Introduction
Ancient Rome (lat. Roma antiqua) is one of the leading civilizations ancient world and antiquity. It is customary to divide the history of Roman society and the state into three main periods: the Royal period (VIII-VI centuries BC); Republican period (VI-I centuries BC); Imperial period (I-V centuries AD). In 509 BC in Rome, after the expulsion of the last (seventh) Rex Tarquinius the Proud, a republic is established.
The Republic is the historical era of Ancient Rome, which combined aristocratic and democratic features, with a significant predominance of the former, which ensured the privileged position of the noble wealthy elite of slave owners. This was reflected in the powers and relationships of higher government agencies.
The study of the history of Roman society - tracing the main patterns of its legal, social, political and cultural development and identifying specific features inherent only in ancient Rome - is of particular interest. The leading problems of the course of the history of the state received the most clear design and completeness in Roman times. If the early republic was characterized by the original forms of slavery, then for the period of the late republic, civil wars, historical content which was the transition from the system of the ancient democratic polis to a totalitarian inflating regime, characterized by a significant increase in the number of slaves, the penetration of slave labor into various spheres of the economic life of the state.
The rise of the Roman state
Ancient Rome (lat. Roma antiqua) - one of the leading civilizations of the Ancient World and antiquity, got its name from the main city (Roma), in turn named after the legendary founder - Romulus. The center of Rome developed within the swampy plain, bounded by the Capitol, the Palatine and the Quirinal. The culture of the Etruscans and the ancient Greeks had a certain influence on the formation of the ancient Roman civilization. Ancient Rome reached the peak of its power in the 2nd century AD, when it controlled the area from modern Scotland in the north to Ethiopia in the south and from Azerbaijan in the east to Portugal in the west.
To the modern world Ancient Rome gave Roman law, some architectural forms and solutions (for example, the arch and dome) and many other innovations (for example, wheeled water mills). Christianity as a religion was born on the territory of the Roman Empire. The official language of the ancient Roman state was Latin, religion for most of the period of existence was polytheistic, the unofficial coat of arms of the empire was the golden eagle (aquila), after the adoption of Christianity, labarums appeared (a banner established by Emperor Constantine for his troops).
It is customary to divide the history of Roman society and the state into three main periods: the Royal period (VIII-VI centuries BC); Republican period (VI-I centuries BC); Imperial period (I-V centuries AD). The last period is further subdivided into principate and dominance. The transition to the dominant dates back to the 3rd century AD.
The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century. The Eastern Empire (Byzantium) fell under the blows of the Turks in the middle of the 15th century.
The political system of Rome during the Republic
In 509 BC in Rome, after the expulsion of the last (seventh) Rex Tarquinius the Proud, a republic is established.
Republic - the historical era of Ancient Rome, characterized by an aristocratic-oligarchic form of government, in which the highest power was concentrated mainly in the senate and consuls. The Latin expression res publica means common cause.
The Roman Republic lasted about five centuries, from the 6th to the 1st century. BC.
During the period of the republic, the organization of power was quite simple, and for some time met the conditions that were in Rome at the time of the emergence of the state. Over the next five centuries of the existence of the republic, the size of the state increased significantly. But this had almost no effect on the structure of the highest organs of the state, which were still located in Rome and carried out centralized administration of vast territories. Naturally, such a situation reduced the effectiveness of management and eventually became one of the reasons for the fall of the republican system.
The Roman Republic combined aristocratic and democratic features, with a significant predominance of the former, which ensured the privileged position of the noble wealthy elite of slave owners. This was reflected in the powers and relationships of the highest state bodies. They were the people's assemblies, the senate and the magistracies. Although popular assemblies were considered the organs of power of the Roman people and were the personification of democracy inherent in the policy, they did not predominantly govern the state. This was done by the senate and magistrates - the bodies of real power of the nobility.
In the Roman Republic, there were three types of popular assemblies - centuriate, tributary and curate.
The main role was played by centuriate meetings, which, thanks to their structure and order, ensured the decision-making of the predominant aristocratic and wealthy circles of slave owners. True, their structure from the middle of the III century. BC. with the expansion of the borders of the state and the increase in the number of freemen, it changed not in their favor: each of the five categories of propertied citizens began to put up an equal number of centuries - 70 each, and the total number of centuries was brought to 373. But the predominance of the aristocracy and wealth still remained, since in centuriae of the higher ranks had far fewer citizens than those of the lower ranks, and the propertyless proletarians, whose numbers had increased considerably, still constituted only one centuria. The competence of the centuriate assembly included the adoption of laws, the election of the highest officials of the republic (consuls, praetors, censors), the declaration of war and the consideration of complaints against sentences to death.
The second type of people's assemblies were tributary assemblies, which, depending on the composition of the inhabitants of the tribes participating in them, were divided into plebeian and patrician-plebeian. At first, their competence was limited. They elected lower officials (quaestors, aediles, etc.) and considered complaints against fines. The plebeian assemblies, in addition, elected a plebeian tribune, and from the 3rd century. BC. they also received the right to pass laws, which led to the growth of their importance in the political life of Rome. But at the same time, as a result of the increase in the number of rural tribes to 31 by this time (with the surviving 4 city tribes, there were a total of 35 tribes), it became difficult for residents of remote tribes to attend meetings, which allowed wealthy Romans to strengthen their positions in these meetings.
Curiat meetings after the reforms of Servius Tullius lost their former importance. They only formally installed persons elected by other assemblies, and were eventually replaced by an assembly of thirty representatives of the curia - lictors.
Popular assemblies in Rome were convened at the discretion of the highest officials, who could interrupt the meeting or postpone it to another day. They also presided over meetings and announced issues to be resolved. Participants of the meeting could not change the proposals made. Voting on them was open, and only at the end of the republican period was a secret ballot introduced (special tables for voting were distributed to the meeting participants). An important, most often decisive, role was played by the fact that the decisions of the centuriate assembly on the adoption of laws and the election of officials in the first century of the existence of the republic were subject to approval by the senate, but also then, when in the 3rd century. BC. this rule was abolished, the senate received the right to preliminary consideration of issues submitted to the assembly, which allowed it to actually direct the activities of the assembly.
Of particular importance in the Roman Republic belonged to the Senate, which had considerable competence, the peak of power of which dates back to 300-135 BC. The Senate (Latin senatus, from senex - old man, council of elders) is one of the highest state authorities in Ancient Rome. It arose from the council of elders of the patrician families at the end of the royal era (about the 6th century BC). With the establishment of the republic, the senate, along with magistrates and popular assemblies (comitia), became an essential element of public life. The Senate included former magistrates for life - thus, the political forces and state experience of Rome were concentrated here.
Senators (in the beginning there were 300 of them, according to the number of patrician families, and in the 1st century BC the number of senators was increased first to 600, and then to 900) were not elected. Special officials - censors, who distributed citizens by centuries and tribes, once every five years compiled lists of senators from representatives of noble and wealthy families, who, as a rule, already occupied the highest government positions. This made the Senate an organ of the top slave-owners, virtually independent of the will of the majority of free citizens.
Members of the Senate were divided into ranks in accordance with their previous positions (consuls, praetors, aediles, tribunes, quaestors). During the discussions, the senators received the floor in accordance with these ranks. At the head of the Senate was the most honored, the first of the senators - princeps (princeps senatus).
During the period of the Republic, during the class struggle between the plebeians and the patricians (V-III centuries BC), the power of the Senate was somewhat limited in favor of the comitia (people's assemblies).
