Ancient Rome Part 1: The Roman Republic (500 – 50 BCE)

With ancient Greece covered, it's time to visit another classical civilization, and one that most people immediately think of when they imagine antiquity: ancient Rome.

The bulk of what we know about the Roman Republic, the era that began in the sixth century BCE and ended with the creation of an empire in the late first century BCE, comes from what the Romans themselves wrote about it.

They offer us a version of events in which the city was initially a monarchy, ruled at times by kings from the much more powerful Etruscan Empire at its borders, until after about two hundred fifty years, it rejected its rulers and became a republic governed by elected officials, a senate of experienced statesmen, and a series of public assemblies that voted on candidates and laws.

Our sources then go on to describe the more or less inclusive government of the later Republic, the second and first centuries BCE, as the result of concessions made during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE by the patricians, who were the city's rightful aristocracy, to the plebeians, or commoners, who abandoned the city several times in order to force their way into the government, because they were more interested in gaining power for themselves than in supporting their city.

The heroes of this story, which came to be known as the Conflict of the Orders, were the patricians, and its most famous incident has one of them settling a plebeian protest by comparing the aristocrats to a man's stomach and the commoners to his limbs.

Though the limbs only exist to supply the stomach, they cannot go off on their own, because without it they cannot sustain themselves.

In the end, some plebeians were co-opted into the governing class, and by the later Republic, the patrician-plebeian distinction had become irrelevant, because the aristocracy was made up of men from both classes.

There was, in its place, a conflict between the optimates, or the best men, whose families supplied the senatorial leadership, and the populares, individuals who were themselves aristocrats, but courted the support of the city's poorer classes.

From descriptions of the Roman state written by contemporary Greeks, we know that its electoral system initially gave much more of a voice to the wealthiest citizens, whose financial and moral worth, like the worth of all male citizens, was determined by officials called censors.

A census was carried out every five years, which was originally geared toward deciding what sort of army service a man should perform.

This depended on his personal wealth, because he had to supply his own equipment.

The census classes eventually became the basis of the electoral system, so that rather than one man, one vote, Roman citizens voted as blocks of people that shared a single vote between them.

And because the aristocracy was divided up into more of these blocks than all the other classes put together, if it voted together, it could sway the outcome of any election.

Reforms were made in the third century that reduced the electoral power of the patricians and made the plebeian assembly the main source of new legislation.

This changed the situation somewhat, but the power of elected officials paled before that of the Senate, which was composed of the most influential men in the city, including those who had held elective office in the past.

This meant that it wielded a great deal of power over the conduct of government, even though its role was supposed to be advisory and it could not pass laws.

It also had control of wars and treaties, such that it shaped the course of the Republic's rapidly expanding empire.

The Senate tended to represent the ideal of Roman traditionalism, what was called mos maiorum, or the behavior of our ancestors, and its gravitas, the weight of its ancient dignity, most famously represented by Marcus Cato, a politician of the early second century known as The Censor.

He was a member of one of the city's most prestigious families and a spokesman for ancient values like farming the land and rejecting foreign influences.

Close to the senators in their social status were the equestrians, or knights, who were wealthy enough to be able to buy their own horses when they served in the army.

Though they were ranked second highest as a census class, the equestrians did not serve in the Senate.

This left them free to pursue businesses other than landowning, which was the only occupation considered appropriate for a senator, and many equestrians were extremely wealthy.

The city's most powerful elected officials were the two consuls, who had the sort of executive authority that had belonged to kings before the Republic was established.

But in order to limit their power, each one had the right to veto the other's decisions, and like most other elected officials, they served for only a year.

The consuls convened meetings of the Senate and the various citizen assemblies, and after serving his term, a consul often became a proconsul, who still had a great deal of power, but exercised it as the military commander of a current war, or as the governor of an area that had already been conquered and was now a province, as this was a word that originally meant something like duty or office.

With ancient Greece covered, it's time to visit another classical civilization, and one that most people immediately think of when they imagine antiquity: ancient Rome.

The bulk of what we know about the Roman Republic, the era that began in the sixth century BCE and ended with the creation of an empire in the late first century BCE, comes from what the Romans themselves wrote about it.

They offer us a version of events in which the city was initially a monarchy, ruled at times by kings from the much more powerful Etruscan Empire at its borders, until after about two hundred fifty years, it rejected its rulers and became a republic governed by elected officials, a senate of experienced statesmen, and a series of public assemblies that voted on candidates and laws.

Our sources then go on to describe the more or less inclusive government of the later Republic, the second and first centuries BCE, as the result of concessions made during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE by the patricians, who were the city's rightful aristocracy, to the plebeians, or commoners, who abandoned the city several times in order to force their way into the government, because they were more interested in gaining power for themselves than in supporting their city.

The heroes of this story, which came to be known as the Conflict of the Orders, were the patricians, and its most famous incident has one of them settling a plebeian protest by comparing the aristocrats to a man's stomach and the commoners to his limbs.

Though the limbs only exist to supply the stomach, they cannot go off on their own, because without it they cannot sustain themselves.

In the end, some plebeians were co-opted into the governing class, and by the later Republic, the patrician-plebeian distinction had become irrelevant, because the aristocracy was made up of men from both classes.

There was, in its place, a conflict between the optimates, or the best men, whose families supplied the senatorial leadership, and the populares, individuals who were themselves aristocrats, but courted the support of the city's poorer classes.

From descriptions of the Roman state written by contemporary Greeks, we know that its electoral system initially gave much more of a voice to the wealthiest citizens, whose financial and moral worth, like the worth of all male citizens, was determined by officials called censors.

A census was carried out every five years, which was originally geared toward deciding what sort of army service a man should perform.

This depended on his personal wealth, because he had to supply his own equipment.

The census classes eventually became the basis of the electoral system, so that rather than one man, one vote, Roman citizens voted as blocks of people that shared a single vote between them.

And because the aristocracy was divided up into more of these blocks than all the other classes put together, if it voted together, it could sway the outcome of any election.

Reforms were made in the third century that reduced the electoral power of the patricians and made the plebeian assembly the main source of new legislation.

This changed the situation somewhat, but the power of elected officials paled before that of the Senate, which was composed of the most influential men in the city, including those who had held elective office in the past.

This meant that it wielded a great deal of power over the conduct of government, even though its role was supposed to be advisory and it could not pass laws.

It also had control of wars and treaties, such that it shaped the course of the Republic's rapidly expanding empire.

The Senate tended to represent the ideal of Roman traditionalism, what was called mos maiorum, or the behavior of our ancestors, and its gravitas, the weight of its ancient dignity, most famously represented by Marcus Cato, a politician of the early second century known as The Censor.

He was a member of one of the city's most prestigious families and a spokesman for ancient values like farming the land and rejecting foreign influences.

Close to the senators in their social status were the equestrians, or knights, who were wealthy enough to be able to buy their own horses when they served in the army.

Though they were ranked second highest as a census class, the equestrians did not serve in the Senate.

This left them free to pursue businesses other than landowning, which was the only occupation considered appropriate for a senator, and many equestrians were extremely wealthy.

The city's most powerful elected officials were the two consuls, who had the sort of executive authority that had belonged to kings before the Republic was established.

But in order to limit their power, each one had the right to veto the other's decisions, and like most other elected officials, they served for only a year.

The consuls convened meetings of the Senate and the various citizen assemblies, and after serving his term, a consul often became a proconsul, who still had a great deal of power, but exercised it as the military commander of a current war, or as the governor of an area that had already been conquered and was now a province, as this was a word that originally meant something like duty or office.