Roman Republic | UNRV Roman History (original) (raw)

Introduction

The Roman Republic was a form of government implemented after the fall of the last Etruscan King. The aim was to create a representative government of the people, rather than have a single ruler.

The rape of Lucretia, according to Livy, was the fundamental "last straw" in the overthrow of the Etruscan King, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus.

The transition from the Etruscan monarchy to republic (510-509 BC) was not, however, a simple institutional change. In place of the King, the newly founded Republic relied upon its Senate, or patrician class families, to oversee the government and the election of various officials, including two shared power Consuls.

This transformation from monarchy to representative style government, headed by the elite social class, would prove to have troubles of its own. (Related Page: Roman Kingdom)

After the overthrow of the Tarquin dynasty, led by Junius Brutus, the ancient Romans avoided a true monarchal government for the remainder of their storied history.

Even the later Imperial government maintained forms of the Republican system. While in practice it could be a system of absolute power for the Emperor, it was theoretically still checked by the Senate and other representative ideals.

This same Junius Brutus was later claimed as an ancestor by the Republican loyalist Marcus Brutus, who was among the conspirators in the assassination of Julius Caesar, and shows the deeply rooted Roman aversion to Kings.

It was the era of the Republic in which the great expansion of Roman civilization, power and structure set the path for European dominance. In these formative and expansive years, Rome was ruled by its Senate and its people's assemblies. The offices of power were divided among various elected officials to avoid the conglomeration of power and the re-institution of the monarchy.

These magistracies were, in essence, a division of previous monarchal powers. The Romans instituted a constitution which would dictate the traditions and institutions of government for the Roman people.

This constitution, however, was not a formal or even written document, but rather a series of unwritten traditions and laws. Deeply rooted in pre-Republican tradition, it essentially maintained all the same monarchal powers and divided them amongst a series of people, rather than in one supreme ruler.

Patricians and Plebeians

Discontent and political upheaval lay ahead for the fledgling Republic, since the new constitution was flawed and exclusive in nature for the general population (plebeians).

Rome was surrounded by powerful external enemies, including its former Etruscan rulers, and Patrician (the hereditary aristocratic families) in-fighting with each other and the plebeian (common people) class was an immediate source of difficulty.

The Romans developed a complex client system, where aristocratic families pledged allegiance and voting support to other powerful families. In exchange for political appointments and advocating of various agendas, some power groups were able to subvert the state and the will of the masses for personal gain.

The words Patrician and Plebeian have taken on different connotations of wealthy and poor in modern English, but no such distinction existed in Roman times. The two classes were simply ancestral or inherited. A citizen's class was fixed by birth rather than by wealth.

Patricians monopolized all of the political offices, and probably most of the wealth, in the early Republic, but there were many wealthy plebeians, and conversly many patrician families had little claim to wealth or prestige other than their family heritage.

The relationship between the plebeians and the patricians sometimes came under intense strain as a result of this exclusion from political influence. In response the plebeians - on several occasions - abandoned the city, leaving the patricians without a working class to support their political whims.

Related Page: Roman Social Classes

The Struggle of the Orders

Roman imperium, or the power of law and command, was fully concentrated in the patrician class. The consuls were elected from among the patricians, as were the quaestors, praetors and censors. The ensuing class conflicts from the domination of political power by one class over another, in a virtual transfer of power from King to Senate, was called "the struggle of the orders".

In effect, it was simply the recurring pattern of the patrician class attempting to hold onto power, while the plebeians worked to rise to social and political equality.

The patricians, while mostly secure in their wealth and noble foundation, were also unable to exist without the plebeians. The plebeian class not only produced the grain and supplied the labor that maintained the Roman economy; they also formed the recruiting basis as soldiers for the Roman republican legions.

In 494 BC, only 15 years after the founding of the Republic, a withdrawal of plebeians to the Sacred Mount outside Rome ushered in a fundamental change to the Republican government.

The plebes formed a tribal assembly and their own alternative government, until the patricians agreed to the establishment of an office that would have sacrosanctity (sacrosanctitas). This was the right to be legally protected from any physical harm, and the right of help (ius auxiliandi), meaning the legal ability to rescue any plebeian from the hands of a patrician magistrate. These magistrate positions were labelled as Tribunes or tribuni plebes.

