The Breakdown of the Late Republic, 88-31 BC | OCR A-Level Ancient History (H407)

The Breakdown of the Late Republic, 88-31 BC

427 questions
28 subtopics
Component Group 2: Roman depth study, one of three
Component Group 2

The Breakdown of the Late Republic, 88–31 BC is examined in Component Group 2, Roman period study and Roman depth study.

It covers the Senate, its membership and the force of senatus consulta, the popular assemblies and the making of law, the magistracies, the cursus honorum and the electoral process, the tribunes of the plebs and their power in the state, the courts, the quaestiones perpetuae and the politics of prosecution, the Gracchi, Marius and the origins of the crisis of 88 BC, Sulla's dictatorship and the Sullan reforms, the undoing of Sulla's settlement in the 70s BC, Spartacus, Crassus and the consulship of 70 BC, the Catilinarian Conspiracy of 63 BC, the First Triumvirate and Caesar's consulship of 59 BC, political breakdown and disorder in the 50s BC, the causes of the Civil War of 49 BC, Caesar's dictatorship and social change, the assassination of Caesar and the Ides of March, Antony against the Senate and the Second Triumvirate, Octavian's victories in Italy, at Actium and in Egypt, patronage, clientela and the politics of faction, oratory, political marriage and scandal in public life, land bills, largesse and the buying of popular support, bribery, corruption, intimidation and violence in Roman politics, military commands, veteran loyalty and the threat of force, the senatorial and equestrian orders and the publicani, the rural poor, migration to Rome and the changing urban plebs, the roles of Sulla, Lepidus, Crassus and Pompey, the roles of Cicero, Cato, Catiline and Clodius, the roles of Caesar, Brutus and Cassius, Antony and Octavian and the ancient sources for the Late Republic and their reliability.

Sample questions from The Breakdown of the Late Republic, 88-31 BC

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The Senate, its membership and the force of senatus consulta

Explain why a senatus consultum carried such weight although it was not technically law.

Show the answer
It expressed the collective judgement of the state's most experienced men, so its auctoritas made it binding in practice even without legal force.
The tribunes of the plebs and their power in the state

Which two consuls restored the tribunes' full powers, and when?

Show the answer
Pompey and Crassus restored them in their consulship of 70 BC.
The undoing of Sulla's settlement in the 70s BC

Explain how the war against Sertorius weakened the Senate's authority at Rome.

Show the answer
It dragged on at great expense, exposed the Senate's inability to end it, and obliged the Senate to hand Pompey a command he then used as leverage against it.
The First Triumvirate and Caesar's consulship of 59 BC

How was the alliance sealed by marriage?

Show the answer
Pompey married Caesar's daughter Julia.
The assassination of Caesar and the Ides of March

What personal grievance did Cassius have against Caesar?

Show the answer
He had been pardoned after fighting on Pompey's side and then passed over for the senior praetorship in favour of Brutus.
Patronage, clientela and the politics of faction

What defined a politician as popularis?

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His method, since he took his measures straight to the people through the tribunate and the assembly instead of working through the Senate.
Military commands, veteran loyalty and the threat of force

Explain why Pompey's settlement of the East made him uniquely powerful.

Show the answer
He reorganised provinces and kingdoms on his own authority, so rulers and cities across the East owed their position to him personally.
The roles of Sulla, Lepidus, Crassus and Pompey

What was Pompey's greatest achievement?

Show the answer
The clearing of the pirates and the reorganisation of the East, which secured Rome's grain supply and settled the eastern empire for a generation.

