1.
Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
2.
Roman Kingdom
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The Roman Kingdom was the period of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a monarchical form of government of the city of Rome and its territories. The site of the founding of the Roman Kingdom and eventual Republic, the Palatine Hill and hills surrounding it presented easily defensible positions in the wide fertile plain surrounding them. All of these contributed to the success of the city. The Gauls destroyed much of Romes historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC, with no contemporary records of the kingdom existing, all accounts of the kings must be carefully questioned. The insignia of the kings of Rome were twelve lictors wielding the fasces bearing axes, the right to sit upon a Curule chair, the purple Toga Picta, red shoes, of all these insignia, the most important was the purple toga. The imperium of the king was held for life and protected him from ever being brought to trial for his actions. As being the owner of imperium in Rome at the time. Also, the laws that kept citizens safe from magistrates misuse of imperium did not exist during the monarchical period, another power of the king was the power to either appoint or nominate all officials to offices. The king would appoint a tribunus celerum to serve as both the tribune of Ramnes tribe in Rome and as the commander of the personal bodyguard. The king was required to appoint the tribune upon entering office, the tribune was second in rank to the king and also possessed the power to convene the Curiate Assembly and lay legislation before it. Another officer appointed by the king was the praefectus urbi, who acted as the warden of the city. When the king was absent from the city, the prefect held all of the powers and abilities. The king even received the right to be the person to appoint patricians to the Senate. The people knew the king as a mediator between them and the gods and thus viewed the king with religious awe and this made the king the head of the national religion and its chief executive. Having the power to control the Roman calendar, he conducted all religious ceremonies and appointed lower religious offices and it is said that Romulus himself instituted the augurs and was believed to have been the best augur of all. Likewise, King Numa Pompilius instituted the pontiffs and through them developed the foundations of the dogma of Rome. They could only be called together by the king and could discuss the matters the king laid before them. While the Curiate Assembly did have the power to pass laws that had submitted by the king
3.
Roman Republic
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It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
4.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
5.
Principate
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This reflects the principate emperors assertion that they were merely first among equals among the citizens of Rome. The title itself derived from the position of the princeps senatus, although dynastic pretences crept in from the start, formalizing this in a monarchic style remained politically unthinkable. Afterwards, Imperial rule in the Empire is designated as the dominate, initially, the theory implied the first citizen had to earn his extraordinary position by merit in the style that Augustus himself had gained the position of auctoritas. Large distributions of food for the public and charitable institutions were also means that served as popularity boosters while the construction of public works provided employment for the poor. With the fall of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the principate was redefined in formal terms under the Emperor Vespasian, the position of princeps became a distinct entity within the broader – formally still republican – Roman constitution. Under the Antonine dynasty, it was the norm for the Emperor to appoint a successful, in modern historical analysis, this is treated by many authors as an ideal situation, the individual who was most capable was promoted to the position of princeps. Of the Antonine dynasty, Edward Gibbon famously wrote that this was the happiest and most productive period in human history and this first phase was to be followed by, or rather evolved into, the so-called dominate. Richard Alston, Aspects of Roman History, henning Börm, Wolfgang Havener, Octavians Rechtsstellung im Januar 27 v. Chr. und das Problem der „Übertragung“ der res publica. Gedanken zur Periodisierung der römischen Kaiserzeit, kurt A. Raaflaub, Mark Toher, Between Republic and Empire, Interpretations of Augustus and his Principate. Berkeley / Los Angeles / Oxford 1990
6.
Dominate
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The Dominate or late Roman Empire was the despotic later phase of imperial government, following the earlier period known as the Principate, in the ancient Roman Empire. In form, the Dominate is considered to have been more authoritarian, less collegiate, the term Dominate is derived from the Latin dominus, which translates into English as lord or master. Augustus actively discouraged the practice, and Tiberius in particular is said to have reviled it as sycophancy, the Dominate system of government emerged as a response to the 50 years of chaos that is referred to as the Crisis of the Third Century. Further, not all the changes resulted in the Dominate were complete by the time of Diocletian’s abdication in AD305. Consequently, just as the Principate emerged over the period 31 BC through to 14 AD and these bureaucratic machines worked moderately well, and their success might have been extraordinary if the monarchs who directed them had always been men of superior ability. Blots of course and defects there were, especially in the fields of economy, the political creation of the Illyrian Emperors was not unworthy of the genius of Rome. Under the Principate, the position of emperor saw the concentration of various civil and this role was almost always filled by a single individual, and the date that the Potestas tribunicia was conferred onto that person was the point when imperial authority could be exercised. Over the course of the Principate, it common for the emperor to nominate an heir. Further, it was their absence which caused usurpations to occur in response to a local or provincial crisis that traditionally would have dealt with by the emperor. Under the Dominate, the burden of the position was increasingly shared between colleagues, referred to as the Consortium imperii. This original power sharing model lasted from AD289 through to AD324, with Constantine I’s death in AD337, the empire was again shared between multiple augusti, lasting until AD350. The model became a permanent feature of the empire in AD364 with the accession of Valentinian I, barring the 3-year period of solitary rule by Theodosius I from AD 392–395, this approach would last until the overthrow of the last western emperor in AD476. While each augustus was autonomous within each portion of the empire they managed, during the Roman Republic, the office of Consul was the highest elected magistry in the Roman state, with two consuls elected annually. It was a post that would be occupied by a man halfway through his career, in his early thirties for a patrician, if they were especially skilled or valued, they may even have achieved a second consulate. Prior to achieving the consulate, these already had a significant career behind them. This had the effect of seeing a suffect consulship granted at an age, to the point that by the 4th century, it was being held by men in their early twenties. As time progressed, second consulates, usually ordinary, became far more common than had been the case during the first two centuries, while the first consulship was usually a suffect consulate, II when they were later granted an ordinary consulship by the emperor. One of the key changes in the management of the empire during the Dominate was the large scale removal of old-style senatorial participation in administrative, the process began with the reforms of Gallienus, who removed senators from military commands, placing them in the hands of the Equites
7.
