10/24/2024
• Begins in 509 B.C. with the downfall of the
kings.
• Provides the basis for the government of the
United States (a democratic republic)
• Lasts until the formation of the empire in 27
B.C. by Augustus (Octavian)
• Social Institutions
– Roman society was very stratified with little movement
between groups
• Freeborn citizens
– Ordo Senatorius (Optimates) – the senatorial order
• Nobility who governed Rome
• Members were either descended from a magistrate or held
office themselves
• Legally prevented from engaging in business (commerce)
– Ordo Equester (Equites) – the equestrian order (knights)
• Possessed a wealth over 100,000 Denarii (Senators needed to
have 250,000)
• Were the wealthy businessmen and bankers
• Controlled the tax-collectors (publicani)
1
10/24/2024
– Ordo Plebeius (Plebs or Populares) – the rest of the
freeborn citizens
• Were the small tradesmen, manual laborers, and peasants
• Had a property value less than 100,000 Denarii
– All freeborn citizens were divided into classes based
upon wealth for the purposes of military service and
voting.
• Other groups
– Libertini (freedmen) – former slaves
• Could not hold public office
• Could vote and own property
– Coloniae (Colonies) – Romans citizens who lived in towns
built for veterans
– Municipia (self-governing towns)
• Subject to taxation and military service
– Civitates Foederatae (Federated Communities)
• Have special treaty privileges with Rome
2
10/24/2024
Political Institutions
• Imperium is the right of a Roman official to
command.
• The Senate (Senatus) – composed of 600
magistrates and ex-magistrates who serve for life
(could be expelled)
– Met in the curia
– an advisory council for the consuls
– controlled public finances and foreign affairs
– assigned military commands and provinces
– debated and passed decrees
– symbolized by the letters SPQR (Senatus PopulusQue
Romanus)
6
• Magistrates ( ones marked with * have imperium)
– *Consul (2) -- chief magistrates who convened and
presided over the Senate and assemblies
• Minimum age to become a consul was 43
• initiated and administered legislation
• served as generals in military campaigns
• represented Rome in foreign affairs
• Consuls could appoint and/or serve as *dictator for up to 6
months in times of emergency when the constitution was
suspended
• consuls usually governed a province as *proconsul when their
term of office was completed
• Was the top office of the cursus honorum
3
10/24/2024
– *praetors (8)—served primarily as judges in law courts
• Minimum age requirement was 40
• could convene the Senate and assemblies
• assumed administrative duties of consuls when these were
absent from Rome
• when their term of office was completed, praetors might
govern a province as *propraetor.
– Censors (2)
• elected every 5 years for terms of 1½ years
• revised lists of senators and equestrians
• conducted census of citizens and property assessments for tax
purposes
• granted state contracts.
– Aediles (4)
• supervised public places, public games, and the grain supply in
the city of Rome
• 2 were required to be plebeians
• the other two (who had more status) could come from either
order (curule aediles)
– Tribunes (10)
• had to be plebeian
• protect the plebeians from arbitrary actions of magistrates.
• they could veto the act of any magistrate and stop any official
act of administration.
• They were by law sacrosanct, meaning that anyone who
attacked them physically could be immediately and summarily
killed
• they could convene the Senate and assemblies and initiate
legislation.
9
4
10/24/2024
– Quaestors (20)
• administered finances of state treasury and served in various
capacities in the provinces;
• when elected quaestor, a man automatically became eligible for
membership in the Senate, though censors had to appoint him to fill
a vacancy
• Public Assemblies (comitia)
– comitia curiata (Assembly of the Curiae)
• oldest assembly; by the late Republic had mostly ceremonial and
clan functions
– comitia centuriata (Assembly of the Centuries )
• elected consuls, praetors, censors;
• declared war
• served as court of appeal for citizens sentenced to death
• 193 centuries were determined by wealth, and the richest centuries
were also the smallest, so individual votes in these counted more
heavily (when a majority of the 193 votes was reached, voting was
stopped, so some of the largest centuries rarely got to cast votes).
10
– comitia tributa (Assembly of the Tribes ):
• elected all other magistrates
• voted yes or no on laws
• 35 tribes were originally determined geographically and then
passed on by birth
• subgroup of this assembly, the Concilium Plebis, was open
only to plebeians
• plebeian assembly elected the magistrates open only to
plebeians (tribunes and plebeian aediles). After 287 BCE, the
measures passed by the Concilium Plebis (plebiscita) had the
force of laws binding on the whole state.
11
5
10/24/2024
12
Fasces and Lictors
13
