History of the Roman Constitution
Politics of ancient Rome |
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Periods |
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Constitution |
Political institutions |
Assemblies |
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Ordinary magistrates |
Extraordinary magistrates |
Public law |
Senatus consultum ultimum |
Titles and honours |
The History of the Roman Constitution is a study of
The
The general who won the last civil war of the Roman Republic,
Under the Kingdom
The period of the kingdom can be divided into two epochs based on the legends, handed down to us principally in the first book of
The second epoch saw the reigns of the last three legendary kings. The second epoch was more consequential than was the first, which was in part due to the significant degree of territorial expansion which occurred during this period.[2] Regardless of how true these legends were, it is likely that, as the legends suggest, a series of conquests did occur during the late monarchy. As a result of these conquests, it became necessary to determine what was to be done with the conquered people.[2] Often, individuals whose towns had been conquered remained in those towns,[5] while other such individuals came to Rome.[5] To acquire legal and economic standing, these newcomers adopted a condition of dependency toward either a Patrician family, or toward the king.[5] Eventually, the individuals who were dependents of the king were released from their state of dependency, and became the first Plebeians.[5] As Rome grew, it needed more soldiers to continue its conquests. When the Plebeians were released from their dependency, they were released from their Curia. When this occurred, while they were no longer required to serve in the army, they also lost their political and economic standing.[6] To bring these new Plebeians back into the army, the Patricians were forced to make concessions.[7] While it is not known exactly what concessions were made, the fact that they were not granted any political power[7] set the stage for what history knows as the Conflict of the Orders.
The reign of the first four kings was distinct from that of the last three kings. The first kings were elected. Between the reigns of the final three kings, however, the monarchy became hereditary,[8] and as such, the senate became subordinated to the king.[8] This breach in the senate's sovereignty, rather than an intolerable tyranny, was probably what led the Patricians in the senate to overthrow the last king.[8] The king may have sought the support of the Plebeians; however, the Plebeians were no doubt exhausted from their continued military service, and from their forced labor in the construction of public works. They were probably also embittered by their lack of political power, and therefore did not come to the aide of either the king or the senate.[8]
Under the Republic
After the monarchy had been
In 449 BC, the Senate promulgated the
Beginning around the year 350 BC, the senators and the Plebeian Tribunes began to grow closer.
In 287 BC, the Plebeians seceded to the Janiculum hill. To end the secession, a law (the "Hortensian Law") was passed, which ended the requirement that the Patrician senators consent before a bill could be brought before the Plebeian Council for a vote.[21] 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.[22] By the middle of the second century BC, the economic situation for the average Plebeian had declined significantly.[23] Farmers became bankrupted, and soon masses of unemployed Plebeians began flooding into Rome, and thus into the ranks of the legislative assemblies, where their economic status usually led them to vote for the candidate who offered them the most. A new culture of dependency was emerging, which would look to any populist leader for relief.[24]
In 88 BC, an aristocratic senator named
By 48 BC, after having defeated the last of his major enemies,
Under the Empire
When Octavian returned to Rome two years after defeating
Octavian wanted to solidify his status as master of the state, but avoid the
When Augustus died in 14 AD, the Principate legally ended.[45] Tiberius knew that if he secured the support of the army, the rest of the government would soon follow. Therefore, Tiberius assumed command of the Praetorian Guard, and used his Proconsular imperium to force the armies to swear allegiance to him.[45] As soon as this occurred, the Senate and the magistrates acquiesced. Under Tiberius, the power to elect magistrates was transferred from the assemblies to the Senate.[46] When Tiberius died, Caligula was proclaimed Emperor by the Senate. In 41 Caligula was assassinated, and for two days following his assassination, the Senate debated the merits of restoring the Republic.[47] Due to the demands of the army, however, Claudius was declared emperor, but he was ultimately killed, and Nero was declared Emperor.[48]
In the decades after the death of Augustus, the Roman Empire was, in a sense, a union of inchoate principalities, which could have disintegrated at any time.
