Crash Course World History: The Roman Empire, Republic, and Julius Caesar

Hi, I'm John Green. This is Crash Course World History, and today we're going to learn about the Roman Empire, which of

course began when two totally non-fictional twins, Romulus and Reheis, who'd been raised by wolves, founded a

city on seven hills. Mr. Green, Mr. Green, what what does SpQR stand for? It means shut, pie, hole, quickly, rap

scallion. No, it means senus populace romanist, one of the mottos of the Roman Republic. So, today we're going to do

some old school great man history and focus on Julius Caesar while trying to answer a question. When, if ever, is it

okay to stab someone 23 [Music] times? Shakespeare answers that question

by saying that Roman senators killed Caesar because he was going to destroy the Roman Republic. But even if that's

true, we still have to answer whether a the Roman Republic was worth preserving and b whether Caesar actually destroyed

it. One of the things that made the Roman Republic endure both in reality and in the imagination was its balance.

According to the Greek historian Palibius, the three kinds of government, monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy,

were all found united in Rome. And it was no easy thing to determine with assurance whether the entire state was

an aristocracy, a democracy, or a monarchy. At the heart of this blended system was the Senate, a body of

legislators chosen from a group of elite families. Rome was divided into two broad classes. the Petricians, a small

group of aristocratic families, and the Plebeians, basically everyone else. The Senate was sort of a mixture of

legislature and giant advisory council. Their main job was to set policy for the consoles. Each year, the Senate would

choose from among its ranks two co-consils to serve as sort of the chief executives of Rome. There needed to be

two so that they could check each other's ambition and also so that one could, you know, take care of Rome

domestically while the other was off fighting wars, conquering new territory. There were two additional checks on

power. First, the one-year term. I mean, how much trouble can you really do in a year, right? Unless you're the CEO of

Netflix. I mean, he destroyed that company in like two weeks. And secondly, once a senator had served as console, he

was forbidden to serve as console again for at least 10 years. Although that went a little bit like how you say

you're only going to eat one Chipotle burrito per week and then there are a few exceptions and then all of a sudden

you're there every day. And yes, I know guacamole is more. Just give it to me. But right, we were talking about the

Romans. So the Romans also had a position of dictator, a person who would take over in the event that the republic

was in imminent danger. The paradigm for this selfless Roman ruler was Catis, a general who came out of comfortable

retirement at his plantation, took command of an army, defeated whatever enemy Rome was battling, and then laid

down his command and returned to his farm safe in the knowledge that one day the second largest city in Ohio would be

named for him. If that model of leadership sounds familiar to Americans, by the way, it's because George

Washington was heavily influenced by Catis when he invented the idea of the two-term president. So, along comes

Caesar gas. No, it's gas. I know from Battlestar Galactica. Gas Julius Caesar was born around 100 B.CE to one of

Rome's leading families. His birth was somewhat miraculous, requiring a surgical procedure that we know today as

a Caesar Ian section. Coming as he did from the senatorial class, it was natural that Caesar would serve in both

the army and the senate, which he did. He rose through the ranks. And after some top-notch generaling and a gig as

the governor of Spain, he decided to run for console. In order to win, Caesar needed financial help, which he got from

Craas, one of Rome's richest men. Craas ran a private fire company whose business model was essentially, "Hey, I

notice your house is on fire. Give me some money and I'll help you out with that." Caesar succeeded in becoming

console in 59 B.CE. and thereafter sought to dominate Roman politics by aligning himself with Cassus and also

with Rome's other most powerful man, the general Pompy. You'll no doubt remember Pompy from his fascination with

Alexander the Great. Pompy, Cassus, and Caesar were the so-called first triumvirate, and the alliance worked out

super well for Caesar. Not so well for the other two. Let's go to the thought bubble. After a year as console that

included getting the Senate to pass laws largely because of intimidation by Pompy's troops, Caesar landed the

governorship of Gaul, at least the southern part of Gaul that Rome controlled. He quickly conquered the

rest of Gaul and his four loyal armies, or legions as the Romans called them, became his source of power. Caesar

continued his conquests, invading Britain and waging another successful war against the Gauls. While he was

away, Craas died in battle with the Parththeians. And Pompy, who had become Caesar's rival and enemy, was elected

consul. Pompy and the Senate decided to try to strip Caesar of his command and recall him to Rome. If he returned to

