History UsefulNotes / TheRomanRepublic

Another legend, dating much later after contact with UsefulNotes/AncientGreece, argued that the Romans were descendants of Aeneas and Trojan exiles from the [[UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar Sack of Troy]]. Much later, ''Literature/TheAeneid'' put CanonWelding by stating that they were founded in fact by refugees from [[RapePillageAndBurn the sack]] of Troy and that Aeneas is the true founder of Rome. This origin was obviously favorable to UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}}, the commissioner of the epic, who saw Aeneas as a PropagandaHero, and [[UnreliableNarrator coincidentally, Augustus' Julio-Claudian family claimed descent from Aeneas as well]] so Rome was intended to be an Empire all along, [[SelfServingMemory isn't that convenient]]. As such, historians tend to favor Romus and Romulus as a more authentic founding myth, albeit they note that it's not the only one.

-->-- '''Marcus Aurelius''', ''Film/{{Gladiator}}''

When fully settled Roman government had a three part structure, similar to other city states in the m3editerranean. The senate is likely the most famous element. It comes from the word "senex" for old man, though given the ages of Roman officials, "old" means mostly the 40's to 50's, some people in their 30s or older than 60. Everyone who had served as certain officials, described below, was included, plus other prominent and powerful citizens to fill out numbers to 300, later 600 towards the end of the republic. In theory, the senate was just an advisory body, in practice, the advice was almost always followed, so the senate was often the most powerful part of government. It is the body that carried out foreign policy, decided what armies to raise, who would control provinces, and other longer term, large scale decisions

The first one to two centuries were spent working out all the details through various political conflicts. Some roles of officials were blended together, a period of rule by 10 men was in place for a short time, and the roles of different assemblies were also worked out. The main dispute was plebeians vs. patricians: Patricians were supposedly descended from the first 100 people appointed to an early senate, though as this was based on a founding myth, we don't know the actual origins of the group. Presumably it was an early aristocracy of some kind. A few other families were admitted to membership in the kingdom and early Republic. Plebeians were everyone else. Originally only patricians could hold most offices, but over time they were opened up to plebeians, as many non -patricians gained wealth and power. The distinction stopped mattering much at all after about a century, but left its mark for how the Republic was organized for the rest of its existence. Once the system settled, being patrician was a slight disadvantage compared to an equivalently wealthy and connected plebeian, as several offices were reserved for plebeians and none for patricians. Though being from rich, well established families, patricians were much more likely to have the resources needed to run for office.

When fully settled Roman government had a three part structure. The senate is likely the most famous element. It comes from the word "senex" for old man, though given the ages of Roman officials, "old" means mostly the 40's to 50's, some people in their 30s or older than 60. Everyone who had served as certain officials, described below, was included, plus other prominent and powerful citizens to fill out numbers to 300, later 600 towards the end of the republic. In theory, the senate was just an advisory body, in practice, the advice was almost always followed, so the senate was often the most powerful part of government. It is the body that carried out foreign policy, decided what armies to raise, who would control provinces, and other longer term, large scale decisions

If you are a woman, you are getting married early like most societies and having lots of kids. However, your legal position is better than many other nearby societies: politics is unavailable to you, and you are under control of your father for a good amount of time, but otherwise legally are able to do what equivalent males can do.

* ''Film/JuliusCaesar1953''
* ''Film/JuliusCaesar1970''

* ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' is entirely set during the Roman Empire era, but has some senators who wish Rome could return to a Republic state.

The general (male, only males could be elected or participate officially in politics) citizen population made up the assemblies, which held elections for officials and passed or voted down laws. Instead of one person one vote, Roman assemblies divided people into smaller groups called tribes or centuries depending on the assembly, and the votes of groups were what determined results, rather than the raw individual votes. (So each person votes, the votes of everyone in their group are added up, and this determines the overall group vote. Than those overall group votes are added together, which determines the election result.) By grouping people in different ways, Roman government had 4 assemblies, electing different officials and voting on different things. The centuriate assembly was divided based on wealth, and voted on war related matters, plus electing consuls and praetors. Wealthier and older people were included in smaller tribes, which got the same 1 vote each as poorer tribes containing more people, resulting in these voters being weighted more . This was said to represent military service, wealthier people who could afford better equipment were counted more, and older people who had already fought counted more than younger people still doing military service. The Curiate assembly was divided based on family groups. It started off granting something called imperium, the power to command armies and organize courts, and passed some laws. After the shaking out of the early republic it had very little power, imperium grants became a rubber stamp and the centuriate assembly got most of its powers. The tribal assembly was closest to one person one vote, with the general population divided into tribes that matched population distribution closely (rural and urban were divided, then divided roughly by area.). The plebeian assembly included only plebeians, which made up the vast bulk of the population. It was divided similarly to the tribal assembly. Laws passed by it only applied to plebeians at first, later to the entire population. Assembly turnout was likely quite low, people would have to physically travel to the city to vote, not easy to do for a typical common person living out in the country.

