Modern scholars also disagree about the nature of the crisis. Traditionally, the expansion of citizenship (with all its rights, privileges, and duties) was looked upon negatively by Sallust, Gibbon, and others of their schools, because it caused internal dissension, disputes with Rome's Italian allies, slave revolts, and riots. However, other scholars have argued that as the Republic was meant to be "res publica"—the essential thing of the people—the poor and disenfranchised cannot be blamed for trying to redress their legitimate and legal grievances.