De la República al Imperio - Ep.1 (El Imperio Romano)

El Senado y el Pueblo Romano: eso mismo –Senatus Populusque Romanus– significa el acrónimo SPQR que, en la última etapa de la República (desde el año 80 a.C.) y hasta muchos años después de que desapareciera (la época de Constantino, en el siglo IV), blasonó las monedas, los documentos, las inscripciones en piedra o metal, los monumentos y los estandartes de las legiones como denominación legal de Roma. De origen incierto, pero probablemente de la etapa fundacional de la ciudad Estado republicana (cuyo nombre oficial entonces era solo “Roma”), resulta irónico que la frase que designa al Senado y al pueblo como depositarios de la soberanía se institucionalizase, precisamente, cuando dicha soberanía agonizaba, próxima a extinguirse, entre otras cosas por la lucha entre ambos estamentos: la patricia clase senatorial y el pueblo (la plebe). Esa contradicción de base, nunca resuelta, traería la decadencia de la República romana y, en último término, las guerras civiles, caldo de cultivo para la irrupción de diversos hombres providenciales o “salvapatrias”. Y serían los más exitosos de todos ellos –también los más inteligentes y cautivadores–, Julio César, y sobre todo su heredero, Octavio Augusto, quienes le dieran la puntilla a una forma de gobierno que parecía eterna pero que, en realidad, había nacido hacía menos de cinco siglos. Escucha la historia completa en el podcast. Déjanos tu comentario en Ivoox o Spotify, o escríbenos a [e-mail] Comparte nuestro podcast en tus redes sociales, puedes realizar una valoración de 5 estrellas en Apple Podcast o Spotify. Texto: Nacho Otero Dirección, locución y producción: Iván Patxi Gómez Gallego Contacto de publicidad en podcast: [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Or the great reports of very historypresents the Roman Empire, chapter one of

(00:41):
the Republic. The Empire a textof Nacho Otero, the Senate and the

(01:03):
Roman people. This same senatus populusqueromanus means the acronym sp q R that
in the last stage of the Republic, from the year eighty before Christ and
up to many years after the disappearanceof the time of Constantine in the fourth
century, blasted the coins, thedocuments, the inscriptions in stone or metal,

(01:25):
the monuments and the banners of thelegions as the legal denomination of Rome,
of uncertain origin, but probably ofthe founding stage of the city Republican
State, whose official name was thenonly Rome. It is ironic that the
phrase that designates the Senate and thepeople as depositaries of sovereignty was institutionalized precisely

(01:46):
when such sovereignty was dying close tobeing extinguished, among other things, by
the struggle between the two states,the patriotic Senate class and the common people.
That basic contradiction never resolved would bringthe decay of the Roman Republic.

(02:09):
And, ultimately, the civil warsbreeding ground for the eruption of various providential
men or savers, and would bethe most successful of all of them also
the most intelligent and captivating. JuliusCaesar and, above all, his heir,
Octavius Augustus, who gave the tipto a form of government that seemed

(02:31):
eternal, but had actually been bornless than five centuries before the Republic of
Rome. It was an elective monarchyin which the monarch was, above all,
a military civic leader from the oldestand most illustrious family groups. What

(02:59):
he knows about this stage, aswell as the start of the subsequent Republican
era. We owe it mainly tothe very later Tito Lidio, so we
must always make caveats regarding the mixtureof history and legend. In any case,
it seems that the seventh King ofRome, who would also be the

(03:19):
last Tarchinian, the proud clan ofthe Tarkinians, used violence, political murder
and terror to such an extent tostay in power, also repealing reforms and
social benefits established by his predecessors,that the Romans began to denoise the monarchy.
As if this were not enough,Tarquinius ended up enraging the people by

(03:44):
destroying all the sanctuaries and Sabin altarsof the tarpeya rock and even more when
he allowed his son Sexto to rapeLucrecia, a Roman Patricia. At this
point, a relative of this oralso of so many or Lucius June Brutus
summoned the Senate and with the supportof the plebe decided the banishment of the

(04:08):
king and the abolition of the monarchistsystem. The year was five hundred and
ten before Christ. Obviously, theabolition had to be replaced with something and
the Senate had until then a sporadicconsultative body. It became permanent and already