Formally, the Senate was an advisory body, and its resolutions were called senatus-consuls. But the competence of the Senate was extensive. He, as indicated, controlled the legislative activity of the centuriate (and later plebeian) assemblies, approving their decisions, and subsequently preliminary considering (and rejecting) bills. In exactly the same way, the election of officials by the people's assemblies was controlled (at first by the approval of the elected, and later by the candidates). The circumstance that the treasury of the state was at the disposal of the Senate played an important role. He established taxes and determined the necessary financial expenses. The competence of the Senate included decisions on public security, improvement and religious worship. The foreign policy powers of the Senate were of great importance. If war was declared by the centuriate assembly, then the peace treaty, as well as the treaty of alliance, was approved by the senate. He also allowed recruitment into the army and distributed the legions among the commanders of the armies. Finally, in emergency circumstances (a dangerous war, a powerful uprising of slaves, etc.), the senate could decide to establish a dictatorship.
Thus, the Senate actually exercised leadership of the state.
The resolutions of the senate (s. c., senatus consulta) had the force of law, as well as the resolutions of the popular assembly and the assembly of the plebeians - the plebiscite.
According to Polybius (i.e. from the point of view of the Romans), decisions in Carthage were made by the people (plebs), and in Rome - by the best people, that is, the Senate.
The Roman Republic at all its stages was slave-owning in its historical type and aristocratic in its form of government.
During the dawn of the republic, the heads of families from the senatorial class - nobles - were considered the most privileged. They also owned large tracts of land. The property qualification for such citizens reached a million sesterces (a small silver coin).
The second class were horsemen, whose property qualification was 400 thousand sesterces. Representatives of the first two estates enjoyed the advantage of holding positions, they could have their own stretchers, boxes in the theater, wear gold rings.
Lower rank were the decurions, middle-sized landowners, former magistrates who ruled the city.
The most important stages the struggle between the plebeians and the patricians began: the establishment in 494 BC. positions of the plebeian (people's) tribune. Elected by the plebeians, 10 tribunes did not participate in the administration, but could veto the order of any official.
In 451-450 BC. laws of the XII tables are issued, which limits the possibility of arbitrary interpretation of law by patrician magistrates. From 449 BC plebeian meetings could pass laws. From 445 BC Marriages between plebeians and patricians were allowed. This opened access for the plebeians to the highest magistracy and the senate. Previously, they were not allowed to these positions, since it was believed that only a patrician consul could perform sacred divination (auspices).
The Roman Republic is characterized by a system of checks and balances: two consuls, two meetings, the responsibility of magistrates for abuses, their actions within strictly defined deadlines; separation of the judiciary from the executive.
The Senate consisted of 300 members, which included the richest, eminent members of the patrician families, persons who had previously held the highest positions in the magistracy, as well as those who had rendered great services to the state. Over time, according to the law of Ovinius, representatives of the plebeians began to be elected to the senate. In 367 BC it was established that one of the two consuls was to be chosen from among the plebeians. In 289 BC. Hortensia (dictator) law was adopted, which actually equalized the powers of the plebeian assemblies with the centuriate assemblies.
In Rome, magistracies were public positions. As in ancient Athens, in Rome there were certain principles for the replacement of magistracies. Such principles were electivity, urgency, collegiality, gratuitousness and responsibility. All magistrates (except the dictator) were elected by centuriates or tributary assemblies for one year. This rule did not apply to dictators, whose term of office could not exceed six months. In addition, the powers of the consul who commanded the army, in the event of an unfinished military campaign, could be extended by the Senate. As in Athens, all magistracies were collegiate - several people were elected to one position (one dictator was appointed). But the specifics of collegiality in Rome was that each magistrate had the right to make his own decision. This decision could be overruled by his colleague (right of intercession). The magistrates did not receive remuneration, which, naturally, closed the path to the magistracy (and then to the Senate) for the poor and the poor. At the same time, magistracy, especially at the end of the republican period, became a source of significant income. The magistrates (with the exception of the dictator, censor and tribune of the plebs) upon the expiration of their term of office could be held accountable by the popular assembly that elected them.
It is necessary to note another significant difference between the Roman magistracy - the hierarchy of positions (the right of a higher magistrate to cancel the decision of a lower one). The power of the magistrates was divided into the highest (imperium) and general (potestas). The imperium included supreme military power and the right to conclude a truce, the right to convene and preside over the senate and popular assemblies, the right to issue orders and enforce their execution, the right to judge and impose punishment. This power belonged to the dictator, consuls and praetors. The dictator had the "supreme imperium" (summum imperium), which included the right to sentence to death, not subject to appeal. The consul owned a large imperium (majus imperium) - the right to pronounce the death sentence, which could be appealed to the centuriate assembly if it was pronounced in the city of Rome, and was not subject to appeal if it was pronounced outside the city. The praetor had a limited imperium (imperium minus) - without the right to sentence to death.
The power of the potestas was vested in all magistrates and included the power to issue orders and impose fines for non-compliance.
Masters were divided into ordinary (ordinary) and extraordinary (extraordinary). Ordinary magistracies included the positions of consuls, praetors, censors, quaestors, aediles, etc.
The consuls (two consuls were elected in Rome) were the highest magistrates and headed the entire system of magistracies. Particularly significant were the military powers of the consuls: recruitment and command of the army, the appointment of military leaders, the right to conclude a truce and dispose of military booty. Praetors appeared in the middle of the 4th century. BC. as assistant consuls. Due to the fact that the latter, commanding armies, were often absent from Rome, the administration of the city and, most importantly, the leadership of the judiciary, which made it possible, by virtue of the imperium they had, to issue generally binding decrees and thereby create new rules of law, passed to the praetors. At first, one praetor was elected, then two, one of which considered the cases of Roman citizens (city praetor), and the other - cases involving foreigners (praetor Peregrines). Gradually the number of praetors increased to eight.
Two censors were elected once every five years to compile lists of Roman citizens, distribute them into tribes and ranks, and to compile a list of senators. In addition, their competence included monitoring morality and issuing appropriate edicts. The quaestors, who were at first assistants to the consuls without special competence, eventually began to be in charge (under the control of the senate) of financial expenses and the investigation of certain criminal cases. Their number, accordingly, grew and by the end of the republic reached twenty. The aediles (there were two of them) observed the public order in the city, trade in the market, organized festivities and spectacles.
The colleges of "twenty-six men" consisted of twenty-six people who were part of five colleges in charge of overseeing prisons, minting money, clearing roads, and some court cases.
A special place among the masters was occupied by the plebeian tribunes. Their right of veto played a big role in the period when the struggle of the plebeians for equality came to an end. Then, as the role of the Senate increased, the activity of the plebeian tribunes began to decline, and the attempt of Gaius Gracchus in the 2nd century. BC. strengthen it ended in failure.
Extraordinary magistracies were created only in emergency circumstances threatening the Roman state with particular danger - a difficult war, a great uprising of slaves, serious internal unrest. The dictator was appointed at the suggestion of the Senate by one of the consuls. He had unlimited power, to which all magistrates were subject. The right of veto of the plebeian tribune did not apply to him, the orders of the dictator were not subject to appeal, and he was not responsible for his actions. True, in the first centuries of the existence of the republic, dictatorships were introduced not only in emergency circumstances, but to solve specific problems and the powers of the dictator were limited to the scope of this task. Outside it, ordinary magistracies operated. During the heyday of the republic, almost no resort was made to dictatorship. The term of the dictatorship was not to exceed six months. At the same time, during the crisis of the republic, this rule was violated and even life-long dictatorships appeared (the dictatorship of Sulla “for issuing laws and organizing the state”).
Extraordinary magistracies can also include commissions of decemvirs, formed during one of the upsurges in the struggle of the plebeians for their rights to prepare the Laws of the XII tables, created in 450-451. BC.
The period of the republic is a period of intensive upward development of production, which led to significant social changes, which were reflected in the change in the legal status of certain groups of the population. Successful wars of conquest played a significant role in this process, steadily expanding the boundaries of the Roman state, turning it into a powerful world power.
