What exactly caused the collapse of the Roman Republic

The Roman
Republic collapsed as a result of a series of events all of which can be traced to the Punic
Wars with Carthage. The war had been expensive for the republic; and in addition many of the
soldiers who fought in the war returned to farms which they had been forced to abandon. The
farms were in very bad shape and a number of wealthy Romans offered to buy the farms from the
soldiers. Those who sold not only lost their income, they also lost their right to vote, as only
landed citizens could vote. Those who bought the smaller farms consolidated them into large
operations known as latifundia which could operate on large economies of
scale. This allowed...