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3.2 Early Republic 509BC-146BC

Hi guys, this is the Second part of Chapter Three, the Early Republic

1. Remember the historical event of Rape of Lucretia in 509 BC? Lucretia killed herself. That caused a revolution. The last king was overthrown and exiled, Roman Republic was established, and Lucretia’s husband Lucius Junius Brutus became one of the two first consuls. This is a bust of Lucius Junius Brutus.

2. What is a republic?

Roman Republic was the first republic in the world. In today’ would 159 of the 206 sovereign states use the word "republic" as part of their official names. There are three characters of a republic. First “everyone is equal before the law” as the Greek statesman Pericles said in his funeral oration. All people are citizens, no noblemen no commoners. The country is a "public matter", not the property of the rulers. Second the head of the country is elected, not a monarch; monarch is the king, queen, emperor, or empress. The third is rule of law; in a republic elected individuals represent the citizens and exercise power according to the rule of law under a constitution.

The term republic is a Latin word (res publica), society of the Roman Republic is highly hierarchical. People have different ranks or positions, depending on how important they are. The ruling class is patricians, According to Livy, the first 100 men appointed as senators by Romulus were referred to as "fathers" (Latin "patres"), and thus the descendants of those “fathers” became the patrician class. In the early Roman Republic only patricians could be the senator, consul and other magistrate. In ancient Rome, a magistrate was one of the high ranking government officers; he possessed both judicial and executive power. Another class in the society is Plebeians, also called plebs. They were the commoners.

3. The structure of the Roman Republic government

Let’s look at the structure of the Roman Republic government

Consuls

The highest leader of the Roman Republic was two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate. They share the supreme civil and military authority, through the use of imperium, the supreme power. They had the power to veto one another. If someone in authority vetoes something, they forbid it, or stop it from being put into action. The term of consulship was only one year. At the end of their term, the ex-consuls became senators for life. In times of war a single consul could be appointed as a dictator for 6 months. A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. In today’s English, a dictator is a ruler who has complete power which was obtained by force and is used unfairly and cruelly. We call someone like Adolf Hitler a dictator. But in ancient Rome the term "Dictator" did not have the negative meaning as it has today.

Senate

The first king of the Roman Kingdom Romulus established the Senate as an advisory council of the king. The 300 members of Senate called Senators, Senator in Latin means "the elder" or "old man", thus senate is Assembly of Elders. Senate was an advisory body to the consuls, and it had no true legislative power. Senators served for life unless they were removed for public or private misconduct.

Assembly

An assembly is a sovereign authority, with the power to declare war, to enact or reject laws, and to elect top leaders. Romans believed it was the People of Rome who held the ultimate sovereignty, thus exercising this sovereign power was the purpose of the assembly. But Roman assemblies did not consist of the whole Roman people; only adult male citizens were permitted to participate.

4. Assembly of the Roman Republic

We mentioned during the Roman Kingdom kings were elected by the Curiate Assembly, the principal assembly of the people of Rome. It had legislative power, the right of making and passing laws. During the first two decades of the Roman Republic, The Curiate Assembly was still the principal assembly. Gradually the legislative authority shifted to two new assemblies, the Centuriate Assembly and the Tribal Assembly.

The Assembly of Centuries or "Army Assembly" was composed of all members of the army. In ancient Roman army a century was a small unite consisting of approximately 100 soldiers.

The Tribal Assembly or Assembly of the People composed of all citizens. All citizens were organized into 35 tribes, each tribe had one vote. Each tribe voted separately, decisions were made by majority vote.

5. The Struggle of the Orders or the Conflict of the Orders was a political struggle between the Plebeians and Patricians. Finally the plebs created Plebeian Assembly and elected their own top official called Plebeian Tribune. Tribunes were declared sacred to gods. In 450 BC the Law of the Twelve Tables was declared. It became the foundation of Roman law. And it recognized the basic rights of all citizens. In this painting Roman civilians were examining the Law on the Twelve Tables.

6. In 367BC the consulship was finally opened to plebs that means a commoner could be elected to be a consul. In 287BC, the Plebeian Council became an assembly of all citizens, including both patricians and Plebeians.

Celtic invasion of Italy (390–387 BC)

In 390 BC, several Celtic tribes invaded Italy from the north. They defeated the Roman army of approximately 15,000 troops, pursued the fleeing Romans back to Rome, and sacked the city. Sack is the plundering of a place by an army or mob, usually involving destruction, slaughter, etc. Finally they were driven off or bought off.

7. Roman expansion into the whole Italy (343–282 BC)

During this time Roman Republic conquered the whole Italian Peninsula, and three Mediterranean islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. But this was not enough to them, the Romans were very ambitious, they were ready to fight the other two Mediterranean powers: Carthage and the Greek kingdoms in the Hellenistic world.

Key words: Republic, patrician and Plebeians, Consuls, Assembly, Plebeian Tribune

This is the second part of Chapter Three