The very creation of centuriate assemblies, consisting of armed soldiers, meant the recognition of the role of military force in the emerging state. The enormous expansion of its limits, achieved by armed means, testified both to the role of the army and to the growth of its political significance. And the very fate of the republic was largely in the hands of the army.
Rome's initial military organization was simple. There was no standing army. All citizens from 18 to 60 years old who had a property qualification were required to participate in hostilities (moreover, clients could perform military duties instead of patrons). Warriors on a campaign had to come with their weapons, corresponding to their property qualification, and food. As noted above, each category of wealthy citizens exhibited certain number Centuries united in legions. The senate gave command of the army to one of the consuls, who could transfer command to the praetor. At the head of the legions were military tribunes, centurions were commanded by centurions, detachments of cavalry (decuria) were led by decurions. If hostilities lasted more than a year, the consul or praetor retained his right to command the army.
Great military activity led to changes in the military organization. From 405 BC volunteers appeared in the army, who began to pay salaries. In the III century. BC. in connection with the reorganization of the centuriate assembly, the number of centuries increased. Up to 20 legions were formed on their basis. In addition, legions appear from the allies, municipalities organized by Rome and provinces annexed to it. In the II century. BC. they already accounted for up to two-thirds of the Roman army. At the same time, the property qualification, which was associated with military duty, was lowered.
The duration and frequency of wars makes the army a permanent organization. They also caused growing dissatisfaction with the main contingent of soldiers - the peasantry, distracted from their farms, falling into decay because of this. There is a need to reorganize the army. It was carried out by Marius in 107 BC.
Military reform Maria, while retaining the military service of Roman citizens, allowed the recruitment of volunteers who received weapons and salaries from the state. In addition, the legionnaires were entitled to part of the military booty, and from the 1st century. BC. veterans could receive lands in Africa, Gaul and Italy (at the expense of confiscated and free lands). The reform significantly changed the social composition of the army - most of it now consisted of people from the poor and the poor, whose dissatisfaction with their own position and the existing order was growing. The army professionalized, became permanent and became an independent declassed political force, and the commander, on whose success the well-being of the legionnaires depended, became a major political figure.
The first consequences came soon. Already in 88 BC. under Sulla, for the first time in Roman history, the army opposed the existing government and overthrew it. For the first time, the Roman army entered Rome, although according to ancient tradition, the carrying of weapons and the appearance of troops in the city was prohibited.
For several centuries, Rome waged aggressive wars. He succeeded by the beginning of the 1st century. BC. capture vast territories. In addition to Italy, Rome ruled in Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, North Africa, Macedonia, and partly in Asia Minor. An immense slaveholding power arose. A huge number of slaves entered the markets of Rome. After the capture of Carthage (149-146 BC), 50 thousand prisoners were handed over into slavery. The cheapness of slaves made it possible to use them in agriculture on a much larger scale than before.
Only free-born Roman citizens had full legal capacity. Freedmen, who could also be Roman citizens, were limited by a number of political and private rights, remaining in a certain dependence (clientele) from their former masters (patrons).
Among the free, who did not have Roman citizenship, were assigned Latins and peregrines. Latins were called inhabitants of Italy, not included in the Roman community. They were deprived of political rights, in some cases they could not marry Roman citizens. But their property rights and the right to judicial protection were recognized. In the 1st century BC. after the allied wars, Latins and Roman citizens were equalized in their rights. Peregrines were called foreigners, as well as residents of the Roman provinces, who did not have either Roman or Latin legal capacity. Since they could not use the norms of Roman law, a special set of norms was developed - the law of peoples, and the position of a peregrine praetor was established to protect property rights. In 212 AD Emperor Caracalla granted the rights of Roman citizens to all inhabitants of the Roman provinces.
Slaves had no rights, were considered talking tools. The sources of slavery were captivity, birth from a slave, debt slavery in Rome was not widespread, and in the III century. BC. was cancelled. The master was not responsible for killing the slave. Fearing new uprisings of slaves, the ruling class was forced to make some reforms. Emperor Hadrian (II century) issued a decree according to which the owner had to pay a fine for the unreasonable murder of a slave. The most cruel masters were forced to sell their slaves. Later, individual slaves were allowed to have their own property, purchase ships, and open trading establishments. It was possible to be freed from slavery only with the consent of the master.
The main social base of the republic was weakening. The dissatisfaction of the peasants coincided with a powerful uprising of slaves in Sicily (73-71 BC), the uprising of Spartacus, etc. The six-year war with the Numidians, the invasion of the Chimers and Teutons required the mobilization of all forces. Military resources were at the limit. This testified to the deep crisis of the republic.
In 82 BC the commander Sula occupied Rome. According to pre-compiled lists of "suspicious" were destroyed thousands of Republicans. These lists are called proscriptional lists. Proscription lists have since become a symbol of lawlessness and cruelty. Sulla forced the popular assembly to elect him dictator, and the first term of the dictatorship was not limited. An additional 300 members from among the supporters of the dictator were appointed to the Senate. Sulla became the absolute ruler of Rome.
The gradual elimination of republican institutions continued during the civil war (I century BC). Under Caesar, an additional 300 of his supporters entered the Senate. As a result, this body had 900 members. Caesar for his victories received the title of permanent dictator and pontiff, and in 45 BC. he was given the title of emperor. He could single-handedly exercise supreme power, declare war and make peace, manage the treasury, and command the army.
The moral decay of the nobility forced Caesar (100-44 BC) to take on functions that were not entirely characteristic of his position. Laws were introduced against luxury, depravity, drunkenness, and a riotous lifestyle. The control over their implementation (as well as the observation of women of easy virtue) was assigned to a specially created morality police, but the work was carried out ineffectively.
The final decline of the republic and the transfer of power into the hands of one man occurred shortly after the assassination of Caesar (44 BC). His distant relative Octavian succeeded in completely subjugating all the former institutions.
Conclusion
Ancient Rome - one of the largest slave-owning states - left the brightest mark in the history of mankind. His cultural heritage had a profound influence on the entire subsequent development of European civilization. Thanks to the creation and fixation of an extensive system of obligatory legal norms, it achieved significant results that had a decisive influence on the legal thought of the Middle Ages and the New Age, and which undoubtedly belong to the most outstanding achievements of the Romans.
The sources of knowledge about the state and law of Ancient Rome are the monuments of legislation that have come down to us (the laws of the XII tables, the Code of Ferdosius, the Code of Justinian, etc.); writings of Roman lawyers (Gaius, Paul, Ulpian, etc.); historians (Tita Livius, Tacitus, Aulus Helius, Flavius, etc.), philosophers and orators (Cicero, Seneca, etc.), writers (Plavt, Terence, etc.), as well as numerous documents (papyri, epitaphs, etc. .).
Historical tradition connects the founding of the city of Rome, and hence the Roman state, by Romulus and Remus from 753 BC. The duration of Roman history is estimated at 12 centuries. During such a long existence, the Roman state and law did not remain unchanged, they went through a certain path of development.
In Rome, the emergence of classes and the state was greatly influenced by the long struggle of two groups of free members of the tribal society - patricians and plebeians. As a result of the victories of the latter, democratic orders were established in it: the equality of all free citizens, the opportunity for everyone to be both a landowner and a warrior, etc. However, by the end of the 2nd century. BC. internal contradictions intensified in the Roman Empire, which led to the creation of a powerful state machine and the transition from a republic to an empire.
List of used literature
1. General history of state and law. Under. Ed. K.I. Batyr. - M .: "Epic", 1995.
2. History of the state and law of foreign countries. Part 1. Ed. Prof. Krasheninnikova N.A. and prof. Zhidkova O.A. - M .: Publishing group NORMA - INFRA-M, 1999.