(04:29):
entered the year five hundred and ninebefore Christ, the key to the new
reform of government. The Republic ofRome. His name in Latin res public
or public thing or, as wewould say today, public sphere. It

(04:54):
encompassed the whole set of issues thatneeded to be organized for a harmonious functioning
of Roman society. Thus, toreplace the leadership of the kings, the
new position of consul specifically assigned totwo senators was believed. The first were
Lucio Junio Bruto and Lucio Tarquinio Colatinohimself. Initially, the consuls were transferred

(05:17):
all the powers that the king oncehad but in the hope that the fact
that they had to share them wouldact as a counterweight and prevent tyranny,
it was established that their mandates wereannual and each consul could also veto the
actions or decisions of his consular colleague. This measure soon proved insufficient to prevent

(05:46):
abuse of power. The first actof Brutus, a true ancestor of June
Brutus, who would participate centuries laterin the murder of Caesar as consul,
was to force Colatino to resign underthe pretext that he was a tarchinio and
that Rome would not be free untilall members of that family left the city.
Colatino self- exiled himself and theSenate decreed the same fate for all

(06:12):
Tarquinians, with the exception of theskilled Brutus, who took the opportunity to
place his friend Publio Valerio publícola asa consular colleague. As we can see,
corruption and trading in influence soon beganto wreak havoc. That is why

(06:35):
the reforms began immediately. The maininstitutions of the new regime became the Senate,
the judiciary and the elections. TheSenate pillar of the Republic and the
political body to which the consuls wereaccountable. It was originally made up only
of patricians, but from the lexOvinia of the three hundred and twelve BC,

(06:56):
the plebellos were allowed to be partof it. The Senate authorities gave
validity to the agreements reached in thepopular assemblies or elections. It also solved
the situations of interregnum or power vacuumthat occurred when a consul died to limit

(07:23):
their command. In addition, theremaining magistratures, absolutely original positions of the
Roman Republic, were created, whichwere below the consuls and divided their powers.
The first ones in time would arisemany. Others were that of pretor,
who assumed the judicial powers granted tothe consuls and the Ombudsman, who

(07:44):
had the power to control the Census. With this solid administrative and political slinging
and weakened the once powerful Etruscans,the city of State of Rome quickly became
the new hegemonic power of the Italicpeninsula. Thus, the first centuries of

(08:05):
the Republic from five to three beforeChrist saw the progressive conquest of virtually all
of Peninsular Italy by the Romans.The legions instrument of such conquest were made
up of citizens recruited in times ofwar and identified with their objective in the

(08:28):
face of the mercenary character of rivalarmies, which, together with their discipline
and training, made them almost invincible. In addition, as he advanced along
the italic map, Rome recruited himselfas auxiliary troops to the contingents of the
dominated cities, a very intelligent measurethat brought together formidable armed forces and weaving

(08:48):
a dense network of alliances. Orfirst came the so- called Latin Wars,

(09:09):
two conflicts that occurred in successive centuriesfrom four hundred and ninety- eight
to four hundred and ninety- threebefore Christ, and from three hundred and
forty- three hundred and thirty-eight before Christ, which confronted the Republic
with the peoples of Latin lazio andfaliscos. The final victory of Rome gave
him dominion over that territory and almostat the same time, in three hundred

(09:31):
and forty- three before Christ,began the first of the three Amnite wars
that culminated in the two hundred andninety BC, with the complete submission of
Central Italy for the first fourth ofthe third century. Before Christ, the

(09:52):
Romans had unstoppably defeated all their rivalsItalics, Etruscan Gauls of the Po Brutius,
Lucans, Sabins, Celtic Umbros ofthe North and between the two hundred
and eighty and the two hundred andseventy- five BC, to the inhabitants
of the South it was time toexpand beyond their peninsular borders, because of

(10:22):
course, the problem associated with territorialgrowth is that we must continue to grow
constantly in order to supply it conqueredand protect it from external aggressions. The
eternal historical dilemma of colonialism that ledthe Republic to the contradiction of creating a
de facto empire of ever more giganticproportions that would eventually devour the republican institutions

(10:43):
designed for the effective administration of acity State. Thus, Rome began a
very long war escalation that, inthe end, would make it the first
power in the Mediterranean world. Thepunic wars marked the first stage of this

(11:07):
expansion. As the Romans established themselvesin Italy, the city of Carthage,
on the North African coast, hadset up a huge maritime empire that dominated
the entire Western Mediterranean, with stablecolonies in Hispania Baleares and Sicily, from

(11:28):
where it had managed to expel eventhe Greeks. In the two hundred and
sixty- four BC, the Republicdecided to occupy the Carthaginian and Cylian colonies
to transform a powerful fleet of war. Clashes of different signs took place here.