Western Roman Empire
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Theodosius I divided the Empire upon his death between his two sons. As the Roman Republic expanded, it reached a point where the government in Rome could not effectively rule the distant provinces. Communications and transportation were especially problematic given the vast extent of the Empire, for this reason, provincial governors had de facto rule in the name of the Roman Republic. Antony received the provinces in the East, Achaea, Macedonia and Epirus, Bithynia, Pontus and Asia, Syria, Cyprus and these lands had previously been conquered by Alexander the Great, thus, much of the aristocracy was of Greek origin. The whole region, especially the cities, had been largely assimilated into Greek culture. Octavian obtained the Roman provinces of the West, Italia, Gaul, Gallia Belgica and these lands also included Greek and Carthaginian colonies in the coastal areas, though Celtic tribes such as Gauls and Celtiberians were culturally dominant. Lepidus received the province of Africa. Octavian soon took Africa from Lepidus, while adding Sicilia to his holdings, upon the defeat of Mark Antony, a victorious Octavian controlled a united Roman Empire. While the Roman Empire featured many distinct cultures, all were often said to experience gradual Romanization, minor rebellions and uprisings were fairly common events throughout the Empire. Conquered tribes or cities would revolt, and the legions would be detached to crush the rebellion, while this process was simple in peacetime, it could be considerably more complicated in wartime, as for example in the Great Jewish Revolt. In a full-blown military campaign, the legions, under such as Vespasian, were far more numerous. To ensure a commanders loyalty, an emperor might hold some members of the generals family hostage. To this end, Nero effectively held Domitian and Quintus Petillius Cerialis, governor of Ostia, the rule of Nero ended only with the revolt of the Praetorian Guard, who had been bribed in the name of Galba. The Praetorian Guard, a sword of Damocles, were often perceived as being of dubious loyalty. Following their example, the legions at the increased participation in the civil wars. The main enemy in the West was arguably the Germanic tribes behind the rivers Rhine, Augustus had tried to conquer them but ultimately pulled back after the Teutoburg reversal. The Parthian Empire, in the East, on the hand, was too remote. Those distant territories were forsaken to prevent unrest and also to ensure a more healthy, the Parthians were followed by the Sasanian Empire, which continued hostilities with the Roman Empire
8.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
9.
Empire of Trebizond
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The Empire of Trebizond or the Trapezuntine Empire was a monarchy that flourished during the 13th through 15th centuries, consisting of the far northeastern corner of Anatolia and the southern Crimea. The Emperors of Trebizond pressed their claim on the Imperial throne for decades after the Nicaean reconquest of Constantinople in 1261, the Trapezuntine monarchy survived the longest of the Byzantine successor states. The Despotate of Epirus was slowly decimated, and briefly occupied by the restored Byzantine Empire c. 1340, thereafter becoming a Serbian dependency and later inherited by Italians, ultimately falling to the Ottoman Empire in 1479, having long ceased to contest the Byzantine throne. While the Empire of Nicaea had become the resurrected Byzantine Empire, the Empire of Trebizond continued until 1461 when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II conquered it after a month-long siege and took its ruler and his family into captivity. The Crimean Principality of Theodoro, an offshoot of Trebizond, lasted another 14 years and its demographic legacy endured for several centuries after the Ottoman conquest in 1461 and the region retained a substantial number of Greek Orthodox inhabitants until 1923. These are usually referred to as Pontic Greeks and their displacement was formalized, and the few still remaining were required to leave, in 1923 with the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Many were resettled in Greek Macedonia and those living in the Crimea and the Russian province of Kars Oblast, much of which lies in modern Georgia, stayed longer, with some Greek speaking villages remaining in both locations today. Anthony Bryer has argued that six of the seven banda of the Byzantine theme of Chaldia were maintained in working order by the rulers of Trebizond until the end of the empire, helped by geography. This territory corresponds to an area comprising all or parts of the modern Turkish provinces of Sinop, Samsun, Ordu, Giresun, Trabzon, Bayburt, Gümüşhane, Rize, and Artvin. In the 13th century, some believe the empire controlled the Gazarian Perateia. However, after Michael VIII Palaiologos of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople in 1261, in 1282, John II Komnenos stripped off his imperial regalia before the walls of Constantinople before entering to marry Michaels daughter and accept his legal title of despot. However, his successors used a version of his title, Emperor and Autocrat of the entire East, of the Iberians, rulers of Trebizond were also known as Prince of Lazes. Its wealth and exotic location endowed a lingering fame on the polity, cervantes described the eponymous hero of his Don Quixote as imagining himself for the valour of his arm already crowned at least Emperor of Trebizond. Rabelais had his character Picrochole, the ruler of Piedmont, declare, other allusions and works set in Trebizond continue into the 20th century. The city of Trebizond was the capital of the theme of Chaldia, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos confirmed him as governor of Chaldia, but kept his son at Constantinople as a hostage for his good conduct. Nevertheless, Gabras proved himself a worthy guardian by repelling a Georgian attack on Trebizond, one of his successors, Gregory Taronites also rebelled with the aid of the Sultan of Cappadocia, but he was defeated and imprisoned, only to be made governor once more. Another successor to Theodore was Constantine Gabras, whom Niketas describes as ruling Trebizond as a tyrant, although that effort came to nothing, this was the last rebel governor known to recorded history prior to the events of 1204. Henceforth, the links between Trebizond and Georgia remained close, but their nature and extent have been disputed, both men were the grandsons of the last Komnenian Byzantine emperor, Andronikos I Komnenos, by his son Manuel Komnenos and Rusudan, daughter of George III of Georgia
10.
