Rome Notes #6

poor plebs

• the poet Juvenal said the people “anxiously hopes for two things: bread and circuses”
• bread and entertainment, partly to keep them alive, and partly to keep them quiet
  
  
  a change in rule
  • Tiberius Gracchus recognized the advantages of courting the plebeians
  • military generals worked that angle - lead an army that conquers a land, then give them a share in the spoils
  • soldiers’ loyalty was to their military leader, not necessarily to Rome or the Republic
    
    
    nobody did that better than Caesar
    • Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BCE)
    • successful general
    • conquered the huge territory of Gaul