The Roman Republic began to decline around the year 65 B.B. and finally fell in 31 B.C. Before the decline of the Republic the Roman Civilization was one of the strongest and wealthiest civilizations in the world. It modeled many features of its government and religion after the great Greek civilization before it. It was one of the only civilizations of its time to have a democratic government. Unfortunately the Roman Democracy was not completely fair to all its citizens. As the Republic grew it became harder for the Senate to control the lower casts. Revolts and uprisings became more common and the Senators had different opinions on what should be done to control the Republic. The fall of the Republic was caused by conflicts within the Senate between different factions, disagreements between the senate and the first triumvirate and the dictatorships of Julius and Octavian Caesar.
Divisions in the Senate weakened their authority due to their inability to agree on how to solve the problems of the Republic.
English: Map of the Roman Republic in 40 BC after ...
English: Modern bronze statue of Julius Caesar, Ri...
Bust of Julius Caesar from the British MuseumThere were many problems in Rome due to the poor economic state of the Republic. Many people were poor and had no food and on top of that there were high taxes. The lower classes had barely enough to keep themselves alive while the upper class was living in the lap of luxury. The equities were Roman nobles who lost there wealth but not there status as nobles. The optimates were the people represented by the ruling noble class who didn't want a change in the Republic, while the populares were people that were led by reform-minded patricians. The optimates consisted of rich, noble people while the populares mainly consisted of equites and poor urban people. The difference of opinion was based on who should rule Rome. The optimates believed...