Crisis in Traditional Roman va essays

Crisis in Traditional Roman va essays There was a great crisis in traditional Roman values during the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. After the Punic Wars the traditional values of Rome fell by the wayside for a new way of life that eventually led to the Roman Empire. The Cincinnatus image, rise of violence in political life, and making allies with those who were conquered were lost in this transformation. Gone was the Cincinnatus image of the Roman farmers trading their hoes for swords. Before the Punic Wars one had to own property in order to serve in the army. The soldiers in the Roman army would be farmers by day and soldiers by night. They would sow their crops, go to the front lines, and then come back in the fall to harvest the crops. Unfortunately for them, when they left their farms for the battlefields during the Punic Wars it was the last time they saw it. During the years of the Punic Wars Hannibal and his elephants ravaged the land beyond belief and destroyed the countryside farms. When the farmers returned home after the wars they found their farms totally destroyed and unsalvageable and were forced to sell their farms to the Senatorial Aristocracy. The aristocracy in turn setup laitfundias with their new land and used slaves to farm the land. This left the farmers landless and jobless so they naturally headed to the city to seek employment. This system allowed the rich to become richer and the poor to become poorer widening the income gap. In addition this system was beginning to threaten the stability of the state. Soldiers signed up with whichever general that promised him land, booty, and glory (Rogers 161). This meant that soldiers were no longer loyal to the state, but to their general. Two of the generals that became powerful at this time (between 100 and 45 B.C.E.) were Sulla and Marius. These two generals used their armies for their own personal gain. As Appian stated in his article Absol...