be anti-fragile.
The Populares and Optimates were like Democrats and Republicans, respectively. Even in their self image, opinions of each other, hypocrisy, controlled opposition, backroom deals, and family politics. Like the Bushes and Clintons, the Romans had the Metelli family.[1]
The Metelli were patrons of Gaius Marius, but hobbled his career in Numidia during the Jugurthine War (112-106 BC) when he was serving under Caecilius Metellus “Numidicus”. So, Marius ran for Consul, won, and in 107 BC, took command from Caecilius. Both Caecilius and his son Metellus Pius, would support Sulla.[2]
Sulla was serving under Marius in the Jugurthine War when Sulla ended the war by capturing King Jugurtha in 106 BC. Marius got the official praise as the commander (imperator), causing political strain between the two. Sulla and Caecilius both felt slighted by Marius.[3]
Marius was an Populare. Sulla, was an Optimate.
Then the Cimbri and Teutons invaded. They were Celtic/Germanic tribes raiding Gaul (modern France) and Hispana (Spain). They were threatening to invade Roman Italy. They killed 80,000 Romans at the Battle of Arausio in Gaul in 105 BC. That is more than Hannibal killed at the Battles of Cannae in 216 BC. In terms of numbers lost, it was the worse Roman defeat in history.[4]
Fearing that the barbarians would soon cross the Alps and attack Rome, Marius, was elected Consul again and 4 times in a row from 104-100 BC. Consuls were supposed to wait 10 years before holding office again, though it had been done before, once or twice. Two Consuls were elected each year, having comparative power to the presidency of the USA. He would defeat the Teutons at the of Battle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 BC and the Cimbrians at the Battle of Battle of Vercellae the next year.
Even though he had amassed power and influence, he went into semi-retirement for the next 10 years.[5]
Instead of the Populists and Optimates uniting in victory, they were divided over the spoils of war and politics. Instead of simply looting their enemies, they looked to politics as a way to live at the expense of their political enemies and countrymen.
“The state is the great fiction where everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.” -Frederic Bastiat
The Roman allies, notably the Samnites in Italy, wanted Roman citizenship to match their service in the legion. These allies were tribes and cities that were not directly under Roman rule, but would provide soldiers and money to Rome per a treatry/contract (foedus- federal government). Despite having commanding positions in the legion and saving the Republic from invasion, they were not citizens. Tired of waiting for the two factions to pass a citizenship law for them, they rebelled in what is known as the Social War (91-87 BC). It was called the Social War because the English word “society” comes from the Latin word for ally, “socii.”[6]
Both Marius and Sulla served in the Social War. Sulla was elected Consul in 88 BC. The Social War was the first war on Italian soil since the end of the 2nd Punic war in 202 BC. The Romans would win. Many Italian allies would eventually get citizenship. However, impending victory left the victors squabbling over the spoils of war, and to whom Roman citizenship should be granted and when. The constant fighting between the Populares and Optimates would result in the Social War overlapping into the first Roman civil war.
The first Roman civil war (88-82 BC) started after Sulla was given command as Consul of an invasion of the Greek Kingdom of Pontus in Asia Minor, modern Turkey, in 88 BC. It was ruled by Mithridates. However, Marius used a Tribune of the Plebs to change the law via plebiscite in the Plebeian Council, and replace Sulla with himself as commander, while the army was in Italy, waiting to sail.
Just like the USA have a bicameral legislature, the Plebeian Council, led by electing 10 Tribunes of the Plebs, was created in 494 BC to counter-balance the patricians in the Senate.
Sulla was informed by 2 tribunes of the law change, murdered them, turned around, marched on Rome, camped his army outside the city, exiled Marius, proscribed a few enemies, and then invaded Asia Minor.
However, while the Optimate Sulla was fighting Mithridates, the factions inside Rome squabbled, notably over voting rights for their Italian socii. The Populare Consul Cinna raised a largely Samnite army, united with Marius, and they marched on Rome in 86 BC, camping outside of the city. Rome surrendered.
Marius then proscribed the Populists’ enemies within the city. Proscription means to write down names (pro-scribe names, as in to scribble down names). Any (rich) person whose name Marius wrote down and published in the Forum could be murdered so that Marius’s faction could sell their property for cash.
Marius was elected as one of the two Consuls, for his 7th time, in 86 BC. Marius then died of natural causes a couple of weeks later.
Sulla was a Proconsul at the time (87-84 BC). A Proconsul is someone with Consular powers, typically in a foreign theatre of war. The size of the empire allowed for different Roman governments to coexist during the civil war, even when one or both factions ruled in Rome. For example, the 4-time Consul Cinna was assassinated in 84 BC, right before Sulla crossed back from Greece to Italy in 83 BC. His legion entered Rome- the first time in Roman history.
