Fall of the Roman Republic, 133-27 BC. . Internal turmoil provoked in 133 BC by economic stagnation in the city of Rome, slave revolts without, and dissension in the military precipitated a period of unrelenting political upheaval known as the Roman Revolution, the Late Roman Republic, or the Fall of the Republic, 133-27 BC. In essence, the republic system of government underwent a painful and violent transition from irresponsible oligarchy to a more accountable autocratic form of government. While it is difficult to appreciate the political and social issues that provoked the incessant political disruptions of the late Republic, it is possible to discern a pattern in the devolution of legal, constitutional authority in the Republic. It is possible to identify FOUR steps to the collapse of Republican authority.. . I. FOUR STEPS TO THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC 133-27 BC. . 1. THE RISE OF POPULAR TRIBUNES, 133-121 BC, two brothers, Ti. And C. Sempronius Gracchus exploited the power of the plebeian tribuneship to seize power in Rome. They essentially used their sacrosanctitas to veto all other public activity in the city in order to force the senate and the magistrates to focus on their own political agendas. They tried to restore order to the military by reclaiming public land and putting landless poor citizens back on land. C. Gracchus also attempted to grant Italian allies Roman citizen status. Both men were killed with their political followings through urban mob violence fomented by the aristocracy.. . 2. THE RISE OF PRIVATE ARMIES. When the oligarchy failed to resolve the military problem, Roman generals, specifically C. Marius (consul 106, 104-100 BC) and L. Cornelius Sulla (consul 88, dictator 82-79 BC), recruited private armies more loyal to themselves than to the state. In addition to the draft, they recruited landless poor citizens by offering them bounties and land upon discharge. The soldier's status as Roman or allied mattered little to these generals either, both of whom made extensive grants of citizenship to allied forces. Ultimately, the two men came to blows in 88 BC in the midst of the Social War and the Asian rebellion induced by Mithradates. So violent were popular feelings that Sulla was able to persuade his field army in southern Italy to march on the city of Rome to expel Marius and his followers. So began the first Civil War and the gradual transference of soldiers’ loyalties from the laws of the state to the persons of their commanding officers. Sulla ultimately prevailed against both Mithradates and the Marian element in Italy (Marius having died in 86 BC), and attempted to impose a reactionary political reform on Rome as dictator (Dictator rei publicae constituendae = Dictator for the purpose of restoring the Republic).. . 3. THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE, 59-53 BC. Three men, Cn. Pompeius Magnus, M. Licinius Crassus, and C. Julius Caesar, combined their influence to seize power in Rome. Pompey was an extremely popular general who defeated numerous enemies of the oligarchy, including a rebellion in Spain led by the renegade Roman general Q. Sertorius, a Mediterranean wide rebellion by the Cilician pirates, and the final defeat of King Mithradates VI of Pontus. Pompey had a loyal private army, but proved politically incapable of delivering on his promises of land and bounties. As an officer of Sulla during the Civil War, Crassus had made himself the wealthiest man in Rome by profiting from Sulla's proscriptions, that is, the outlawing of Roman citizens by putting their names on lists and putting a price on their heads, wanted dead or alive. All proscribed citizens saw their civil rights nullified and their property confiscated and auctioned off by the state. Crassus exploited the proscriptions to acquire perhaps as much as 20% of the property in the city of Rome and countless estates throughout Italy. He used his wealth to buy influence in the Senat