Politics of the Late Republic

Senate, magistracies, the cursus honorum, optimates vs populares, mos maiorum, and the political vocabulary of the Republic — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

Tiberius's land reform, the deposition of Octavius, the first political murder, Gaius's programme, the first senatus consultum ultimum, and the precedents that broke the Republic open — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

Military reforms, the first march on Rome, proscriptions, dictatorship, and the template for Caesar — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

Stoicism, mos maiorum, obstruction, and whether principled resistance helped or harmed the Republic — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

Novus homo, In Verrem, concordia ordinum, the Catilinarian conspiracy, and Cicero's peak and vulnerability — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus; Cicero's anxiety; the triumvirate's formation, impact, and fracture — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

Popular politics, exile as a political weapon, Cicero's emotional collapse, and his compromised return — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

Luca, Caesar in Gaul, Pompey's drift, and the Republic's failure to find a constitutional solution — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

The Rubicon, Cicero's agonised indecision, Pharsalus, Cato at Utica, and the death of the Republican ideal — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

Dictator perpetuo, reforms, clementia, the rex question, and the conspiracy forming — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

The conspiracy, the assassination, Antony's funeral speech, and Cicero's reaction to the deed without a plan — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

The Philippics, the Second Triumvirate, proscriptions, and the death of the Republic's last great defender — with sources, exam focus, and flashcards.

Comparative analysis across all 11 prescribed letters. Register, tone, Greek code-switching, and Cicero as a source on himself — with exam focus and flashcards.

Cross-cutting themes, 30-mark essay questions with model argument structures, and source-based question practice — with flashcards.