The roman republic was not a fixed system. It progressed dynamically through the course
of multiple centuries, and it constantly evolved up until its eventual replacement
by the system that was imposed by Emperor Augustus, during the first century BC.
In this video, I mainly want to focus on the period of the republic,
just before the ascendance of Gaius Marius and the rise of the movement of the so-called popular,
during the early 1rst century bc. So, what was the structure of the Roman republic?
It is for sure a very complicated issue because the Romans were notoriously conservative
and never got rid of any system that they had inherited from their forefathers.
As a result, the Republic was a conglomeration of ancient and more recent political magistracies
and offices, systems and traditions all stuck together, in an overlapping manner.
The main body from which executive magistracies were elected, was the Roman Senate.
The senate was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome.
The senate’s role evolved over the centuries, but during our era, the Senate had reached the apex
of its republican power. It consisted of 300 to 600
senators who served for life. Only male roman citizens both
Plebian and Patricians could participate in the Roman senate and they usually served for life.
Patricians were the old wealthy aristocratic-founding families of Rome
that owned most property, while Plebeians were all the rest.
Contrary to popular belief, the Senate did not have legislative powers but could only pass
decrees called Senatus Consulta, which constituted advice from the senate to the magistrates.
While these decrees did not bear any legal weight,
were almost always obeyed due to tradition and ancestral practice, what the romans called
“Mos maiorum” or “way of the ancestors”. The senate also had a great degree of influence
and power over domestic and civil affairs. This was especially obvious in the case of managing
state finances since it was the only body able to authorize the usage of public funds.
It was also responsible for appointing magistrates to govern provinces and command armies.
The senate also had the right to call for the appointment of a dictator and issue the Senatus
consultum Ultimum-roughly translated as the “ultimate decree of the senate.
A dictator was an emergency magistrate of the Republic, appointed by the senate with
the full authority of the state to deal with an emergency. All other magistrates were subordinate
to his authority. Thus, a dictator was in effect a monarch who could assert
total dominance over the Roman state, but only for a limited period of time.
He was obliged to resign his office at the expiration of six months,
or once his task was accomplished.
(A couple of famous examples of dictators were Sulla and Caesar)
Every Roman citizen who wanted to enter the political life of Rome
had to serve in the army for at least 10 years.
A successful military carrier would usually propel someone to the office of military tribune
which was considered as the un-official rite of passage to the political scene.
The magistracies of the roman republic in sequential order
were the questorship, the aedileship, the Praetorship and the Consulship.
This linear order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman
Republic was known as the cursus honorum-or “course for honours”.
Each magistracy of the roman republic had a minimum age for election,
and it typically lasted for a single year. The reasoning behind the short term of office
was to dissuade any individual from attaining too much power and displacing the senate.
The first official post was the questor. To gain a seat in the senate you first had to
be elected as a questor. Candidates had to be at least 30 years old. All in all, 20 questors were
elected and they were responsible for managing financial and administrative matters, serving
as a second in command to a consul or a proconsul. They could also serve as paymasters for a legion.
The most important responsibility of a questor was the administration of public
funds to higher-ranking officers in order to pursue their missions.
Essentially, the questor was the deputy of a governor, taking over duties and posts that
we would now associate with civil servants. As a questor, a Roman was allowed to wear the
toga praetexta, a white toga with a purple stripe, worn over a tunic with vertical purple stripes.
The praetexta was thought that protected its wearer against evil magic and bad luck.
The second magistracy was the Aedilship.
Aediles were responsible for the maintenance of public buildings
and the regulation of public festivals. They were also authorized to enforce public order.
There were two pairs of aediles, the “plebeian aediles” and the “curule aediles”.
The distinction between the two sets of Aediles could be made when it came to public festivals,
with each pair organizing festivals for the corresponding class of citizens.
Also, the Plebeian aediles were elected by the Plebeian assembly and the curule
aediles were either elected by the Tribal Assembly or appointed by the reigning consul.
The Aedilship was not a mandatory part of the corsus honorum and could be skipped.
But, as long as you had the financial means, being an Aedile could prove extremely beneficial in
political terms, since they were able to organize and sponsor public festivals that could attract
the support of the masses of the urban poor. It was not unusual for Aediles to spend lavishly
on games and festivals, to such an extent that during the late republic, public
festivals would almost surpass the grandiose and decadence of even the imperial period.
Individuals could run for the office by the time they were 36.
After serving as either aedile or questor, a roman could run for praetor at around 39 years of age.
This was the first office to grant imperium or the power of military command.
Despite their imperium, praetors were usually assigned to smaller armies,
typically to quell rebellions or act as second in command for Consuls.
A Preator could also act as a Consul’s second in command.
They were mainly judicial officers who administered Roman law, essentially Rome’s judges.
A praetor was escorted by 6 lictors. Lictors were a form of Roman civil servants
who operated as bodyguards to magistrates who held imperium.
They carried a bound bundle of wooden rods with an axe known as the fasces that symbolized
the power to carry out capital punishment and would follow the magistrate wherever he went.