Roman Constitution
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The Roman Constitution was an uncodified set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The Roman constitution was not formal or even official, largely unwritten, concepts that originated in the Roman constitution live on in both forms of government to this day. Examples include checks and balances, the separation of powers, vetoes, filibusters, quorum requirements, term limits, impeachments, the powers of the purse, and regularly scheduled elections. Even some lesser used modern constitutional concepts, such as the bloc voting found in the college of the United States. Over the years, the Roman constitution continuously evolved, by 573 BC, the Constitution of the Roman Kingdom had given way to the Constitution of the Roman Republic. By 27 BC, the Constitution of the Roman Republic had given way to the Constitution of the Roman Empire, by 300 AD, the Constitution of the Roman Empire had given way to the Constitution of the Late Roman Empire. The actual changes, however, were quite gradual, together, these four constitutions formed four epochs in the continuous evolution of one master constitution. The Roman senate was the most permanent of all of Romes political institutions and it was probably founded before the first king of Rome ascended the throne. It survived the fall of the Roman Kingdom in 510 BC, the fall of the Roman Republic in 27 BC, and it was, in contrast to many modern institutions named Senate, not a legislative body. The power of the senate waxed and waned throughout its history, during the days of the kingdom, it was little more than an advisory council to the king. The last king of Rome, the tyrant Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was following a coup détat that was planned in the senate. During the early republic, the senate was politically weak, during these early years, the executive magistrates were quite powerful. The transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was more gradual than the legends suggest. Thus, it took a prolonged weakening of these executive magistrates before the senate was able to assert its authority over those magistrates, by the middle republic, the senate reached the apex of its republican power. This occurred because of the convergence of two factors, the plebeians had recently achieved full political enfranchisement. Therefore, they were not as aggressive as they had been during the republic in pushing for radical reforms. In addition, the period was marked by prolonged warfare against foreign enemies, the result was that both the popular assemblies and the executive magistrates deferred to the collective wisdom of the senate. The late republic saw a decline in the senates power and this decline began following the reforms of the radical tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
11.
Constitution of the Roman Kingdom
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The Constitution of the Roman Kingdom was an unwritten set of guidelines and principles originating mainly through precedent. During the years of the Roman Kingdom, the arrangement was centered on the king, who had the power to appoint assistants. The Roman Senate, which was dominated by the aristocracy, served as the council to the king. Often, the king asked the Senate to vote on various matters, the king could also request a vote on various matters by the popular assembly, which he was also free to ignore. The popular assembly functioned as a vehicle through which the People of Rome could express their opinions, in it, the people were organized according to their respective curiae. However, the assembly did have other functions. For example, it was a used by citizens to hear announcements. It could also serve as a court for both civil and criminal matters. The period of the kingdom can be divided into two based on the legends. While the specific legends were probably not true, they were based on historical fact. It is likely that, before the founding of the republic, the first legendary epoch spans the reigns of the first four legendary kings. The city fought several wars of conquest, the port of Ostia was founded, the early Romans were divided into three ethnic groups, the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres. The original patrician families belonged to ethnic groups. In an attempt to add a level of organization to the city, the vehicle through which the early Romans expressed their democratic impulses was known as a committee. The two principal assemblies that formed were known as the Curiate Assembly and the Calate Assembly, the two assemblies were designed to mirror the ethnic divisions of the city and, as such, the assemblies were organized according to curia. The vehicle through which the early Romans expressed their aristocratic impulses was a council of town elders, the elders of this council were known as patres, and thus are known to history as the first Roman senators. The populus and the elders eventually recognized the need for a political leader. The populus elected the rex, and the elders advised the rex, the second epoch spans the reigns of the last three legendary kings
12.
