History of the Constitution of the Roman Republic
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The history of the Constitution of the Roman Republic
is a study of the ancient Roman Republic
that traces the progression of Roman political development from the founding of the Roman Republic in 509 BC until the founding of the Roman Empire
in 27 BC. The constitutional history of the Roman Republic can be divided into five phases. The first phase began with the revolution which overthrew the Roman Kingdom
in 510 BC, and the final phase ended with the revolution which overthrew the Roman Republic, and thus created the Roman Empire, in 27 BC. Throughout the history of the republic, the constitutional evolution was driven by the struggle
between the aristocracy and the ordinary citizens.
The Roman aristocracy was composed of a class of citizens called Patricians, while all other citizens were called Plebeians. During the first phase of political development, the Patrician aristocracy
dominated the state, and the Plebeians began seeking political rights. During the second phase, the Plebeians completely overthrew the Patrician aristocracy, and since the aristocracy was overthrown simply through alterations to the Roman law
, this revolution was not violent. The third phase saw the emergence of a joint Patricio-Plebeian aristocracy, along with a dangerous military situation that helped to maintain internal stability within the republic. The fourth phase began shortly after Rome's wars of expansion had ended, because without these wars, the factor that had ensured internal stability was removed. While the Plebeians sought to address their economic misfortune through the enactment of laws, the underlying problems were ultimately caused by the organization of society. The final phase began when Julius Caesar
crossed the Rubicon river
, and ended with the complete overthrow of the republic. This final revolution triggered a wholesale reorganization of the constitution, and with it, the emergence of the Roman Empire
.
, ruled in a tyrannical manner and, in 510 BC, his son Sextus Tarquinius
raped a noblewoman named Lucretia
. Lucretia, the wife of a senator named Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus
, committed suicide because of the rape, and this led to a conspiracy which quickly drove Tarquin from the city. With Tarquin's expulsion, the Roman Republic was founded, and the chief conspirators, Collatinus and the senator Lucius Junius Brutus
, were elected as the first Roman Consul
(chief-executive). While this story may be nothing more than a legend which later Romans created in order to explain their past, it is likely that Rome had been ruled by a series of kings, who probably were, as the legends suggest, overthrown quickly.
The constitutional changes which occurred immediately after the revolution were probably not as extensive as the legends suggest, as the most important constitutional change probably concerned the chief executive. Before the revolution, a king (rex) was elected by the senators (patres or "fathers") for a life term, but now two Praetor
es ("leaders") were elected by the citizens for an annual term. These magistrates were eventually called "Consuls" (Latin for those who walk together), and each Consul checked his colleague, while their limited term in office opened them up to prosecution if they abused the powers of their office. The chief executive was still vested with the same grade of imperium
("command") powers as was the old king, and the powers of each of the two Consuls, when exercised together, were no different than were those of the old king. In the immediate aftermath of the revolution, the Roman Senate
and the Roman assemblies
were nearly as powerless as they had been under the monarchy
.
During the years of the monarchy, only Patricians (patres or "fathers") were admitted to the Roman Senate. The revolution of 510 BC so depleted the ranks of the senate, however, that a group of Plebeians were drafted (conscripti) to fill the vacancies. The old senate of Patricians (patres) transitioned into a senate of patres et conscripti ("fathers and conscripted men"). These new Plebeian senators, however, could neither vote on an auctoritas patrum ("authority of the fathers" or "authority of the Patrician senators"), nor be elected interrex
. In the year 494 BC
, the city was at war, but the Plebeian soldiers refused to march against the enemy, and instead seceded to the Aventine hill. The Patricians quickly became desperate to end what was, in effect, a labor strike, and thus they quickly agreed to the demands of the Plebeians, that they be given the right to elect their own officials. The Plebeians named these new officials Plebeian Tribunes
(tribuni plebis), and gave them two assistants, the Plebeian Aediles
(aediles plebi).
During the early years of the republic, the Plebeians were not allowed to hold ordinary political office. In 445 BC
, the Plebeians demanded the right to stand for election to the Consulship, but the senate refused to grant them this right. After a long resistance to the new demands, the Senate (454) sent a commission of three patricians to Greece to study and report on the legislation of Solon
and other lawmakers. When they returned, the Assembly (451) chose ten men -decemviri- formulate a new code, and gave them supreme governmental power in Rome for two years. This commission, under the presidency of a resolute reactionary, Appius Claudius, transformed the old customary law of Rome into the famous Twelve Tables
, submitted them to the Assembly (which passed them with some changes), and displayed them in the Forum for all who would and could to read. The Twelve Tables recognised certain rights and gave the plebs their own representatives, the tribunes. However the Consulship remained closed to the Plebeians, Consular command authority (imperium
) was granted to a select number of Military Tribunes
. These individuals, the so-called Consular Tribunes were elected by the Century Assembly
, and the senate had the power to veto
any such election. This was the first of many attempts by the Plebeians
to achieve political equality with the Patricians. Starting around the year 400 BC
, a series of wars were fought, and while the Patrician aristocracy enjoyed the fruits of the resulting conquests, the Plebeians in the army became exhausted and bitter. They demanded real concessions, and so in 367 BC
a law was passed (the "Licinio-Sextian law
") which dealt with the economic plight of the Plebeians. However, the law also required the election of at least one Plebeian Consul each year. The opening of the Consulship to the Plebeians was probably the cause behind the concession of 366 BC
, in which the Praetor
ship and Curule Aedileship
were both created, but opened only to Patricians.
became the principle Roman assembly
in which magistrates were elected, laws were passed, and trials occurred. During his Consulship in 509 BC, Publius Valerius Publicola
enacted a law (the lex Valeria) which guaranteed due process rights to every Roman citizen. Any condemned citizen could evoke his right of Provocatio, which appealed any condemnation to the Century Assembly, and which was a precursor to habeas corpus
. Also around this time, the Plebeians assembled into an informal Plebeian Curiate Assembly
, which was the original Plebeian Council
. Since they were organized on the basis of the Curia
(and thus by clan), they remained dependent on their Patrician patrons. In 471 BC
, a law was passed due to the efforts of the Tribune
Volero Publilius, which allowed the Plebeians to organize by Tribe, rather than by Curia. Thus, the Plebeian Curiate Assembly became the Plebeian Tribal Assembly, and the Plebeians became politically independent.
During the regal period
, the king nominated two Quaestor
s to serve as his assistants, and after the overthrow of the monarchy, the Consuls retained this authority. However, in 447 BC, Cicero
recorded that the Quaestors began to be elected by a tribal assembly that was presided over by a magistrate. It seems as though this was the first instance of a joint Patricio-Plebeian Tribal Assembly
, and thus was probably an enormous gain for the Plebeians. While Patricians were able to vote in a joint assembly, there were never very many Patricians in Rome. Thus, most of the electors were Plebeians, and yet any magistrate elected by a joint assembly had jurisdiction over both Plebeians and Patricians. Therefore, for the first time, the Plebeians seemed to have indirectly acquired authority over Patricians. During the fourth century BC, a series of reforms were passed (the legres Valeriae Horatiae
), which ultimately required that any law
passed by the Plebeian Council
have the full force of law over both Plebeians and Patricians. This gave the Plebeian Tribunes, who presided over the Plebeian Council, a positive character for the first time. Before these laws were passed, Tribunes could only interpose the sacrosanctity of their person (intercessio) to veto
acts of the senate, assemblies, or magistrates. It was a modification to the Valerian law in 449 BC which first allowed acts of the Plebeian Council to have the full force of law, but eventually the final law in the series was passed (the "Hortensian Law
"), which removed the last check that the Patricians in the senate had over this power.
, the Romans defeated the combined armies of the Samnites and the Kelts. This battle was followed by the complete submission of both the Samnites and the Kelts to the Romans, and the emergence of Rome as the unchallenged mistress of Italy.
ship and the Roman Censorship (which had been created in 443 BC) since only former Consuls could hold either office. 356 BC
saw the appointment of the first Plebeian Dictator
, and in 339 BC
the Plebeians facilitated the passage of a law (the lex Publilia), which required the election of at least one Plebeian Censor for each five year term. In 337 BC, the first Plebeian Praetor
was elected.
In 342 BC, two significant laws were passed. One of these two laws made it illegal to hold more than one office at any given point in time, and the other law required an interval of ten years to pass before any magistrate could seek reelection to any office. As a result of these two laws, the military situation quickly became unmanageable. During this time period, Rome was expanding within Italy
and beginning to take steps beyond Italy
, and thus it became necessary for military commanders to hold office for several years at a time. This problem was resolved with the creation of the pro-magisterial offices
, so that when an individual's term in office ended, his command might be prorogued (prorogatio imperii
). In effect, when a magistrate's term ended, his imperium was extended, and he usually held the title of either Proconsul
or Propraetor
. This constitutional device was not in harmony with the underlying genius of the Roman constitution
, and its frequent usage eventually paved the way for the empire
. In addition, during these years, the Plebeian Tribunes and the senators grew increasingly close. The senate realized the need to use Plebeian officials to accomplish desired goals, and so to win over the Tribunes, the senators gave the Tribunes a great deal of power, and unsurprisingly, the Tribunes began to feel obligated to the senate. As the Tribunes and the senators grew closer, Plebeian senators were often able to secure the Tribunate for members of their own families. In time, the Tribunate became a stepping stone to higher office.
During the era of the kingdom, the Roman King appointed new senators, but after the overthrow of the kingdom, the Consuls acquired this power. Around the middle of the fourth century BC, however, the Plebeian Council enacted the "Ovinian Plebiscite" (plebiscitum Ovinium), which gave the power to appoint new senators
to the Roman Censors. It also codified a commonplace practice, which all but required the Censor to appoint any newly-elected magistrate to the senate. By this point, Plebeians were already holding a significant number of magisterial offices, and so the number of Plebeian senators probably increased quickly. It was, in all likelihood, simply a matter of time before the Plebeians came to dominate the senate.
