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ROMAN REPUBLIC
509 – 27 BC
Republic or...
Monarchy?
Which one is more democratic?
The Roman Monarchy had seven elected
kings but in the end...
The Romans were fed up and got rid of them
The word “democracy” was invented by...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Acropolis-panorama-night.jpg
...the Athenians in 509 BC
“demos” being Greek for...
and “kratia” for...
whereas “monos” means...
and “archia”...
“people”
“power”
“one”
“power”
as well
At the same time the Romans created their Republic
Remember the year...
509 BC
Instead of one king who reigned
until his death, the Romans elected...
two consuls every year!
“re(s)” being Latin for...
and “public” for...
“thing”
(obviously!!!)
NB: Some translate RESPVBLICA into
English as
“Commonwealth”
Roman society was divided into
two social classes:
patricians
plebeians
and
After many fights, in 5th century BC, plebeians gained the right...
...to vote
...and to marry
patricians
but
only the latter could be elected as...
...consuls or senators
Senators formed the...
Senate,
an assembly of 300 members that passed...
laws
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spqrstone.jpg
The people, in Latin “populus”, giving “public” in English, and
the Senate made Rome big and powerful
After the first Punic war (240 BC), Rome obtained the two biggest isles
in the Mediterranean:
Corsica
Sicily
In 218 they disembarked in... Emporion
and began the Roman conquest of...
Hispania
The conquest of Hispania lasted...
200 years!!!
Pergamon
133
Corinth
146
Numantia
133
Carthage
146
But step by step all the Mediterranean fell into the hands of the Romans
And conquests went on and on...
Gaul
52 BC
Syria
63 BC
So that the Romans called the Mediterranean...
Mare Nostrum (our sea)
Romans had for almost five centuries something that we could call a
kind of “aristocratic republic”.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maccari-Cicero.jpg
But in the end it brought...
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catilina2-Maccari_affresco.jpg
conspiracy
and...
...civil war