The 28 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The Senate, its membership and the force of senatus consulta	Recall questions on entry to the Senate before and after Sulla and its size, the senatus consultum and why it carried weight, the tribune's veto and the senatus auctoritas, the senatus consultum ultimum and why it was contested, who could summon the Senate, the order of speaking and voting by discessio, and its control of finance, provinces and foreign affairs.	14
The popular assemblies and the making of law	Recall questions on the comitia centuriata and why it favoured the rich, its meeting place on the Campus Martius, the comitia populi tributa and tribal voting, city and country voters, the plebeian assembly and the plebiscitum, the law of 287 BC, how a bill was published and voted without amendment, the contio, and the secret ballot.	14
The magistracies, the cursus honorum and the electoral process	Recall questions on the cursus honorum and Sulla's minimum ages, annuality and collegiality, imperium and promagistrates, the numbers of quaestors and praetors, the praetor's courts, the aedileship and the games, the ten-year rule, the novus homo, how candidates canvassed with a nomenclator and the salutatio, Quintus Cicero's handbook, and the advantage of noble families.	15
The tribunes of the plebs and their power in the state	Recall questions on the ten tribunes and their eligibility, sacrosanctity, intercessio and the ius auxilii, the limits of their power beyond Rome, how one tribune could halt business, Sulla's curbs on the office, Cotta's law of 75 BC, the restoration by Pompey and Crassus in 70 BC, tribunes and Pompey's commands, and Caesar's use of the tribunes in 49 BC.	14
The courts, the quaestiones perpetuae and the politics of prosecution	Recall questions on the quaestio perpetua and the first extortion court of 149 BC, the kinds of case heard, the fight over juries from Gaius Gracchus to Sulla and Cotta's law of 70 BC, the trial of Verres, private prosecution and what it offered young men, extraordinary courts, Pompey's procedure and Milo's trial in 52 BC, and the Catilinarian executions.	14
The Gracchi, Marius and the origins of the crisis of 88 BC	Recall questions on Tiberius Gracchus' land bill, the deposing of Octavius, the Pergamene bequest and his death, the grain law, juries and Asian tax contracts of Gaius Gracchus and his fall, Marius' landless volunteers and successive consulships, the Social War, and Sulpicius Rufus and the Mithridatic command in 88 BC.	15
Sulla's dictatorship and the Sullan reforms	Recall questions on the march on Rome in 88, the legal form of the dictatorship, the proscriptions and the penalty laid on the sons, the enlarged Senate, and the veteran settlements.	15
The undoing of Sulla's settlement in the 70s BC	Recall questions on the rising of Lepidus, the war in Spain and its cost to the Senate's authority, the restoration of the tribunes, the discredited juries, and the revived censorship.	12
Spartacus, Crassus and the consulship of 70 BC	Recall questions on how the rising began and spread, why the first Roman forces failed, the fate of the prisoners, the quarrel over the credit, and the reforms of 70.	14
The Catilinarian Conspiracy of 63 BC	Recall questions on the programme Catiline stood on, why debt was explosive, the documentary proof, the debate on the captured conspirators, the concord of the orders, and what it later cost Cicero.	16
The First Triumvirate and Caesar's consulship of 59 BC	Recall questions on the compact of 60 BC and what Pompey, Crassus and Caesar each wanted, how Cato's obstruction drove them together, Bibulus watching the sky, Caesar's land laws and how they were forced through, the Vatinian law and Transalpine Gaul, Pompey's marriage to Julia, the vulnerability of Caesar's acts, and Clodius' transfer to the plebs.	15
Political breakdown and disorder in the 50s BC	Recall questions on Clodius' laws and the neighbourhood associations, the rival gangs, the conference at Luca, the commands taken in 55, the killing on the Appian Way, and the sole consulship.	15
The causes of the Civil War of 49 BC	Recall questions on what Caesar wanted as his command ended, the law of the ten tribunes and how Pompey undercut it, dignitas, Curio's compromise, the flight of the tribunes, and Pompey's end.	15
Caesar's dictatorship and social change	Recall questions on the forms the dictatorship took, the calendar, the handling of debt and the corn dole, the enlarged Senate, the Lupercalia, and whether he meant to make himself king.	16
The assassination of Caesar and the Ides of March	Recall questions on the killing on 15 March 44 BC, Brutus, Cassius and Decimus Brutus and the Liberators' name, Cassius' grievance and other motives, why Antony was spared and what that cost, the lack of a plan, the amnesty of 17 March, Caesar's funeral and will, the adoption of Octavian, and why the assassination failed.	15