Under the new system, newly elected magistrates were awarded with automatic membership in the senate, although it remained difficult for a Plebeian from an unknown family to enter the senate. Several factors made it difficult for individuals from unknown families to be elected to high office, in particular the very presence of a long-standing nobility, as this appealed to the deeply-rooted Roman respect for the past. Ultimately, a new Patricio-Plebeian aristocracy emerged, which replaced the old Patrician nobility. It was the dominance of the long-standing Patrician nobility which ultimately forced the Plebeians to wage their long struggle for political power
. The new nobility, however, was fundamentally different from the old nobility. The old nobility existed through the force of law, because only Patricians were allowed to stand for high office, and it was ultimately overthrown after those laws were changed. Now, however, the new nobility existed due to the organization of society, and as such, it could only be overthrown through a revolution
.
was finally coming to an end, since the Plebeians had achieved political equality with the Patricians. A small number of Plebeian families had achieved the same standing that the old aristocratic Patrician families had always had, but these new Plebeian aristocrats were as uninterested in the plight of the average Plebeian as the old Patrician aristocrats had always been. During this time period, the Plebeian plight had been mitigated due to the constant state of war that Rome was in. These wars provided employment, income, and glory for the average Plebeian, and the sense of patriotism that resulted from these wars also eliminated any real threat of Plebeian unrest. The lex Publilia, which had required the election of at least one Plebeian Censor every five years, contained another provision. Before this time, any bill passed by an assembly (either by the Plebeian Council
, the Tribal Assembly
, or the Century Assembly
) could only become a law after the Patrician senators gave their approval. This approval came in the form of an auctoritas patrum ("authority of the fathers" or "authority of the Patrician senators"). The lex Publilia modified this process, requiring the auctoritas patrum to be passed before a law could be voted on by one of the assemblies, rather than after the law had already been voted on. It is not known why, but this modification seems to have made the auctoritas patrum irrelevant.
By 287 BC, the economic condition of the average Plebeian had become poor, and the result was the final Plebeian secession. The Plebeians seceded to the Janiculum hill
, and to end the secession, a Dictator named Quintus Hortensius
was appointed. Hortensius, a Plebeian, passed a law called the "Hortensian Law" (Lex Hortensia
), which ended the requirement that an auctoritas patrum be passed before any bill could be considered by either the Plebeian Council or the Tribal Assembly. The requirement was not changed for the Century Assembly. The importance of the Hortensian Law was in that it removed from the senate its final check over the Plebeian Council (the principal popular assembly). It should therefore not be viewed as the final triumph of democracy over aristocracy, since, through the Tribunes, the senate could still control the Plebeian Council. Thus, the ultimate significance of this law was in the fact that it robbed the Patricians of their final weapon over the Plebeians. The result was that the ultimate control over the state fell, not onto the shoulders of democracy, but onto the shoulders of the new Patricio-Plebeian aristocracy.
and 133 BC
. This entire era was dominated by foreign wars, which eliminated the need to address the flaws in the current political system, since the patriotism of the Plebeians suppressed their desire for further reforms. However, this era created new problems, which began to be realized near the end of the 2nd century BC. For example, the nature of Rome's military commanders changed. Roman soldiers of earlier eras fought short wars, and then return to their farms. Since their generals did the same thing, the soldiers came to view their generals as being nothing more than fellow citizen-soldiers. Now, however, wars were becoming longer and of a larger scale. Thus, this period saw a growing affinity between the average citizen and his general, while the generals acquired more power than they had ever held before.
(insofar as the landowners were concerned, anyway). In reality, however, Rome remained an oligarchy
, since the critical laws were still enacted by the Roman Senate
. In effect, democracy was satisfied with the possession of power, but did not care to actually use it. The senate was supreme during this era because the era was dominated by foreign policy. While upwards of 300,000 citizens were eligible to vote, many of these individuals lived a great distance from Rome, and so calling them all together in a short period of time was impossible. The foreign affairs questions often required quick answers, and three-hundred senators were more capable of quick action than were thousands of electors. The questions were also more complex than were the questions of the earlier era, and the average citizen was not adequately informed as to these issues. The senators, in contrast, were usually quite experienced, and the fact that they had income sources that were independent of their political roles made it easier for them to involve themselves in policy questions over extended periods of time.
Since most senators were former magistrate
s, the senate became bound together by a strong sense of collegiality. At any given point in time, many of the senate's most senior members were ex-Consuls, which facilitated the creation of a bond between the presiding Consul
and those senior members. In addition, the Consul was always chosen from senate, and as such he usually held similar ideals as did his fellow senators. When his annual term ended, he returned to their ranks, and so he was unlikely to stand against his fellow senators. Before the enactment of the Ovinian Law, Consuls appointed new senators, but after the enactment of this law, Censors appointed new senators, which caused the senate to become even more independent of the presiding Consul. In addition, the Ovinian Law all but required that ex-magistrates be appointed to the senate, and as such, the process by which Censors appointed new members to the senate became quite objective. This further enhanced the competence, and thus the prestige, of the senate.
, when Hannibal fought the Romans throughout Italy
, and the Romans adopted a strategy
of attrition
and guerrilla warfare
in response. When the soldiers returned from the battlefield, they often had to sell their farms to pay their debts, and the landed aristocracy quickly bought these farms at discounted prices. The wars had also brought to Rome a great surplus of inexpensive slave labor, which the landed aristocrats used to staff their new farms. Soon the masses of unemployed Plebeians began to flood into Rome, and into the ranks of the legislative assemblies
.
At the same time, the aristocracy
was becoming extremely rich. Several Italian towns had sided with Hannibal during the Second Punic War, and these towns were ultimately punished for their disloyalty, which opened up even more cheap farmland for the aristocrats. With the destruction of Rome's great commercial rival of Carthage
, even more opportunities for profit became available. With so many new territories, tax collection
(which had always been outsourced to private individuals) also became extremely profitable. While the aristocrats spent their time exploiting new opportunities for profit, Rome was conquering
new civilizations
in the east. These civilizations were often highly developed, and as such they opened up a world of luxury to the Romans. Up until this point, most Romans had only known a simple life, but as both wealth and eastern luxuries became available at the same time, an era of ruinous decadence
followed. The sums that were spent on these luxuries had no precedent in prior Roman history. Several laws
were enacted to stem this tide of decadence, but these laws had no effect, and attempts by the Censors to mitigate this decadence were equally futile.
By the end of this era, Rome had become full of unemployed
Plebeians. They then began filling the ranks of the assemblies, and the fact that they were no longer away from Rome made it easier for them to vote. In the principle legislative assembly, the Plebeian Council
, any individual voted in the Tribe that his ancestors had belonged to. Thus, most of these newly unemployed Plebeians belonged to one of the thirty-one rural
Tribes, rather than one of the four urban
Tribes, and the unemployed Plebeians soon acquired so much political power that the Plebeian Council became highly populist
. These Plebeians were often angry with the aristocracy, which further exacerbated the class tensions
. Their economic state
usually led them to vote for the candidate who offered the most for them, or at least for the candidate whose games
or whose bribes were the most magnificent. The fact that they were usually uninformed as to the issues before them didn't matter, because they usually sold their votes to the highest bidder anyway. Bribery
became such a problem that major reforms were ultimately passed, in particular the requirement that all votes be by secret ballot
. A new culture of dependency was emerging, which would look to any populist leader
for relief.
The prior era saw great military successes, and great economic failures, while the patriotism of the Plebeians had kept them from seeking any new reforms. Now, however, the military situation had stabilized, and fewer soldiers were needed. This, in conjunction with the new slaves that were being imported from abroad, inflamed the unemployment situation further. The flood of unemployed citizens to Rome had made the assemblies quite populist, and thus had created an increasingly aggressive democracy. This new era began with the Tribunate of Gaius Gracchus
, and ended when Julius Caesar
crossed the Rubicon
river.
was elected Plebeian Tribune in 133 BC, and as Tribune, he attempted to enact a law that would have distributed land amongst Rome's landless citizens. The aristocrats, who stood to lose an enormous amount of money, were bitterly opposed to this proposal. Tiberius submitted this law to the Plebeian Council
, but the law was vetoed by a Tribune named Marcus Octavius
, and so Tiberius used the Plebeian Council to impeach Octavius
. The theory, that a representative of the people ceases to be one when he acts against the wishes of the people, was repugnant to the genius of Roman constitutional theory
. If carried to its logical end, this theory removed all constitutional restraints on the popular will, and put the state under the absolute control of a temporary popular majority. This theory ultimately found its logical end under the future democratic empire of the military populist Julius Caesar. The law was enacted, but Tiberius
was murdered when he stood for reelection to the Tribunate. The ten years that followed his death were politically inactive. The only important development was in the growing strength of the democratic opposition to the aristocracy.
Tiberius' brother Gaius was elected Plebeian Tribune in 123 BC. Gaius Gracchus'
ultimate goal was to weaken the senate and to strengthen the democratic forces, so he first enacted a law which put the knights (equites, or upper-middle class citizens) on the jury courts instead of the senators. He then passed a grain law which greatly disadvantaged the provincial governors, most of whom were senators. The knights, on the other hand, stood to profit greatly from these grain reforms, and so the result was that Gaius managed to turn the most powerful class of non-senators against the senate. In the past, the senate eliminated political rivals either by establishing special judicial commissions or by passing a senatus consultum ultimum
("ultimate decree of the senate). Both devices allowed the senate to bypass the ordinary due process rights that all citizens had. Gaius outlawed the judicial commissions, and declared the senatus consultum ultimum to be unconstitutional. Gaius then proposed a law which granted citizenship rights to Rome's Italian allies, but the selfish democracy in Rome, which jealously guarded its privileged status, deserted him over this proposal. He stood for reelection to a third term in 121 BC, but was defeated and then murdered. The democracy, however, had finally realized how weak the senate had become.
. In 88 BC, a Roman army was sent to put down that power, king Mithridates VI of Pontus
, but was defeated. Over the objections of the former Consul Gaius Marius
, the Consul for the year, Lucius Cornelius Sulla
was ordered by the senate to assume command of the war against Mithridates. Marius, a member of the democratic ("populare") party, had a Tribune revoke Sulla's command of the war against Mithridates, so Sulla, a member of the aristocratic ("optimate") party, brought his army back to Italy and marched on Rome. Marius fled, and his supporters either fled or were murdered by Sulla. Sulla had become so angry at Marius' Tribune that he passed a law that was intended to permanently weaken the Tribunate. He then returned to his war against Mithridates, and with Sulla gone, the populares
under Marius and Lucius Cornelius Cinna
soon took control of the city. The populare record was not one to be proud of, as they had reelected Marius Consul several times without observing the required ten year interval. They also transgressed democracy by advancing un-elected individuals to magisterial office, and by substituting magisterial edicts for popular legislation. Sulla soon made peace with Mithridates, and in 83 BC, he returned to Rome, overcame all resistance, and captured the city again. Sulla and his supporters then slaughtered most of Marius' supporters, although one such supporter, a 17 year old populare (and the son-in-law of Cinna
) named Julius Caesar
, was ultimately spared.
Sulla, who had observed the violent results of radical populare reforms (in particular those under Marius and Cinna), was naturally conservative, and so his conservatism was more reactionary than it was visionary. As such, he sought to strengthen the aristocracy, and thus the senate. After being appointed Roman Dictator
in 82 BC, he enacted a series of constitutional reforms
. He resigned the Dictator
ship in 80 BC
, retired in 79 BC
, and died a year later. While he thought that he had firmly established aristocratic rule, his own career had illustrated the fatal weaknesses in the constitution. Ultimately, it was the army
, and not the senate, which dictated the fortunes of the state.
