Republican Period 509-31 BC Flashcards
What changes?
- Elite members in charge of setting up
- Don’t like arrogance and cruelty, anti-Etruscan feeling, back to Roman roots
- Desire to share power, allowing many people to control the power, so no 1 individual can become too important
Clans (gentes)
extended family groups that have personal power within their family but now as power is being shared they want to share it equally amongst other groups
Patricians
elite members of society that are in control come from Patrician clans
-Come from the word patres (fathers; kings advisors; senate)- elderly men that previously counseled the King, they sat together in a group they became a senate
Consuls
2 men sharing imperium for state) instead of one man in charge
- Share the power of the state equally – the imperium (power to command other citizens) -> change from King
- Then they put a series of restrictions so the consuls can’t be too powerful
What were the check’s on the Consuls power imposed by the senate?
- Elected by Romans
- Only hold power for one year
- 2 people sharing the post concurrently -> principle of collegiality
- While in office, consuls held ultimate power and could rule as they thought best, but after their tenure was over, they could be held accountable for their actions -> principle of accountability
Naming system
Praenomen, nomen, cognomen
personal name, family, additional
clan
Plebians vs. Patricians (workers vs. elite)
Patricians were the descendants from the patres, city fathers
Plebians were shopkeepers, crafts people, unskilled/skilled workers
After the Kings left, the elite took over - oligarchy
Poniffs
Priests (religious advisors of the state)
Praetor
8 men
- commander of the army
- magistrate elected
*judicial business
Aediles
2 patrician, 2 plebian
public works supervisors
Quaestor
20 men
Finance guys
Full Republican Triangle
1 Dictator 2 Censors (2 Consuls elect the above) Praetor (8) Aediles (4) Quaestor (20)
Conflict of Orders
Patricians vs. Plebeians
Economic- debt of Plebeians, public land owned by Patricians)
Social- no equality, no members in gov’t, no intermarriage
Succession of the Plebeians
1st: 494 BC
Right of tribunes, assembly, magistrates
450 - Law of 12 Tablets
-Procedural rights for all romans
445 BC Intermarriage
2nd: 367 BC Plebs can be elected for consul, new laws addressing debts
- Half of priests must be plebs
3rd: 287 BC Done
- All measures passed in plebs assembly
*KNOW IMAGE