The End Of The Roman Republic
From Tarotpedia
Many of the Trumps in the Sola Busca Tarot deck seem to refer to Roman history in the II and I Century Before Christ. In the following paragraph, some episodes from that period are collected, in an attempt to clarify the relations between the characters represented in the deck. This page is mainly based on Ancient Rome form the Earliest Times down to 476 AD BY ROBERT F. PENNELL.
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[edit] Trumps referenced in the text
The following Trumps are possibly linkable to The End of the Roman Republic:
- Lenpio III / Lepidus
- Mario IIII / Gaius Marius
- Catulo V / Catulus
- Sesto VI / Sextus Pompeius
- Deo Tauro VII / Deiotarus
- Tulio XI / Marcus Tulius Cicero
- Gnaeus Papirius Carbo (consul 113 BC) XII
- Catone XIII / Cato
- Bocho XIIII / Bocchus
- Metelo XV / Quintus Caecilius Metellus (Numidicus)
- Olivo XVI / Livius
- Ipeo XVII / Scipio
- Lentulo XVIII / Publius Cornelius Lentulus (Sura)
- Gaius Calvisius Sabino XVIIII / Gaius Calvisius Sabinus
[edit] The Third Punic War
In 157 BC, Marcus Porcius Cato (XIII) (Cato the Elder) was the chief of an embassy to Carthage. He was especially alarmed at the prosperity of the city, and from that time never ceased to urge its destruction. In a few years, a war against Carthage was declared and eventually Carthage was besieged. Two years after the siege began, Publius Cornelius Scipio (Ipeo? (XVII)) Africanus, the Younger, was elected Consul while but thirty-seven (under the legal age), for the express purpose of giving him charge of the siege. He won the war and destroyed Carthage.
[edit] The Jugurtine War
On the African front, after the destruction of Carthage, the most important kingdom in Africa was Numidia. Rome declared war ad Numidia's king Jugurtha. In 110 BC the Romans were defeated by Jugurtha.
Humiliated by the defeat, the Senate in the following year sent Quintus Caecilius Metellus (XV) Numidicus to take charge of the war. Realizing the danger of failure, he took with him as his lieutenant the ablest soldier that he could find, Gaius Marius (IIII). After a while, Marius was elected Consul and replaced Metellus in command.
The war ended in 106: Jugurtha was betrayed by his ally, Bocchus (XIIII), King of Mauritania, into the hands of Sulla, who was acting as the Quaestor of Marius (IIII).
[edit] The Cimbrian War
A few decades later, Rome had to face different enemies coming from the North. In 112 BC, Consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo XII was defeated by the Cimbri at Noreia in the modern Carinthia: the Battle of Noreia, was the opening action of the Cimbrian War fought between the Roman Republic and the migrating Proto-Germanic tribes the Cimbri and the Teutons (Teutones).
The Cimbri were a danger for Rome, and eventually they invaded Northern Italy. They were defeated by Marius (IIII) and Catulus in 101.
[edit] The Social War
At this time, in Rome, there was a bitter rivalry between the Senate and the Equestrian order, or commercial class. In 91, Marcus Livius (XVI) Drusus, the Tribune, took up the task of reform to try and stop the conflict between the Senators and the Equites. His laws were passed, but the Senate pronounced them null and void. Livius was denounced in that body as a traitor, and was struck down by an assassin in the same year. The internal struggle was not to end for many years: in 78, Crassus and Lepidus (III) were chosen Consuls; but such was the instability of the times that they were sworn not to raise an army during their consulship.
[edit] The War against Mithradates
Such internal problems were a precious opportunity for Rome's ambitious neighbors. Mithradátes, king of Pontus, learning of the Social War, thought it a good opportunity to advance his own interests and extend his realm. He collected all his available forces, and invaded Bithynia. With his fleets he sailed through the Dardanelles into the Archipelago. All the Roman residents with their families were massacred on a single day. It is said that 80,000 persons perished. Mithradátes himself next crossed the Bosphorus, and marched into Northern Greece, which received him with open arms.
In 70 Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus were elected Consuls amid great enthusiasm. In 66 Pompey's powers were still further enlarged by the Manilian Law, proposed by the Tribune Manilius. By this law the entire control of the Roman policy in the East was given to Pompey. His appointment was violently opposed by the Senate, especially by Catulus (V), the "father of the Senate,"; but Marcus Tulius Cicero (XI) with his first political speech (Pro Lege Manilia) came to Pompey's assistance, and to him was given the command by which he became virtually dictator in the East.
Pompey's operations there were thoroughly successful, and, though he doubtless owed much to the previous victories of Lucullus, he showed himself an able soldier. Mithradátes was obliged to flee across the Black Sea to Panticapaeum (Kertch). Order was re-established in Asia Minor. At this time, the three countries in the area not yet provinces, but dependencies, were Galatia, ruled by Deiotarus (VII); Cappadocia, by Ariobarzánes; and Paphlagonia, by Attalus.
[edit] Conspirancy of Catiline
In the mean time, Rome was facing more internal problems. Among the patricians who were aspiring to the consulship was Lucius Sergius Catilina, a villain steeped in every crime, but adroit, bold, and withal captivating. In 68 he had been Praetor, the next year Governor in Africa, where by his extortions he had obtained enough money, as he hoped, to purchase his election to the consulship.
The consulship of Tulius Cicero (XI) would have closed without adding anything to his fame had it not been for Catiline. The latter's failure to be elected caused him to enter into a plot to seize and burn the city. He had many followers, men of noble families, among whom were the former Consul Lentulus (XVIII), who had been recently expelled from the Senate by the Censors. Cicero was informed of the meetings of the conspirators by spies, and just before the plans for the uprising were matured, he disclosed them to the Senate.
Catiline fled from Rome; but his accomplices, of whom Lentulus and Cethégus were the most prominent, were arrested in the city. A serious difficulty now arose as to the disposition of the prisoners. Lentulus was at that time Praetor, and the persons of public officers were sacred. The Sempronian Law of Gracchus forbade the executing of any Roman citizen without giving him a right of appeal to the Assembly. Too many were implicated in the conspiracy for this to be safe.
In the debate in the Senate, the principal speakers were Caesar, Cato (Cato the younger), and Cicero.
Cato (V) and Tulius Cicero (XI) advocated immediate death; Caesar, imprisonment for life. A sentence of death was finally voted; and Cicero, with unseemly haste, caused the conspirators to be strangled that same night (December 5, 63). The execution of Lentulus (XVIII) and Cethégus resulted as Caesar had expected. It was a lawless act on the part of the Consul and the Senate, and it was felt that by it the constitution was still more endangered.
[edit] The First and Second Triumvirates
Caesar's opposition to lawlessness was one of the causes of his huge popularity, which he increased even more with a number of military victories in Spain the following years. In 60 BC Caesar, Pompey and Crassus formed the first triumvirate. In 53 Crassus was killed while fighting the Parthians. In 48 Caesar defeated Pompey at Pharsalia. He remained the only ruler of Rome, but Pompey's followers kept struggling. Caesar was killed in 44.
Caesar's nephew Octavianus, supported by Tulius Cicero (XI), formed a second triumvirate with Anthony and Lepidus (III). In 36 BC Octavianus defeated Sextus (VI) Pompeius, one of Pompey's sons who now led his father's followers. During the war against Sextus (VI) , the fleet of Octavianus was commanded by Gaius Calvisius Sabinus (XVIIII). Later Octavianus defeated Lepidus (III). After Anthony's suicide, in 30 BC Octavianus became the first Roman Emperor with the name of Augustus.