In 77 BC
, the senate sent one of Sulla's former lieutenants, Gnaeus Pompey Magnus
, to put down an uprising in Spain
. By 71 BC
, Pompey returned to Rome after having completed his mission, and around the same time, another of Sulla's former lieutenants, Marcus Licinius Crassus
, had just put down a slave revolt in Italy. Upon their return, Pompey and Crassus found the populare party fiercely attacking Sulla's constitution, and so they attempted to forge an agreement with the populare party. If both Pompey and Crassus were elected Consul in 70 BC
, they would dismantle the more obnoxious components of Sulla's constitution. The promise of both Pompey and Crassus, aided by the presence of both of their armies outside of the gates of Rome, helped to 'persuade' the populares to elect the two to the Consulship. As soon as they were elected, they dismantled most of Sulla's constitution.
, Pompey
returned victorious from Asia
, but the senate refused to ratify the arrangements that he had made with his soldiers. Pompey, in effect, became powerless, and thus when Julius Caesar
returned from his governorship in Spain
in 61 BC
, he found it easy to make an arrangement with Pompey. Caesar and Pompey, along with Crassus, established a private agreement, known as the First Triumvirate
. Under the agreement, Pompey's arrangements in Asia were to be ratified, and his soldiers were to be given land. Caesar was to be elected Consul in 59 BC
, and then serve as governor of Gaul for five years. Crassus was to be promised a future Consulship.
Caesar became Consul in 59 BC, but his colleague, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus
, was an extreme aristocrat
. Caesar submitted the laws that he had promised Pompey to the Roman Senate
, but the senate rejected these laws, and so he then submitted them to the assemblies
. Bibulus attempted to obstruct the enactment of these laws, and so Caesar used violent (and thus illegal) means to ensure their passage. Caesar was then given command of four legions
, and promised the governorship of three provinces (Cisalpine Gaul
, Transalpine Gaul, and Illyricum
). This appointment was to begin on March 1, 59 BC, while he was still Consul. Caesar did not wish to leave the senate in the hands of such unskillful politicians as Pompey and Crassus before he had crushed the spirit of the senate and deprived it of its two most dangerous leaders, Cato
and Cicero
. Therefore, he sent Cato on a mission to Cyprus
, which was likely to ruin his reputation, and then facilitated the election of the former Patrician Clodius
to the Tribunate for 58 BC
. Clodius, a dangerous demagogue, secured the passage of several laws for his coming attack on Cicero. One law banned the use of omens (auspices) as an obstructive device in the Plebeian Council, while the second law made certain "clubs" of a "semi-political nature" (i.e. armed gangs) lawful. Clodius then passed two laws which banished Cicero, on the grounds that he had deprived several of Catiline's
conspirators of their due process (provocatio) rights when he had them executed upon a mere decree of the senate.
Pompey and Crassus proved themselves to be as incompetent as Caesar had hoped. Clodius terrorized the city with his armed gangs, and agitated Pompey to such a degree that Pompey was able to secure the passage of a law in 57 BC
which recalled Cicero from his exile. This was more of a triumph for the senate than it was for Pompey, however, since Pompey was allied with Caesar. Pompey was so inept that the senate decided to override him, and rescind the land laws that Caesar had passed in 59 BC for Pompey's veterans. This forced a renewal of the triumvirate
: Pompey and Crassus were promised the Consulship in 55 BC
and Caesar's term as governor was extended for five years. Caesar's daughter, and Pompey's wife, Julia
, soon died in childbirth, and a year later, Crassus was killed during his invasion of the Parthian Empire
. These two events severed the last remaining bound between Pompey and Caesar.
Beginning in the summer of 54 BC
, a wave of political corruption and violence swept Rome. This chaos reached a climax in January of 52 BC
, when Clodius was murdered in a gang war. In addition, the civil unrest had caused the calendar to become neglected. The calendar required annual adjustments to prevent its drift relative to any Spring Equinox, and so to correct the misalignment of the calendar, an intercalary month was inserted at the end of February of 52 BC
, and Pompey was elected sole Consul for that month. This elevation to extraordinary power was the last straw for Caesar, and with Crassus dead, Pompey was looking for any excuse with which to crush Caesar, and establish himself as the master of the state. On January 1 of 49 BC
, an agent of Caesar named Gaius Scribonius Curio
presented an ultimatum to the senate, but the ultimatum was rejected, and the senate then passed a resolution which declared that if Caesar did not lay down his arms by July of that year, that he would be acting adversus rem publicam (in effect, declaring him to be an enemy of the republic). On January 7 of 49 BC), the senate passed a senatus consultum ultimum
, which suspended civil government and declared something analogous to martial law. Pompey, in effect, was vested with Dictatorial powers, but his army was composed largely of untested conscripts. Caesar then crossed the Rubicon
river with his veteran army, and marched towards Rome. Caesar's rapid advance forced Pompey, the Consuls and the senate to abandon Rome for Greece
, and Caesar entered the city unopposed.
crossed the Rubicon
in 49 BC, and ended when Octavian
returned to Rome after the Battle of Actium
in 29 BC, can be divided into two distinct units. The dividing line between these two units is the assassination of Caesar in March of 44 BC, although from a constitutional standpoint, there was no clear dividing line between these two periods. The forces which had supported Pompey during the early part of the first period were allied against Mark Antony
and Octavian in 43 BC and 42 BC, and the constitutional means through which Caesar had held power before his assassination were used by Antony and Octavian to hold power after Caesar's assassination. From a constitutional standpoint, it makes no difference whether an autocrat holds the title of Roman Dictator
, as Caesar had done, or of Triumvir, as Antony and Octavian had done. From a constitutional perspective, these twenty years formed a single unit, through which the constitutional evolution of the prior century accelerated at a rapid pace. By 27 BC, Rome had completed its transition from being a city-state
with a network of dependencies, to being the capital of a world empire.
During his early career, Caesar had seen how chaotic and dysfunctional the Roman Republic
had become. The republican machinery had broken down under the weight of imperialism
, the central government had become powerless, the provinces
had been transformed into independent principalities under the absolute control of their governors, and the army had replaced the constitution as the means of accomplishing political goals. Between his crossing of the Rubicon river
in 49 BC
, and his assassination
in 44 BC, Caesar established a new constitution
, which was intended to accomplish three separate goals. First, he wanted to suppress all armed resistance out in the provinces, and thus bring order back to the empire. Second, he wanted to create a strong central government in Rome. And finally, he wanted to knit together the entire empire into a single cohesive unit.
Caesar held both the Dictatorship
and the Plebeian Tribunate
, but alternated between the Consulship
and the Proconsul
ship. His powers within the state seem to have rested upon these magistracies. The Dictatorship of Caesar was fundamentally different from the Dictatorship of the early and middle republic, as he held the office for life, rather than for six months, and he also held certain judicial powers which the ordinary Dictators had not held. In 48 BC, Caesar was given permanent tribunician powers, which made his person sacrosanct, allowed him to veto
the Roman Senate
, and allowed him to dominate the Plebeian Council
. Since Tribunes were always elected by the Plebeian Council, Caesar had hoped to prevent the election of Tribunes who might oppose him. In 46 BC, Caesar gave himself the title of "Prefect of the Morals" (praefectura morum), which was an office that was new only in name, as its powers were identical to those of the Censors. Thus, he could hold Censorial powers, while technically not subjecting himself to the same checks that the ordinary Censors were subject to, and he used these powers to fill the senate with his own partisans. He also set the precedent, which his imperial successors followed, of requiring the senate to bestow various titles and honors upon him. Coin
s bore his likeness, and he was given the right to speak first during senate meetings.
Caesar then increased the number of magistrates who were elected each year, which created a large pool of experienced magistrates
, and allowed Caesar to reward his supporters. Caesar even took steps to transform Italy
into a province, and to more tightly link the other provinces of the empire into a single, cohesive unit. This process, of ossifying the entire Roman Empire
into a single unit, rather than maintaining it as a network of unequal principalities, would ultimately be completed by Caesar's successor, the emperor
Augustus
. When Caesar returned to Rome in 47 BC
, he raised the senate's membership to 900. While the Roman assemblies
continued to meet, Caesar submitted all candidates to the assemblies for election, and all bills to the assemblies for enactment, which caused the assemblies to become powerless and unable to oppose him. To minimize the risk that another general might attempt to challenge him, Caesar passed a law which subjected governors to term limits. Near the end of his life, Caesar began to prepare for a war against the Parthian Empire
. Since his absence from Rome might limit his ability to install his own Consuls, he passed a law which allowed him to appoint all magistrates in 43 BC, and all Consuls and Tribunes in 42 BC. This, in effect, transformed the magistrates from being representatives of the people to being representatives of the Dictator, and robbed the popular assemblies of much of their remaining influence.
in March of 44 BC
. The motives of the conspirators were both personal, as well as political. Many of Caesar's ultimate assassins were jealous of him, and unsatisfied as to the recognition that they had received from him. Most of the conspirators were senators, and many of them were angry about the fact that he had deprived the senate
of much of its power and prestige. They were also angry that, while they had received few honors, Caesar had been given many honors. There were also rumors that he was going to make himself king, and transfer the seat of government to Alexandria
. The grievances that they held against him were vague, and as such, their plan against him was vague. The fact that their motives were vague, and that they had no idea of what to do after his assassination, both were plainly obvious by the subsequent course of events
.
After Caesar's assassination, Mark Antony
, who had been Caesar's Master of the Horse
, formed an alliance with Caesar's adopted son and great-nephew, Gaius Octavian
. Along with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
, they formed an alliance known as the Second Triumvirate
. They held powers that were nearly identical to the powers that Caesar had held under his constitution, and as such, the senate and assemblies remained powerless. The conspirators were defeated at the Battle of Philippi
in 42 BC
. Lepidus became powerless, and Antony went to Egypt
to seek glory in the east, while Octavian remained in Rome. Eventually, however, Antony and Octavian fought against each other in one last battle. Antony was defeated in the naval Battle of Actium
in 31 BC, and committed suicide in 30 BC. In 29 BC, Octavian returned to Rome, as the unchallenged master of the state. In 27 BC, Octavian offered to give up the Dictatorial powers which he had held since 42 BC, but the senate refused, and thus ratified his status as master of the state. He became the first Roman Emperor
, Augustus
, and the transition from Roman Republic
to Roman Empire
was complete.