Constitution of the Roman Republic
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The constitution of the Roman Republic was a set of guidelines and principles by which the Roman Republic was governed. The constitution evolved over time and was largely unwritten and uncodified, nevertheless, the constitution was also shaped by the body of written Roman law. The aristocratic element took the form of the Senate, the monarchical element took the form of the term-limited consuls. The ultimate source of sovereignty in this ancient republic, as in modern republics, was the people of Rome, the Roman people gathered into legislative assemblies to pass laws and to elect executive magistrates, such as consuls. The Senate managed the affairs in Rome, while magistrates presided over the courts. Executive magistrates enforced the law and presided over the Senate and the legislative assemblies, a complex set of checks and balances developed between these three branches, so as to minimize the risk of tyranny and corruption, and to maximize the likelihood of good government. A constitutional crisis began in 133 BC as a result of the Conflict of the Orders, many years later this led to the collapse of the Roman Republic and its subversion into a much more autocratic form of government, the Roman Empire. The republican constitution evolved gradually over time, largely shaped by the Conflict of the Orders between the patricians and the plebs and this lack of evidence poses problems for the reliability of the traditional account of the republics origins. According to this account, Rome had been ruled by a succession of kings. The Romans believed that this era, that of the Roman Kingdom, began in 753 BC, after the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the Roman Republic, the people of Rome began electing two consuls each year. According to the fasti, the first consuls were chosen in 509 BC. According to historian Andrew Lintott, some doubt this traditional account. They argue that instead of being overthrown, the monarchy evolved into a government led by elected magistrates, remnants of the monarchy, however, were reflected in republican institutions, such as the office of rex sacrorum and the interregnum. In 501 BC, the office of dictator was first created to control popular unrest. In the year 494 BC, the plebeians seceded to the Mons Sacer, the patricians agreed, and the plebeians ended their secession. The plebeians called these new officials plebeian tribunes and gave these tribunes two assistants, called plebeian aediles, in 449 BC, the Senate, in an effort to satisfy the plebeians, promulgated the Twelve Tables, the first and only codification of law during the republic. In 446 BC, quaestors were first elected, and the office of censor was created in 443 BC, in 367 BC, plebeians were allowed to stand for the consulship, and this implicitly opened both the censorship as well as the dictatorship to plebeians. In 366 BC, in an effort by the patricians to reassert their influence over the magisterial offices and these two offices, the praetorship and the curule aedileship, were at first open only to patricians, but within a generation they were open to plebeians as well
13.
Constitution of the Roman Empire
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The Constitution of the Roman Empire was an unwritten set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. After the fall of the Roman Republic, the balance of power shifted from the Roman Senate to the Roman Emperor. Beginning with the first emperor, Augustus, the emperor and the senate were technically two co-equal branches of government, in practice, however the actual authority of the imperial senate was negligible, as the emperor held the true power of the state. During the reign of the second Roman Emperor, Tiberius, the powers that had held by the Roman assemblies were transferred to the senate. The powers of an emperor existed by virtue of his legal standing, the two most significant components to an emperors power were the tribunician powers and the proconsular powers. The tribunician powers gave the authority over Romes civil government. While these distinctions were clearly defined during the empire, eventually they were lost. The traditional magistracies that survived the fall of the republic were the Consulship, Praetorship, Plebeian Tribunate, Aedileship, Quaestorship, any individual of the senatorial class could run for one of these offices. Mark Antony abolished the offices of Roman Dictator and Master of the Horse during his Consulship in 44 BC, in the year 88 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla was elected Consul of the Roman Republic, and began a civil war. While it ended within a decade, it was the first in a series of wars that wouldnt end until the year 30 BC. The general who won the last civil war of the Roman Republic, Gaius Octavian, Octavian was the adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar. In the years after 30 BC, Octavian set out to reform the Roman constitution, the ultimate consequence of these reforms was the abolition of the republic, and the founding of the Roman Empire. When Octavian returned to Rome two years after defeating Mark Antony, no one remained to oppose him, decades of war had taken a terrible toll on the People of Rome. The political situation was unstable, and there was a constant threat of renewed warfare, octavians arrival alone caused a wave of optimism to ripple throughout Italy. As soon as he arrived, he began addressing the problems that were plaguing Rome, octavians popularity soon reached new heights, which ultimately gave him the support he needed to implement his reforms. When Octavian deposed Mark Antony in 32 BC, he resigned his position as triumvir, Octavian wanted to solidify his status as master of the state, but avoid the fate of his adopted father. Octavian was allowed to remain Roman Consul, and was allowed to retain his tribunician powers. This arrangement, in effect, functioned as a ratification of his position within the state
14.
