The Tribunes And The Clique Struggle At The End Of The Roman Republic

From the 2nd century BC to the 1st century BC,with the small peasant economy of the Roman city-states foundation was damaged,great changes had taken place in social class relations,social and political struggle unusually sharp complex.Different political forces of Roman slave owners class from their positions and interests,designed the blueprint to solve the Rome social contradictions,eventually evolved into one hundred years of clique struggle and civil war.As the representative of plebs interests,tribune deeply involved in the fight,and played an extremely important role in it.It was because of the tribunes' involvement deeply,and,in turn,that they were manipulated and used by different factions,and became a tool of the clique struggle.In the end of the Roman Republic,political infighting and insecurity eventually led to Roman transition from the republic to the monarchy.This paper is divided into three parts: introduction,text and conclusion.The text is divided into four chapters to discuss tribunes' establishment,competence,the concrete process of becoming clique struggle tool and to analyze the relationship between tribunes and factions.Part I: Introduction to tribunes' establishment and competence.Tribune was one of the most important achievement of struggle between plebs and nobility early in the Republic of Rome.Tribune initially represented the interests of the plebs,had its unique special status and power.Although the tribune was constrained by patrician in tenure,jurisdiction and colleagues vote,etc,in the early Roman political life,tribune undoubtedly had a pivotal position.Part II: Discuss the concrete process of tribune involving the clique struggle in the late republic.In the late Republic of Rome,slavery economy development and the small peasant economy bankruptcy crumbled the Roman traditional social economic base,as a result the Republic of Rome fell into a crisis.Some of the ruling class in the insight of Rome,represented by the tribune Gracchi,put forward a variety of solutions on civil rights issues and the land issues,etc.However,due to confrontation between plebs and patrician become clear,infighting between different interest groups had been normalized.Bill put forward by the tribune Gracchi,Saturninus and Drusus etc consciously or unconsciously made themselves deeply involved in the struggle.Part III: Discuss the detailed process of tribune becoming the tool of clique struggle at the end of the Roman Republic.In this period,clique struggle gradually reached the superheating,and then evolved into plotting riots,personal attacks,street fights and military confrontation,and led to an instability of Roman social order.Due to the special nature and power of tribune,both Optimates and Democrats selected tribune as spokesman.In this process,Claudius,Milo and Curio etc served for the vanguard of the respective parties,as a result,tribune thoroughly became political tool of the clique struggle.Part IV: Analyze the relationship between tribune and clique struggle at the end of the Roman Republic.On the one hand,because of the participation of tribunes and that tribune was bought by different factions,all had intensified clique struggle in the late Roman Republic,and led to the transition from the republic to the monarchy.On the other hand,also due to the deeply involvement of tribunes,directly participate in clique struggle and abuse of power.All promoted a sharp change of Roman society and the emergence of personal dictatorship,completed the transition from the republic to the monarchy,and that in fact had ruined the authority and the function of tribune,proclaimed the end of the system of the tribune.