Sulla was elected Dictator for an unspecified time in 82 BC, following the Battle of the Colline Gate (Crassus won the battle for him) and his summary execution of thousands of the Samnites and Populists captured in battle while speaking to the Senate as they watched the executions. He then proscribed his enemies in Rome. Roman Dictators were limited to a 6-month term. They were only elected in emergencies. Sulla would be Dictator for 3 years while aslo being elected Consul again in 80 BC, before retiring in 79 BC. He used his power to change many laws, notably neutering the power of the Tribune of the Plebs. He passed away in 78 BC.
The general Sertorius would continue the Populist rebellion Spain from 80 BC until his assassination in 73 BC. Metellus Pius commanded against him.
Even after the civil war finally ended, the Populares and Optimates would continue to fight for dominance of the Roman Republic and their Mediterranean empire. They would support strong men in the Senate, men who gained influence commanding in the legion. These commanders (imperators- Emperors) of the legions became the rulers of the Republic. The factions were willing to back a strong man who would loot their enemies, whether those enemies be foreigners, their allies, or fellow Romans.
Marius and Sulla were just the beginning. Though the Roman Republic would survive the Servile Wars (135−132 BC; 100-104 BC; and 73-71 BC), the Populist Catiline Conspiracy in 63 BC, and the first Triumvirate (60-53 BC), the two factions would fight a second civil war from 49 until 42 BC, with the Optimates led by Pompey Magnus (then his son) and the Populares led by Caesar (then his adopted son Octavian and Marc Antony).
The civil war came about as a result of the first Triumvirate falling apart. It was an informal alliance between Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar. They worked together behind the scenes to rule Rome. It ended when Pompey’s wife- Caesar’s daughter- died in childbirth in 54 BC. Then Crassus died in battle against the Parthians in 53BC.[7]
Pompey would be defeated in the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC. He was then assassinated by the Ptolemies ruling Egypt, to whom he fled for refuge. They were descendants of Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Great’s generals.
To speed the end of the civil war, Caeser would welcome many of his enemies back into Rome, notably his adopted son Brutus. Brutus was a descendant of Lucius Junius Brutus, the man who killed the last king of Rome and established the Republic in 509 BC.
Caesar would be assassinated in the Forum in 44 BC by Senators led by Brutus, after being elected dictator in perpetuity. The civil war would be ended by Octavian and Marc Antony in 42 BC at the Battle of Philippi. Brutus would commit suicide.[8]
Caesar’s heir, Octavian, would defeat his second-in-command, Marc Antony, at the naval battle of Actium in 31 BC, following the collapse of the second Triumvirate between Octavian, Marc Antony, and Lepidus (43-32 BC). As a result, Octavian would be renamed Augustus by the Senate in 27 BC, being called Princeps, first man. He wanted to command from behind the scenes, so as not to be assassinated. He is known as Rome’s first Emperor.[9]
Lepidus would be sidelined as the last Pontifex Maximus of the Republic. Upon his peaceful death in 13 BC, Augustus would be the next Pontifex Maximus (chief priest). He was also the son of a god (Caesar). Jesus, the son of God was born during this time. We are in His 2024th year of rule. Hence, Anno Domini (the year of our Lord).[10][11]
Two generations of Romans grew up under Augustus’s long reign (27 BC-14 AD). Romans became accustomed to having a strong man making the rules instead of the warring Populares and Optimates in the Senate. His imperium is considered the beginning of the Pax Romana, which lasted until the Crisis of the 3rd Century (235-285 AD).
“Live in harmony; enrich the troops; ignore everyone else.”
-Emperor Septimius Severus’s last words to his sons, Caracalla and Geta in 211 AD. Caracalla would murder Geta and the Praetorian Guard would murder Caracalla in 217 AD.
The Crisis would start because power was centralized in commanders who needed to pay the legions for political support. So, taxes were raised, the currency was debased, and people lost economic freedom as the government tried to regulate the economy gooder. The economy collapsed into 50+ civil war and barbarian invasion.[12]
The structure of Rome’s Republic allowed them to reform and expand, even while fighting constant civil wars. It still took another century after the Crisis of the Third Century for them to lose major territory. While the Western Empire would fall in 476 AD, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire would continue to dominate the Mediterranean until the Muslim Conquests in the 7th and 8th centuries.
Understanding the factionalism of the Roman Republic led the Founding Fathers to create a constitution that would be as strong as the Roman concrete.