Constitution of the Late Roman Empire
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The Constitution of the Late Roman Empire was an unwritten set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The constitution of the Roman Principate, which was established by the emperor Augustus in the 1st century BC, had governed the Roman Empire for three centuries, Diocletian became emperor in 284, and his reign marked the end of the Principate and the beginning of the Dominate. The constitution of the Dominate ultimately recognized monarchy as the source of power. After Diocletian had reorganized the superstructure of the constitution, he reorganized the administrative apparatus of the government. When Diocletian abdicated the throne in 305, the Empire quickly descended back into chaos, after the chaos had subsided, however, much of Diocletians constitution remained in effect. His division of the Empire into west and east, with each half under the command of a separate emperor, later emperors, especially Constantine the Great, and Justinian modified Diocletians constitution. Under Diocletians new constitution, power was shared between two emperors called Augusti, one Augustus was to rule the western half of the Empire, and the other Augustus was to rule the eastern half of the Empire. Diocletian made Maximian his co-Augustus, and gave him the Western Empire, Diocletian made Nicomedia his capital, and Maximian made Milan his capital. To make the two halves symbolically appear to be one, Diocletian called his territory patres Orientis, while Maximian called his territory patres Occidentis, the Augusti were legally distinct from the old Princeps, because under the Principate, the Princeps took the place of the old republican magistrates. Under the Republic and the Principate, only the Senate and legislative assemblies were continuous institutions, under Diocletians new Dominate, the Augusti took the place of the Senate and the assemblies, and thus any decree of an Augustus remained in force even after that particular emperor left office. Such an act could only be invalidated by a future Emperor, the logical extension of this concept meant that neither a magistrate, the assemblies, nor the senate, could legally restrain the Emperor. The old republican magistrates, as well as the Princeps, both had legal status, under the Republic, the state gave the magistrates the authorization to hold their office, while under the Principate, the state gave the Princeps the legal authorization to be emperor. Any Augusti, in contrast, did not need authorization from the state to be emperor, the higher authority of the Augusti was illustrated by their robes and the imperial diadem, as well as the elaborate ceremony required of anyone who approached them. Unlike the old Princeps, the Augusti were viewed as being more than mortal and these honors had, in the past, been reserved only for the Gods. While emperors had received honors in the past, they only received these honors after their death, and yet. In 293, Diocletian and Maximian appointed two Caesares, which resulted in an arrangement known as the Tetrarchy, the Caesares were subordinate to their Augusti, and the only authority that they had was that which had been given to them by their Augusti. Their status was so inferior to the Augusti that they received a fixed salary, the powers that were delegated to them usually included the right to hear appeals, and a set of provinces were often assigned to them so that they could supervise the governors of those provinces. The reason why Diocletian created the office of Caesar was to create a method by which orderly successions could occur, so that when one Augustus died, when a new Caesar was appointed, his Augustus adopted him
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Roman Senate
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The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, during the days of the kingdom, it was little more than an advisory council to the king. The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was following a coup détat led by Lucius Junius Brutus. During the early Republic, the Senate was politically weak, while the executive magistrates were quite powerful, since the transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was most likely gradual, it took several generations before the Senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle Republic, the Senate had reached the apex of its republican power, the late Republic saw a decline in the Senates power, which began following the reforms of the tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. After the transition of the Republic into the Principate, the Senate lost much of its power as well as its prestige. Following the constitutional reforms of the Emperor Diocletian, the Senate became politically irrelevant, when the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the Senate was reduced to a municipal body. This decline in status was reinforced when the emperor Constantine the Great created an additional senate in Constantinople, the Senate in Rome ultimately disappeared at some point after AD603, although the title senator was still used well into the Middle Ages as a largely meaningless honorific. However, the Eastern Senate survived in Constantinople, until the ancient institution finally vanished there c. 14th century, the senate was a political institution in the ancient Roman kingdom. The word senate derives from the Latin word senex, which means old man, the early Roman family was called a gens or clan, and each clan was an aggregation of families under a common living male patriarch, called a pater. When the early Roman gentes were aggregating to form a common community, over time, the patres came to recognize the need for a single leader, and so they elected a king, and vested in him their sovereign power. When the king died, that power naturally reverted to the patres. The senate is said to have created by Romes first king, Romulus. The descendants of those 100 men subsequently became the patrician class, Romes fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, chose a further 100 senators. They were chosen from the leading families, and were accordingly called the patres minorum gentium. Romes seventh and final king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, executed many of the men in the senate. During the years of the monarchy, the senates most important function was to new kings. While the king was elected by the people, it was actually the senate who chose each new king
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Roman assemblies