Rome without an army, Caesar would have been prosecuted for corrupt counseling and also probably exceeding his

authority as governor. So instead, he returned with the 13th Legion. He crossed the Rubicon River, famously

saying, "The dye is cast." Or possibly, "Let the dye be cast." Sorry, thought bubble sources disagree. Basically,

Caesar was invading his own hometown. Pompy was in charge of Rome's army, but like a boss, fled the city, and by 48

B.CE. Caesar was in total command of all of Rome's holdings, having been named both dictator and consul. Caesar set out

to Egypt to track down Pompy, only to learn that he'd already been assassinated by agents of the Pharaoh

Talamy. Egypt had its own civil war at the time between the Pharaoh and his sister/wife Cleopatra. Tommy was trying

to curry favor with Caesar by killing his enemy, but Caesar was mad in that the only person who gets to tease my

little brother is me kind of way, except with murder instead of teasing. So Caesar sided with and scutily poofed

with Cleopatra. Thanks thought bubble. Cleopatra went on to become the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt and then bet on

Mark, "I am the wrong horse Anthony instead of emperor. There is a baby attached to my leg Augustus." But before

all that, Caesar made his way back from Egypt to Rome, stopping off to defeat a few kings in the east on his way and was

declared dictator again. That position was later extended for 10 years and then for life. He was elected console in 46

B.CE and then again in 45 B.CE. this last time without a co-consul. By 45 B.CE. Caesar was the undisputed master

of Rome and he pursued reforms that strengthened his own power. He provided land pensions for his soldiers,

restructured the debts of a huge percentage of Rome's debtors, and also changed the calendar to make it look

more like the one we use today. But by 44 B.CE, many senators had decided that Caesar controlled too much of the power

in Rome. And so they stabbed him 23 times on the floor of the Roman Senate. Caesar was duly surprised about this and

everything, but he never said at two brute when he realized Brutus was one of the co-conspirators. That was an

invention of Shakespeare. The conspirators thought the death of Caesar would bring about the restoration of the

Roman Republic. And they were wrong. For one thing, Caesar's reforms were really popular with the Roman people who were

quick to hail his adopted son, Octavian, as well as his second in command, Mark, I am the wrong horse, Anthony, and a d

named Lepedus, as a second triumvirate. This triumvirate was an awesome failure, degenerating into a second civil war.

Octavian and Anthony fought it out. Anthony being the wrong horse lost. Octavian one changed his name to Caesar

Augustus, became sole ruler of Rome, attached a baby to his leg, adopted the title emperor, and started printing

coins identifying himself as Divinilious, the son of God. More on that next week. Although Augustus tried

to pretend that the forms of the Roman Empire were still intact, the truth was he made the laws and the Senate had

become nothing more than a rubber stamp. Which reminds me, it's time for the open letter. Movie magic. An open letter to

the Roman Senate. Oh, but first, let's check what's in the secret compartment. Oh, it's a harmonica. Stan, do you want

me to play some old Roman folk songs? Very [Music]

well, Stan. I just want to thank you for doing such a good job of overdubbing there. Dear Roman Senate, whether you

were rubber stamping the laws of Emperor Augustus, or stabbing Caesar on the floor of your sacred hall, you were

always doing something. I don't want to sound nostalgic for a time when people lived to be 30, a tiny minority of

adults could vote, and the best fashion choice was bed sheets. But oh my god, at least you did something. Your Senate was

chosen from among the Petrician class. Our Senate here in the United States is chosen from among the obstructionist

class. But don't get me wrong, Roman Senate, you were terrible. Best wishes, John Green. So, did Caesar destroy the