Constitution of the Roman Republic
The Constitution of the Roman Republic was a set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The constitution was largely unwritten, uncodified, and constantly evolving...
is a study of the ancient Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
that traces the progression of Roman political development from the founding of the Roman Republic in 509 BC until the founding of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
in 27 BC. The constitutional history of the Roman Republic can be divided into five phases. The first phase began with the revolution which overthrew the Roman Kingdom
Roman Kingdom
The Roman Kingdom was the period of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a monarchical form of government of the city of Rome and its territories....
in 510 BC, and the final phase ended with the revolution which overthrew the Roman Republic, and thus created the Roman Empire, in 27 BC. Throughout the history of the republic, the constitutional evolution was driven by the struggle
Conflict of the Orders
The Conflict of the Orders, also referred to as the Struggle of the Orders, was a political struggle between the Plebeians and Patricians of the ancient Roman Republic, in which the Plebeians sought political equality with the Patricians. It played a major role in the development of the...
between the aristocracy and the ordinary citizens.
The Roman aristocracy was composed of a class of citizens called Patricians, while all other citizens were called Plebeians. During the first phase of political development, the Patrician aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
dominated the state, and the Plebeians began seeking political rights. During the second phase, the Plebeians completely overthrew the Patrician aristocracy, and since the aristocracy was overthrown simply through alterations to the Roman law
Roman law
Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...
, this revolution was not violent. The third phase saw the emergence of a joint Patricio-Plebeian aristocracy, along with a dangerous military situation that helped to maintain internal stability within the republic. The fourth phase began shortly after Rome's wars of expansion had ended, because without these wars, the factor that had ensured internal stability was removed. While the Plebeians sought to address their economic misfortune through the enactment of laws, the underlying problems were ultimately caused by the organization of society. The final phase began when Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
crossed the Rubicon river
Rubicon
The Rubicon is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, about 80 kilometres long, running from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region, between the towns of Rimini and Cesena. The Latin word rubico comes from the adjective "rubeus", meaning "red"...
, and ended with the complete overthrow of the republic. This final revolution triggered a wholesale reorganization of the constitution, and with it, the emergence of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
.
The Patrician era (509–367 BC)
According to legend, the Roman Kingdom was founded in 753 BC, and was ruled by a succession of seven kings. The last king, Lucius Tarquinius SuperbusLucius Tarquinius Superbus
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was the legendary seventh and final King of Rome, reigning from 535 BC until the popular uprising in 509 BC that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. He is more commonly known by his cognomen Tarquinius Superbus and was a member of the so-called Etruscan...
, ruled in a tyrannical manner and, in 510 BC, his son Sextus Tarquinius
Sextus Tarquinius
Sextus Tarquinius was a Roman prince, the third and youngest son of the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus . He is primarily known for his rape of Lucretia, daughter of Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, wife of Collatinus....
raped a noblewoman named Lucretia
Lucretia
Lucretia is a legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic. According to the story, told mainly by the Roman historian Livy and the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus , her rape by the king's son and consequent suicide were the immediate cause of the revolution that overthrew the...
. Lucretia, the wife of a senator named Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus
Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus
Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus was one of the four leaders of the revolution which overthrew the Roman monarchy, and became one of the first two consuls of Rome in 509 BC, together with Lucius Junius Brutus...
, committed suicide because of the rape, and this led to a conspiracy which quickly drove Tarquin from the city. With Tarquin's expulsion, the Roman Republic was founded, and the chief conspirators, Collatinus and the senator Lucius Junius Brutus
Lucius Junius Brutus
Lucius Junius Brutus was the founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of the first consuls in 509 BC. He was claimed as an ancestor of the Roman gens Junia, including Marcus Junius Brutus, the most famous of Caesar's assassins.- Background :...
, were elected as the first Roman Consul
Roman consul
A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.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...
(chief-executive). While this story may be nothing more than a legend which later Romans created in order to explain their past, it is likely that Rome had been ruled by a series of kings, who probably were, as the legends suggest, overthrown quickly.
The executive magistrates
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
es ("leaders") were elected by the citizens for an annual term. These magistrates were eventually called "Consuls" (Latin for those who walk together), and each Consul checked his colleague, while their limited term in office opened them up to prosecution if they abused the powers of their office. The chief executive was still vested with the same grade of imperium
Imperium
Imperium is a Latin word which, in a broad sense, translates roughly as 'power to command'. In ancient Rome, different kinds of power or authority were distinguished by different terms. Imperium, referred to the sovereignty of the state over the individual...
("command") powers as was the old king, and the powers of each of the two Consuls, when exercised together, were no different than were those of the old king. In the immediate aftermath of the revolution, the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
and the Roman assemblies
Roman assemblies
The Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital...
were nearly as powerless as they had been under the monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
.
During the years of the monarchy, only Patricians (patres or "fathers") were admitted to the Roman Senate. The revolution of 510 BC so depleted the ranks of the senate, however, that a group of Plebeians were drafted (conscripti) to fill the vacancies. The old senate of Patricians (patres) transitioned into a senate of patres et conscripti ("fathers and conscripted men"). These new Plebeian senators, however, could neither vote on an auctoritas patrum ("authority of the fathers" or "authority of the Patrician senators"), nor be elected interrex
Interrex
The Interrex was literally a ruler "between kings" during the Roman Kingdom and the Roman Republic. He was in effect a short-term regent....
. In the year 494 BC
494 BC
Year 494 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tricostus and Geminus...
, the city was at war, but the Plebeian soldiers refused to march against the enemy, and instead seceded to the Aventine hill. The Patricians quickly became desperate to end what was, in effect, a labor strike, and thus they quickly agreed to the demands of the Plebeians, that they be given the right to elect their own officials. The Plebeians named these new officials Plebeian Tribunes
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
(tribuni plebis), and gave them two assistants, the Plebeian Aediles
Aedile
Aedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order. There were two pairs of aediles. Two aediles were from the ranks of plebeians and the other...
(aediles plebi).
During the early years of the republic, the Plebeians were not allowed to hold ordinary political office. In 445 BC
445 BC
Year 445 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augurinus and Philo...
, the Plebeians demanded the right to stand for election to the Consulship, but the senate refused to grant them this right. After a long resistance to the new demands, the Senate (454) sent a commission of three patricians to Greece to study and report on the legislation of Solon
Solon
Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens...
and other lawmakers. When they returned, the Assembly (451) chose ten men -decemviri- formulate a new code, and gave them supreme governmental power in Rome for two years. This commission, under the presidency of a resolute reactionary, Appius Claudius, transformed the old customary law of Rome into the famous Twelve Tables
Twelve Tables
The Law of the Twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Law of the Twelve Tables formed the centrepiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum...
, submitted them to the Assembly (which passed them with some changes), and displayed them in the Forum for all who would and could to read. The Twelve Tables recognised certain rights and gave the plebs their own representatives, the tribunes. However the Consulship remained closed to the Plebeians, Consular command authority (imperium
Imperium
Imperium is a Latin word which, in a broad sense, translates roughly as 'power to command'. In ancient Rome, different kinds of power or authority were distinguished by different terms. Imperium, referred to the sovereignty of the state over the individual...
) was granted to a select number of Military Tribunes
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
. These individuals, the so-called Consular Tribunes were elected by the Century Assembly
Century Assembly
The Century Assembly of the Roman Republic was the democratic assembly of Roman soldiers. During the years of the Roman Republic, citizens were organized on the basis of Centuries for military purposes. The Centuries gathered into the Century Assembly for legislative, electoral, and judicial...
, and the senate had the power to veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
any such election. This was the first of many attempts by the Plebeians
Conflict of the Orders
The Conflict of the Orders, also referred to as the Struggle of the Orders, was a political struggle between the Plebeians and Patricians of the ancient Roman Republic, in which the Plebeians sought political equality with the Patricians. It played a major role in the development of the...
to achieve political equality with the Patricians. Starting around the year 400 BC
400 BC
Year 400 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Esquilinus, Capitolinus, Vulso, Medullinus, Saccus and Vulscus...
, a series of wars were fought, and while the Patrician aristocracy enjoyed the fruits of the resulting conquests, the Plebeians in the army became exhausted and bitter. They demanded real concessions, and so in 367 BC
367 BC
Year 367 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Cossus, Maluginensis, Macerinus, Capitolinus, Cicurinus and Poplicola...
a law was passed (the "Licinio-Sextian law
Lex Licinia Sextia
Lex Licinia Sextia was a Roman law introduced around 376 BCE and enacted in 367 BCE. It restored the consulship, allegedly reserved one of the two consular positions for a plebeian , and introduced new limits on the possession of conquered land.- Authors :It is named for the plebeian tribunes Gaius...
") which dealt with the economic plight of the Plebeians. However, the law also required the election of at least one Plebeian Consul each year. The opening of the Consulship to the Plebeians was probably the cause behind the concession of 366 BC
366 BC
Year 366 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mamercinus and Lateranus...
, in which the Praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
ship and Curule Aedileship
Aedile
Aedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order. There were two pairs of aediles. Two aediles were from the ranks of plebeians and the other...
were both created, but opened only to Patricians.
The senate and legislative assemblies
Shortly after the founding of the republic, the Century AssemblyCentury Assembly
The Century Assembly of the Roman Republic was the democratic assembly of Roman soldiers. During the years of the Roman Republic, citizens were organized on the basis of Centuries for military purposes. The Centuries gathered into the Century Assembly for legislative, electoral, and judicial...
became the principle Roman assembly
Roman assemblies
The Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital...
in which magistrates were elected, laws were passed, and trials occurred. During his Consulship in 509 BC, Publius Valerius Publicola
Publius Valerius Publicola
Publius Valerius Publicola was one of four Roman aristocrats who led the overthrow of the monarchy, and became a Roman consul, the colleague of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, traditionally considered the first year of the Roman Republic...
enacted a law (the lex Valeria) which guaranteed due process rights to every Roman citizen. Any condemned citizen could evoke his right of Provocatio, which appealed any condemnation to the Century Assembly, and which was a precursor to habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
. Also around this time, the Plebeians assembled into an informal Plebeian Curiate Assembly
Curiate Assembly
The Curiate Assembly was the principal assembly during the first two decades of the Roman Republic. During these first decades, the People of Rome were organized into thirty units called "Curia"...
, which was the original Plebeian Council
Plebeian Council
The Concilium Plebis — known in English as the Plebeian Council or People's Assembly — was the principal popular assembly of the ancient Roman Republic. It functioned as a legislative assembly, through which the plebeians could pass laws, elect magistrates, and try judicial cases. The Plebeian...
. Since they were organized on the basis of the Curia
Curia
A curia in early Roman times was a subdivision of the people, i.e. more or less a tribe, and with a metonymy it came to mean also the meeting place where the tribe discussed its affairs...
(and thus by clan), they remained dependent on their Patrician patrons. In 471 BC
471 BC
Year 471 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sabinus and Barbatus...
