The Republican System

Questions
• “How is it that Livy can be so anti-kingship while also
having wrote this account under Augustus who
technically held sole authority over the empire? Is it
different because the Senate was also present?”

• “One question that does come to mind when reading

this text is why would the Sabine women stay with the
men who took them by force away from their fathers,
from their family? (Livy 1.9).”

• “Was Augustus a patron to Livy like Ovid? In other

words, was he assigned to write the history of the
Roman people by Emperor Augustus?”
 General concerns
• Consider formatting
 Don’t make it all bold or all italics
 Separate ideas into paragraphs
• Consider organization
 Make sure there isn’t too much repetition,
including in different answers
 Progress and order of thoughts
 Possible suggestion: summary sentence at
end of answer?
The Republican System
 Polybius
• 200-118 BCE approx.
• From Greek city of
Megalopolis, father was
politician
• Taken as a hostage to Rome
• Scipio Aemilianus and the
‘Scipionic circle’
• History in 40 books: 1-5
extant, the rest in summaries
or fragments
 The Twelve Tables
• Story in Livy: ten men (decemvirs) appointed to codify law and
government suspended 451 and 450 BCE; (attempted) rape of
Verginia again causes Romans to reject tyranny
• Quotations of laws later by Cicero (in legal speeches) and by
legal writers and compilers
• Basically obsolete by the time they’re discussed – unclear
how/when/which would have been enforced
 Expulsion of the Kings
• Tarquin the Proud
(Tarquinius Superbus)
– drainage of the
forum, public works,
etc.
• Foundation of Roman
Republic 509 BCE
• Anti-king sentiment
 Expulsion of the Kings
• Leftovers from
system:
– Rex sacrorum
– Two consuls
– Interrex
• Attempts at
monarchy
– Lars Porsenna
– Sons of Brutus
 Complications
• Republic doesn’t really
come into existence
fully formed
– Extended kingship?
– Military tribunes
– Evidence of the Fasti
 Complications
• François Tomb at Vulci
(late 4th c BCE)
 Complications

Caelius Marcus Gnaeus

Vibenna Mastarna Tarquinius of
Camillus
(Friend of (aka Servius Tullius, Rome
Roman
Titus Tatius 6 king? 578-535 BCE)
th
hero (5th or 7th
and 446-365 king,
Romulus, BCE presumably
~750 BCE) ~509 BCE)
 The Republican system
1) Magistracies
2) The senate
3) The assemblies

Questions:
• Who has power?
• How is this power used?
• What conflicts exist?
 Principles
• Checks and balances – no one person
should be able to get too much power
• Power held by the wealthy – politics
dominated by a set of influential families
• ‘Democratic element’ – voting limited to
certain groups; what is ‘free’ voting?
• Class conflict
• Traditionalism
 Magistracies
• 2 consuls
– Yearly elections by
the comitia centuriata
– Imperium
• Praetors
– 1, 2, 4, 6
– Lesser imperium
– Often involved in
legal system
 Magistracies
• 2 censors
– Elected every 5 years
(sometimes)
– The census
– Enrollment in the senate
• Aediles
– Plebeian or curule (2 of each)
– Responsible for the city, grain,
games
(Maybe?) M. Porcius Cato (aka
Cato the Censor)
Censor 184 BCE
 Magistracies
• Dictators
– Usually chosen by
consul and senate
– Emergencies only
– Six months maximum
– Master of Horse
– Existing magistrates
stay in
 The Senate
– Originally advisory council
(to king?)
– Around 300 men for the
first few centuries
– Election to any office gets
you a place in the senate –
‘senator’ is not itself an
office
– ‘advises’ magistrates;
usually laws informally
approved by senate first
 The assemblies
Comitia centuriata Tribal assembly Plebeian assembly

Composition All citizens All citizens Plebeians only

Stratified by wealth Stratified by Stratified by
“geography” “geography”

Voting units 193 centuries 35 tribes 35 tribes

Presiding officials Consul or praetor Consul or praetor Tribune of the plebs

Elections Elects consuls, Elects curule Elects tribunes of the

praetors and censors aediles and plebs, plebeian aediles
questors

Legislative powers Issues of war and Votes on proposals Votes on proposals

peace made by consul or made by tribunes of the
praetor plebs

Note: “all citizens” does not include women or slaves

 Republican government

• The cursus honorum

(2nd c BCE +)
• Age minimums (e.g.,
42 for consulship)
• Curule magistracies:
curule aedile, praetor,
consul
 Patricians
• Hereditary status
• Religious duties
• Political domination – maybe?
• Non-patricians: plebeian –
maybe?
• Conflict between patricians and
plebeians in early history actually
a reflection of class conflict in the
Late Republic
• Distinguish between common
English usage and Roman
usage!
 The Struggle of the Orders
• Plebeians try to get
political rights
• First secession to
Sacred Mount (or
Aventine) 494 BCE
• Creation of tribune
of the plebs
 Tribunes of the plebs
• Powers:
– Sacrosanctity
– Auxilio
– Intercessio (veto)
• By 449 BCE, 10 elected yearly by plebs
 The Struggle of the Orders

• Main issues:
– Debt-bondage (nexum)
– Food shortages
– Land distribution
– Eligibility for magistracies
 The Struggle of the Orders
• 451-449: decemvirate and Twelve Tables
• 367: plebs can hold consulship
• 342: one consul must be plebeian
• 326: nexum (debt bondage) abolished
• 300: priesthoods divided between
patricians and plebs
• 287: last secession, laws made by plebs
binding on whole people
 Later class conflict

Late Republic: between 366
BCE – 63 BCE, only 15 men
elected to consulship without an
ancestor who held elected office

Issues of grain distribution, land
allotment, voting rights etc.

Tension especially about
personal power and popularity of
those seeking to make changes

reflected in stories from Struggle
of the Orders, especially about
aspirants to tyranny
 Today’s themes
• Set-up of the Roman government (at
least, as of around 150 - 100 BCE)
• The Struggle of the Orders – (as usual)
reflective of later class conflict as well as
information about basics of earlier Roman
history
• Transition into time period we have more
confidence talking about!