4.+100+BCE+to+1+BCE



In 88 BCE Sulla became the first Roman general to seize power. Lucius Cornelius Sulla came from a good, but poor Roman family. He became popular most of all in the Social War (91-89 BC). In 88 BC Mithridates, King of Pontus, attacked the Roman province of Asia, where 80,000 Romans and Italians were massacred, the senate decided on Sulla, who was already one of the current consuls, to be commander of the army against Mithridates. The organization of People Suplicus Rufus called for the command to be given to Marius. The concilium plebis agreed with the People Suplicus Rufus. But Sulla proved that he is not a man to be messed with. Sulla marched on Rome leading six legions and showed that he is the true leader. Sulla's leadership came during a major time in the struggle between optimates and the populares, he was seeking to maintain the power in the form of the Senate. Sulla was a very original man, he was a gifted and skillful general, he never lost a battle; he remains the only man in history to have attacked and controlled both Athens and Rome. Sulla used his armies to attack Rome twice, and after the second he became the dictator.
 * [|Lucius Cornelius Sulla] **

[|**Civil War in Rome**] The Great Roman Civil War (49–45 BC), was one of the last military conflicts in the Roman Republic before the Roman Empire. It began as a series of political and military arguments, between Julius Caesar, his political supporters (known as Populares), and his legions, against the Optimates, who were supported by Pompey and his legions. After a four-year-long (49–45 BC) military struggle, fought in Italy, Greece, Egypt, Africa, and Hispania, Caesar defeated the last of the Optimates in the Battle of Munda and became Dictator of Rome. The changes to Roman government became known as Caesar’s Civil War, it also eliminated the Roman Republic (509–27 BC) and led to the Roman Empire (27 BC–AD 476). Caesar’s Civil War came from a long period of fighting in the Roman Government’s senate, the war began with the life of Tiberius Gracchus, the war continued with the Marian reforms, then continued after that with the dictatorship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and war ended with the First Triumvirate over Rome.

During his Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar invaded Britain twice, in 55 and 54 BC. The first invasion, came late in the summer, was a full invasion that was unsuccessful. The second was more successful, making a friendly king, Mandubracius, and forcing the anger for his arrival, Cassivellaunus, even though no territory was conquered and made new for Rome, but the land was restored for the allied Trinovantes, also with the tribute of other tribes in what is now eastern England. In 55 BC, Caesar decided to make an expedition to Britain. He picked merchants who traded with the island, but they were unable or unwilling to give him any information about the inhabitants and Britain's military tactics. He sent a group of men, Gaius Volusenus, to scout the coast in a warship. He probably explored the Kent coast between Hythe and Sandwich, but he was unable to land, because he didn't dare leave his ship and take the chances of getting attacked and killed. After five days he returned to give Caesar what he had managed to learn. Caesar first tried to land at Dubris, whose harbor had first been identified by Volusenus as a great landing place. However, when they came in sight of shore, the massed forces of the Britons came on the overlooking hills and cliffs and refused to let him land there, since the cliffs were so close to the shore that javelins could be thrown down from them onto anyone landing there. After waiting at anchor until about 3pm, he meanwhile was developing a way of war, he ordered his people to act on their own and then sailed the fleet about seven miles along the coast to a vacant beach.
 * [|Invasion Of Britain] **

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a military and political leader for the late Roman Republic. He came from a wealthy Italian family, and established himself as a Roman leader by successful leadership in several campaigns. Sulla addressed as Cognomen Magnus (the Great) and he was awarded three triumphs. Pompey joined his rival Marcus Licinius Crassus and his father-in-law Julius Caesar in a military-political group known as the First Triumvirate. After the deaths of Crassus and Julia, Pompey's wife and Caesar's daughter, Pompey and Caesar were the leadership for the Roman state in a civil war. Pompey sided with the optimates. When Caesar defeated him at the battle of Pharsalus he looked for refuge in Egypt, where he was eventually assassinated. Caesar was Born September 29, 106 BC. Caesar also went on to die September 28, 48 BC. The Marians had possession of Italy and when Sulla returned from campaign against Mithridates in 83 BC, Pompey developed three Picenean legions to support him against the Marian regime of Gnaeus Papirius Carbo. Sulla was now Dictator of Rome, and he was impressed by the young Pompey's self-confident performances. He addressed him as a superior man and offered his stepdaughter Aemilia Scaura to him in marriage. Aemilia was already married and pregnant, but she divorced her husband and Pompey divorced Antistia. Aemilia died in childbirth soon after, but their marriage confirmed Pompey's loyalty and expanded his great career.
 * [|Pompey] **

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The Roman province of Egypt was founded in 30 BC after Octavian (the future emperor of Augustus) defeated his enemy Mark Antony, he also went for his lover Queen Cleopatra VII and annexed the Kingdom of Egypt to the Roman Empire. The province consisted of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai Peninsula. Aegyptus was bordered by Creta et Cyrenaica to the West and Judaea to the East. Egypt would become a major producer of grain for the empire. As a province, Aegyptus was ruled by a perfect traditional governor of other Roman provinces. The perfect man of rank and was elected by the Emperor. The first perfect ruler of Aegyptus, Gaius Cornelius Gallus, brought Upper Egypt under Roman control by armed forces. The second perfect leader was Aelius Gallus, who made an unsuccessful expedition to take over Arabia and even Arabia Felix, but the Red Sea coast of Egypt was not under Roman control until the rule of Claudius. The third perfect leader was, Gaius Petronius, he cleared canals for irrigation, starting a great success of agriculture for Egypt.
 * [|First Roman Governor of Egypt] **

The First Mithridatic War (89-85 B.C.) was the first of three wars between the Roman Republic and Mithridates VI of Pontus which would last for about thirty years, and would end with the destruction of the Pontic kingdom. The wars were a result of the expansion of Mithridates to the Roman province of Asia, which had been made after Attalus III of Pergamum died without someone to take over for him in 133 B.C., he left his kingdom for the Roman people. This gave the Romans control at the western end of Asia Minor, to go with the province of Cilicia, on the southern coast. The kingdom of Pontus was located at the north-eastern corner of Asia Minor, on the southern shores of the Black Sea. With Mithridates as the leader, the kingdom had expanded north, gaining control of the Crimea and of Colchis, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, also a few scattered possessions on the western shore. Mithridates's next goal was in the area between Pontus and the Roman province. He was especially interested in Cappadocia, to the south, and in Paphlagonia and Bithynia to the west. His first move came in 108 B.C., when he worked with Nicomedes III of Bithynia he invaded Paphlagonia. The two kings took control of the country, and ignored the Roman leaders that ordered them to backdown. Nicomedes made the next move, attacking Cappadocia in 102 B.C. At this time the kingdom was ruled by Mithridates's sister Laodice, she ruled for her two young sons. After the attack Nicomedes and Laodice got married. Mithridates responded by attacking with numbers, saving his nephew as Ariarathes VII Philometor. This only lasted for a year, before Mithridates turned against his nephew, in favor of Gordius, the Cappadocian nobleman who had murdered Ariarathes VI. Both sides raised huge armies, but right before the battle the young king was assassinated. Mithridates annointed one of his sons as king Ariarathes IX. This would last for four or five years.
 * [|First Mithridatic War (Black Sea region)] **

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1 CE to 50 CE