, a law was passed due to the efforts of the Tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
Volero Publilius, which allowed the Plebeians to organize by Tribe, rather than by Curia. Thus, the Plebeian Curiate Assembly became the Plebeian Tribal Assembly, and the Plebeians became politically independent.
During the regal period
Roman Kingdom
The Roman Kingdom was the period of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a monarchical form of government of the city of Rome and its territories....
, the king nominated two Quaestor
Quaestor
A Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed....
s to serve as his assistants, and after the overthrow of the monarchy, the Consuls retained this authority. However, in 447 BC, Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
recorded that the Quaestors began to be elected by a tribal assembly that was presided over by a magistrate. It seems as though this was the first instance of a joint Patricio-Plebeian Tribal Assembly
Tribal Assembly
The Tribal Assembly of the Roman Republic was the democratic assembly of Roman citizens. During the years of the Roman Republic, citizens were organized on the basis of thirty-five Tribes: Four Tribes encompassed citizens inside the city of Rome, while the other thirty-one Tribes encompassed...
, and thus was probably an enormous gain for the Plebeians. While Patricians were able to vote in a joint assembly, there were never very many Patricians in Rome. Thus, most of the electors were Plebeians, and yet any magistrate elected by a joint assembly had jurisdiction over both Plebeians and Patricians. Therefore, for the first time, the Plebeians seemed to have indirectly acquired authority over Patricians. During the fourth century BC, a series of reforms were passed (the legres Valeriae Horatiae
Lex Hortensia
Lex Hortensia was a law passed in Ancient Rome in 287 BC which made all resolutions passed by plebeians binding on all citizens.-Introduction:...
), which ultimately required that any law
Lex
-Written law :* Legislation* Statute* Statutory law* Act of Parliament* Act of Congress-Fictional characters:*Lex Luthor, a fictional supervillain in DC Comics*Lex in the TV series The Tribe .* Lex in game Fire Emblem...
passed by the Plebeian Council
Plebeian Council
The Concilium Plebis — known in English as the Plebeian Council or People's Assembly — was the principal popular assembly of the ancient Roman Republic. It functioned as a legislative assembly, through which the plebeians could pass laws, elect magistrates, and try judicial cases. The Plebeian...
have the full force of law over both Plebeians and Patricians. This gave the Plebeian Tribunes, who presided over the Plebeian Council, a positive character for the first time. Before these laws were passed, Tribunes could only interpose the sacrosanctity of their person (intercessio) to veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
acts of the senate, assemblies, or magistrates. It was a modification to the Valerian law in 449 BC which first allowed acts of the Plebeian Council to have the full force of law, but eventually the final law in the series was passed (the "Hortensian Law
Lex Hortensia
Lex Hortensia was a law passed in Ancient Rome in 287 BC which made all resolutions passed by plebeians binding on all citizens.-Introduction:...
"), which removed the last check that the Patricians in the senate had over this power.
The Conflict of the Orders (367–287 BC)
In the decades following the passage of the Licinio-Sextian law of 367 BC, which required the election of at least one Plebeian Consul each year, a series of laws were passed which ultimately granted Plebeians political equality with Patricians. The Patrician era came to a complete end in 287 BC, with the passage of the Hortensian law. This era was also marked with significant external developments. Up until 295 BC, the Samnites and the Kelts had been Rome's chief rivals, but that year, at the Battle of SentinumBattle of Sentinum
The Battle of Sentinum was the decisive battle of the Third Samnite War, fought in 295 BC near Sentinum , in which the Romans were able to overcome a formidable coalition of Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians, and their Gallic allies...
, the Romans defeated the combined armies of the Samnites and the Kelts. This battle was followed by the complete submission of both the Samnites and the Kelts to the Romans, and the emergence of Rome as the unchallenged mistress of Italy.
The Plebeians and the magistrates
When the Curule Aedileship had been created, it had only been opened to Patricians. Eventually, however, Plebeians won full admission to the Curule Aedileship. In addition, after the Consulship had been opened to the Plebeians, the Plebeians acquired a de facto right to hold both the Roman DictatorRoman dictator
In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
ship and the Roman Censorship (which had been created in 443 BC) since only former Consuls could hold either office. 356 BC
356 BC
Year 356 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Ambustus and Laenas...
saw the appointment of the first Plebeian Dictator
Roman dictator
In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
, and in 339 BC
339 BC
Year 339 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mamercinus and Philo...
the Plebeians facilitated the passage of a law (the lex Publilia), which required the election of at least one Plebeian Censor for each five year term. In 337 BC, the first Plebeian Praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
was elected.
In 342 BC, two significant laws were passed. One of these two laws made it illegal to hold more than one office at any given point in time, and the other law required an interval of ten years to pass before any magistrate could seek reelection to any office. As a result of these two laws, the military situation quickly became unmanageable. During this time period, Rome was expanding within Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and beginning to take steps beyond Italy
Pyrrhic War
The Pyrrhic War was a complex series of battles and shifting political alliances among the Greeks , Romans, the Italian peoples , and the CarthaginiansThe Pyrrhic War initially started as a minor conflict between Rome and the city of Tarentum over a naval...
, and thus it became necessary for military commanders to hold office for several years at a time. This problem was resolved with the creation of the pro-magisterial offices
Promagistrate
A promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a magistrate, but without holding a magisterial office. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the promagistracy was invented in order to provide Rome with governors of overseas territories instead of having to elect...
, so that when an individual's term in office ended, his command might be prorogued (prorogatio imperii
Prorogatio
In the constitution of ancient Rome, prorogatio was the extension of a commander's imperium beyond the one-year term of his magistracy, usually that of consul or praetor...
). In effect, when a magistrate's term ended, his imperium was extended, and he usually held the title of either Proconsul
Proconsul
A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...
or Propraetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
. This constitutional device was not in harmony with the underlying genius of the Roman constitution
Roman Constitution
The Roman Constitution was an uncodified set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The Roman constitution was not formal or even official, largely unwritten and constantly evolving. Concepts that originated in the Roman constitution live on in constitutions to this day...
, and its frequent usage eventually paved the way for the empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. In addition, during these years, the Plebeian Tribunes and the senators grew increasingly close. The senate realized the need to use Plebeian officials to accomplish desired goals, and so to win over the Tribunes, the senators gave the Tribunes a great deal of power, and unsurprisingly, the Tribunes began to feel obligated to the senate. As the Tribunes and the senators grew closer, Plebeian senators were often able to secure the Tribunate for members of their own families. In time, the Tribunate became a stepping stone to higher office.
The Ovinian law and the new aristocracy
Lustrum
A lustrum was a term for a five-year period in Ancient Rome.The lustration was originally a sacrifice for expiation and purification offered by one of the censors in the name of the Roman people at the close of the taking of the census...
to the Roman Censors. It also codified a commonplace practice, which all but required the Censor to appoint any newly-elected magistrate to the senate. By this point, Plebeians were already holding a significant number of magisterial offices, and so the number of Plebeian senators probably increased quickly. It was, in all likelihood, simply a matter of time before the Plebeians came to dominate the senate.
Under the new system, newly elected magistrates were awarded with automatic membership in the senate, although it remained difficult for a Plebeian from an unknown family to enter the senate. Several factors made it difficult for individuals from unknown families to be elected to high office, in particular the very presence of a long-standing nobility, as this appealed to the deeply-rooted Roman respect for the past. Ultimately, a new Patricio-Plebeian aristocracy emerged, which replaced the old Patrician nobility. It was the dominance of the long-standing Patrician nobility which ultimately forced the Plebeians to wage their long struggle for political power
Conflict of the Orders
The Conflict of the Orders, also referred to as the Struggle of the Orders, was a political struggle between the Plebeians and Patricians of the ancient Roman Republic, in which the Plebeians sought political equality with the Patricians. It played a major role in the development of the...
. The new nobility, however, was fundamentally different from the old nobility. The old nobility existed through the force of law, because only Patricians were allowed to stand for high office, and it was ultimately overthrown after those laws were changed. Now, however, the new nobility existed due to the organization of society, and as such, it could only be overthrown through a revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
.
The failure of the Conflict of the Orders
The Conflict of the OrdersConflict of the Orders
The Conflict of the Orders, also referred to as the Struggle of the Orders, was a political struggle between the Plebeians and Patricians of the ancient Roman Republic, in which the Plebeians sought political equality with the Patricians. It played a major role in the development of the...
was finally coming to an end, since the Plebeians had achieved political equality with the Patricians. A small number of Plebeian families had achieved the same standing that the old aristocratic Patrician families had always had, but these new Plebeian aristocrats were as uninterested in the plight of the average Plebeian as the old Patrician aristocrats had always been. During this time period, the Plebeian plight had been mitigated due to the constant state of war that Rome was in. These wars provided employment, income, and glory for the average Plebeian, and the sense of patriotism that resulted from these wars also eliminated any real threat of Plebeian unrest. The lex Publilia, which had required the election of at least one Plebeian Censor every five years, contained another provision. Before this time, any bill passed by an assembly (either by the Plebeian Council
Plebeian Council
The Concilium Plebis — known in English as the Plebeian Council or People's Assembly — was the principal popular assembly of the ancient Roman Republic. It functioned as a legislative assembly, through which the plebeians could pass laws, elect magistrates, and try judicial cases. The Plebeian...
, the Tribal Assembly
Tribal Assembly
The Tribal Assembly of the Roman Republic was the democratic assembly of Roman citizens. During the years of the Roman Republic, citizens were organized on the basis of thirty-five Tribes: Four Tribes encompassed citizens inside the city of Rome, while the other thirty-one Tribes encompassed...
, or the Century Assembly
Century Assembly
The Century Assembly of the Roman Republic was the democratic assembly of Roman soldiers. During the years of the Roman Republic, citizens were organized on the basis of Centuries for military purposes. The Centuries gathered into the Century Assembly for legislative, electoral, and judicial...
) could only become a law after the Patrician senators gave their approval. This approval came in the form of an auctoritas patrum ("authority of the fathers" or "authority of the Patrician senators"). The lex Publilia modified this process, requiring the auctoritas patrum to be passed before a law could be voted on by one of the assemblies, rather than after the law had already been voted on. It is not known why, but this modification seems to have made the auctoritas patrum irrelevant.
By 287 BC, the economic condition of the average Plebeian had become poor, and the result was the final Plebeian secession. The Plebeians seceded to the Janiculum hill
Janiculum
The Janiculum is a hill in western Rome, Italy. Although the second-tallest hill in the contemporary city of Rome, the Janiculum does not figure among the proverbial Seven Hills of Rome, being west of the Tiber and outside the boundaries of the ancient city.-Sights:The Janiculum is one of the...
