The Form of the Constitution Flashcards
By the late republic how many did the Senate number?
After Sulla’s reforms as dictator, the Senate numbered 600 members.
What had all senators, by the late republic, served as before their post?
These members had all served the state in an administrative or military capacity as elected magistrates, and were well placed to discuss issues of state and issue advice to both the magistrates and people.
What responsibility did Senators have in foreign policy?
- They were appointed governors to provinces,
- Received foreign embassies.
What was a senatus consultum?
‘By decree of the Senate’
A decision of the Senate was not a law; rather it was an opinion or piece of advice. However, an SC usually carried enough authority to sway the voting people to approve it as a law, or for a magistrate to take the advice and to act upon it. It was in the magistrates’ interest to maintain the prestige of the body to which they belonged. Therefore, magistrates tended to abide by senatorial opinion and be conservative in outlook.
What happened within the Senatorial body?
Within the 600 senators, a few powerful families formed temporary and shifting factions to keep power to themselves. Those who had a consul in their family tree considered themselves noble. These families tended to support their own relatives to the top positions.
How long were the executive magistrates in their position for?
Were elected for one year and always with colleagues so that no one man could have sole authority.
What was the order of positions in the Cursus Honorum?
- Quaestor,
- Aedile,
- Praetor,
- Consul.
What was the role of quaestor?
- Twenty elected annually, minimum age of thirty,
- Position gained entry into the senate for an individual. Two remained at Rome in charge of the treasury, the remainder served abroad as deputies to provincial governors.
What was the role of the aedile?
- Four elected annually, with a minimum age of 36,
- They were responsible for the public buildings, street markets, the food supply to Rome and certain games,
- This was not an essential step in the cursus honorum, but it was a useful one, especially because of the connection with food distributions and games, as these allowed the aedile to practise largesse towards the urban poor.
What was the role of the praetor?
- Eight elected annually, minimum age of 39,
- Their primary function was judicial, presiding over the standing law courts,
- Possessed imperium - the power to command, both militarily and by imposition of the law,
- Could command troops and preside over assemblies,
- On completion of their terms in office, most went on to govern a province where, within the confines of their province, they retained their imperium as pro-praetore - in the place of a praetor.
What was the role of the consul?
- Two elected annually, with a minimum age of 42,
- The chief magistrates of the land,
- Chief function was to preside over the senatorial debate and some public assemblies,
- Possessed imperium and could command armies in times of crisis,
- On completion of their term in office, most governed a province with proconsular imperium,
- Ex-consuls were very influential in the Senate.
Who were the tribunes?
- There were 10 tribunes,
- Had to be plebeian,
- Often aspiring politicians would hold the post as a way of getting themselves known to the poor,
- Traditionally, the post had been responsible for defending the people against the excesses of the magistrates.
What was the role of the tribunes?
- Had the right to veto proposed laws,
- The tribunes person was sacrosanct, they could not be physically be intimidated. This enabled the tribunes to intervene on behalf of the citizens.
What were the three assemblies of the people?
- The comitia centuriata,
- The comitia populi tributa,
- The consilium plebis.
What was the Comitia Centuriata?
- Organised into 193 centuries of voters, subdivided into seven classes according to wealth,
- At the top sat the senators and equestrians, then five classes of decreasing wealth until a seventh class with insufficient property to be assessed, who were simply counted according to their person,
- The number of centuries in each class was unequal,
- Inside each century, one man had one vote and then the century brought forward its majority vote,
- This assembly was mostly concerned with electing senior magistrates, the consuls and praetors, although a few special laws were passed through it.
How many equestrian/rich centuries were there? What did this mean?
There were eighteen equestrian centuries, and seventy of the next richest property class. These people voted first, so that they represented 88 of 193 centuries and almost had a majority before the less well-off got to vote. This would have allowed them to dominate voting if they agreed. Competition between rich members of the Senate made this uncommon and required rich politicians to gain the favours of the masses,
How what happened to the poorer members, organisation wise?
- The less well-off were gathered into fewer voting centuries per class with each successive drop off in wealth,
- The seventh class were all enrolled in a single century, so that the poorest members were effectively disenfranchised.