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The Roman Assemblies were institutions in ancient Rome. They functioned as the machinery of the Roman legislative branch, since the assemblies operated on the basis of direct democracy, ordinary citizens, and not elected representatives, would cast all ballots. The assemblies were subject to checks on their power by the executive branch. Laws were passed by Curia, Tribes, and Centuries, when the city of Rome was founded, a senate and an assembly, the Curiate Assembly, were both created. The Curiate Assembly was the legislative assembly during the era of the Roman Kingdom. While its primary purpose was to new kings, it also possessed rudimentary legislative powers. Shortly after the founding of the Roman Republic, the legislative authority shifted to two new assemblies, the Tribal Assembly and the Centuriate Assembly. Eventually, most legislative powers were transferred to another assembly, the Plebeian Council, ultimately, it was the Plebeian Council that disrupted the balance between the senate, the legislative branch, and the executive branch. This led to the collapse of the republic, and the founding of the Roman Empire in 27 BC, under the empire, the powers that had been held by the assemblies were transferred to the senate. While the assemblies eventually lost their last semblance of political power, eventually, however, the assemblies were ultimately abandoned. The Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Kingdom were political institutions in the ancient Roman Kingdom, while one assembly, the Curiate Assembly, had some legislative powers, these powers involved nothing more than a right to symbolically ratify decrees issued by the Roman King. The functions of the assembly, the Calate Assembly, were purely religious. During the years of the kingdom, the People of Rome were organized on the basis of units called Curia, all of the People of Rome were divided amongst a total of thirty Curiae. These Curiae were the units of division in the two popular assemblies. The members in each Curia would vote, and the majority in each Curia would determine how that Curia voted before the assembly, thus, a majority of the Curiae were needed during any vote before either the Curiate Assembly or the Calculate Assembly. The Curiate Assembly was an assembly with political significance during the period of the Roman Kingdom. The king presided over the assembly, and submitted decrees to it for ratification, after a king died, the Interrex selected a candidate to replace the king. After the nominee received the approval of the Roman Senate, the Interrex held the election before the Curiate Assembly
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Roman magistrate
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The Roman magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the King of Rome was the executive magistrate. His power, in practice, was absolute and he was the chief priest, lawgiver, judge, and the sole commander of the army. When the king died, his power reverted to the Roman Senate, during the transition from monarchy to republic, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the executive to the Roman Senate. When the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC, the powers that had held by the king were transferred to the Roman consuls. Magistrates of the republic were elected by the people of Rome, Dictators had more major powers than any other magistrate, and after the Dictator was the censor, and then the consul, and then the praetor, and then the curule aedile, and then the quaestor. Any magistrate could obstruct an action that was being taken by a magistrate with an equal or lower degree of magisterial powers, during the transition from republic to empire, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the Roman Senate back to the executive. Theoretically, the senate elected each new emperor, in practice each emperor chose his own successor, the powers of an emperor existed, in theory at least, by virtue of his legal standing. The two most significant components to an emperors imperium were the powers and the proconsular powers. In theory at least, the tribunician powers gave the authority over Romes civil government. While these distinctions were clearly defined during the empire, eventually they were lost. The traditional magistracies that survived the fall of the republic were the consulship, praetorship, plebeian tribunate, aedileship, quaestorship, and military tribunate. Mark Antony abolished the offices of Roman dictator and Master of the Horse during his Consulship in 44 BC, while the offices of Interrex, the executive magistrates of the Roman Kingdom were elected officials of the ancient Roman Kingdom. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman King was the executive magistrate. He was the executive, chief priest, chief lawgiver, chief judge. His powers rested on law and legal precedent, and he could receive these powers through the political process of an election. In practice, he had no restrictions on his power. When war broke out, he had the power to organize and levy troops, to select leaders for the army
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Praetor
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Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities, the commander of an army, or, an elected magistratus, assigned various duties. The prefix prae is an indication that the title-holder was prior, in some way. Livy mentions that the Latini were led and governed in warfare by two of them and the Samnites by one, a dictator was called the praetor maximus. The use of the adjectives in a number of circumstances testify to a general sense. The leadership functions of any body at Rome might be termed praetorial. The praetoria potestas in Republican Rome was at first held by the consuls and these two officials, elected on a yearly basis, inherited the power of the king. Very likely, the king himself was the first praetor, Let there be two with the authority of the king, and let them be called praetors, judges and consuls from their going before, judging and consulting. Let them have the right of command of the military. This etymology of praetor became and remains the standard, cicero considers the word to contain the same elemental parts as the verb praeire. In exactly what way he goes before did not survive, livy explains that in the year 366 BC the praetura was created to relieve the consuls of their judicial duties. The praetor was, in an English sense, the chief justice, the consuls were his peers, he was elected by the same electorate and sworn in on the same day with the same oath. Until 337 BC the praetor was chosen only from the patricians, from then on, praetors appear frequently in Roman history, first as generals and judges, then as provincial governors. Beginning in the late Republic, a former Praetor could serve as a Propraetor, the elected praetor was a magistratus curulis, exercised imperium, and consequently was one of the magistrati majores. He had the right to sit in the sella curulis and wear the toga praetexta and he was attended by six lictors. A praetor was a magistrate with imperium within his own sphere, the potestas and imperium of the consuls and the praetors under the Republic should not be exaggerated. They did not use independent judgment in resolving matters of state, unlike todays executive branches, they were assigned high-level tasks directly by senatorial decree under the authority of the SPQR. Livy describes the assignments given to consuls or praetors in some detail. As magistrates, they had standing duties to perform, especone principle that limited what could be assigned to them was that their duties must not concern them with minima and they were by definition doers of maxima
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Quaestor