, and to end the secession, a Dictator named Quintus Hortensius
Quintus Hortensius
Quintus Hortensius Hortalus was a Roman orator and advocate.At the age of nineteen he made his first speech at the bar, and shortly afterwards successfully defended Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, one of Rome's dependants in the East, who had been deprived of his throne by his brother. From that time...
was appointed. Hortensius, a Plebeian, passed a law called the "Hortensian Law" (Lex Hortensia
Lex Hortensia
Lex Hortensia was a law passed in Ancient Rome in 287 BC which made all resolutions passed by plebeians binding on all citizens.-Introduction:...
), which ended the requirement that an auctoritas patrum be passed before any bill could be considered by either the Plebeian Council or the Tribal Assembly. The requirement was not changed for the Century Assembly. The importance of the Hortensian Law was in that it removed from the senate its final check over the Plebeian Council (the principal popular assembly). It should therefore not be viewed as the final triumph of democracy over aristocracy, since, through the Tribunes, the senate could still control the Plebeian Council. Thus, the ultimate significance of this law was in the fact that it robbed the Patricians of their final weapon over the Plebeians. The result was that the ultimate control over the state fell, not onto the shoulders of democracy, but onto the shoulders of the new Patricio-Plebeian aristocracy.
The supremacy of the new nobility (287–133 BC)
The great accomplishment of the Hortensian Law was in that it deprived the Patricians of their final weapon over the Plebeians. Therefore, the new Patricio-Plebeian aristocracy replaced the old Patrician aristocracy, and the last great political question of the earlier era had been resolved. As such, no important political changes occurred between 287 BC287 BC
Year 287 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Marcellus and Rutilus...
and 133 BC
133 BC
Year 133 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scaevola and Frugi...
. This entire era was dominated by foreign wars, which eliminated the need to address the flaws in the current political system, since the patriotism of the Plebeians suppressed their desire for further reforms. However, this era created new problems, which began to be realized near the end of the 2nd century BC. For example, the nature of Rome's military commanders changed. Roman soldiers of earlier eras fought short wars, and then return to their farms. Since their generals did the same thing, the soldiers came to view their generals as being nothing more than fellow citizen-soldiers. Now, however, wars were becoming longer and of a larger scale. Thus, this period saw a growing affinity between the average citizen and his general, while the generals acquired more power than they had ever held before.
The Senate
When the lex Hortensia was enacted into law, Rome theoretically became a democracyDemocracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
(insofar as the landowners were concerned, anyway). In reality, however, Rome remained an oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
, since the critical laws were still enacted by the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
. In effect, democracy was satisfied with the possession of power, but did not care to actually use it. The senate was supreme during this era because the era was dominated by foreign policy. While upwards of 300,000 citizens were eligible to vote, many of these individuals lived a great distance from Rome, and so calling them all together in a short period of time was impossible. The foreign affairs questions often required quick answers, and three-hundred senators were more capable of quick action than were thousands of electors. The questions were also more complex than were the questions of the earlier era, and the average citizen was not adequately informed as to these issues. The senators, in contrast, were usually quite experienced, and the fact that they had income sources that were independent of their political roles made it easier for them to involve themselves in policy questions over extended periods of time.
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
s, the senate became bound together by a strong sense of collegiality. At any given point in time, many of the senate's most senior members were ex-Consuls, which facilitated the creation of a bond between the presiding Consul
Roman consul
A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.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...
and those senior members. In addition, the Consul was always chosen from senate, and as such he usually held similar ideals as did his fellow senators. When his annual term ended, he returned to their ranks, and so he was unlikely to stand against his fellow senators. Before the enactment of the Ovinian Law, Consuls appointed new senators, but after the enactment of this law, Censors appointed new senators, which caused the senate to become even more independent of the presiding Consul. In addition, the Ovinian Law all but required that ex-magistrates be appointed to the senate, and as such, the process by which Censors appointed new members to the senate became quite objective. This further enhanced the competence, and thus the prestige, of the senate.
The Plebeians and the aristocracy
The final decades of this era saw a worsening economic situation for many Plebeians. The long military campaigns had forced citizens to leave their farms, which often caused those farms to fall into a state of disrepair. This situation was made worse during the Second Punic WarSecond Punic War
The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...
, when Hannibal fought the Romans throughout Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and the Romans adopted a strategy
Fabian strategy
The Fabian strategy is a military strategy where pitched battles and frontal assaults are avoided in favor of wearing down an opponent through a war of attrition and indirection. While avoiding decisive battles, the side employing this strategy harasses its enemy through skirmishes to cause...
of attrition
Attrition warfare
Attrition warfare is a military strategy in which a belligerent side attempts to win a war by wearing down its enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and matériel....
and guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
in response. When the soldiers returned from the battlefield, they often had to sell their farms to pay their debts, and the landed aristocracy quickly bought these farms at discounted prices. The wars had also brought to Rome a great surplus of inexpensive slave labor, which the landed aristocrats used to staff their new farms. Soon the masses of unemployed Plebeians began to flood into Rome, and into the ranks of the legislative assemblies
Roman assemblies
The Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital...
.
At the same time, the aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
was becoming extremely rich. Several Italian towns had sided with Hannibal during the Second Punic War, and these towns were ultimately punished for their disloyalty, which opened up even more cheap farmland for the aristocrats. With the destruction of Rome's great commercial rival of Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
, even more opportunities for profit became available. With so many new territories, tax collection
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
(which had always been outsourced to private individuals) also became extremely profitable. While the aristocrats spent their time exploiting new opportunities for profit, Rome was conquering
Macedonian Wars
The Macedonian wars were a series of conflicts fought by Rome in the eastern Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and the Aegean. They resulted in Roman control or influence over the eastern Mediterranean basin, in addition to their hegemony in the western Mediterranean after the Punic wars.-First...
new civilizations
Hellenistic civilization
Hellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE...
in the east. These civilizations were often highly developed, and as such they opened up a world of luxury to the Romans. Up until this point, most Romans had only known a simple life, but as both wealth and eastern luxuries became available at the same time, an era of ruinous decadence
Decadence
Decadence can refer to a personal trait, or to the state of a society . Used to describe a person's lifestyle. Concise Oxford Dictionary: "a luxurious self-indulgence"...
followed. The sums that were spent on these luxuries had no precedent in prior Roman history. Several laws
Lex
-Written law :* Legislation* Statute* Statutory law* Act of Parliament* Act of Congress-Fictional characters:*Lex Luthor, a fictional supervillain in DC Comics*Lex in the TV series The Tribe .* Lex in game Fire Emblem...
were enacted to stem this tide of decadence, but these laws had no effect, and attempts by the Censors to mitigate this decadence were equally futile.
By the end of this era, Rome had become full of unemployed
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
Plebeians. They then began filling the ranks of the assemblies, and the fact that they were no longer away from Rome made it easier for them to vote. In the principle legislative assembly, the Plebeian Council
Plebeian Council
The Concilium Plebis — known in English as the Plebeian Council or People's Assembly — was the principal popular assembly of the ancient Roman Republic. It functioned as a legislative assembly, through which the plebeians could pass laws, elect magistrates, and try judicial cases. The Plebeian...
, any individual voted in the Tribe that his ancestors had belonged to. Thus, most of these newly unemployed Plebeians belonged to one of the thirty-one rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
Tribes, rather than one of the four urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
Tribes, and the unemployed Plebeians soon acquired so much political power that the Plebeian Council became highly populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
. These Plebeians were often angry with the aristocracy, which further exacerbated the class tensions
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
. Their economic state
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
usually led them to vote for the candidate who offered the most for them, or at least for the candidate whose games
Bread and circuses
"Bread and Circuses" is a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement...
or whose bribes were the most magnificent. The fact that they were usually uninformed as to the issues before them didn't matter, because they usually sold their votes to the highest bidder anyway. Bribery
Bribery
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
became such a problem that major reforms were ultimately passed, in particular the requirement that all votes be by secret ballot
Secret ballot
The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous. The key aim is to ensure the voter records a sincere choice by forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation or bribery. The system is one means of achieving the goal of...
. A new culture of dependency was emerging, which would look to any populist leader
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
for relief.
From the Gracchi to Caesar (133–49 BC)
Gaius Gracchus
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populari politician in the 2nd century BC and brother of the ill-fated reformer Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus...
, and ended when Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
crossed the Rubicon
Rubicon
The Rubicon is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, about 80 kilometres long, running from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region, between the towns of Rimini and Cesena. The Latin word rubico comes from the adjective "rubeus", meaning "red"...
river.
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
Tiberius GracchusTiberius Gracchus
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populares politician of the 2nd century BC and brother of Gaius Gracchus. As a plebeian tribune, his reforms of agrarian legislation caused political turmoil in the Republic. These reforms threatened the holdings of rich landowners in Italy...
was elected Plebeian Tribune in 133 BC, and as Tribune, he attempted to enact a law that would have distributed land amongst Rome's landless citizens. The aristocrats, who stood to lose an enormous amount of money, were bitterly opposed to this proposal. Tiberius submitted this law to the Plebeian Council
Plebeian Council
The Concilium Plebis — known in English as the Plebeian Council or People's Assembly — was the principal popular assembly of the ancient Roman Republic. It functioned as a legislative assembly, through which the plebeians could pass laws, elect magistrates, and try judicial cases. The Plebeian...
, but the law was vetoed by a Tribune named Marcus Octavius
Marcus Octavius
Marcus Octavius was a Roman tribune and a major rival of Tiberius Gracchus. A serious and discreet person, he earned himself a reputation as an influential orator. Though originally close friends, Octavius became alarmed by Gracchus's populist agenda and, at the behest of the Roman senate,...
, and so Tiberius used the Plebeian Council to impeach Octavius
Octavius
Octavius or Eudaf Hen is a figure of Welsh tradition. He is remembered as a King of the Britons and the father of Elen Luyddog and Conan Meriadoc in sources such as the Welsh prose tale The Dream of Macsen and Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae...
. The theory, that a representative of the people ceases to be one when he acts against the wishes of the people, was repugnant to the genius of Roman constitutional theory
Constitutional theory
Constitutional theory is an area of constitutional law that focuses on the underpinnings of constitutional government. It overlaps with legal theory, constitutionalism, philosophy of law and democratic theory...
. If carried to its logical end, this theory removed all constitutional restraints on the popular will, and put the state under the absolute control of a temporary popular majority. This theory ultimately found its logical end under the future democratic empire of the military populist Julius Caesar. The law was enacted, but Tiberius
Tiberius
Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
was murdered when he stood for reelection to the Tribunate. The ten years that followed his death were politically inactive. The only important development was in the growing strength of the democratic opposition to the aristocracy.
