Optimates were a political faction in the late Roman Republic that emerged from conflicts between the senate and the populares, a faction that sided with the people. The term “optimates” comes from the Latin optimates, which means “the best”, “the most distinguished”, and their goal was to defend the traditional values and interests of the senate and the aristocracy.
Optimates viewed the Senate as a bastion of stability and morality, and their political goal was to maintain the traditional order (mos maiorum), which meant observing ancient customs and social hierarchy. They opposed broad reforms that could weaken their control over the state, and a particular threat to their position was influential commanders who gained the support of the people, such as Gaius Marius or Gaius Julius Caesar. It was the conflicts between the optimates and the populares that were one of the main factors that led to a series of civil wars and the final fall of the republic in favour of the empire.
One of the most famous leaders of the optimates was Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who at the beginning of the 1st century BCE staged a coup d’état and reduced the importance of the popular party. Sulla gained widespread power as a dictator, and his brutal repression of popular supporters, especially during the proscription, was aimed at strengthening the position of the senate and the elites. Later representatives of this faction, such as Marcus Junius Brutus and Cicero, also believed that the authority of the senate should be protected against the influence of demagogues and individuals striving for unlimited power.
It is worth noting that the optimates, although they tried to maintain the old structures, ultimately lost in the conflict with the populares, which sealed the destruction of the republic. The last decades of the 1st century BCE brought the triumph of forces more open to reforms, which led to Octavian Augustus taking power and establishing the Roman Empire.