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A quaestor was a public official in Ancient Rome. The position served different functions depending on the period, in the Roman Kingdom, quaestores parricidii were appointed by the king to investigate and handle murders. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials that supervised the state treasury and it was the lowest ranking position in the cursus honorum. In modern usage in Italy and Romania, a quaestor is a ranking officer on the police force. In some organizations, a quaestor is the officer that oversees its finances, the earliest quaestors were quaestores parricidii, an office dating back to the Kingdom of Rome. Quaestores parricidii were chosen to investigate crimes, and may have been appointed as needed rather than holding a permanent position. Ancient authors disagree on the manner of selection for this office as well as on its earliest institution. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who supervised the treasury and financial affairs of the state, its armies, the quaestors tasked with financial supervision were also called quaestores aerarii, because they oversaw the aerarium in the Temple of Saturn. The earliest origins of the office is obscure, but by about 420 BC there were four quaestors elected each year by the Comitia Tributa, after 267 BC, the number was expanded to ten. The office of quaestor, usually a former broad-striped tribune, was adopted as the first official post of the cursus honorum, once elected as quaestor, a Roman man earned the right to sit in the Senate and began progressing through the cursus honorum. Quaestors were also given a fasces and were entitled to one lictor, every Roman consul, the highest elected official in the cursus honorum, and every provincial governor was appointed a quaestor. Some quaestors were assigned to work in the city and others in the provinces where their responsibilities could include being recruited into the military, some provincial quaestors were assigned as staff to military generals or served as second-in-command to governors in the Roman provinces. Still others were assigned to oversee military finances, lucius Cornelius Sullas reforms in 81 BC raised the number of quaestors to 20 and the minimum age for a quaestorship was 30 for patricians and 32 for plebeians. There were at that time twenty Quæstors elected annually, some of whom remained in Rome, when a Consul took the field with an army, he always had a Quæstor with him. This had become the case so generally that the Quæstor became, as it were, constantine the Great created the office quaestor sacri palatii which functioned as the Roman Empires senior legal official. The quaestor sacri palatii survived long into the Byzantine Empire, although its duties were altered to match the quaesitor, the term is last attested in 14th century Byzantium as a purely honorific title. Quaestor derives from the Latin verb quaero, quaerere, meaning to inquire, the job title has traditionally been understood as deriving from the original investigative function of the quaestores parricidii. However, this connection has been questioned by modern scholars, in Italy a quaestor heads the police of his province, and his office is called questura
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Promagistrate
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In ancient Rome a promagistrate was an ex consul or ex praetor whose imperium was extended at the end of his annual term of office or later. They were called proconsuls and propraetors and this was an innovation created during the Roman Republic. Initially it was intended to provide military commanders to support the armies of the consuls or to lead an additional army. With the acquisitions of territories outside Italy which were annexed as provinces, proconsuls, a third type of promagistrate were the proquaestors. The first type of promagistrate was the proconsul, in the early days of the Roman Republic, when Roman territory was small, Rome had only two legions, each commanded by one of the two consuls. Rome was continually under attack by neighboring peoples, dionysius of Halicarnassus recorded five instances when a proconsul was appointed between 480 BC and 464 BC. In 480 BC a proconsul led the wing of an army which combined the two consular legions while the consuls led the centre and the other wing. In 478 BC two proconsuls are mentioned, one served under the consul who went to fight the Etruscans in the north. Another one commanded a third legion, an extra legion was deployed so that two enemies in the south could be confronted individually with two armies. In 464 BC a proconsul led a force of volunteers. Dionysius did not specify the role of the proconsuls on the other occasion and it was a temporary measure adopted to deal with an immediate military emergency. In the last of the occasions, the proconsul was appointed by a decree of the senate. It seems that in instances an extra commander was drawn from men who had been previously been consuls because they had prior experience of commanding an army. The concept of promagistracy originally involved the notion of the acting on behalf of a magistrate, pro consule. However, in practice this changed when there was a regular need to create additional military commanders. In 366 BC the office of the praetor was created and this was the citys chief justice. He also had the power to command an army, during the Second Samnite War Rome increased the number of its legions. Several proconsuls were appointed to conduct specific operations, proconsular imperium became an extension of the imperium of a consul
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Aedile
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Aedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and they also had powers to enforce public order. An aedilis curulis was classified as a magister curulis, the office of the aedilis was generally held by young men intending to follow the cursus honorum to high political office, traditionally after their quaestorship but before their praetorship. It was not a part of the cursus, and hence a former quaestor could be elected to the praetorship without having held the position of aedile. The plebeian aediles were created in the year as the Tribunes of the People. Originally intended as assistants to the tribunes, they guarded the rights of the plebs with respect to their headquarters, subsequently, they assumed responsibility for maintenance of the citys buildings as a whole. Their duties at first were simply ministerial and they were the assistants to the tribunes in whatever matters that the tribunes might entrust to them, although most matters with which they were entrusted were of minimal importance. Around 446 BC, they were given the authority to care for the decrees of the senate, when a senatus consultum was passed, it would be transcribed into a document, and deposited in the public treasury, the Aerarium. They were given power because the Roman Consuls, who had held this power before. They also maintained the acts of the Plebeian Council, the plebiscites, plebiscites, once passed, were also transcribed into a physical document for storage. While their powers grew