What was the comitia plebis tributa (concilium plebis)?
- Excluded members of the patrician order,
- Presided over by a tribune,
- Very similar to the comitia populi tributa, so much so that it is often confused as to which is being discussed in the ancient sources,
- Elected the quaestors, aedile, and the tribunes,
- One of the main forums through which laws were passed. Often discussed and drafted by the Senate and presented as an SC, where the people were required to actually vote them into law.
What was the comitia populi tributa?
- Presided over by a consul or praetor,
- Very similar to the consilium plebis, so much so that it is often confused as to which is being discussed in the ancient sources,
- Elected the quaestors and aedile,
- One of the main forums through which laws were passed. Often discussed and drafted by the Senate and presented as an SC, where the people were required to actually vote them into law.
How was voting handled in the consilium plebis and comitia populi tributa?
- Every tribesman voted within his tribe,
- There were 35 tribes in total: four urban and 31 rural,
- Because an individual had to be present in Rome to vote, relatively few country people could swing their tribe’s vote, but many more city dwellers were needed to control their four tribes,
- A tribesman was expected to support his patron within the tribe, and as such the rich could still influence the voting in these assemblies, although not as directly as in the comitia centuriata,
- It was typical/acceptable for an individual to remind his tribesmen of their obligations by gifts of dinner or money - legal largesse. If an individual distributed gifts to members of another tribe this was considered bribery.
What factions were formed within the Senate?
- Some individuals coveted power or to hold onto power for longer than the system allowed,
- They might do this through nepotism,
- Additionally, or alternatively, senatorial friends and families grouped together and formed alliances (amicitiae) or factiones (factions). These alliances were often temporary and changing in both membership and purpose,
- Individuals might come together for the purpose of single election campaign or a single issue,
- One amicitia might be at odds with another, and a politician would have to balance conflicting amicitiae.
What two loose groupings were there in Senatorial politics?
- Optimates,
- Populares.
Cicero, pro Sestio 96-7
Who were the optimates?
Literally translating to ‘the best people’, individuals who saw themselves as the defenders of the established order.
Who were the populares?
Those politicians who played to the needs and wants of the poor in order to secure their political support.
Why was Cicero incentivised to polarise politics into two camps?
- Cicero was speaking against his nemesis, the popularis Clodius,
- Whilst defending an associate Sestius on a charge of violence,
- He was incentivised to split politics into two camps, and is therefore not necessarily speaking truthfully.
Outside of Cicero’s passage what is mentioned of this political split? What does this make modern scholars think?
- Outside of this (Pro Sestio 96-97) passage, the use of optimates and populares as antithetical terms is so rare that scholars have debated how far the groups ever really existed,
- There was no defined membership of either group.
Who/what can we consider optimates/populares then?
- There was a common purpose among many of the senatorial order to preserve the status quo and their own privileged position,
- However, competition within the elite also meant that co-ordinated actions were rare,
- These, individuals might consider themselves optimates; we might consider one or more individuals optimates, but ought not to consider all optimates a singular faction,
- Other individuals intent on political power but lacking the elite connections of those who had most influence in the Senate sometimes appealed directly to the people for support in gaining the magistracies and power, these were the populares.
What did the populares offer the people, typically, to win favour?
Land redistribution, debt cancellation, hands out of corn, etc.
What quote of Cicero’s is positive of Populares?
‘Nor should those who promise land to the Roman people, whether they are plotting some secret scheme while they are putting it forward with hope and specious pretence, be reckoned populares.’
He is saying that those who simply used the people weren’t true populares.
(de lege agraria 11.10)
How was law pursued in Rome?
- It was a private matter,
- If an individual was wronged he brought the alleged wrongdoer to court,
- Rich patrons represented the interests of their clients, but these were often reasonably well-off clients,
- The poor had little representation.
How did Sulla reorganise the law?