Later, the tribunes acquired a far more formidable, and often manipulated power, the right of intercession (ius intercessio). This was the right to veto any act or proposal of any magistrate, including another tribune, for the good of the people.

The tribune also had the power to exercise capital punishment against any person who interfered in the performance of his duties.

The tribune's power to act was enforced by a pledge of the plebeians to kill any person who harmed a tribune during his term of office.

In 451 BC, another Plebeian withdrawal from the city led to the appointment of the decemvirate, or a commission of ten men. This eventually resulted in the adoption of the bronze engraved Laws of the Twelve Tables, and raised the number of plebeian Tribunes to ten.

In 445 BC, the Canuleian law legalized marriages between patricians and members of the plebs. Along with later inter-class adoptions, plebeians were allowed additional class mobility and eventual inclusion into previous Patrician-only magistracies.

In 367 BC, the plebeians gained the right to be elected consul, and a year later, in 366 BC, the first was elected. Thereafter, the Licinian-Sextian laws demanded that at least one consul be a plebeian. After the completion of the term of consular office, the plebeian consul became a member of the Senate, resulting in the disintegration of the patrician hold on the Senate.

Furthermore, in 300 BC, plebeians were allowed to serve at all levels of the priesthood, thus making them religiously equal to the patricians.

Finally, the greatest achievement of power for the people, in 287 BC, the decisions and legislation of the plebeian assembly, Concilium Plebis or "Council of the Plebeians", became not only binding on the plebeians, but on the entire Roman citizenry.

All power was not shifted away from the patricians, however. While still maintaining significant power through clients and the prestige of their heritage, they were also able to turn the tables. Using the plebeian adoption methodology for upward mobility, some patricians used it to adopt into the plebeian class and become available to serve as plebeian-only Tribunes. While a rare occurrence, such mobility made the entire political spectrum open to the ruling classes.

This political upheaval brought about a new aristocracy, composed of patrician and wealthy plebeian families, and admission to the Senate became almost the hereditary privilege of these families.

The Senate, which in its original function maintained no law making and little administrative power, became a powerful governing force. They oversaw matters of war and peace, foreign alliances, the founding of colonies, and the handling of the state finances.

The rise of this new nobilitas ended the conflict between the upper echelons of the two orders, but the position of the poorer plebeian families was not improved. In fact, a class designation of equestrian (knight), originally composed of patrician senatorial families, developed into one including plebes that signified a particular level of wealth, and further separated the plebeian elite from the common people.

The marked contrast between the conditions of the rich and the poor led to struggles in the later Republic between the aristocratic party and the popular party. These struggles developed into one of several major factors in the eventual collapse of the Republican system.

The Roman Republican Constitution

As the Romans never had a written constitution, it is difficult to neatly fit their government into anything that corresponds to modern systems.

However, especially from the time of the passage of the Lex Hortensia (287 BC), it is similar to that of the American division of executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as the Roman system was the basis for the American one. (Related Book Review: Rome and America: The Great Republics - What the Fall of the Roman Republic Portends for the United States)

The system developed into one of checks and balances, with the aristocratic Patrician-dominated Senate being counterbalanced by popular elections of chief magistrates and the Plebeian Tribunes.

The Three Citizen Assemblies

The three citizen assemblies or Comitia, were called the Comitia Curiata, Comitia Centuriata and the Comitia (Plebis) Tributa (or Concilium Plebis or Populi Tributa). These were composed of all Roman male citizens, requiring individuals to attend in person in order to vote. No debate from the floor was possible, and votes were counted in groups, not individually (the vote of each group was determined by the vote of the majority of individuals in that group).

All three assemblies included the entire electorate of citizens, but each had a different internal organization (and therefore differences in the weight of an individual citizen's vote).

In essence, each voting citizen had three potential votes, but each carried a different weight or responsibility.

Curiate Assembly (Comitia Curiata)

The oldest unit of organization within the Roman system. The 30 curiae of the early city (10 for each of the 3 early tribes), were based on clan and family associations. The Curiate was limited to patricians as it reflected the oldest and most distinguished of the tribes.

Each member had a single vote, and the majority victor within each Curiate had one vote. This meant there were 30 separate votes within each Curiate, and that the Curiata as a whole would then have one vote to support its majority opinion.