Roman Republic? Well, he started a series of civil wars. He seized power for himself. He subverted the ideas of

the republic. He changed the constitution. But he's only really to blame if he was the first one to do

that. And he wasn't. Take the general Marius for instance, who rose to power on the strength of his generalship and

on his willingness to open up the army to the poor, who were loyal to him personally and not to Rome, and whom he

promised land in exchange for their good service in the army. This of course required the Romans to keep conquering

new land so they could keep giving it to new legionnaires. Marius was also console five times in a row 60 years

before Caesar. Or look at the Roman general Sullah who like Marius ensured that his armies would be more loyal to

him personally than to Rome but who marched against Rome itself and then became its dictator executing thousands

of people in 81 B.CE 30 years before Caesar entered the scene. There's another way of looking at this question

altogether. If we dispense with great man history, maybe Rome became an empire before it had an emperor. Like remember

the Persian Empire? You'll recall that that empire had some characteristics that made it imperial, like a unified

system of government, continual military expansion, and a diversity of subject peoples. The Roman Empire had all three

of those characteristics long before it became the Roman Empire. Like Rome started out as a city, and then it

became a city-state and then a kingdom and then a republic. But that entire time it was basically comprised of the

area around Rome. By the 4th century B.C.E. Rome started to incorporate its neighbors like the Latins and the

Atruscans. And pretty soon they had all of Italy under their control. But that's not really diversity of subject peoples.

I mean nothing personal Italians but you know you have a lot of things in common like the constanticulations. If you want

to talk about real expansion and diversity, you got to talk about the Punic Wars. These were the wars that I

remember primarily because they involved Hannibal crossing the Alps with freaking war elephants, which was probably the

last time that the elephants could have risen up and formed their awesome secret elephant society with elephant planes

and elephant cars. In the first Punic War, Rome wanted Sicily, which was controlled by the Carthaginians. Rome

won, which made Carthage cranky. So, they started the second Punic War. In 219 B.C.E., Hannibal attacked a Roman

town, then led an army across Spain, and then crossed the freaking Alps with elephants. Hannibal and his elephant

army almost won, but alas, they didn't. And as a result, the Romans got Spain. People in Spain are definitely not

Romans, despite Russell Crow's character in Gladiator, which means that by 2011 B.CE., Rome was definitely an empire.

The Third Punic War was a formality. Rome found some excuse to attack Carthage and then destroyed it so

completely that these days you can't even find it on a map. Eventually, this whole area and a lot more would be

incorporated into a system of provinces and millions of people would be ruled by the Roman Empire. And it's ridiculous to

say that Rome was a republic until Augustus became Rome's first official emperor because by that time, Rome had

been an empire for almost 200 years. There's a reason I'm arguing that the death of the republic came long before

Caesar and probably around the time that Rome became an empire. If anything destroyed the idea of republic in Rome,

it was the concentration of power into the hands of one man. And this man was always a general. I mean, you can't

march on Rome without an army after all. Why were there such powerful generals? Because Rome had decided to become an

empire. And empires need to expand militarily. Particularly, the Roman Empire needed to expand militarily

because it always needed new land to give its retired legionnaires. That expansion created the all powerful

general, and the incorporation of diverse peoples made it easier for them to be loyal to him rather than to some

abstract idea of the republic. Julius Caesar didn't create emperors. Empire created them. Next week, we'll be

discussing Christianity, so that shouldn't be controversial. Until then, thanks for watching. Crash Course is

produced and directed by Stan Miller. Our script supervisor is Danica Johnson. The show is written by my high school

history teacher, Raul Meyer, and myself. And our graphics team is ThoughtBubble. Last week's phrase of the week was

predistressed designer jeans. If you want to guess this week's phrase of the week or suggest new ones, you can do so

in comments, where you can also ask questions about today's video, which our team of historians will endeavor to

answer. Thanks for watching and as we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome. Whoa.

Jeez. Yikes. Everything is fine.