3. History of the state and law of foreign countries. Part 2. Ed. Prof. Krasheninnikova N.A. and prof. Zhidkova O.A. - M .: Publishing group NORMA - INFRA-M, 1999
4. History of the ancient world. Antiquity. M .: - "Vlados", 2000.
5. Milekhina E.V. "History of the state and law of foreign countries", 2002
6. Polyak G.B., Markova A.N. "The World History". M .: - "UNITI", 1995.
7. Sizikov M.I. "History of State and Law". M .: - "Legal Literature", 1997.
8. Taps, D.S. History of the state and law of foreign countries: tutorial/ D.S., Taps. - St. Petersburg: SZAGS Publishing House, 2008. - 560 p.
9. Chernilovsky Z.M. "The General History of State and Law", M .: - "Jurist", 2002
The ancient tradition of carrying weapons and the appearance of troops in the city was forbidden. State system. Bodies government controlled. During the period of the republic, the organization of power was quite simple and for some time met the conditions that were in Rome at the time of the emergence of the state. Over the next five centuries of the existence of the republic, the size of the state increased significantly. ...
For a great power that has overseas provinces inhabited by various peoples. By the end of the second century, the Roman Republic entered a period of political crisis that lasted until the establishment of the principate of Augustus. One of the main points of this crisis was the 1960s, during which the consulate of Cicero fell. Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on January 3, 103, on his father's estate near the city of...
What was the name of the government in Rome BC. e.? and got the best answer
Answer from Yergey Ryazanov[guru]
Legislative powers in the classical period of the history of ancient Rome were divided between the magistrates, the senate and the comitia.
The magistrates could submit a bill (rogatio) to the senate, where it was debated. The Senate originally had 100 members, during most of the history of the Republic there were about 300 members, Sulla doubled the number of senators, later their numbers varied. A seat in the Senate was obtained after passing ordinary magistracies, but the censors had the right to conduct a lustration of the Senate with the possibility of excluding individual senators. The Senate met on calendars, nones and ides of each month, as well as on any day in the event of an emergency convocation of the senate. At the same time, there were some restrictions on the convocation of the Senate and comitia in case the appointed day was declared unfavorable for one or another “sign” .
The commissions had the right to vote only for (Uti Rogas - UR) or against (Antiquo - A), but could not discuss and make their own adjustments to the proposed bill. A bill approved by the comitia received the force of law. According to the laws of the dictator Quintus Publius Philo 339 BC. e. , approved by the people's assembly (comitia), the law became binding on the whole people.
The highest executive power in Rome (the empires) was delegated to the highest magistrates. At the same time, the question of the content of the very concept of empires remains debatable. Ordinary magistrates were elected at comitia.
Dictators, who were elected on special occasions and for no more than 6 months, had extraordinary powers and, unlike ordinary magistrates, lack of accountability. With the exception of the dictator's emergency magistracy, all positions in Rome were collegiate.
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Royal period (754/753 - 510/509 BC).
Republic (510/509 - 30/27 BC)
Early Roman Republic (509-265 BC)
Late Roman Republic (264-27 BC)
Sometimes the period of the Middle (classical) Republic (287-133 BC) is also distinguished.
Empire (30/27 BC - 476 AD)
Early Roman Empire. Principate (27/30 BC - 235 AD)
Crisis of the 3rd century (235-284)
Late Roman Empire. Dominate (284-476)
Source:
Answer from No need la la.[guru]
The supreme power belonged to the citizens who gathered at the people's meetings. These assemblies declared war, passed laws, elected officials, and so on.
The main role in the administration was played by two consuls, who were elected for a year. Both consuls had equal power. They took turns presiding over the People's Assembly, recruited into the army, proposed new laws. Each of the consuls could cancel the order of the other. Therefore, before doing anything, the consuls were forced to negotiate among themselves, to find an agreed solution. During the war, usually one consul remained in Rome, and the other at the head of the army went on a campaign.
Even from the time when there was a struggle between the plebeians and patricians, the plebeians won the right to choose their own officials at the plebeian meetings - the people's tribunes (their number gradually increased from two to ten). The tribune had the right of veto (in Latin veto - "I forbid"), that is, the right to cancel the order of the consul, the decision of the Senate, to prohibit the voting of the law. The person of the tribune was inviolable, and his murder was considered the gravest crime. After the plebeians achieved equal rights with the patricians, people's tribunes continued to be elected, but not at plebeian gatherings, but at general civil people's meetings.
In the course of the struggle between the plebeians and the patricians, the procedure for replenishing the senate changed. Former consuls, people's tribunes and other officials fell into it without any elections. All of them were members of the Senate until the end of their lives. In total, there were 300 people in the Senate. The Senate had enormous power: it was in charge of the treasury, developed plans for waging wars, negotiated with other states.
Management in Rome (Sv. BC) and Athens (5th century BC) had common features. Both ancient states were republics (today, a republic is understood as a state in which rulers are elected for a certain period); The supreme power belonged to the Citizens' Assembly. Ordinary Roman citizens, compared with the citizens of Athens, played a smaller role in government.
Unlike Athens in Rome:
no money was paid for the performance of public positions;
any citizen could not come up with a proposal for a new law, but only one who held a public office - consul, people's tribune, etc.;
judges were not chosen from among the citizens, regardless of their nobility and wealth (for a long time only senators could be judges in Rome);
"almost all matters were decided by the senate" (so thought the ancient historian Polybius); senators were not elected by citizens, they sat for life and were not responsible to anyone for erroneous decisions (there was nothing like this in Athens).
The actual power in Rome belonged to a group of nobility, consisting of families of wealthy patricians and plebeians, related through marriages. They called themselves nobles (in Latin - "noble"), supported each other in the election of consuls, in making decisions in the senate and popular assemblies.
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The urgency of the problems associated with the state structure of Ancient Rome is increasing today, and the topic of the abstract under consideration, the systematization of knowledge and ideas about the various manifestations of human development, to a certain extent, will help to navigate the modern spiritual life, its state and development trends.
The “Rome” community has now developed into a whole state, the “Roman Republic”, whose inhabitants (apart from national-tribal, property and other differences) are primarily divided into personally free and personally not free. The personally free are divided into citizens and foreigners.
The main stronghold of the nobility and the governing body of the republic was the senate. There were usually 300 senators. The right to appoint senators belonged first to the king, and then to the consuls. Under the law of Ovinius (last quarter of the 4th century), this right passed to the censors. Every five years, the censors revised the list of senators, could delete from it those who, for one reason or another, did not correspond to their appointment, and enter new ones. The Law of Ovinius established "that the censors, under oath, elect the best of all categories of magistrates to the senate." We are talking about former magistrates up to and including quaestors.
Senators were distributed by rank. In the first place were the so-called "curule senators", that is, former magistrates who held a curule position: former dictators, consuls, censors, praetors and curule aediles; then came the rest: former plebeian aediles, tribunes of the people and quaestors, as well as senators who had not held any magistracy in the past (there were few of them). First on the list was the most respected senator, called princeps senatus (first senator). The order of voting was determined by belonging to one or another category. The latter happened either by stepping aside, or by means of a personal questioning of each senator. All extraordinary magistrates, such as dictators, could convene and preside over the senate, and consuls, praetors, and later people's tribunes from ordinary magistrates.
Before the outbreak of civil wars, the senate enjoyed great authority. This is mainly due to its social composition and organization. Initially, only the heads of patrician families could enter the senate. But already very early, probably from the beginning of the Republic, plebeians began to appear in the Senate. As they conquered the higher magistracies, their number in the Senate began to increase rapidly. In the III century. the vast majority of senators belonged to the nobility, that is, to the ruling caste of Roman society. This created the cohesion of the Senate, the absence of internal struggle in it, the unity of its program and tactics, provided it with the support of the most influential part of society. There was a close unity between the senate and the magistrates, since every former magistrate ended up in the senate, and the new officers were actually chosen from the same senators. Therefore, it was unprofitable for magistrates to quarrel with the senate. Magistrates came and went, usually changing every year, while the senate was a permanent body, the composition of which basically remained unchanged (massive replenishment of the senate with new members was a very rare occurrence). This gave him continuity of tradition and great administrative experience.