* Italian peninsula conquests (about 350BC -264 BC): Political changes in the first century and a half made Rome's military much more powerful. Starting around 350BC, it starts conquering city by city in Italy, starting with nearby neighbors. Some conquests were opportunistic attacks, some were fights against threats or rivals, often Rome would take advantage of an existing rivalry, helping one side, conquering the other, and bringing both into its fold. Eventually, Rome fought a coalition of several major Italian powers and won, finishing the conquest of the peninsula with some hill country conquests and some cities in the south. One of these cities, Tarentum, asked a guy called [[PyrrhicVictory Pyrrhus]] for help, his smaller mercenary army won some victories vs. Rome but took enough losses that Pyrrhus had to go elsewhere, resulting in the famous expression. Rome had lost more soldiers but had more to spare.

Rome was a conscript army/citizen militia for most of this time, rather than using full time soldiers. Citizens fought as a duty of (male) citizenship: each year the government figured out how many soldiers they thought they'd need, and called up that amount of people. Citizens bought their own equipment and served in roles based on what they could afford. Most common were small landowning farmers, these served as heavy close combat infantry. Younger and poorer farmers served as velites, javelin throwing skirmishers. The richest would be cavalry. Poor city dwellers would crew naval ships. Infantry during much of this time was further divided. Poorer or younger soldiers (early 20’s) were hastati, who would attack first. The middle group were principes, if the first attack failed to win they would rotate with the hastati in the fighting, allowing some rest and keeping everyone fresh. In the back were the richest, the triari, usually also the oldest (early 30s) and most experienced. They would act as a last resort if things went really wrong, either protecting a retreat or joining the fighting to defeat an enemy. Towards the end of the Republic, this system would shift to something more homogeneous: all heavy infantry would be treated the same instead of having three distinct groups, Cavalry and skirmisher roles would be filled by non-Romans. Poorer citizens would be equipped at government expense more often. The early Republic likely had a different fighting style also: a spear phalanx is the most common description, but we don’t have a lot of evidence for anything in particular.

* Early Rome (Kingdom period - about 350 BC): Ancient cities had to fight lots of wars, Rome was no exception. In the early history of the Republic, Rome was one of many cities fighting it out in Italy. There were some victories, a little territorial expansion against less powerful neighbors in the immediate area, plus a famous capture of Rome by Celts. But conquest really started in:
* Italian peninsula conquests (about 350BC -264 BC): Rome starts its regular conquests in the mid 300’s after sorting out its political system. Starting with its nearby neighbors, it conquers city by city. Some conquest were opportunistic attacks, some were fights against threats or rivals, often Rome would take advantage of an existing rivalry, helping on side, conquering the other, and bringing both into its fold. Eventually, Rome fought a coalition of several major Italian powers and won, finishing the conquest of the peninsula with some hill country conquests and some cities in the south. One of these cities, Tarentum, asked a guy called [[PyrrhicVictory Pyrrhus]] for help, his smaller mercenary army won some victories vs. Rome but took enough losses that Pyrrhus had to go elsewhere, resulting in the famous expression. Rome had lost more soldiers but had more to spare.

* Tribunes of the plebs had various protective roles, stopping abuses of power by other officials, modern uses of the word tribune draw on this history.
* Praetors (of whom there were always 10) served mostly as judges in the Roman courts. However, they held ''imperium'' and thus the power to command armies. They therefore might be called to manage provinces after some were conquered.

To run for office, one had to be very wealthy and/or well connected, competition was fierce and a very low fraction of even the richest and most powerful people could expect to be elected. Running for office required 10 years of military service. This could be in regular units, but young aspiring politicians would want to get appointed as military tribunes. This role had a number of command and logistical responsibilities within an army, and would be filled with a mix of said aspiring politicians, plus experienced commanders and other friends or relatives chosen by whoever was leading the army. Officials were elected to 1 year terms by the appropriate assembly, apart from Censors who were elected every 5 years to 1.5 year terms, and minor officials who might be variable: Centuriate assembly picked consuls, praetors, and censors, the tribal assembly picked some Aediles and Quaestors, the plebeian assembly picked Tribunes of the plebs and some aediles whose position was reserved for plebeians. Later, as the republic conquered more territory, praetors and consuls might have terms extended as promagistrates, to either govern provinces or continue leading armies in the middle of multiyear actions like sieges or campaigns. These provincial commands were lucrative, provincial governors could expect lots of gifts/bribes/"contributions" from their area of control, even more in rich areas than poor ones, and if the province was militarily active a governor who won victories could expect war loot and fame. Laws were passed by Consuls, Praetors, or plebeian tribunes calling an assembly and having it vote up or down on the proposal. All elected offices except the consulship and tribunes were once a lifetime only, running for too many terms or running too soon after being in the position was considered iffy. Tribunes and Consuls could block actions from other officials, called veto, if they were physically present to do so.