During the period that began with the accession of the Emperor Nerva and ended with the death of the Emperor Commodus, the Empire continued to weaken. It was becoming difficult to recruit enough soldiers for the army, inflation was becoming an issue, and on at least one occasion, the Empire almost went bankrupt. The most significant constitutional development during this era was the steady drift towards monarchy. M. Cocceius Nerva succeeded Domitian, and although his reign was too short for any major constitutional reforms, he did reverse some of his predecessor's abuses.[55] He was succeeded by Trajan in 98, who then went further than even Nerva had in restoring the image of a free republic,[55] by, for example, allowing the senate to regain some independent legislative abilities.[55] Hadrian succeeded Trajan as Emperor. By far, his most important constitutional alteration was his creation of a bureaucratic apparatus,[56] which included a fixed gradation of clearly defined offices, and a corresponding order of promotion.[56] Hadrian was succeeded by Antoninus Pius, who made no real changes to the constitution.[57] Antoninus Pius was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius in 161. The most significant constitutional development that occurred during the reign of Marcus Aurelius was the revival of the republican principle of collegiality,[57] as he made his brother, L. Aelius, his co-emperor. In 169, Aelius died, and in 176, Marcus Aurelius made his son, L. Aurelius Commodus, his new co-emperor. In 180, Marcus Aurelius died, and Commodus became Emperor. Commodus' tyranny revived the worst memories of the later Julian emperors,[58] as he was more explicit than any of his predecessors in taking powers that he did not legally have, and in disregarding the constitution. He was killed in 192.[59]
No further constitutional reforms were enacted during the Principate.[60] The only development of any significance was the continuing slide towards monarchy, as the constitutional distinctions that had been set up by Augustus lost whatever meaning that they still had.[60] Starting in 235, with the reign of the barbarian Emperor Maximinus Thrax, the Empire was put through a period of severe military, civil, and economic stress. The crisis arguably reached its height during the reign of Gallienus, from 260 to 268.[61] The crisis ended with the accession of Diocletian in 284, and the abolishment of the Principate.[62]
Decline and fall
When
When Diocletian resigned, chaos ensued, but after the chaos had subsided, most of his reforms remained in effect.
See also
- Acta Senatus
- Byzantine Senate
- Centuria
- Cursus honorum
- Interrex
- Master of the Horse
- Pontifex Maximus
- Princeps senatus
- Procurator
- Promagistrate
Notes
- ^ a b c d Abbott, 340
- ^ a b c d e f Abbott, 6
- ^ a b c Abbott, 3
- ^ Abbott, 5
- ^ a b c d Abbott, 7
- ^ Abbott, 7-8
- ^ a b Abbott, 8
- ^ a b c d Abbott, 10
- ^ Holland, 2
- ^ Abbott, 28
- ^ Holland, 22
- ^ a b Holland, 5
- ^ Abbott, 37
- ^ Abbott, 42
- ^ a b Abbott, 44
- ^ Abbott, 45
- ^ a b Abbott, 46
- ^ a b Abbott, 47
- ^ Holland, 27
- ^ Abbott, 48
- ^ Abbott, 52
- ^ Abbott, 53
- ^ Abbott, 77
- ^ Abbott, 80
- ^ Holland, 64
- ^ Holland, 69
- ^ Holland, 90
- ^ Holland, 99
- ^ Holland, 106
- ^ Abbott, 109
- ^ a b Abbott, 112
- ^ Abbott, 114
- ^ Abbott, 115
- ^ a b Goldsworthy, 237
- ^ a b Abbott, 134
- ^ Abbott, 135
- ^ Abbott, 129
- ^ a b c Abbott, 266
- ^ a b Abbott, 267
- ^ a b c Abbott, 269
- ^ Abbott, 270
- ^ Abbott, 271
- ^ Abbott, 272
- ^ Abbott, 273
- ^ a b Abbott, 289
- ^ Abbott, 292
- ^ Abbott, 293
- ^ a b c d e Abbott, 297
- ^ Abbott, 296
- ^ Abbott, 305
- ^ Abbott, 309
- ^ a b c Abbott, 310
- ^ Abbott, 312
- ^ Abbott, 313
- ^ a b c Abbott, 317
- ^ a b Abbott, 318
- ^ a b Abbott, 319
- ^ Abbott, 320
- ^ Abbott, 321
- ^ a b Abbott, 329
- ^ Abbott, 333
- ^ a b Abbott, 334
- ^ a b Abbott, 339
- ^ Williams, 196-98
- ^ Williams, 205-6
References
- Abbott, Frank Frost (1901). A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions. Elibron Classics. ISBN 0-543-92749-0.
- Goldsworthy, Adrian (2003). In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-84666-3.
- Holland, Tom (2005). Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic. Random House Books. ISBN 1-4000-7897-0.
- Peter N. Stearns, William Leonard Langer (2001). "The Middle East". The Encyclopedia of World History. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Books. ISBN 0-395-65237-5.
- Williams, Stephen (1997). Diocletian and the Roman Recovery. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-91827-8.
Further reading
- Cambridge Ancient History, Volumes 9–13.
- Cameron, A. The Later Roman Empire, (Fontana Press, 1993).
- Crawford, M. The Roman Republic, (Fontana Press, 1978).
- Gruen, E. S. "The Last Generation of the Roman Republic" (U California Press, 1974)
- Ihne, Wilhelm. Researches Into the History of the Roman Constitution. William Pickering. 1853.
- Johnston, Harold Whetstone. Orations and Letters of Cicero: With Historical Introduction, An Outline of the Roman Constitution, Notes, Vocabulary and Index. Scott, Foresman and Company. 1891.
- Millar, F. The Emperor in the Roman World, (Duckworth, 1977, 1992).
- Mommsen, Theodor. Roman Constitutional Law. 1871–1888
- Polybius. The Histories
- Tighe, Ambrose. The Development of the Roman Constitution. D. Apple & Co. 1886.
- Von Fritz, Kurt. The Theory of the Mixed Constitution in Antiquity. Columbia University Press, New York. 1975.
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