The range of affairs directed by the Senate was very wide. Until 339, as mentioned above, he had the right to approve the decisions of the people's assembly. After that year, all that was required was prior approval by the Senate of bills submitted to the comitia. Under the Law of Menia, the same procedure was established in relation to the candidacies of officials.
The Senate, in the event of a difficult external or internal state of the state, declared a state of emergency, that is, a state of siege. This was done most often through the appointment of a dictator. From the 2nd century practice includes other forms of imposing a state of siege. One of them was that the senate passed a resolution: "Let the consuls watch that the republic does not suffer any damage." By this formula the consuls (or other officials) were given extraordinary powers, similar to those of a dictator. Another way to concentrate executive power was to elect one consul. This method, however, very rarely, was used in the 1st century.
The Senate was in charge of military affairs. He determined the time and number of recruitment into the army, as well as the composition of the contingents: citizens, allies, and so on. The Senate passed a resolution on the dissolution of the troops, under its control, the distribution of individual military formations or fronts between military leaders took place. The Senate set the budget for each military leader, assigned triumphs and other honors to victorious generals.
In the hands of the Senate was concentrated all foreign policy. The right to declare war, conclude peace and treaties of alliance belonged to the people, but the Senate carried out all the preparatory work for this. He sent embassies to other countries, received foreign ambassadors, and generally was in charge of all diplomatic acts.
The Senate managed finances and state property: drew up a budget (usually for 5 years), established the nature and amount of taxes, controlled the payoff, supervised the minting of coins, and so on.
The Senate had supreme oversight of the cult. He instituted festivals, instituted thanksgiving and purifying sacrifices, in the most serious cases interpreted the signs of the gods, controlled foreign cults and, if necessary, forbade them.
The members of all permanent judicial commissions until the time of the Gracchi consisted of senators. It was not until 123 that Gaius Gracchus handed over the courts to the horsemen (this name then meant wealthy merchants and usurers).
In the event that the posts of the highest magistrates, who had the right to preside over the popular assembly for the selection of consuls, were vacant or these magistrates could not arrive at the time of the elections in Rome, the senate declared an "interregnum". This term has been preserved since the tsarist era. One of the senators was appointed "inter-tsar" to preside over the consular electoral committees. He performed his position for five days, after which he appointed his successor and transferred his powers to him. He appointed the next, and so on, until consuls were elected in the centuriate comitia.
Thus, the Senate was the highest administrative body of the republic, and at the same time it had supreme control over the entire life of the state.
Both large estate classes of the previous period, patricians and plebeians, continued to exist even now, and their mutual struggle for political rights was the most characteristic phenomenon in the life of the Roman community of the period of the Republic. Already under Servius Tullius, according to legend, the plebeians, initially disenfranchised, received some rights, such as the right to land ownership, the right to legal marriage and commerce among themselves, a limited right to litigation, the right to vote and serve military service. Thus, they became citizens without rights, and the desire for full legal equality with the patricians, especially in the right to occupy the highest government positions, led to an intensification of their struggle with the patricians, to complete equalization of rights. According to the laws of Lucius Sextius (366 BC), the plebeians gained access to the highest secular, and according to the law of Ogulna (300 BC) to the highest spiritual positions, in addition to the previously received right to legal marriage with patricians. Thanks to the expansion of the state, the size of the plebs also increased significantly.
Thus, both estates merged into one concept of the "Roman people". However, the exercise of the right to occupy the highest public office, due to the costly pre-election campaign and the lack of remuneration for the office, was available only to wealthy citizens. As a result, from the patricians and wealthy plebeians, a bureaucratic, serving nobility (nobiles) was gradually formed, standing in contrast to the less prosperous plebs.
The administration of the Roman community during the Republican period was based on the will of the people. Therefore, all the most important issues of governance were decided on the basis of one or another expression of the will of the community, "the people of Rome." He owned:
legislative power - the right to issue laws;
judicial power - the right to prosecute;
electoral power - the right to elect magistrates;
decisive power - in matters of peace and war.
The decisions of the people under points a) and d), as having the force of law, were called "laws of the people" or "people's commands." The people themselves, as the bearer of supreme power, were invested with a certain greatness, and crimes against the community were considered insulting to the greatness of the Roman people. The fasces of the magistrates present in the assembly bowed before the people's assembly, as a symbol of their admiration for the "greatness of the people."
The people exercised their rights in popular assemblies, usually in the so-called comitia (from Latin - “converge”), that is, in meetings of full-fledged citizens convened and led by an official (for example, a consul or praetor) who had the right to do so, at which they (in their political divisions according to curiae, centuries or tribes) decided by voting the next questions proposed for decision.
All Roman citizens (who had the right to vote) had the right to participate in comitia and vote, wherever they were - in Rome, the province or the colony. In accordance with the representatives of the Roman community who participated in the meetings, the comitia were subdivided into the Curate comitium, the Centuriate comitium and the Tribute comitium.
Free meetings (not according to political divisions) or gatherings convened by a secular or ecclesiastical official should be distinguished from the comitia, where the people did not vote, but usually listened to reports and messages or discussed some important issues, especially those that were in line at the nearest comitia. All those present could speak at these meetings. They usually met at the Forum, and those convened by a clergyman at the Capitol.
The reason for the fall of the republic is that it was a state form that developed on the basis of a city-state and which could not provide for the interests broad circles slave owners within a vast empire. Under these conditions, the ruling classes saw the only means of maintaining their power in a dictatorship based on the army. There are many more reasons for the fall of the republic S.I. Kovalev believes that: “The main and most common reason was the contradiction between the political form of the republic in the 1st century. BC e. and its social class content. While this form remained old, its content has changed significantly.
The Roman Empire differed from the republic in the very organization of the ruling class. In connection with the territorial growth of the Roman Republic, the state was transformed from an organ representing the interests of the largest Roman landowners and slave owners, which was the republic, into an organ representing the interests of the ruling classes of the entire Roman state.
This involved the involvement of slave-owning circles not only in Italy, but also in the provinces, in the leadership of the state, and in the future - the equalization of Italy and the provinces.
Under Caesar and Augustus, only the foundations for the development of the Roman Empire were laid. The difference between the parts of the empire was still enormous. All heterogeneous areas were united by political power and held by his military might.
The monarchical reform of Augustus, as it were, closed the circle of development of the state system of Rome: monarchy - republic - monarchy. Just as the republican magistracy is a fragmentation of the unified power of the tsar, so the power of the emperor is again the gathering (concentration) of the republican magistracies in the person of the sovereign, in the form of a new, extraordinary magistracy.
In fact, the monarchy was restored after the battle of Actium (31 BC), when the entire military force was concentrated in the hands of Augustus, and legally - in 27, when Octavian received from the Senate the title "Augustus" (venerable, sacred ) the supreme leadership and supervision of all affairs, the right to control the actions of other authorities, the management of some provinces and the main bosses over the entire army.
On this basis, the power of the Roman emperors gradually grew, up to Diocletian (285-305 AD), when it becomes a monarchy in the strict sense of the word. All power was concentrated in the hands of one person, and the Senate and the people no longer played any state role. The power of the emperor was lifelong, but not dynastic, hereditary: the emperor could only indicate to the state the person to whom he wished to transfer power after death, appointing him the heir to his personal property and property. Such could be a person adopted by the sovereign. The emperor could accept him as a co-emperor and pass on the title "Caesar", awarding him with various honors necessary to establish his reputation, especially in the army.