The Curiata became obsolete as a legislative body with the rise of plebeian assemblies and further classifications of the nobility, but preserved its functions of endowing senior magistrates with imperium and witnessing religious affairs.

The head of each curia was at least 50 years in age and elected for life.

Centuriate Assembly (Comitia Centuriata)

The most important of the Comitia units of organization within the Roman political system. There were 193 centuries, divided into 6 classes based on wealth and age, which were originally reflective of military units. Membership in the classes was based on the capability to furnish armed men in groups of 100 (hence century).

This group was controlled by the patrician and equestrian class, as the votes were weighted in favor of land owners and wealthy.

The Centuriate elected censors and magistrates with imperium (consuls and praetors), was the proper body for approving the declaration of war; passed some laws; and served as the highest court of appeal in cases involving capital punishment.

Tribal Assembly (Comitia Plebis Tributa)

The Plebeian assembly was originally intended for the election of tribunes and deliberation of plebeians. The organization consisted of 1 urban tribe and 31 rural tribes, in which the membership was based on place of residence until 241 BC. From that date on, local significance was largely lost, and membership was based mainly on heredity. The Tributa (and later a subassembly, the Concilium Plebis) elected the lower magistrates (tribunes, aediles, quaestors).

As it was simpler to convene and register 35 tribes than 193 centuries, it was more frequently used to pass legislation (plebiscites). Voting in favor of 31 less-densely populated rural tribes - with presence in Rome required to cast a ballot - the assembly was controlled by landed aristocracy.

It eventually became the chief law-making body, as the laws of the Tribal Assembly became binding on the entire state.

The Decline of the Roman Republic

Victory over Carthage in the Third Punic War and conquests in the east transformed the city state of Rome into an empire. By the latter part of the 2nd Century BC, the rapid expansion, massive influx of slave labor, opportunity for corruption in new provinces and the continuing development of social class disorder also brought about a distinct new era in Roman history.

While there was still considerable opposition to Roman power in the Mediterranean, the Romans suddenly found themselves as the only western superpower in the region. Ultimately, the governing of this power would soon prove difficult by the Senate and the old Republican ways.

Mismanagement of the new Spanish provinces, along with revolts and resistance to Roman authority, was one source of constant strife for nearly two centuries. One such event, the Numantine War against the restless Celtiberians, from 143 to 133 BC, gave the Romans access to the interior of Hispania, but also proved that continuing expansion was to be challenged at every step.

Complete subjugation of Hispania wouldn't be completed until the reign of Augustus, and only after centuries of bloody fighting. The military atmosphere in Spain during the later years of the Republic would also become a hot point for rebellious leaders (i.e. Sertorius) who sought to take advantage of ongoing political turmoil in Rome.

Slavery, Provinces and Wealth

The wars with Carthage had produced some 75,000 slaves, and a great deal more were imported from eastern conquests (150,000 from Epirus alone). While Romans everywhere initially benefited from this new cheap labor, eventually the common masses found regular work hard to find, as they had been effectively replaced by slaves.

As Rome's economy shifted from one of labor by freedmen strictly into that of slavery, a new aristocracy arose. Slave trading was the new profit center for the elite, and every excess was taken to get their share. Mistreatment and poor conditions, especially in Sicily where no other province was so inundated by slaves than the plantations there, led directly to the first of several open revolts against the institution.

The First Slave War, or Servile War, broke out in Sicily in 134 BC. According to the ancient sources, a slave owner by name of Damophilus was particularly abusive to his large slave holdings. A Syrian slave, Eunus, led a revolt which would ravage Sicily for three years. Declaring himself Antiochus, he captured the city of Enna, while his activities inspired another revolt under a Cilician by name of Cleon.

The numbers of the slave armies grew to a combined strength of 70,000 and they took such towns as Agrigentum, Tauromenium and Catana, and slave owners were slaughtered all over the island.

The revolt was eventually put down by Flacchus, who crucified no fewer than 20,000 in the end. This war would turn out to be only the beginning of slave insurrection in this time period. While it lasted three years, and Sicily would again be home to slave rebellions in later years, it was put down quickly with the intervention of the legions. Later rebellions, such as the one under Spartacus, would strike fear not just amongst the populace, but also into the Roman army itself.