over time, it is not always easy to distinguish the difference between their powers, and those of the Roman Censors, occasionally, if a Censor was unable to carry out one of his tasks, an Aedile would perform the task instead. Curule Aediles, as magistrates, held certain honors that Plebeian Aediles. Besides having the right to sit on a Curule Chair and to wear a toga praetexta and these edicts often pertained to matters such as the regulation of the public markets, or what we might call economic regulation. Livy suggests, perhaps incorrectly, that both Curule as well as Plebeian Aediles were sacrosanct, although the curule aediles always ranked higher than the plebeian, their functions gradually approximated and became practically identical. Within five days after the beginning of their terms, the four Aediles were required to determine, by lot or by agreement among themselves, there was a distinction between the two sets of Aediles when it came to public festivals. Some festivals were Plebeian in nature, and thus were under the superintendence of Plebeian Aediles, other festivals were supervised exclusively by the Curule Aediles, and it was often with these festivals that the Aediles would spend lavishly. This was often done so as to secure the support of voters in future elections, because Aediles were not reimbursed for any of their public expenditures, most individuals who sought the office were independently wealthy. Since this office was a stone to higher office and the Senate
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Tribune
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Tribunus, in English tribune, was the title of various elected officials in Ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes, there were also military tribunes, who commanded portions of the Roman army, subordinate to the higher magistrates, such as the consuls and praetors, promagistrates, and their legates. Various officers within the Roman army were known as tribunes. The title was used for several other positions and classes in the course of Roman history. The word tribune is derived from the Roman tribes, the three original tribes known as the Ramnes or Ramnenses, Tities or Titienses, and the Luceres, were each headed by a tribune, who represented each tribe in civil, religious, and military matters. Subsequently, each of the Servian tribes was represented by a tribune. Under the Roman Kingdom, the Tribunus Celerum, in English Tribune of the Celeres, or Tribune of the Knights, was commander of the personal bodyguard. This official was second only to the king, and had the authority to law, known as lex tribunicia. Unless the king himself elected to lead the cavalry into battle, in theory he could deprive the king of his imperium, or authority to command, with the agreement of the comitia curiata. It was Brutus who convened the comitia and asked that they revoke the kings imperium, the ancient sources indicate the tribunes may have originally been two or five in number. If the former, the college of tribunes was expanded to five in 470 BC, either way, the college was increased to ten in 457 BC, and remained at this number throughout Roman history. They were assisted by two aediles plebis, or plebeian aediles, only plebeians were eligible for these offices, although there were at least two exceptions. The tribunes of the plebs had the power to convene the concilium plebis, or plebeian assembly, only one of the tribunes could preside over this assembly, which had the power to pass laws affecting only the plebeians, known as plebiscita, or plebiscites. After 287 BC, the decrees of the concilium plebis had the effect of law over all Roman citizens, by the 3rd century BC, the tribunes could also convene and propose legislation before the senate. Although sometimes referred to as plebeian magistrates, technically the tribunes of the plebs were not magistrates, having been elected by the plebeians alone, and not the whole Roman people. However, they were sacrosanct, and the body of the plebeians were pledged to protect the tribunes against any assault or interference with their persons during their terms of office. Anyone who violated the sacrosanctity of the tribunes might be killed without penalty, citizens could appeal the decisions of the magistrates to the tribunes, who would then be obliged to determine the legality of the action before a magistrate could proceed. This power also allowed the tribunes to forbid, or veto any act of the senate or another assembly, only a dictator was exempt from these powers
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Roman censor
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The censor was an officer in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the governments finances. The censors regulation of morality is the origin of the modern meaning of the words censor. The census was first instituted by Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome, after the abolition of the monarchy and the founding of the Republic, the consuls had responsibility for the census until 443 BC. It would not be uncommon for the patrician consulars of the republic to intersperse public office with agricultural labour. In Cicero’s words, in agris erant tum senatores, id est senes, ‘In those days senators—that is and this practice was obsolete by the 2nd century. The magistracy continued to be controlled by patricians until 351 BC, twelve years later, in 339 BC, one of the Publilian laws required that one censor had to be a plebeian. Despite this, no plebeian censor performed the solemn purification of the people until 280 BC, in 131 BC, for the first time, both censors were plebeians. The reason for having two censors was that the two consuls had previously taken the census together, if one of the censors died during his term of office, another was chosen to replace him, just as with consuls. This happened only once, in 393 BC, however, the Gauls captured Rome in that lustrum, and the Romans thereafter regarded such replacement as an offense against religion. From then on, if one of the died, his colleague resigned. The censors were elected in the Centuriate Assembly, which met under the presidency of a consul, as a general principle, the only ones eligible for the office of censor were those who had previously been consuls, but there were a few exceptions. At first, there was no law to prevent a person being censor twice, in that year, he originated a law stating that no one could be elected censor twice. In consequence of this, he received the cognomen of Censorinus, the censorship differed from all other Roman magistracies in the length of office. The censors were also unique with respect to rank and dignity and they had no imperium, and accordingly no lictors. Their rank was granted to them by the Centuriate Assembly, and not by the curiae, and in that respect they were inferior in power to the consuls and praetors. Notwithstanding this, the censorship was regarded as the highest dignity in the state, with the exception of the dictatorship, it was a sacred magistracy, to which the deepest reverence was due. In the exercise of power, they were regulated solely by their own views of duty. The censors possessed the official called a curule chair