Tiberius' brother Gaius was elected Plebeian Tribune in 123 BC. Gaius Gracchus'
Gracchi
The Gracchi brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, were Roman Plebian nobiles who both served as tribunes in 2nd century BC. They attempted to pass land reform legislation that would redistribute the major patrician landholdings among the plebeians. For this legislation and their membership in the...
ultimate goal was to weaken the senate and to strengthen the democratic forces, so he first enacted a law which put the knights (equites, or upper-middle class citizens) on the jury courts instead of the senators. He then passed a grain law which greatly disadvantaged the provincial governors, most of whom were senators. The knights, on the other hand, stood to profit greatly from these grain reforms, and so the result was that Gaius managed to turn the most powerful class of non-senators against the senate. In the past, the senate eliminated political rivals either by establishing special judicial commissions or by passing a senatus consultum ultimum
Senatus consultum ultimum
Senatus consultum ultimum , more properly senatus consultum de re publica defendenda is the modern term given to a decree of the Roman Senate during the late Roman Republic passed in times of emergency...
("ultimate decree of the senate). Both devices allowed the senate to bypass the ordinary due process rights that all citizens had. Gaius outlawed the judicial commissions, and declared the senatus consultum ultimum to be unconstitutional. Gaius then proposed a law which granted citizenship rights to Rome's Italian allies, but the selfish democracy in Rome, which jealously guarded its privileged status, deserted him over this proposal. He stood for reelection to a third term in 121 BC, but was defeated and then murdered. The democracy, however, had finally realized how weak the senate had become.
Sulla's Constitutional Reforms
Several years later, a new power had emerged in AsiaAsia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. In 88 BC, a Roman army was sent to put down that power, king Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...
, but was defeated. Over the objections of the former Consul Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...
, the Consul for the year, Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the rare distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as that of dictator...
was ordered by the senate to assume command of the war against Mithridates. Marius, a member of the democratic ("populare") party, had a Tribune revoke Sulla's command of the war against Mithridates, so Sulla, a member of the aristocratic ("optimate") party, brought his army back to Italy and marched on Rome. Marius fled, and his supporters either fled or were murdered by Sulla. Sulla had become so angry at Marius' Tribune that he passed a law that was intended to permanently weaken the Tribunate. He then returned to his war against Mithridates, and with Sulla gone, the populares
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
under Marius and Lucius Cornelius Cinna
Lucius Cornelius Cinna
Lucius Cornelius Cinna was a four-time consul of the Roman Republic, serving four consecutive terms from 87 to 84 BC, and a member of the ancient Roman Cinna family of the Cornelii gens....
soon took control of the city. The populare record was not one to be proud of, as they had reelected Marius Consul several times without observing the required ten year interval. They also transgressed democracy by advancing un-elected individuals to magisterial office, and by substituting magisterial edicts for popular legislation. Sulla soon made peace with Mithridates, and in 83 BC, he returned to Rome, overcame all resistance, and captured the city again. Sulla and his supporters then slaughtered most of Marius' supporters, although one such supporter, a 17 year old populare (and the son-in-law of Cinna
Cinna
Cinna was a cognomen that distinguished a patrician branch of the gens Cornelia, particularly in the late Roman Republic.Prominent members of this family include:...
) named Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, was ultimately spared.
Sulla, who had observed the violent results of radical populare reforms (in particular those under Marius and Cinna), was naturally conservative, and so his conservatism was more reactionary than it was visionary. As such, he sought to strengthen the aristocracy, and thus the senate. After being appointed Roman Dictator
Roman dictator
In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
in 82 BC, he enacted a series of constitutional reforms
Constitutional Reforms of Lucius Cornelius Sulla
The Constitutional Reforms of Lucius Cornelius Sulla were a series of laws that were enacted by the Roman Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla between 82 and 80 BC, which reformed the Constitution of the Roman Republic. In the decades before Sulla had become Dictator, a series of political developments...
. He resigned the Dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
ship in 80 BC
80 BC
Year 80 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sulla and Metellus...
, retired in 79 BC
79 BC
Year 79 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Isauricus and Pulcher...
, and died a year later. While he thought that he had firmly established aristocratic rule, his own career had illustrated the fatal weaknesses in the constitution. Ultimately, it was the army
Roman army
The Roman army is the generic term for the terrestrial armed forces deployed by the kingdom of Rome , the Roman Republic , the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine empire...
, and not the senate, which dictated the fortunes of the state.
In 77 BC
77 BC
Year 77 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Brutus and Lepidus...
, the senate sent one of Sulla's former lieutenants, Gnaeus Pompey Magnus
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
, to put down an uprising in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. By 71 BC
71 BC
Year 71 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Orestes...
, Pompey returned to Rome after having completed his mission, and around the same time, another of Sulla's former lieutenants, Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and politician who commanded the right wing of Sulla's army at the Battle of the Colline Gate, suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus, provided political and financial support to Julius Caesar and entered into the political alliance known as the...
, had just put down a slave revolt in Italy. Upon their return, Pompey and Crassus found the populare party fiercely attacking Sulla's constitution, and so they attempted to forge an agreement with the populare party. If both Pompey and Crassus were elected Consul in 70 BC
70 BC
Year 70 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magnus and Dives...
, they would dismantle the more obnoxious components of Sulla's constitution. The promise of both Pompey and Crassus, aided by the presence of both of their armies outside of the gates of Rome, helped to 'persuade' the populares to elect the two to the Consulship. As soon as they were elected, they dismantled most of Sulla's constitution.
The First Triumvirate
In 62 BC62 BC
Year 62 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Silanus and Murena...
, Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
returned victorious from Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, but the senate refused to ratify the arrangements that he had made with his soldiers. Pompey, in effect, became powerless, and thus when Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
returned from his governorship in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 61 BC
61 BC
Year 61 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Calpurnianus and Messalla...
, he found it easy to make an arrangement with Pompey. Caesar and Pompey, along with Crassus, established a private agreement, known as the First Triumvirate
First Triumvirate
The First Triumvirate was the political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Unlike the Second Triumvirate, the First Triumvirate had no official status whatsoever; its overwhelming power in the Roman Republic was strictly unofficial influence, and...
. Under the agreement, Pompey's arrangements in Asia were to be ratified, and his soldiers were to be given land. Caesar was to be elected Consul in 59 BC
59 BC
Year 59 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Bibulus...
, and then serve as governor of Gaul for five years. Crassus was to be promised a future Consulship.
Caesar became Consul in 59 BC, but his colleague, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus
Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus
Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus was a politician of the late Roman Republic.Bibulus was the son in law of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticencis. In 59 BC he was elected consul, supported by the optimates, conservative republicans in the Senate and opponents of Julius Caesar's triumvirate...
, was an extreme aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
. Caesar submitted the laws that he had promised Pompey to the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
, but the senate rejected these laws, and so he then submitted them to the assemblies
Roman assemblies
The Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital...
. Bibulus attempted to obstruct the enactment of these laws, and so Caesar used violent (and thus illegal) means to ensure their passage. Caesar was then given command of four legions
Roman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
, and promised the governorship of three provinces (Cisalpine Gaul
Cisalpine Gaul
Cisalpine Gaul, in Latin: Gallia Cisalpina or Citerior, also called Gallia Togata, was a Roman province until 41 BC when it was merged into Roman Italy.It bore the name Gallia, because the great body of its inhabitants, after the expulsion of the Etruscans, consisted of Gauls or Celts...
, Transalpine Gaul, and Illyricum
Illyricum (Roman province)
The Roman province of Illyricum or Illyris Romana or Illyris Barbara or Illyria Barbara replaced most of the region of Illyria. It stretched from the Drilon river in modern north Albania to Istria in the west and to the Sava river in the north. Salona functioned as its capital...
). This appointment was to begin on March 1, 59 BC, while he was still Consul. Caesar did not wish to leave the senate in the hands of such unskillful politicians as Pompey and Crassus before he had crushed the spirit of the senate and deprived it of its two most dangerous leaders, Cato
Cato the Younger
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis , commonly known as Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather , was a politician and statesman in the late Roman Republic, and a follower of the Stoic philosophy...
and Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
. Therefore, he sent Cato on a mission to Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, which was likely to ruin his reputation, and then facilitated the election of the former Patrician Clodius
Clodius
Clodius is an alternate form of the Roman nomen Claudius, a patrician gens that was traditionally regarded as Sabine in origin. The alternation of o and au is characteristic of the Sabine dialect...
to the Tribunate for 58 BC
58 BC
Year 58 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Piso and Gabinius...
. Clodius, a dangerous demagogue, secured the passage of several laws for his coming attack on Cicero. One law banned the use of omens (auspices) as an obstructive device in the Plebeian Council, while the second law made certain "clubs" of a "semi-political nature" (i.e. armed gangs) lawful. Clodius then passed two laws which banished Cicero, on the grounds that he had deprived several of Catiline's
Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catilina , known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.-Family background:Catiline was born in 108 BC to...
conspirators of their due process (provocatio) rights when he had them executed upon a mere decree of the senate.
Pompey and Crassus proved themselves to be as incompetent as Caesar had hoped. Clodius terrorized the city with his armed gangs, and agitated Pompey to such a degree that Pompey was able to secure the passage of a law in 57 BC
57 BC
Year 57 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Metellus...
which recalled Cicero from his exile. This was more of a triumph for the senate than it was for Pompey, however, since Pompey was allied with Caesar. Pompey was so inept that the senate decided to override him, and rescind the land laws that Caesar had passed in 59 BC for Pompey's veterans. This forced a renewal of the triumvirate
Triumvirate
A triumvirate is a political regime dominated by three powerful individuals, each a triumvir . The arrangement can be formal or informal, and though the three are usually equal on paper, in reality this is rarely the case...
: Pompey and Crassus were promised the Consulship in 55 BC
55 BC
Year 55 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Crassus and Pompey...
and Caesar's term as governor was extended for five years. Caesar's daughter, and Pompey's wife, Julia
Julia (daughter of Julius Caesar)
Julia Caesaris , 83 or 82 BC-54 BC, was the daughter of Gaius Julius Caesar the Roman dictator, by his first wife, Cornelia Cinna, and his only child in marriage. Julia became the fourth wife of Pompey the Great and was renowned for her beauty and virtue.-Life:Julia was born around 83 BC–82 BC...
, soon died in childbirth, and a year later, Crassus was killed during his invasion of the Parthian Empire
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire , also known as the Arsacid Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Persia...
. These two events severed the last remaining bound between Pompey and Caesar.
Beginning in the summer of 54 BC
54 BC
Year 54 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Appius and Ahenobarbus...
, a wave of political corruption and violence swept Rome. This chaos reached a climax in January of 52 BC
52 BC
Year 52 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Scipio...