Roman concrete had self-healing properties that were only rediscovered by MIT students in 2022. It was one of the technologies lost to the West at the end of the Western Empire in 476 AD.
Per MIT,[13]
“During the hot mixing process, the lime clasts develop a characteristically brittle nanoparticulate architecture, creating an easily fractured and reactive calcium source, which, as the team proposed, could provide a critical self-healing functionality. As soon as tiny cracks start to form within the concrete, they can preferentially travel through the high-surface-area lime clasts. This material can then react with water, creating a calcium-saturated solution, which can recrystallize as calcium carbonate and quickly fill the crack, or react with pozzolanic materials to further strengthen the composite material. These reactions take place spontaneously and therefore automatically heal the cracks before they spread.”
Whenever one faction got too much power in one branch and created cracks in the laws of the Republic, then another faction could use Constitutional checks and balances to neuter their power and enact reforms. Exempli gratia, the states can ignore unConstitutional federal law, the jury can nullify unConstitutional crimes, the legislature branch doesn’t have to vote to fund the executive branch, the judicial branch can nullify the legislative branch’s laws, or the executive branch could veto legislation that doesn’t have a 2/3 majority. There are ways for Americans to reform the Constitution when the government breaks the law, so that our civilization doesn’t crumble.
Today, in many ways, Democrats and Republicans have replaced the Republic with executive orders from the president. Both parties are increasingly encouraging their presidential candidate to act like the legislature via “executive orders,” which are dictates from a dictator.
Fortunately for Americans, the Founders knew that a weak generation of Americans would be born. Americans have a default system of government, for when we default on the debt.
When we can only afford a government the size of the Constitution, then we can retreat from our empire back to our base in the continental USA, protected by our natural barriers, just like Roman Italy.
In fact, while the Roman Republic did centralize power in the emperor, the Senate would vote to kill Emperor Nero in 68 AD and elected Nerva as the emperor in 96 AD. So, the checks and balances of the Republic would survive into the empire but would fade further away with each generation. For example, the Plebeian Council stopped being mentioned in the first century AD.[14][15]
Interestingly, the Roman Senate actually survived the Western Roman Empire. Pope Gregory the Great was a member of the Senate. He said in a homily in 593 AD,[16]
“Ipsa autem, quse aliquando mundi domina esse videbatur, qualis remanserit Roma, conspicimus. Immensis doloribus multipliciter attrita, desolazione civium, impressione bostium, frequenti ruinarum…. Ubi enim Senatus? Ubi jam populus? Omnis in ca Saecularium dignitatum fastus extinctus est… Guia enim Senatus deest, populus interiit: e tamen in paucis, qui sunt, doloris, e gemitus quotidit multiplicantur; jam vacua ardes Roma.”
“But we see that she herself once seemed to be the mistress of the world, such as Rome remained. Distressed in many ways by immense pains, the desolation of the citizens, the pressure of the beasts, the frequent collapses... Where is the Senate? Where are the people? All the pride of Secular dignities has been extinguished... For the Senate is wanting, the people have perished: yet in the few that are, the groans of pain are multiplied every day; Rome is already burning empty.”
The Roman Republic was split between two political factions prior to the creation of the office of Emperor, the Populares and Optimates. The two factions destroyed the Republic when they decided to have imperators veto Roman law with their legions, and loot fellow Romans. In many ways, we are living through similar times with Democrats and Republicans. However, the Founders studied Roman history. Like Roman concrete, the Constitution of the USA was created to be anti-fragile.
End Note: This was inspired by the Cost of Glory series on Youtube by Alex Petkas, PhD History. He has done 12+ hours of videos on the first Roman Civil War, based on the Parallel Lives by Plutarch.[17]
[2]Simmons, Dustin Wade, "From Obsurity to Fame and Back Again: The Caecilii Metelli in the Roman Republic" (2011). Theses and Dissertations. 2503.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2503
[3]The Jugurthine Wars — Hamilton Mobley
[4]Arausio, 105 BC: Rome's Worst Military Defeat (Documentary) - YouTube
[5]Gaius Marius - World History Encyclopedia
[6]Social War | Roman Republic, Conflict & Causes | Britannica
[7]First Triumvirate - World History Encyclopedia
[8]Marcus Junius Brutus | Biography, Julius Caesar, Death, & Facts | Britannica
[9]Second Triumvirate - World History Encyclopedia
[10]Marcus Aemilius Lepidus | Triumvir, Pontifex Maximus, Consul | Britannica
[11]Science Says — Hamilton Mobley
[12]Bellum Monetariorum (The War of the Moneyers) — Hamilton Mobley
[13]https://news.mit.edu/2023/roman-concrete-durability-lime-casts-0106