In the east, King Attalus III of Pergamum died in 133 BC without heirs. Long maintaining friendship status with Rome, the entire nation of Pergamum, including Lydia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Pamphylia was willed to Rome upon his death.

By 129 BC, the entire region would be annexed as the province of Asia Minor, and without so much as a single battle, Rome gained access to more riches of the east. Pergamum itself would become one of the most prosperous and famous cities in Asia Minor, noted for its architectural monuments, its fine library, and its schools.

This vast wealth imported from Rome's newly-won provinces did more than lead to slave revolts. There was a new found political cry among the tribes of Italia for equal rights as Latins. The burden of military duty was equally shared among the tribes, but equal voting rights were not. While full citizens no longer had to pay many of the state's taxes, the Italians still did, and it was the patricians who benefited the most through vast acquisition of land and estates.

The age old battle between patrician, equestrian and plebeian was soon to be renewed, and some of Rome's most famous names would play center stage on world history.

The Gracchi brothers - Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus - would use the office of the Tribune and the citizen assemblies to upend the class structure and the inequity between rich, poor, citizen and non-citizen. The late 2nd century BC would shape the path of political machinations through to the end of the Republic. The political conniving of the Gracchi and the scheming of later ambitious individuals would eventually spell the doom of the Roman republican system.

Conclusion

The fall of the Roman republic was more than a single man or event. It was a culmination of several individual actions or achievements, coupled with social conditions that weighed heavily on Roman society.

Additionally, massive and rapid expansion from Rome's foundation as a fledgling city 700 years earlier until the mid 1st century BC, created monumental holes in the political and governing ability of the Senate.

Periods of stability were mixed in with those of near collapse, while powerful generals or inciters of the Roman mob jockeyed for position.

Beginning with the Punic Wars and Roman conquest outside of Italy, followed by massive importation of slaves, the face of Roman life was changing far more rapidly than the governing body could deal with.

Political infighting was, and always would be, a common trait in any system, but even the greatest of Romans like Scipio Africanus, fell victim to the whims of politicians.

The social instability that resulted from inequities in the class system gave way to the rise of demagogues like the brothers Gracchi. The use of the citizen assemblies for popular agendas tore at the very fabric of senatorial power.

Men like Marius and Sulla, with their own personal agendas and rivalries, wreaked havoc in an already weakened structure. Partisan politics of the conservative optimate senators trying to keep power with the elite class, while the tactics of the populares, who looked to the lower classes for support, divided the people and classes into what seemed like warring factions. For nearly 100 years, the climate was unpredictable at best, and brutally bloody at worst.

By the time of the rise of Gaius Julius Caesar, the stage was set for a single man to assume power and stabilize the empire. Caesar was neither the only man responsible for the fall, nor the one man who could stop it, but his role in the final demise is undeniable. He neither started the fall nor finished it, but continued a cycle of events that made its collapse irreversible.

Contemporaries of the brilliant general and politician hold as much blame as the great man himself. How different events may have been without the plays for power and a bit of humility among the Senate.

Regardless, despite Caesar's short reign and policies of reform and stability, the strength of his character and personality held the Republic together only as long as he lived. His assassination and the continuing civil wars that resulted, would be required to bring necessary power to a single ruler of a single great nation: The Roman Empire.

The eventual rise and adoption of Caesar's heir, Octavian, to the exalted post of Augustus spelled the real end of the Republic. He, unlike his predecessors, rose at a time when the will for the Republican system had nearly died.

While tradition and some semblance of power would remain, the foundation of government under a single figure was a requirement to continue the advancement of the empire. It was Augustus who proved to be the one man great and powerful enough to control the Senate, the mob and the legions.

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus rose above all the great Romans before him to outlast political opponents, reform a corrupt government and stabilize a system in disarray. The fall of the Republic was inevitable, but, fortunately for Rome, the right man at the right time was there to step in as the first Roman Emperor.

Further Reading:

• Augustus and the Empire
• Why Was Augustus So Successful in Creating the Roman Empire?

Political Violence in the Roman Republic

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Did you know...
It took the Roman historian Livy (d. 17 AD) forty years to write his 142-book History of Rome.

Did you know...
"Caesar" is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Gaius Julius Caesar. The change from being a familial name to an imperial title can be loosely dated to AD 68, the so-called "Year of the Four Emperors".