In 125 BC the Romans moved into Southern France and fought with the German Tribes who were finally quelled in 101 BC. In the 90’s BC they were active in the region of the Black Sea against Mithradates the Great, king of Pontus. In 67 BC Pompey took an army east, defeated and killed the king, and consolidated the Eastern Empire, gaining lots of booty.

The centre of intellectual life had begun to move towards the west from the 90’s BC, as the Roman control of East Asia allowed them to move the libraries in the Hellenistic east to the great Roman villas in Italy. Greek intellectuals were attached to the Roman elite such as senators. However, there was a change in focus to oratory, law and history, helpful to the public life of senators, whereas medicine, architecture, mathematics and science were left to the Greeks. Later, towards the end of the Republican era, Julius Caesar had Varro set up the first public library in Rome. Varro was a Roman historian who was very prolific, writing in Latin rather than Greek, but much of his work has been lost, including 41 books on antiquities. Virgil and Horace were active, as well as Caesar writing his memoirs, including seven books on the Gallic wars.

The Romans admired the Greek concept of the “city” and wanted to impart it on the non-Greek parts of the Empire, particularly Gaul. They built practically identical cities in Europe that were larger than later medieval cities, with tens of thousands of inhabitants. They used the cities to coerce the natives to align with Roman Culture – a simple example was the removal of body hair in communal baths. They inspired local nobles to be part of the great Roman Empire, sending their children to Italy to get an attachment to the “mother country”.

Rome started to transform from a Republic around 59 BC when Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus started to rule as a Triumvirate. Crassus was killed unsuccessfully fighting the Parthians in 53 BC. Pompey and Caesar, who was at this time successfully ruling Gaul, fell out and Pompey had Caesar outlawed. Caesar, at the head of his very experienced army defeated Pompey, who fled to Egypt and was assassinated in 48 BC. Caesar had become the sole ruler and Dictator of Rome. When he learnt that Ptolemy XIII had killed Pompey, he was enraged and decided to put Cleopatra, who became his lover, on the throne of Egypt. At this time Egypt was seriously weakened by drought as the Nile floods had failed for several years. A battle between Caesar’s modest force and Ptolemy’s army resulted in the latter’s death and the accidental burning of many buildings in Alexandria, including the library. Caesar returned to Rome with Cleopatra and their child Caesarion, but Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March (15th) 44 BC. Cleopatra fled back to Egypt but was summoned by Mark Anthony for a meeting in 41 BC when she managed to seduce him and they spent two years together in Egypt, producing twins.

Anthony returned to Rome, was made the ruler of the Eastern Empire (Octavian ruled the Western Empire) and returned east to fight the Parthians. It was at this time that Marc Anthony had the books removed from the Pergamum library and sent to Cleopatra. To fund the war against the Parthians he relied on Cleopatra’s wealth that he exchanged for large tracts of Roman Territory including Cyprus, Judea, Phoenicia and Arabia, but the Parthians defeated him in 36 BC. By this time Anthony and Cleopatra had a third child. Co-Emperor Octavian, to whose sister, Octavia, Anthony was supposedly married, tried to provoke Anthony into a fight, as he was worried (rightly) that Anthony and Cleopatra were conspiring against him. In 31 BC Octavian declared war on Cleopatra, moved to Greece and his navy destroyed the Egyptian fleet. Anthony tried to defend Alexandria but he failed and he committed suicide in 30 BC, rapidly followed by Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh. Egypt subsequently was ruled from Rome.