The emperor had the right to renounce power himself. As a "magistrate" he could be removed by the Senate, but, relying on the army, he did not fear this removal. In any case, the removal of emperors has always been an act of violence.
The powers of the emperor were composed of military power, which was the main pillar of his influence. It was given to him by the Senate and the army, and as commander-in-chief of the Roman army, the emperor resembled a republican proconsul, since the military forces were in the provinces, the rulers of which were proconsuls.
As consul, censor and tribune of the people, the emperor had the opportunity to:
take an active part in legislation, leading the Senate and comitia; but along with their decisions, the personal orders of the emperor, issued on the basis of his law (edicts, decrees, mandates, constitutions, etc.), also acted;
participate in legal proceedings: draw up lists of jurors, manage processes, especially military and criminal ones, and the emperor's court was the highest authority;
participate in the election of magistrates, and the emperor checked the legal capacity of candidates, recommended his own (Caesar's candidates), which almost equaled the appointment, appointed some officials himself, especially governors in the imperial provinces;
as a censor - to draw up lists of estates, especially the Senate, thus subjecting it to his personal influence;
exercise supreme supervision and direction in all public affairs, internal and external, supervise state economy and finances, to mint coins, etc. Censorial supervision of morality was also within the competence of the emperor;
to exercise their power in the provinces, where emperors could appoint their officials to manage local communities, often to the detriment of their former autonomy.
The emperor also possessed spiritual power. As the supreme pontiff and a member of all the main priestly colleges, the emperor had supreme supervision over the cult and over the property of the spiritual colleges and temples.
In addition to the magistrates of the republican type dependent on the emperor, he appointed a number of special officials for various branches of government: to manage the provinces of the procurators, the legates of Augustus; for individual parts of the management curators, prefects. Of the latter, the following were especially important: the prefect of the city - the mayor and the city judge; the prefect of the praetorians - the head of the praetorians, a very influential dignitary after the emperor; the prefect, who was in charge of the provisions part of Rome, and others. These ranks usually received maintenance from the imperial treasury and were often appointed from senators or horsemen, sometimes (lower positions) from imperial scapegoats.
Here is how J. God characterizes the state of Rome of this time: “In the II century. the decline of Roman morality is especially noticeable; the weakening of patriotic feelings, which ceased to be a source of civic virtues, replaced by the desire for personal well-being, "bourgeois virtues" that coexisted with greed, the kingdom of money, debauchery, individualism. Lost ties with family."
The Senate continued its apparently honorable existence, legally it was even higher than the Emperor, who received his power from the Senate. However, in fact, the enormous personal and military importance of the emperor deprived the Senate of almost any independence, especially since, by virtue of his censorship power, the emperor had the right to replenish the entire body of power, and as a tribune of the people, he could stop all decisions that were objectionable to him by intercession. The Senate was still given oversight of the cult, the management of the treasury (state). However, when the state treasury merged with the imperial, this right was eliminated. The Senate also had the right to elect magistrates (where, however, it was also constrained by the candidates put forward by the emperor). He had the power of the judiciary as one of the highest courts, led by the emperor, as well as the right to manage the Senate provinces, etc. However, in fact, the decisions of the Senate were often only the approval of the will of the emperor.
The death of Rome also means the death of the great ancient culture as a whole. As T. Mommsen figuratively noted: “Historical night fell over the Greek-Latin world, and it was beyond human power to avert it, but Caesar nevertheless allowed the exhausted peoples to live out the evening of their development in tolerable conditions. And when, after a long night, a new historical day dawned and new nations rushed to new, higher goals, many of them gave a lush flower to the seed sown by Caesar, and many owe their national identity to him.
Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that throughout its existence, Ancient Rome went through development in its state development from the so-called royal period, when the king was the bearer of supreme power, it was during the royal period that the Roman community receives that characteristic appearance that so distinguishes it from other communities of the ancient world. Further, the Roman community develops into a Republic; certain layers acquire rights, such as the right to land ownership, the right to legal marriage and commerce among themselves, a limited right to litigation, the right to vote and serve military service. The Republic is replaced by the Empire, in which the fragmented republican power is concentrated in the hands of the Emperor.
The formation of a kind of Roman statehood and culture in Italy, the creation of a world power covering the entire Mediterranean and Western Europe, and its long (about 4 centuries) existence, the birth within its borders of a syncretic Mediterranean ancient civilization as a prototype of the future European civilization, the emergence and spread of a new world religion here - Christianity - all this gives Ancient Rome a special place in world history.
1. Alferova I. V. Roman Antiquities: a brief essay. - Smolensk: Rusich, 2000, - 384 p.
2. Badak A. N. et al. History of the ancient world. Ancient Rome. - Minsk: Harvest, 2000. - 864 p.
3. Elmanova N. S. Encyclopedic Dictionary of a Young Historian. - M .: Pedagogy-Press, 1999. - 448 p.
4. Kovalev S. I. History of Rome. Publisher: Leningrad University, 1986. - 744 p.
5. Shtaerman E. M. Social foundations of the religion of Ancient Rome. – M.: Nauka, 1987. – 320 p.
Story
The periodization of the history of Ancient Rome is based on the forms of government, which in turn reflected the socio-political situation: from royal rule at the beginning of history to an empire-dominance at its end.
- Royal period ( / - / 509 BC).
- Republic (510/ - /27 BC)
- Early Roman Republic (509-265 BC)
- Late Roman Republic (264-27 BC)
- Sometimes the period of the Middle (classical) Republic (287-133 BC) is also distinguished.
- Empire (30/27 BC - AD)
- Early Roman Empire. Principate (27/30 BC - AD)
- Late Roman Empire. Dominat ( - years)
Map of Rome in antiquity
During the royal period, Rome was a small state, which occupied only part of the territory of Latium - the area inhabited by the tribe of the Latins. During the period of the Early Republic, Rome significantly expanded its territory during numerous wars. After the Pyrrhic War, Rome began to reign supreme over the Apennine Peninsula, although the vertical system for managing subordinate territories had not yet developed at that time. After the conquest of Italy, Rome became a prominent player in the Mediterranean, which soon brought it into conflict with Carthage, a major state founded by the Phoenicians. In a series of three Punic Wars, the Carthaginian state was completely defeated, and the city itself was destroyed. At this time, Rome also began to expand to the East, subjugating Illyria, Greece, and then Asia Minor and Syria. In the 1st century BC e. Rome was rocked by a series of civil wars, in which the eventual victor, Octavian Augustus, formed the foundations of the principate system and founded the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which, however, did not last a century. The heyday of the Roman Empire fell on a relatively calm time of the 2nd century, but already the 3rd century was filled with a struggle for power and, as a result, political instability, and the foreign policy situation of the empire was complicated. The establishment of a system of dominance by Diocletian stabilized the situation for some time with the help of the concentration of power in the hands of the emperor and his bureaucratic apparatus. In the 4th century, the division of the empire into two parts was finalized, and Christianity became the state religion of the entire empire. In the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire became the object of active resettlement of Germanic tribes, which finally undermined the unity of the state. The overthrow of the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustus, by the German leader Odoacer on September 4 is considered the traditional date for the fall of the Roman Empire.
The magistrates could submit a bill (rogatio) to the senate, where it was debated. The Senate originally had 100 members, during most of the history of the Republic there were about 300 members, Sulla doubled the number of senators, later their numbers varied. A seat in the Senate was obtained after passing ordinary magistracies, but the censors had the right to conduct a lustration of the Senate with the possibility of excluding individual senators. The Senate met on calendars, nones and ides of each month, as well as on any day in the event of an emergency convocation of the senate. At the same time, there were some restrictions on the convening of the Senate and comitia in the event that the appointed day was declared unfavorable for one or another "sign".
Dictators, who were elected on special occasions and for no more than 6 months, had extraordinary powers and, unlike ordinary magistrates, lack of accountability. With the exception of the dictator's emergency magistracy, all positions in Rome were collegiate.
