Analyze the Punic Wars (264-146 BCE — Rome vs Carthage three wars) and the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire — Marius and Sulla, the First Triumvirate (60 BCE Caesar + Pompey + Crassus), the Caesarian civil war (49-45 BCE), Caesar's assassination (44 BCE), the Second Triumvirate, Octavian/Augustus's principate (27 BCE), and the structural reasons the Republic could not survive its empire
Exercise
Difficulty 3
~5 min
hist.g6.f.ex_36
Short Response
Prompt
What is constitutional fiction in the Augustan principate? Why does Tacitus Annals I.2 criticize Augustus?
How it's presented
mode
text
Answer criteria
type
rubric scored writing
rubric
3 stars: constitutional fiction = Republican forms preserved + monarchic substance gained + Tacitus criticism named (Augustus 'won soldiers with gifts, populace with cheap food, all men with sweets of peace'). 2 stars: 2 of 3. 1 star: 1. 0: 0.
Hints
- Forms vs substance distinction.
- Tacitus is a Roman senatorial historian critical of the principate.
Misconceptions to watch
- Treating Augustus's accession as restoration of Republic
- Forgetting Tacitus as critical Roman primary source
Used in lessons