, when Clodius was murdered in a gang war. In addition, the civil unrest had caused the calendar to become neglected. The calendar required annual adjustments to prevent its drift relative to any Spring Equinox, and so to correct the misalignment of the calendar, an intercalary month was inserted at the end of February of 52 BC
52 BC
Year 52 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Scipio...
, and Pompey was elected sole Consul for that month. This elevation to extraordinary power was the last straw for Caesar, and with Crassus dead, Pompey was looking for any excuse with which to crush Caesar, and establish himself as the master of the state. On January 1 of 49 BC
49 BC
Year 49 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Marcellus...
, an agent of Caesar named Gaius Scribonius Curio
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Gaius Scribonius Curio was the name of a father and son who lived in the late Roman Republic.-Father:Gaius Scribonius Curio was a Roman statesman and orator. He was nicknamed Burbulieus for the way he moved his body while speaking...
presented an ultimatum to the senate, but the ultimatum was rejected, and the senate then passed a resolution which declared that if Caesar did not lay down his arms by July of that year, that he would be acting adversus rem publicam (in effect, declaring him to be an enemy of the republic). On January 7 of 49 BC), the senate passed a senatus consultum ultimum
Senatus consultum ultimum
Senatus consultum ultimum , more properly senatus consultum de re publica defendenda is the modern term given to a decree of the Roman Senate during the late Roman Republic passed in times of emergency...
, which suspended civil government and declared something analogous to martial law. Pompey, in effect, was vested with Dictatorial powers, but his army was composed largely of untested conscripts. Caesar then crossed the Rubicon
Rubicon
The Rubicon is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, about 80 kilometres long, running from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region, between the towns of Rimini and Cesena. The Latin word rubico comes from the adjective "rubeus", meaning "red"...
river with his veteran army, and marched towards Rome. Caesar's rapid advance forced Pompey, the Consuls and the senate to abandon Rome for Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, and Caesar entered the city unopposed.
The period of transition (49–27 BC)
The era that began when Julius CaesarJulius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
crossed the Rubicon
Rubicon
The Rubicon is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, about 80 kilometres long, running from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region, between the towns of Rimini and Cesena. The Latin word rubico comes from the adjective "rubeus", meaning "red"...
in 49 BC, and ended when Octavian
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
returned to Rome after the Battle of Actium
Battle of Actium
The Battle of Actium was the decisive confrontation of the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC, on the Ionian Sea near the city of Actium, at the Roman...
in 29 BC, can be divided into two distinct units. The dividing line between these two units is the assassination of Caesar in March of 44 BC, although from a constitutional standpoint, there was no clear dividing line between these two periods. The forces which had supported Pompey during the early part of the first period were allied against Mark Antony
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
and Octavian in 43 BC and 42 BC, and the constitutional means through which Caesar had held power before his assassination were used by Antony and Octavian to hold power after Caesar's assassination. From a constitutional standpoint, it makes no difference whether an autocrat holds the title of Roman Dictator
Roman dictator
In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
, as Caesar had done, or of Triumvir, as Antony and Octavian had done. From a constitutional perspective, these twenty years formed a single unit, through which the constitutional evolution of the prior century accelerated at a rapid pace. By 27 BC, Rome had completed its transition from being a city-state
City-state
A city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government.-Historical city-states:...
with a network of dependencies, to being the capital of a world empire.
Julius Caesar's constitutional reforms
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
had become. The republican machinery had broken down under the weight of imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, the central government had become powerless, the provinces
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
had been transformed into independent principalities under the absolute control of their governors, and the army had replaced the constitution as the means of accomplishing political goals. Between his crossing of the Rubicon river
Rubicon
The Rubicon is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, about 80 kilometres long, running from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region, between the towns of Rimini and Cesena. The Latin word rubico comes from the adjective "rubeus", meaning "red"...
in 49 BC
49 BC
Year 49 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Marcellus...
, and his assassination
Ides of March
The Ides of March is the name of the 15th day of March in the Roman calendar, probably referring to the day of the full moon. The word Ides comes from the Latin word "Idus" and means "half division" especially in relation to a month. It is a word that was used widely in the Roman calendar...
in 44 BC, Caesar established a new constitution
Constitutional Reforms of Julius Caesar
The Constitutional Reforms of Julius Caesar were a series of laws that were enacted by the Roman Dictator Julius Caesar between 49 and 44 BC, which reformed the Constitution of the Roman Republic. The era that began when Caesar crossed the Rubicon River in 49 BC, and ended when Octavian returned to...
, which was intended to accomplish three separate goals. First, he wanted to suppress all armed resistance out in the provinces, and thus bring order back to the empire. Second, he wanted to create a strong central government in Rome. And finally, he wanted to knit together the entire empire into a single cohesive unit.
Caesar held both the Dictatorship
Roman dictator
In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
and the Plebeian Tribunate
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
, but alternated between the Consulship
Roman consul
A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.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...
and the Proconsul
Proconsul
A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...
ship. His powers within the state seem to have rested upon these magistracies. The Dictatorship of Caesar was fundamentally different from the Dictatorship of the early and middle republic, as he held the office for life, rather than for six months, and he also held certain judicial powers which the ordinary Dictators had not held. In 48 BC, Caesar was given permanent tribunician powers, which made his person sacrosanct, allowed him to veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
, and allowed him to dominate the Plebeian Council
Plebeian Council
The Concilium Plebis — known in English as the Plebeian Council or People's Assembly — was the principal popular assembly of the ancient Roman Republic. It functioned as a legislative assembly, through which the plebeians could pass laws, elect magistrates, and try judicial cases. The Plebeian...
. Since Tribunes were always elected by the Plebeian Council, Caesar had hoped to prevent the election of Tribunes who might oppose him. In 46 BC, Caesar gave himself the title of "Prefect of the Morals" (praefectura morum), which was an office that was new only in name, as its powers were identical to those of the Censors. Thus, he could hold Censorial powers, while technically not subjecting himself to the same checks that the ordinary Censors were subject to, and he used these powers to fill the senate with his own partisans. He also set the precedent, which his imperial successors followed, of requiring the senate to bestow various titles and honors upon him. Coin
Coin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
s bore his likeness, and he was given the right to speak first during senate meetings.
Roman Magistrates
The Roman Magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the King of Rome was the principal executive magistrate. His power, in practice, was absolute. He was the chief priest, lawgiver, judge, and the sole commander of the army...
, and allowed Caesar to reward his supporters. Caesar even took steps to transform Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
into a province, and to more tightly link the other provinces of the empire into a single, cohesive unit. This process, of ossifying the entire Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
into a single unit, rather than maintaining it as a network of unequal principalities, would ultimately be completed by Caesar's successor, the emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
. When Caesar returned to Rome in 47 BC
47 BC
Year 47 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Calenius and Vatinius...
, he raised the senate's membership to 900. While the Roman assemblies
Roman assemblies
The Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital...
continued to meet, Caesar submitted all candidates to the assemblies for election, and all bills to the assemblies for enactment, which caused the assemblies to become powerless and unable to oppose him. To minimize the risk that another general might attempt to challenge him, Caesar passed a law which subjected governors to term limits. Near the end of his life, Caesar began to prepare for a war against the Parthian Empire
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire , also known as the Arsacid Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Persia...
. Since his absence from Rome might limit his ability to install his own Consuls, he passed a law which allowed him to appoint all magistrates in 43 BC, and all Consuls and Tribunes in 42 BC. This, in effect, transformed the magistrates from being representatives of the people to being representatives of the Dictator, and robbed the popular assemblies of much of their remaining influence.
Caesar's assassination and the Second Triumvirate
Caesar was assassinatedIdes of March
The Ides of March is the name of the 15th day of March in the Roman calendar, probably referring to the day of the full moon. The word Ides comes from the Latin word "Idus" and means "half division" especially in relation to a month. It is a word that was used widely in the Roman calendar...
in March of 44 BC
44 BC
Year 44 BC was either a common year starting on Sunday or Monday or a leap year starting on Friday or Saturday of the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Proleptic Julian calendar...
. The motives of the conspirators were both personal, as well as political. Many of Caesar's ultimate assassins were jealous of him, and unsatisfied as to the recognition that they had received from him. Most of the conspirators were senators, and many of them were angry about the fact that he had deprived the senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
of much of its power and prestige. They were also angry that, while they had received few honors, Caesar had been given many honors. There were also rumors that he was going to make himself king, and transfer the seat of government to Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. The grievances that they held against him were vague, and as such, their plan against him was vague. The fact that their motives were vague, and that they had no idea of what to do after his assassination, both were plainly obvious by the subsequent course of events
Battle of Philippi
The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian and the forces of Julius Caesar's assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in 42 BC, at Philippi in Macedonia...
.
After Caesar's assassination, Mark Antony
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
, who had been Caesar's Master of the Horse
Master of the Horse
The Master of the Horse was a position of varying importance in several European nations.-Magister Equitum :...
, formed an alliance with Caesar's adopted son and great-nephew, Gaius Octavian
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
. Along with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir)
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , was a Roman patrician who rose to become a member of the Second Triumvirate and Pontifex Maximus. His father, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, had been involved in a rebellion against the Roman Republic.Lepidus was among Julius Caesar's greatest supporters...
, they formed an alliance known as the Second Triumvirate
Second Triumvirate
The Second Triumvirate is the name historians give to the official political alliance of Octavius , Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony, formed on 26 November 43 BC with the enactment of the Lex Titia, the adoption of which marked the end of the Roman Republic...
. They held powers that were nearly identical to the powers that Caesar had held under his constitution, and as such, the senate and assemblies remained powerless. The conspirators were defeated at the Battle of Philippi
Battle of Philippi
The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian and the forces of Julius Caesar's assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in 42 BC, at Philippi in Macedonia...
in 42 BC
42 BC
Year 42 BC was either a common year starting on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Proleptic Julian calendar...
. Lepidus became powerless, and Antony went to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
to seek glory in the east, while Octavian remained in Rome. Eventually, however, Antony and Octavian fought against each other in one last battle. Antony was defeated in the naval Battle of Actium
Battle of Actium
The Battle of Actium was the decisive confrontation of the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC, on the Ionian Sea near the city of Actium, at the Roman...
in 31 BC, and committed suicide in 30 BC. In 29 BC, Octavian returned to Rome, as the unchallenged master of the state. In 27 BC, Octavian offered to give up the Dictatorial powers which he had held since 42 BC, but the senate refused, and thus ratified his status as master of the state. He became the first Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
, Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
, and the transition from Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
to Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
was complete.
See also
External links
- Cicero's De Re Publica, Book Two
- Rome at the End of the Punic Wars: An Analysis of the Roman Government; by Polybius
- Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, by Montesquieu
- The Roman Constitution to the Time of Cicero
- What a Terrorist Incident in Ancient Rome Can Teach Us