Society
Laws
As for the Romans, for them the task of war was not just to defeat the enemy or establish peace; the war was only concluded to their satisfaction when former enemies became "friends" or allies (socii) of Rome. The goal of Rome was not to subjugate the whole world to the power and imperium (dominion - lat.) of Rome, but to spread the Roman system of alliances to all countries of the earth. The Roman idea was expressed by Virgil, and it was not just a fantasy of the poet. The Roman people themselves, the populus Romanus, owed their existence to such a war-born partnership, namely, an alliance between patricians and plebeians, whose internal strife between them was brought to an end by the famous Leges XII Tabularum. But even this document of their history, consecrated by antiquity, the Romans did not consider inspired by God; they preferred to believe that Rome had sent a commission to Greece to study the systems of law there. Thus the Roman Republic, itself based on law—an indefinite alliance between patricians and plebeians—used the leges instrument chiefly to treat and administer the provinces and communities that belonged to the Roman system of unions, in other words, to the ever-expanding group of Roman socii that formed the societas. Romana.
The social structure of Roman society
Over time, the social structure as a whole became noticeably more complex. Horsemen appeared - persons not always of noble origin, but engaged in trading operations (trade was considered an unworthy occupation of the patricians) and concentrating significant wealth in their hands. Among the patricians, the most noble families stood out, and some of the genera gradually faded away. Approximately in the III century. BC e. the patriciate merges with the equites into the nobility.
Until the late Republic, there was a kind of marriage cum manu, "at hand", that is, the daughter, when she married, fell into the power of the head of the husband's family. Later, this form of marriage fell into disuse and marriages began to be sine manu, without a hand, in which the wife was not under the authority of the husband and remained in the authority of the father or guardian. Ancient Roman marriage, especially in the upper classes, was often based on financial and political interests.
Several families with kinship ties formed a clan (gens), the most influential of which played an important role in political life.
The fathers of families, as a rule, entered into marriages between their children, guided by prevailing moral standards and personal considerations. A father could marry a girl from the age of 12, and marry a young man from the age of 14.
Roman law provided for two forms of marriage:
When a woman passed from the power of her father to the power of her husband, that is, she was accepted into the family of her husband.
A woman after marriage remained a member of the old family, while claiming the inheritance of the family. This case was not the main one and looked more like cohabitation than marriage, since the wife could leave her husband and return home at almost any moment.
Regardless of which form young people preferred, marriage was preceded by betrothal between the young. During the betrothal, the young people made a marriage vow. Each of them, when asked if he promised to marry, answered: “I promise.” The groom handed over to his future wife a coin, as a symbol of the wedding union concluded between the parents, and an iron ring, which the bride wore on the ring finger of her left hand.
At weddings, all the affairs of organizing a wedding celebration were transferred to the manager - a woman who enjoyed general respect. The steward took the bride into the hall and handed her to the groom. The transfer was accompanied by religious rituals in which the woman played the role of a priestess of the hearth. After the feast in the house of the parents, the newlywed was sent off to the house of her husband. The bride had to theatrically resist and cry. And the manager stopped the girl's stubbornness by taking her from her mother's arms and handing her over to her husband.
The celebrations associated with the appearance of a new family member began on the eighth day after childbirth and lasted three days. The father raised the child from the ground and gave the baby a name, thereby announcing his decision to accept him into the family. After that, the invited guests gave the baby gifts, usually amulets, the purpose of which was to protect the child from evil spirits.
It was not necessary to register a child for a long time. Only when a Roman came of age and put on a white toga did he become a citizen of the Roman state. He was presented before officials and entered into the list of citizens.
For the first time, registration of newborns was introduced at the dawn of a new era by Octavian August, obliging citizens to register a baby within 30 days from the moment of birth. Registration of children was carried out in the temple of Saturn, where the office of the governor and the archive were located. This confirmed the name of the child, his date of birth. His free origin and the right of citizenship were confirmed.
Status of women
The woman was subordinate to the man because she, according to Theodor Mommsen, "belonged only to the family and did not exist for the community." In wealthy families, a woman was given an honorable position, she was engaged in the management of the household. Unlike Greek women, Roman women could freely appear in society, and, despite the fact that the father had the highest power in the family, they were protected from his arbitrariness. The basic principle of building Roman society is reliance on the elementary cell of society - the family (surname).
The head of the family - the father (pater familias) reigned supreme in the family, and his power in the family was formalized by law. The family included not only father and mother, but also sons, their wives and children, as well as unmarried daughters.
The surname included both slaves and all household property.
The power of the father extended to all members of the family.
Almost all decisions regarding family members were made by the father himself.
At the birth of a child, he determined the fate of the newborn; he either recognized the child, or ordered to kill, or abandoned without any help.
The father alone owned all the property of the family. Even having reached the age of majority and married, the son remained disenfranchised in the surname. He had no right to own any immovable property during his father's lifetime. Only after the death of his father, by virtue of a will, he received his property by inheritance. The unlimited dominance of the father existed throughout the Roman Empire, as well as the right to control the fate of loved ones. In the late period of the existence of the Roman Empire, fathers were freed from objectionable children due to economic difficulties and the general decline in the moral foundations of society.
In Roman families, a woman had great rights, since she was entrusted with the duties of housekeeping. She was the absolute mistress of her house. It was considered good form when a woman established a good family life, freeing up her husband's time for more important state affairs. The dependence of a woman on her husband was limited, in essence, to property relations; A woman could not own and dispose of property without the permission of her husband.
A Roman woman freely appeared in society, went to visit, and attended ceremonial receptions. But politics was not a woman's business, she was not supposed to be present at the meetings of the people.
Education
Boys and girls began to be taught from the age of seven. Wealthy parents preferred homeschooling. The poor used the services of schools. Then the prototype was born modern education: children went through three stages of education: primary, secondary and higher. The heads of the family, taking care of the education of their children, tried to hire Greek teachers for their children or to get a Greek slave to teach.
The vanity of parents forced them to send their children to Greece for higher education.
At the first stages of education, children were mainly taught to write and count, they were given information on history, law and literary works.
At the Higher School, training was held in oratory. During practical classes, students performed exercises that consisted in making speeches on a given topic from history, mythology, literature, or social life.
Outside of Italy, education was received mainly in Athens, on the island of Rhodes, where they also improved in oratory, got an idea of the various philosophical schools. Education in Greece became especially relevant after Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Lucius Licinius Crassus, being censors in 92 BC. e. , closed Latin rhetorical schools.
At the age of 17-18, the young man had to leave his studies and do military service.
The Romans also made sure that women were educated in connection with the role they had in the family: the organizer of family life and the educator of children at an early age. There were schools where girls studied with boys. And it was considered honorable if they said about a girl that she was an educated girl. In the Roman state, already in the 1st century AD, they began to train slaves, as slaves and freedmen began to play an increasingly prominent role in the economy of the state. Slaves became managers in the estates and were engaged in trade, were placed overseers of other slaves. Literate slaves were attracted to the bureaucracy of the state, many slaves were teachers and even architects.
A literate slave was worth more than an illiterate one, since he could be used for skilled work. Educated slaves were called the main value of the Roman rich man Mark Licinius Crassus.
Former slaves, freedmen, gradually began to make up a significant stratum in Rome. Having nothing in their souls but a thirst for power and profit, they sought to take the place of an employee, manager in the state apparatus, engage in commercial activities, usury. Their advantage over the Romans began to manifest itself, which consisted in the fact that they did not shy away from any work, considered themselves disadvantaged and showed perseverance in the struggle for their place under the sun. In the end, they were able to achieve legal equality, to push the Romans out of government.
