Download HS history 2.4

High School Literature 2.4
Rome Becomes a Republic
510- 44 BC
Rome as a Republic
From the Founding of Rome in c. 753 B.C. to c. 509 B.C., Rome
was a monarchy, ruled by kings. By 509 the Romans
expelled their Etruscan kings and established the Roman
Republic. Having witnessed the problems of monarchy on
their own land, and aristocracy and democracy among the
Greeks, the Romans opted for a mixed form of government,
with 3 branches.
Rather than creating a government that was primarily a
democracy in which all citizens participated equally, as was
ancient Athens, or an aristocracy, a form of government in
which power is in the hands of a small privileged ruling
class, as did ancient Sparta, or a monarchy, a form of
government where the power resides with one individual,
Rome mixed these forms of government and create a
Roman constitution.
Three Elements of Government
The Roman constitution mixed these three elements
creating three separate branches of government.
The democratic element took the form of the legislative
assemblies, the aristocratic element took the form of
the Senate, and the monarchical element took the
form of the many term-limited consuls.
The Constitution of the Roman Republic was a set of
guidelines and principles passed down mainly by
imitating the personal and civic virtues of their
ancestors.
The constitution or this code of conduct was largely
unwritten and evolved over time. This formed a moral
core for political and private education in Rome.
Roman Government
Consuls:
The Romans invented the new position of consul by 181 B.C. It was
limited to men of at least 43 years of age. It conferred a limited
term of absolute power split between 2 men or 2 consuls and was
limited to a single year.
Ten years were supposed to elapse before serving as consul a second
time. Consuls carried on the functions of the former kings, holding
supreme civil and military authority in Republican Rome.
At the end of their year in office, the ex-consuls became senators for
life.
Consuls were responsible for war, justice, and finance.
Later, subordinate magistrates, like the quaestors, took over some of
the consul's functions and power.
Each consul could negate the other and was supposed to heed the
advice of the Senate.
A consul could be tried for misdeeds after his single-year term in
office.
Consul & Lictors
The consul wore the toga carried
a scepter and was preceded by
12 lictors in a procession while
sitting on a special raised chair
in the Senate.
Lictors were officials who served
the Roman magistrates and
preceded them in single file,
carrying the fasces on their
shoulders.
One of the jobs of the lictors was
the inflicting of punishments
on citizens, which was
sometimes done with the
fasces.
Fasces
The fasces were bundles of rods or sticks with an axe secured
in the middle, which means that however much they may
have symbolically been carried, they were capable of
inflicting a beating or killing.
The rods were 5 feet long and 6-8 inches thick; wrapped with
red thongs. It is thought that the fasces came from the
Etruscans, but the evidence is inconclusive.
They were carried as symbols of power before consuls with
the number of fasces-bearing lictors symbolizing the
importance of the officials.
Processional ranks were indicated by the number of lictors
preceeding those in attendance. Twenty-four lictors
preceeded the dictator, twelve preceeded a counsul, and 2
walked before the praetor.
Fasces
Fasces seen on monuments
around the world.
Twelve Tables
The earliest attempt by the Romans to create a CODE OF
LAW is called the Twelve Tables. It is the earliest
surviving piece of literature coming from the Romans.
It was written in an effort to provide legal and social
protection and civil rights between the privileged class
(patricians) and the common people (plebeians).
A commission of ten men was appointed (ca. 455 B.C.) to
draw up a code of law which would be binding on both
parties and which the magistrates (the 2 consuls)
would have to enforce.
Twelve Tables Continued…
The commission produced many statutes that were
already customary law and filled ten tables. Many of
the plebeians or common people called for additional
laws that had been neglected.
A second commission of ten was therefore appointed
(450 B.C.) and two additional tablets were drawn up.
The original tables were to have been inscribed on bronze
and were probably destroyed when the Gauls sacked
and burned Rome in the invasion of 387 B.C.
The Twelve Tables were set up in the Forum and
displayed by the Romans like copies of treaties with
Carthage.
Twelve Tables Displayed in Forum
The Twelve Tables provides us
with a look into the workings
of an agrarian society.
It provides examples of the
operations of daily life, the
main bonds which held the
society together and allows it
to operate.
They are divided into the
following categories; the clan
(genos, gens), patronage
(patron/client), and the
inherent (and inherited) right
of the patricians to leadership
(in war, religion, law, and
government).
What was on the 12 Tables
TABLE I
• Procedure: for courts and trials
TABLE II
• Trials, continued.
TABLE III
• Debt
TABLE IV
• Rights of fathers (paterfamilias)
over the family
TABLE V
• Legal guardianship and
inheritance laws
TABLE VI
• Acquisition and possession
TABLE VII
• Land rights
TABLE VIII
• Torts and delicts (Laws of injury)
TABLE IX
• Public law
TABLE X
• Sacred law
TABLE XI
• Supplement I
TABLE XII
• Supplement II