Populares

"Populares" ("favoring the people", singular "popularis") were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who tended to use the people's assemblies and tribunate in an effort to break the stranglehold of the Senate on political power. They were opposed by the conservative "optimates".

The populares wanted to strengthen the power of the "plebs," sharing riches of the nobility with the people, giving away goods such as bread to the poor, and limiting slavery, since slavery took jobs from poor free citizens.

The "populares'" plans included moving some Roman citizens to provincial colonies; expanding citizenship to communities outside Rome and Italy; and modifying the grain dole and monetary value. The "populares'" cause reached its peak under the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, their most avid leader. After the creation of the Second Triumvirate (43 BC–33 BC), the cause of the "populares" was essentially lost in the ensuing power struggle.

Besides Caesar, notable "populares" included the Gracchi brothers, Gaius Marius, Publius Clodius Pulcher, and (during the First Triumvirate) Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pompey. Both Pompey and Crassus had, however, fought on the side of Sulla during the civil war, and after the death of Crassus, Pompey eventually reverted to his position as a conservative "optimas".