(11:50):
In the two hundred and forty-one BC, Carthage chapterd. It
was the end of the First PunicWar by which Rome took over Corsica and
Sardinia and penetrated Transalpine Gaul and inwhich it would excel. Despite his defeat,
the famous Carthaginian general and statesman toMilcar Barca. His son Hannibal would

(12:18):
be the protagonist on the Carthaginian sideof the Second Punic War of the 18th
century. Two hundred and one beforeChrist, faced with Publius Cornelius, the
cipion, the general African and Romanpolitician, who rose with victory at the
Battle of Jama. On this occasion, the conquest of Hispania, which the

(12:39):
Romans coveted for their wealth in Silverdeposits, was going to take place and
there would still be a third punicwar from one hundred and forty- nine
to one hundred and forty- sixbefore c focused largely on the siege and
battle of Carthage, which resulted inthe plundering and complete destruction of the Mediterranean
city. Its population was exterminated orenslaved and its territory became the Roman province

(13:05):
of Africa. At the same time, the Eastern Mediterranean, the insatiable Republic
of Rome, faced the monarchs ofthe Hellenic States who emerged after the dismemberment

(13:28):
of the Empire of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian kings, Philip V and
Perseus in the so- called MacedonianWars and Antiochus III in the Roman Serian
War. With their successive victories,above all, Macedonia, Achaia and Epirus
would also become Roman provinces. Romeconsolidated this absolute domination of the sea in

(13:56):
strum with the establishment of numerous colonies, the Gaul Cisalpina and the definitive occupation
of Hispania with the taking of Numancein the one hundred thirty- three before
Christ and the Gaul of the South, which converted in the province Narbonense,
allowed the terrestrial union of Hispania,with the Metropoli via the Via Domitia,

(14:16):
a fabulous road that ran parallel tothe sea of the Alps. The Pyrenees.
All these conquests led to an economicrevolution Rome, we would say today,
hit a real ball. The bootiesand war reparations. Moreover, the

(14:37):
taxes paid by the provinces enriched theState in a colossal way and, above
all, many individuals. Thus,members of the Senate class seized the lands
reserved for the Republics for the agerpublicus and administered the exploitation of these public
goods. Hence his name of publicansgiven to a feverish and wild speculation,

(15:03):
but such wealth. At the sametime he upset the already fragile social balance
between the second and one centuries beforeChrist. That was a society based on

(15:24):
the state and the difference of statusbetween the new aristocracy formed by members of
the former Patricia class, along withnew rich and impoverished patricians of the Nobilitas
and the masses of people, increasedto untenable limits. At the same time,
many small peasants, ruined by theconstant wars, emigrated to Rome and

(15:48):
thickened this urban plebe very susceptible todemagogic manipulation, while the inhabitants of the
occupied territories were dissatisfied with the exploitationto which their rulers subjected them and desired
gualdad with the Romans citizenship. Allthis coexisted with an excessive interest of the

(16:12):
wealthy classes in luxury and opulence,and then there were the slaves, a
mere economic instrument that could be boughtand sold from most of the subjugated peoples
became in the first century, beforeChrist, the most numerous social stratum and
led the servile wars, a seriesof uprisings of which Spartacus was the only

(16:36):
one that put the Republic in realdanger. This situation would be the beginning
of the end of the republican system, after the assassination of the gracos,

(16:57):
Tiberios in pronio and callos in proniograco brothers and leftist popular politicians, according
to the current criterion, who attemptedsocial reforms at the end of the second
century. Before Christ, a periodof instability and unceasing internal conflicts was unleashed,
whose ultimate expression would be the civilwars, which confronted the different sectors

(17:18):
of society and gave wings to successivemilitary dictatorships and dictatorships to a new covert
form of monarchy. The principality orempire was only one step book matters.

(17:44):
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