Roman Political System

Roman Political system
Monarchy To Republic
• The earliest inhabitants of Italian Peninsula
were Latins, greeks and Etruscans.
• Etruscans conquered the battle of control
over Italy.
• The last Etruscan king was Tarquin the Proud
– very harsh tyrant.
• Romans overthrew Etruscan rule and
decided to establish Republic – a
representative government.
Political Structure
• The Roman Republic was organised much like our
modern political system. Since the Romans did
not want one man to make all of the laws, they
decided to balance the power of the government
between three branches:
• The Executive branch – Consuls and Magistrates
• The Legislative branch – Senate and legislative

assemblies
• The Judicial branch – Councils and courts

Executive Branch
• The two leaders of the executive branch, the consuls,
were elected for just one year by the patrician class.
• They supervised the Senate and ordered the Roman
army during wars.
• Each year, two consuls were elected together, to
serve for a one-year term. Each consul was
given veto power over his colleague and the officials
would alternate each month.
• Consuls had extensive capacities in peacetime
(administrative, legislative and judicial), and in
wartime often held the highest military command.
• Other members of the executive branch were the tax
collectors, mayors, city police, and other people in
positions of power in cities.
Legislative Branch
• Assembly of the Curia – (comitia curiata) was the
principal assembly during the first two decades of the
Roman Republic.
• Assembly of the Centuries – (comitia centuriata or
"Army Assembly") of the Roman Republic was the
democratic assembly of the Roman soldiers. Every
Roman citizen with the required wealth could vote,
regardless of class.
• Assembly of the Tribes – (comitia tributa) of the
Roman Republic was the democratic assembly of
Roman citizens.
• Plebeian Council – (concilium plebis) was the
principal popular gathering of the Roman Republic. It
functioned as a gathering through which the
Plebeians (commoners) could pass laws, elect
magistrates, and try judicial cases.
• Senate- part of Legislative branch but had
little legislative authority.
• members were appointed by the consuls,
and later by the censors.
• Served as an advisory body to the consuls
and later emperors.
• The Senate passed money bills and control
what money would be spent on.
• supervised relations with foreign powers.
• The Senate was further empowered to
authorize the nomination of a dictator to
deal with state emergencies.
Judicial Branch
• The judicial branch had six judges who were
elected every two years.
• They were in charge of deciding
punishments that criminals would receive.
• Executive magistrates: Consuls, praetors,
censors, aediles, quaestors, tribunes, and
dictators.
• Plebeian Council also presided over judicial
cases.
Roman Justice Sytem
• The Roman judicial system distinguished laws from
facts. There was a systematic approach to
adjudication.
• The Romans codified the abstract notions of laws
and put them into daily use.
• Roman law left behind a huge body of statutes and
case law that first appeared in written form in 450
B.C. as the Twelve Tables, bronze tablets on which
the first codified laws of the Roman Republic were
inscribed. It established rule of law.
• Roman law defined property, contracts and crimes.
People who were found guilty of crimes and legal
authorities who lost their positions for abusing the
laws were imprisoned or placed in chains.
• Rome is considered the home of the first bona-
fide professional lawyers (men who argued cases
for clients before magistrates as opposed to
clients representing themselves).
• juris prudentes (men wise in law)-analyzed and
came up with laws
• Advocati- men summoned to one's side.
• causidici (speakers of cases)- arguing the cases
themselves for their clients.
• The remedies included compensation, death, self
help, imprionment and chaining.
• Compounding of certain offences was allowed.
From Republic to Empire
• The Roman Empire refers to the state that
was centered in the city of Rome and
included vast territories under Roman rule,
dated from approximately 27 BC, when
Augustus (63 BC–AD 14) was named the first
emperor of Rome, to AD 476, when Romulus
Augustulus (fifth century), the last ruler of
the Western Roman Empire, was deposed.
Fall of Republic
• The expansion of Rome created a lot of
problems.
• Romans fought Punic wars with Carthage
which resulted into concentration of wealth
in the hands of elite. They started to have
their own plantations.
• The poor farmers were not able to compete.
• A lot of people became landless as their
lands were lost to debt creditors.
• A land reform bill was introduced by a tribune
which was blocked by Senate.
• Conflicts began to grow between the Plebian
Assembly and the Senate.
• Military commanders recruited landless farmers
for an army and initiated a civil war.
• One such commander was General Gaius Marius.
• Marius fought civil war from plebian side against
Patricians represented by General Sulla.
• Sulla conquered and became a dictator.
• Political unrest started to uproar with the Catilina
Conspiracy.
• Julius Caesar took the command of Rome after having
won wars with Gaul which made him popular.
– In 49 B. C., he named himself dictator of Rome.
– Caesar made much needed reforms.
– He relieved debt.
– He used his wealth to promote building and entertainment
in Rome which pacified his subjects.
– He confiscated land from his opponents and redistributed
among his army’s veterans.
– He extended Roman citizenship to people in the
conquered provinces.
– In 44 BCE Caesar was assassinated (stabbed to death) in
the Roman forum.
– Civil War went on for the next 13 years.
• Caesar’s nephew, Octavian (AKA Augustus) built a
monarchy disguised as a republic.
• He rebuilt the Roman legacy and set up an empire.
• Augustus initiated the Pax Romana which lasted more
than 200 years.
• He restored some aspects of the republican
government. Senators, consuls, and tribunes once
again held office. But Augustus had power over all of
them.
• He also began civil services which collected taxes,
oversaw the postal system, and managed the grain
supply.
• The Roman economy was also united by a common
currency.
• The emperor was known as the princeps (first
citizen) during the first two centuries of the empire.
• Under new system, called the principate, the
emperor consolidated the political power of several
offices that had existed under the Republic: He took
on the executive functions of the consul and the
religious authority of the high priest.
• Additionally, the emperor was invested with two
other types of absolute authority: imperium
proconsulare, governorship and command of the
provinces, and imperium proconsulare maius, the
power to trump any magistrate anywhere in the
empire.
• The emperor convened an imperial council
(Consilium Principis) composed of the consuls,
other magistrates, and fifteen senators chosen by
lots every six months, as an advisory committee.
• The Senate acted as the governing council. It dealt
with foreign embassies, made binding decrees,
served as the state’s highest court, and elected
urban magistrates.
• The vast territories of the Roman Empire were
managed by provincial governors under
supervision of Senate.

Roman Political System

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Roman Political system

• The Executive branch – Consuls and Magistrates

• The Legislative branch – Senate and legislative

• The Judicial branch – Councils and courts

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