Antony against the Senate and the Second Triumvirate	Recall questions on how Antony built his position after the assassination, why he wanted Cisalpine Gaul, the siege of Mutina, Octavian's rise to the consulship, the triumvirs' first acts, and Philippi.	14
Octavian's victories in Italy, at Actium and in Egypt	Recall questions on the division of the provinces after Philippi, veteran settlement in Italy and the Perusine War, the pact of Brundisium and Octavia, Sextus Pompeius and his defeat by Agrippa at Naulochus, the fall of Lepidus, the Donations of Alexandria, Antony's will and the oath of 32 BC, war on Cleopatra, Actium, and Egypt under Octavian.	16
Patronage, clientela and the politics of faction	Recall questions on patrons and clients and what clients owed, officium and beneficium, the secret ballot's effect, provincial followings such as Pompey's in the East, freedmen as clients, amicitia, optimates and populares and why they were not parties, characteristic popularis measures, and family-based factions and their instability.	15
Oratory, political marriage and scandal in public life	Recall questions on why oratory was central, how young Romans learned it and turned courtroom success into power, Cicero's dependence on speech, techniques of invective and attacks on private life, speaking to crowds and to the Senate, marriage alliances such as Pompey's to Cornelia and Antony's to Octavia, divorce, and the Bona Dea scandal and Clodius.	14
Land bills, largesse and the buying of popular support	Recall questions on ager publicus and the possessores, the Gracchan land commission, why land bills appealed to politicians and soldiers, the Campanian land in 59 BC, largesse and the donative, increasingly lavish games and the debts that paid for them, the link with provincial extortion, the corn dole and free grain in 58 BC, and whether largesse was bribery.	15
Bribery, corruption, intimidation and violence in Roman politics	Recall questions on how a candidate's money reached the voters, why the laws failed, how a governor extracted money, obstruction by religious observance, and the burning of the Senate house in 52.	14
Military commands, veteran loyalty and the threat of force	Recall questions on extraordinary commands, the Gabinian law against the pirates and the Manilian law against Mithridates, Pompey's eastern settlement, the length of Caesar's Gallic command, veterans' expectations of land and their use in Rome, armies outside the city in 71 BC, Octavian's private army of 44 BC, and why the Senate kept creating such commands.	14
The senatorial and equestrian orders and the publicani	Recall questions on the senatorial order, patricians and plebeians and the nobilis, land as respectable wealth and how senators evaded the ban on trade, equestrians and their business, the publicani and why Rome farmed its taxes, oppression of provincials, the Asian tax company and Crassus, clashes over the provinces, and the gap in wealth.	15
The rural poor, migration to Rome and the changing urban plebs	Recall questions on the decline of Italian small farms and the latifundium, cheap slave labour and long military service, migration to Rome and the work and insecurity found there, the urban poor in the assemblies, the grain supply, the neighbourhood associations, why the rural poor and the plebs lacked revolutionary force, and Caesar's cut to the grain list.	14
The roles of Sulla, Lepidus, Crassus and Pompey	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.	14
The roles of Cicero, Cato, Catiline and Clodius	Recall questions on Cicero's political ideal, rise as a new man, influence, ineffectiveness and death, Cato's Stoic principles, counter-productive obstruction and suicide at Utica, what made Catiline dangerous and what his support reveals, and the basis and independence of Clodius' power and what it shows about the tribunate.	14
The roles of Caesar, Brutus and Cassius, Antony and Octavian	Recall questions on Caesar's Gallic command, aims and clemency, Brutus' principles and their weakness, Cassius' part in the conspiracy and why the Liberators failed, Antony's strengths, weaknesses and link with Cleopatra, Octavian's advantages, his outmanoeuvring of Cicero and the Senate and his propaganda, 31 BC as the end of the Republic, and individuals against structures.	15
The ancient sources for the Late Republic and their reliability	Recall questions on Sallust's themes, speeches, bias and Histories, Cicero's letters, speeches, Second Philippic, de lege agraria II and pro Sestio, Caesar's Civil War, the electioneering handbook, Plutarch, Suetonius and Appian, and the denarii of Sulla, Caesar, Brutus, Antony and Octavian as evidence.	34

The Breakdown of the Late Republic, 88-31 BC is 427 of the 2,709 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.