Download The Roman government

The Roman government
From 500 BC to nearly 1500 AD, for two thousand years, Roman
government had more or less the same system. The Roman
government was a strange mix of a democracy and a republic. An
interesting fact is that the people of Rome took many of their
ideas of government from the Ancient Greeks.
http://www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/~vms/carlton/senate.jpg
When the Roman Republic was first
set up, in 500 BC, the people in charge
were two men called consuls. Women
were not allowed to be consuls. The
consuls controlled the army, and they
decided whether to start a war and
how much tax to collect and what the
laws were. They both had to agree in
order to change anything; if one of
them said “veto”, Latin for “I forbid
it”, then nothing would be done.
The consuls got advice from the Senate, which was made up of
men from wealthy families in Rome. Women were not allowed in
the Senate, either. Once you got into the Senate, you stayed in
for the rest of your life. Most consuls eventually joined the
Senate, and most senators were from families where their
fathers and grandfathers had been in the Senate. Most of the
time, the consuls did what the Senate advised.
There were also prefects in Rome, whose job it was to run the
city.
CClarke/ESD/2006
There were tribunes, who were supposed to speak for
the poorer people in the Senate. Tribunes were
elected by the Assembly, and they could veto (forbid)
anything the Senate voted for that affected the poor
(which ended up being pretty much anything the
Senate voted on). These, too, were all men.
Finally, there was also an Assembly of all the men (not
women) who were grownup and free and had Roman
citizenship. They voted on some big issues, if the
consuls asked them to – things like whether to go to
war. And they elected the consuls and prefects and
the Senators. But the Assembly was set up so that
richer people got more votes than poorer people.
http://www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/~vms/carlton/patricianm.jpg
Once the Romans began conquering other places, far away from
the city of Rome, they also had a system of provincial governors –
men who took charge of a province of the Empire, and who heard
court cases there. They were also in charge of the army while it
was conquering places.
By about 50 BC, the time of Julius Caesar, these generals
had begun to take over the government and not pay any
attention to the consuls or the Senate anymore, and just do
as they pleased. They could do that, because they had the
army with them.
http://www.vaticanradio.org/cinesebig5/santuari/PICS/Roma07a.jpg
CClarke/ESD/2006
http://nautarch.tamu.edu/class/489-502/Prima%20Porta.jpg
Augustus, in 31 BC, was one of these generals.
But he realized that people didn’t like this
pushing people around, and so he set up a
different system (but still one where he had all
the power). Augustus kept the Senate and the
consuls, and he said they were in charge, but he
made the Senate vote to give him the powers of a
tribune for the rest of his life. That way, he
could veto (forbid) anything the Senate tried to
do that Augustus didn’t like. And, he kept control
of most of the army as well. So he could kill
anyone who got in his way.
This system – where there was still a Senate and consuls, but the
Emperors had all the real power – kept on going for the next 1500
years, more or less.
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/government/index.htm
CClarke/ESD/2006