- Established seven standing courts - quaestiones perpetuae - each one presided over by a praetor,
- These tried cases according to particular crimes: provincial extortion, murder and poisoning, violence, treason, electoral bribery, embezzlement, and fraud,
- These crimes were generally political,
- Accusations of violence also had political uses,
- There were a couple of occasions when extradoarinary proceedings were carried out, outside of the quaestiones perpetuae, such as the trial of Rabirus and the prosecution of Clodius.
Who were the patricians?
Originally the aristocracy, the title passed down by birth. In the distant past they had been the governing body.
Who were the plebians?
Originally the labouring classes, by the late Republic the distinction was mostly gone; it was more a question of status.
What difference was there between patricians and plebians by the late Republic?
- Little difference between the two orders, except for a few positions and access to the Comilium plebis, which was still dependent on being plebian,
- Members of the Senate could be either.
Who were the equestrians?
- One social rank below the Senators,
- The social class from which the senators came,
- richest members of society,
- An individual required HS (abrv. sesterius) in assets to be of equestrian status.
What happened with the urban poor?
- Reliant on hand-outs from the rich and the state,
- Became an important political force abd are generally referred to as the plebs urbana, as opposed to the plebeianss, who could be rich or poor, labourer or magistrate,
- The poor were connected to the rich, equestrians, and senators through the bounds of patronage: a reciprocal relationship whereby richer patrons offered protection to poorer clients in exchange for services,
- Clients (the poor) often worked the land in the community from which their patron originated,
- Patrons expected a morning visit from their clients, this in turn was rewarded with a small daily gift of sustenance, either money or food.
What did patron protection entail?
- Might be legal support in the courts or,
- Representation of their interests in the Senate.
What was ager publicus?
Public land owned by the state often worked by Roman citizens. They had the right to work it but not own it. However, once a family was in possession of public land, it tended to be passed from generation to generation, with money and labour being invested in it.
What happened when land-workers were called to war?
- Poor citizen farmers were called to serve in the army and spend long periods of time away from home,
- Rich land owners began appropriating the land, both that which was owned and the ager publicus which was in the possession of their poor neighbours,
- They did this through purchase, which in this case of ager publicus was not technically possible, or through intimidation.
What would happen for rich land-owners and farming as a result of war?
- War would cause huge influxes of slaves,
- Richer landowners used these slaves to farm their expanding estates, which they called latifundia,
- With expanding conquests came imported grain, the tribute from first Sicily, then Sardinia and Africa was a 10 per cent tithe of their grain production,
- This had the effect of further reducing the profitability of farming in Italy,
- Land-owners turned to olives and vines, both of which were labour intensive, and required the use of slaves to be profitable. All this competition made farming for the poor unattractive and many citizens, those returning to a dilapidated farm from overseas wars, or able to sell up because of rising land values, or simply pushed out by the rich, migrated to Rome.
Who was Tiberius Gracchus?
A tribune in 133 BC.
What did Tiberius Gracchus propose, 133 BC?
- Proposed to redistribute ager publicus occupied, but now owned, by possessores (those in possession of and working ager publicus but not owning it),
- He reaffirmed an old and ignored 500 iugera limit, plus 250 iugera for each of two sons, on possession of this land,
- One iugerum is equivalent to 50 square meters,
- This would mostly have taken land from the rich.
What was T.Gracchus’ concern in this land redistribution?
- Would have alleviated the suffering of the rural poor,
- Gracchus concerns, however, was to ensure enough recruits to the army upon which the Roman state relied.
What happened with his proposed land redistribution?
- Had support among the Senate,
- But chose to take the decision straight to the consilium plebis to enact a law,
- People poured into Rome to vote on this measure: both the poor who were in favour and the rich together with their clients to vote against it.
Who opposed T.Gracchus’ reform?
- Another tribune, Octavius, representing the rich,
- He vetoed the proposals.
What did T.Gracchus do in response to Octavius?
- Proposed a law to depose Octavius,
- In so doing he was infringing on a tribune’s right to veto legislation,
- Tiberius justified his actions as protecting the will of the people.
What did T.Gracchus do once the reform was passed?
- When the land law was passed, Gracchus sought the funds to pay for it from the recently bequeathed kingdom of Attalus in Pergamum,
- This impacted on the traditional sphere of senatorial interest: foreign affairs.