The Praetorship was also the lowest office you could achieve to be eligible for the governorship
of a province. Even though, choosing which Preator was to become a governor was a matter that was
specifically decided by the senate. The number of preators fluctuated
throughout history, but during the mid to late republic, six or eight were usually elected.
The fourth and most prestigious of all the offices was that of Consul, representing the pinnacle of a
successful run on the cursus honorum. The minimum age to take a shot at the office was 42 years.
Two consuls were elected annually and alternated in holding the fasces each month. This was done
so that one consul could check the other and mitigate his grip on absolute power.
The magistracy can be described as an intertwined kingship and presidentship. But they were also the
supreme military commanders of the Roman state. Consuls exercised the highest juridical power
in the Republic. It was the only office that could override the decrees of a
Praetor. They also had the power to veto any proposal or decree by any other magistrate
except for a Tribune of the plebs. The only nullifying factor of a consul’s power
was his short term in office. A consul dictated political debates in the senate and was usually
the one who would call the senate to meet and set the agenda of that meeting, by proposing laws.
They could also call the public assemblies to meet which was necessary to pass a
proposal into actual law. By the end of his term,
a Consul was assigned an important province and acted as the governor or proconsul.
Being elected a consul was an assurance in historical immortality. Romans identified
years not numerically as we do now but by the names of the consuls that were elected each year.
The final step in the Cursus Honorum was the magistracy of the censor. Uniquely,
censors were not replaced annually but remained in their sits for a period of eighteen months.
The office was open only to ex-consuls.
Although the censors held no imperium, the office was considered a great honour.
Censors were responsible for taking a regular census of the people and categorizing citizens
in their respective classes on a tribal or wealth basis.
They could add or remove members of the senate that acted in a way that was deemed dishonourable.
They were also responsible for supervising public morality.
The power of the censor was absolute, no official could veto or overturn his decisions.
Only the succeeding censor was able to cancel decisions made by former holders of the office.
There was also another office that was extremely important for the history of the republic
and held unique and immense powers. The office of the Tribune of the plebs
was reserved only for members of the plebian class and was responsible for protecting the
right of the commoners against the excesses of the patrician order.
Those who held the office were considered sacrosanct, which meant that no one had the
right to cause them physical harm, and were also able to veto any bill, act or proposal
of any other magistrate including of the consuls. Tribunes had the power to exercise capital
punishment against any individual who obstructed the performance of his duties.
He could also call for a senate meeting and arrest other magistrates of the state.
These tribunes had the power to convene and preside over the plebeian assembly,
which was one of the three legislative assemblies of the Roman Republic.
But what were these assemblies that I keep referring to anyway?
Public assemblies were bodies of Roman citizens that were responsible for electing politicians.
The first and most prestigious assembly was the Comitia Centuriata, an assembly that was
originally formed of soldiers divided into blocs called centuries. Thus, voting was done in blocs
and each bloc was one vote. Each soldier was assigned to a century according to
how much property he owned and since the wealthiest soldiers were grouped into the
majority of centuries the assembly tended to favour the Patricians.
Only the centuriate assembly could elect the highest-ranking magistrates,
that is Praetors, Consuls and Censors.
The next public assembly was the Comitia Tributa or the tribal assembly in its anglicized version.
This was an assembly of citizens that was again divided into 35 tribal blocks and just like before
each block had one vote. Each citizen was assigned to a tribe according to his geographic location,
rather than his property or ethnic classification. And since both Plebeians and Patricians could
attend the tribal assembly, it was usually less Patrician inclined than the centuriate assembly.
The tribal assembly was responsible for electing some of the lower rank offices:
such as the Quaestors the Curule Aediles and the Military tribunes.
The third and final assembly of the roman republic was the
assembly of the plebeians or council of the plebs. As the name suggests, ONLY plebeians could attend
this assembly, no patricians were allowed. As a result, it was the only voting body
where the urban poor could dominate. Almost identical to the comitia tributa,
the Plebeian assembly was summoned and presided by a tribune of the plebs.
The Plebeian assembly elected two Plebeian Magistrates, the Plebeian Aediles and the
Plebeian Tribunes. Even though the assembly was attended only by the order of the Plebeians,
it had the full force of law over all Romans, Plebeians and Patricians alike.
During the era of Marius, the last mechanisms which allowed the senate to veto bills and acts
of the Plebeian assembly were long gone. This meant that all Roman legislation eventually
came out of the Plebeian Council. The immense power that these public
assemblies wielded, would play a pivotal role in the development
of the two different movements in Roman politics. The so-called Populares and the Optimates
were the closest things to modern-day political parties that Romans had. Even though the terms
designated different approaches to the political system rather than
altogether different political ideologies. With the populares striving to gain political
power and influence through favouring of the Plebeian and urban masses, and the
Optimates trying to assert the dominance of the old aristocratic, senatorial families.
This division would be the catalyst that eventually bring about a series of conflicts
and eventually destructive civil wars that would topple the old system.