Roman Government and Law
The Kingdom
800-509 BCE
When Rome first started, it was a small village of Latins ruled by Etruscan monarchs. This period of time is known as The Kingdom, which lasted from 800 BCE until 509 BCE, when the Romans overthrew their rulers, who they detested for their cruelty and greed.
The Republic
509-27 BCE
After the Romans overthrew the Etruscans, the former set up a republic, a form of democratic government with people in positions of power. They modeled this government, and the system of laws that they developed soon after that, on the democratic ideas of the Greeks.The Romans didn't want anyone to have too much power, so they divided their government into three groups, the Senate, the Assembly, and the consuls.
The SenateThe Senate was made up of 300 patricians who served for life. This group controlled the government's spending and decided when the republic would go to war.
The AssemblyThe next group was made up of plebeians- the Assembly. The Assembly was formed of free plebeians who had Roman citizenship. They voted on some big issues, But the Assembly was set up so that the wealthy got more votes than the poor. The Assembly voted on laws and oversaw trials. They created the laws, but the Senate could veto them.The Assembly also had the ability to appoint the consuls.
The ConsulsThe consuls were two leaders from the Senate elected by the Assembly to serve for one year. After that year, they returned to the Senate unless they were re-elected. The consuls were in charge of running the government operations, overseeing the government's workers, appointing new Senate members as needed, and controlling the army. During a time of war, the consuls could also proclaim one man to be a dictator who would lead for six months. Both consuls had to agree in order to change anything. If one of them disagreed with the proposal, then nothing would be done.
The Tribunes |
The Senate, Assembly, and the consuls were the original three parts of the government, but the Senate made another group- the tribunes. This started a bit after 494 BCE, when the plebeians, who resented the fact the patricians had all of the power and wealth and decided to do something about it. The plebeians went to the Sacred Mount outside of Rome and started their own government and Assembly. This Assembly had ten tribal leaders, one for each tribe. The patricians soon became desperate to get the plebeians back, because without them, there was no one to do menial jobs like farming. They passed a law in the Senate that allowed ten tribunes, who were supposed to speak for the poorer people in the Senate. Tribunes were elected by the Assembly, and they could veto anything the Senate voted for that affected the poor, which ended up being pretty much anything the Senate voted on. These, like all the others, were all men.