What happened in 123BC?
Tiberius’ brother Gaius Gracchus became tribune. He looked for support beyond the rural poor to include the plebs urbana and the equestrian order. He was re-elected for a second term, leaving him also open to charges of wanting to gain ultimate power.
What happened when T.Gracchus sought re-election?
- In seeking re-election as tribune, he was doing something, not illegal, unconventional,
- He was charged with seeking to make himself king, a title historically hateful to the Romans,
- Tiberius was attacked by a party of senators and killed.
What laws did G.Gracchus have passed?
- Re-affirmed the right of the individual to trial by the people in cases carrying the death penalty, something his brother had been denied,
- Established a corn dole, a distribution of grain at a subsidised price to the poor,
- Established contracts for the collection of the Asian taxes - tax farming. This would be within the traditional role of the Senate,
- Instigated public works, i.e. roads and granaries, acts of large-scale largesse,
- Changed the composition of the juries to include equestrians in the court for provincial extortion, so buying equestrian support,
- Established overseas colonies, to relocate the poor,
- Proposed that citizenship be extended to the Latin people, and Latin status be granted to the rest of Italy.
What was Latin status?
Municipal rights that allowed individuals to trade and marry with Romans. Originally confined to the area close to Rome, by the late Republic this was a way of elevating a community above that of the provincials in the case of Sicily and Transalpine Gaul. Further afield individual towns might enjoy Latin municipal rights. Magistrates in these communities gained Roman citizenship.
What laws of G.Gracchus were hated by the Senate?
- Establishment of overseas colonies and proposal of extension of Latin status and citizenship,
- This caused major condemnation and senatorial opposition such that Gaius failed to be re-elected tribune a third time.
What caused the death of G.Gracchus?
- Opponents passed a law to stop the colonisation of Carthage, which caused Gaius to take up arms,
- The Senate passed for the first time a decree known thereafter as the last decree of the Senate - the senatus consultum ultimatum,
- This allowed magistrates to take up arms to defend the state,
- Gaius and many of his supporters were killed by the magistrates acting under the authority of the SCU, land redistribution petered out, colonisation was abandoned, and the corn dole was reduced.
Who was Marius? What did he do political rank wise?
- An accomplished soldier with an undistinguished early politcal career,
- Against the wishes of his patron, the influential Q.Caeciliis Metellus, successfully gained the consulship in 107BC.
What was Marius?
A novus homo: A new man, the first member of a family to gain entry into the Senate. Additionally, the first member of a family to gain the consulship.
What policy did he enforce upon becoming Consul?
- Stung by the lack of support from his patron,
- Marius took the unprecedented step of persuading the comitia plebis tributa to pass a law appointing him to the command of the war against the African king Jugurtha, which at the time was being directed by Metellus,
- In so doing Marius was challenging not only Metellus but the traditional role of the Senate in deciding overseas commands.
What is Marius credited with doing?
- Recruiting soldiers from the lowest property classification, who had previously been exempt from military service,
- It is thought in modernity that he simply formalised a practice that had gone on for some time,
- This achieved what T.Gracchus had sought to do with his land reform.
What happened upon the defeat of Jugurtha?
- In the face of a threat to Italy by nomadic German tribes,
- Marius was elected as consul an unprecedented further six times,
- Upon his sixth consulship in 100 BC, Marius formed an amicitia with L. Appuleius Saturninus, a popularis tribune.
What did Saturninus propose? How did Saturninus get his proposals passed?
- A land bill that would have benefited Marius’ veterans,
- He also increased the number of recipients of the grain dole,
- Saturninus used street gangs to force through his proposals,
- The establishment countered gangs with gangs. Inthe ensuing violence, a candidate for consulship was killed.
What did Marius do to Saturninus? And how did Saturninus die?
Marius could not ignore his lawlessness. After an SCU was passed, he arrested Saturninus and his followers, holding them in the Senate House. However, he was unable to prevent a mob breaking in via the roof and pelting them to death with roof tiles. After this inglorious event, Marius retired.
