Roman republic
1.HOW DID ROME'S GOVERNMENT DEVELOP?
The Romans were divided into two classes, the Patricians, and the Plebeians. The patricians were the wealthier and the powerful group. They owned the wealthiest land. The population was mostly made up of Plebeians. They were the artisans, shopkeepers, and owners of small farms. Men from both classes were citizens. They had the right to vote, pay taxes, and serve in the army. The Plebeians had a lower social status. Romans from the classes could not marry another from the different class. Plebeians could not hold public office. 2.HOW DID ROME'S GOVERNMENT WORK? Rome had a three-part government. one enforced the law, one created the law, and one acted as judges or interpreted the law. Their government had checks and balances. The top government officials were called the Consuls.Two Patricians were elected as consuls each year. They would head the army and the government. Each consul could veto one another's decisions. They also had the Praetors. The praetors would interpret the law and act as judges. Rome's most important legislative was a Senate. The Senate was made of 300 patrician men. These men would serve for life. At first the senate gave advice to the consuls but by 200 BCE they could propose laws, hold debates, and approve building programs. The plebeians wanted more power. They took action to bring change. In 494 BCE they went on strike and refused to serve in the army. They even left the city to build their own republic. 3.WHAT WAS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PLEBEIANS AND THE PATRICIANS LIKE? The plebeians were the lower class. They included everyone who was not a patrician. They were sometimes just called plebs. The patricians were the upper class. They were the wealthy land owners.All free adult males were citizens, no matter what their class. In both classes, the oldest male was the paterfamilias or head of the family. Old age was honored, and women had no rights. If you could afford them, both classes owned slaves. The houses of both classes were designed the same way unless you were too poor to own your own home. Everyone worshipped the same gods, and observed the same festivals and holy days. Everyone spoke Latin and everyone went to the baths and enjoyed the forum.Plebeians and Patricians rarely mixed socially, although occasionally, a pleb might marry a patrician. It was unusual though, and prior to the Republic, it was against the law for a pleb to marry a patrician. 4.WHO WAS CINCINNATUS? Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman aristocrat and statesman whos service as consul in 460 BC and dictator in 458 BC and 439 BC made him a model of civic virtue. 5.TABLE IProcedure: for courts and trials TABLE IITrials, continued. TABLE IIIDebt TABLE IVRights of fathers (paterfamilias) over the family TABLE VLegal guardianship and inheritance laws TABLE VIAcquisition and possession TABLE VIILand rights TABLE VIIITorts and delicts (Laws of injury) TABLE IXPublic law TABLE XSacred law TABLE XISupplement I TABLE XIISupplement II 6. How did Rome's Republic develop?It all began when the Romans overthrew their Etruscan conquerors in 509 B.C.E. Centered north of Rome, the Etruscans had ruled over the Romans for hundreds of years.Once free, the Romans established a republic, a government in which citizens elected representatives to rule on their behalf. A republic is quite different from a democracy, in which every citizen is expected to play an active role in governing the state. 7. How did Rome's Government work? Rome, in its earliest days, was governed by kings. However, Ancient Rome was to develop its own form of government that allowed the Romans to govern themselves.In one sense, for a society that used its feared army to conquer other nations and reduced people to slavery, Rome was remarkably democratic when its own people were concerned. Citizens of Rome would gather at an assembly to elect their own officials. The chief officials of Rome were called consuls and there were two of them. The consuls governed for a year. If they did not live up to expectations, they could be voted out of office at the next election. Therefore, competence was rewarded and incompetence punished. 8. What was the relationship between Plebeians and Patricians like? The term patrician (from Latin: patricius) originally referred to a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. Although the distinction was highly significant in the early republic, its relevance waned after the Struggle of the Orders (494 BC to 287 BC) and by the time of the Late Republic and Empire, membership of this group was only of nominal significance. After the fall of the Western Empire it remained a high honorary title in the Byzantine Empire. Medieval patrician classes were once again formally defined groups of leading burgess families in many medieval Italian republics, such as Venice and Genoa, and subsequently "patrician" became a vague term used for aristocrats and the higher bourgeoisie in many countries. Summary You've probably heard the phrase 'social class', but what does it mean? Social classes are the way society is divided into different groups. These groupings may be based on status or how much money a person has. The United States has social classes, although they're not always easy to recognize. In Ancient Rome, however, social classes were very clearly labeled! Beginning in the Early Republic (around 500 B.C.), the patrician class was at the top of the social order. Patricians were very similar to aristocrats or nobles. This group held the majority of power in Rome, including control of the government. The plebeian class, below the patricians, was made up of working class Romans. At the start of the Roman Republic, tensions between these groups started to grow, leading to the Struggle of the Orders. |