Elections themselves would have involved lots of face to face campaigning, and likely a good amount of what now would be considered corrupt. Patronage networks were important for getting turnout, money would be spent to influence people. Politicians by custom would go through a specific sequence of offices with particular age limits called the courses honorum: required military service, election as quastor at a minimum of about 30, election as Praetor at a minimum of about 39, then consul at a minimum of around 42. Service for these offices led to membership in the senate. In between offices like Tribune of the plebs or Aedile (around 36 minimum), or priesthood among other random officials, could fill in time and allow politicians to build accomplishments and reputation, Plebeian tribunes might also get elected as a first office. There were fewer positions the higher one rose, and only so many tribune and quaestor positions to go around, so competition was strong, few people made it through all of these offices. Censorships and Dictatorships typically came after being consul, though being Consul was considered the most prestigious part of someone’s career. This informal system was broken a few times during some wars, and began breaking much more towards the end of the Republic.

Philosophers of the time described the Roman Republic as a well run government, good at balancing interests between its different parts. In modern language, checks and balances were very much in place for most of its run. No one official was in charge of everything unless a dictator was in office, there were at least two of all officials, the number of Aediles, Praetors, and Plebeian tribunes was expanded over time, and consuls and plebeian tribunes had various ways of blocking each other. The senate had no official powers, but members would spend more time in it than as elected officials, so there was a strong incentives to get along with your fellow politicians and respect the institution when in office. Officials and the senate were powerful, but assemblies had final say over who rose through the ranks and which laws were passed. By modern standards, Rome’s Republic was a corrupt, oligarchic government, but compared to nearby ancient societies it did its job quite well until its final century.

The traditional story starts with the Gracchi brothers. Tiberius Gracchus, elected as plebeian tribune in 133 BC, proposed some land reforms, which would break up some holdings of large landowners, plus take some conquered land owned by the Roman government, and distribute it to Roman citizens to create new farmers. This was a big land reform, but doable within normal procedures of the Republic. However, Tiberius Gracchus used his powers as tribune more aggressively than previous ones had, holding up other business in an attempt to get the law passed, and stirring up crowds much more than usual. Many senators and other powerful people opposed the law/ Their response was even more aggressive in an attempt to shut it down, such as choosing officials to interfere with Gracchus in other business, sabotaging land reform that did pass. Eventually, they had Gracchus killed, which had never happened before, and was obviously far outside the way government was supposed to work.

However, these conflicts shouldn’t have destroyed the Republic on their own, Rome had experienced political conflicts before, made reforms, and worked through them. Some suggest that Rome simply got too big, city state and other small Republics are common in history, but Republics controlling large amounts of territory are rare: Rome, Carthage and the United States are the only major examples before the 1800s and 1900s. In this argument, ''something'' would have strained Rome and either split it apart or forced a different type of government.

Some suggest that the conquests allowed too much of a power difference between politicians: Leaders that could be contained by others in a single city now had a chance to build wealth, loyalty of armies, attention and other sources of power through provincial commands and/or conquests, which in several cases could other institutions couldn't match. Another proposal is that social norms broke down, politicians started breaking unwritten rules, such as multiple runs for office in a shorter time period than traditionally done. This breakdown led to taking personal conflicts outside the usual political realm, and the Republic didn’t have institutions to contain the resulting political conflicts. Related is the argument that trust in traditional government was less, leading the population to look elsewhere for what it wanted. The senate had been the most powerful institution during Italian conquests and Punic wars, and handled them relatively well. It did not handle so well some drawn out Spanish wars, the conquest of Carthage that took three years despite being a city, economic changes, and the Jugurthine war exposed a lot of corruption. In this model, the senate is challenged by other parts of government, reacts poorly, and the conflict builds over time to civil wars. Likely, as with many events in history, multiple causes fed each other and combined to the results we see. Politicians during this period could tell the Republic was experiencing problems, but didn’t come up with the institutional changes to fix them until Augustus took over.