Army
For almost the entire time of its existence, the Roman army was, as practice proved, the most advanced among the other states of the Ancient World, having gone from the people's militia to professional regular infantry and cavalry with many auxiliary units and allied formations. At the same time, the main fighting force has always been the infantry (in the era of the Punic Wars, the Marine Corps, which proved to be excellent, actually appeared). The main advantages of the Roman army were mobility, flexibility and tactical training, which allowed it to operate in various terrain and in harsh weather conditions.
With a strategic threat to Rome or Italy, or a sufficiently serious military danger ( tumultus) all work stopped, production stopped and everyone who could simply carry weapons was recruited into the army - residents of this category were called tumultuarii (subitarii), and the army - tumultuarius (subitarius) exercitus. Since the usual recruitment procedure took longer, the commander-in-chief of this army, the magistrate, took out special banners from the Capitol: red, indicating recruitment into the infantry, and green, into the cavalry, after which he traditionally announced: “Qui rempublicam salvam vult, me sequatur” (“Who wants save the republic, let him follow me"). The military oath was also pronounced not individually, but together.
culture
Politics, war, agriculture, the development of law (civil and sacred) and historiography were recognized as deeds worthy of a Roman, especially from the nobility. On this basis, the early culture of Rome took shape. Foreign influences, primarily Greek, penetrating through the Greek cities of the south of modern Italy, and then directly from Greece and Asia Minor, were perceived only insofar as they did not contradict the Roman value system or were processed in accordance with it. In turn, Roman culture at the time of its heyday had a huge impact on neighboring peoples and on the subsequent development of Europe.
The early Roman worldview was characterized by the feeling of being a free citizen with a sense of belonging to a civil community and the priority of state interests over personal ones, combined with conservatism, which consisted in following the mores and customs of ancestors. In - centuries. BC e. there was a departure from these attitudes and individualism intensified, the individual began to be opposed to the state, even some traditional ideals were rethought.
Language
Latin, the appearance of which is attributed to the middle of the III millennium BC. e. constituted the Italic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. In progress historical development In ancient Italy, the Latin language supplanted other Italic languages and eventually took over the dominant position in the western Mediterranean. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. Latin was spoken by the population of a small region of Latium (lat. Latium), located in the west of the middle part of the Apennine Peninsula, along the lower reaches of the Tiber. The tribe that inhabited Latium was called the Latins (lat. Latini), its language is Latin. The city of Rome became the center of this region, after which the Italian tribes united around it began to call themselves the Romans (lat. Romans).
There are several stages in the development of Latin:
- Archaic Latin
- Classical Latin
- Postclassical Latin
- Late Latin
Religion
Ancient Roman mythology is close in many aspects to Greek, up to the direct borrowing of individual myths. However, in the religious practice of the Romans, animistic superstitions associated with the veneration of spirits also played a large role: genii, penates, lares, lemurs and mans. Also in ancient Rome there were numerous colleges of priests.
Although religion played a significant role in traditional ancient Roman society, by the 2nd century BC. e. a significant part of the Roman elite was already indifferent to religion. In the 1st century BC e. Roman philosophers (primarily Titus Lucretius Carus and Marcus Tullius Cicero) largely revise or question many of the traditional religious positions.
Art, music, literature
Life
The social evolution of Roman society was first studied by the German scientist G. B. Niebuhr. Ancient Roman life and life were based on developed family law and religious rites.
For best use daylight, the Romans usually got up very early, often around four in the morning, and after breakfast, began to engage in public affairs. Like the Greeks, the Romans ate 3 times a day. Early in the morning - the first breakfast, around noon - the second, in the late afternoon - lunch.
In the first centuries of the existence of Rome, the inhabitants of Italy ate mostly thick, hard-cooked porridge made from spelt, millet, barley or bean flour, but already at the dawn of Roman history, not only porridge was cooked in the household, but also baked bread cakes. Culinary art began to develop in the III century. BC e. and under the empire reached unprecedented heights.
The science
Main article: ancient roman science
Roman science inherited a number of Greek studies, but unlike them (especially in the field of mathematics and mechanics), it was mainly applied in nature. For this reason, it was the Roman numeration and the Julian calendar that received worldwide distribution. At the same time her feature was a presentation of scientific issues in a literary and entertaining form. Jurisprudence and agricultural sciences reached a special flowering, big number works was devoted to architecture and urban planning and military equipment. The largest representatives of natural science were encyclopedic scientists Gaius Pliny Secundus the Elder, Mark Terentius Varro and Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
Ancient Roman philosophy developed mainly in the wake of Greek philosophy, with which it was largely associated. Stoicism has received the greatest distribution in philosophy.
Remarkable progress was made by Roman science in the field of medicine. Among the prominent physicians of Ancient Rome, one can note: Dioscorides - a pharmacologist and one of the founders of botany, Soranus of Ephesus - an obstetrician and pediatrician, Claudius Galen - a talented anatomist who revealed the functions of the nerves and brain.
Written in the Roman era, encyclopedic treatises remained the most important source of scientific knowledge during most of the Middle Ages.
Legacy of Ancient Rome
Roman culture, with its developed ideas about the expediency of things and actions, about a person’s duty to himself and the state, about the importance of law and justice in society, complemented ancient Greek culture with its desire to know the world, a developed sense of proportion, beauty, harmony, and a pronounced game element. . Antique culture, as a combination of these two cultures, became the basis of European civilization.
The cultural heritage of Ancient Rome can be traced in scientific terminology, architecture, and literature. Latin has long been the language of international communication for all educated people in Europe. Until now, it is used in scientific terminology. Based on the Latin language, Romance languages arose in the former Roman possessions, which are spoken by the peoples of a large part of Europe. Among the most outstanding achievements of the Romans is the Roman law they created, which played a huge role in the further development of legal thought. It was in the Roman possessions that Christianity arose, and then became the state religion - a religion that united all European peoples and greatly influenced the history of mankind.
Historiography
Interest in the study of Roman history arose, in addition to the writings of Machiavelli, also during the Enlightenment in France.
The first major work was the work of Edward Gibbon "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", covering the period from the end of the 2nd century until the fall of a fragment of the empire - Byzantium in 1453. Like Montesquieu, Gibbon valued the virtue of Roman citizens, however, the decomposition of the empire along it began already under Commodus, and Christianity became a catalyst for the collapse of the empire, undermining its foundations from the inside.
Niebuhr became the founder of the critical direction and wrote the work "Roman History", where it was brought to the First Punic War. Niebuhr made an attempt to establish how the Roman tradition arose. In his opinion, the Romans, like other peoples, had a historical epic, preserved mainly in noble families. Niebuhr paid some attention to ethnogenesis, viewed from the angle of the formation of the Roman community.
In the Napoleonic era, the work of V. Durui "History of the Romans" appeared, which focused on the then popular Caesarian period.
A new historiographic milestone was opened by the work of Theodor Mommsen, one of the first major scholars of the Roman heritage. An important role was played by his voluminous work Roman History, as well as Roman Public Law and the Collection of Latin Inscriptions (Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum).
Later came the work of another specialist, G. Ferrero - "The Greatness and Fall of Rome." The work of I.M. Grevs "Essays on the history of Roman land tenure, mainly in the era of the Empire", where, for example, information appeared about the economy of Pomponius Attica, one of largest landowners the end of the Republic, and the farm of Horace was considered a model of the average estate of the August era.
Against the hypercriticism of the works of the Italian E. Pais, who denied the authenticity of the Roman tradition up to the 3rd century AD. e. , De Sanctis spoke in his "History of Rome", where, on the other hand, information about the royal period was almost completely denied.
The study of Roman history in the USSR was closely connected with Marxism-Leninism, which had no specialized works at its core and relied on such frequently cited works as The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Chronological Extracts, Forms Preceding Capitalist Production ”, “Bruno Bauer and early Christianity”, etc. The emphasis was on the uprisings of slaves and their role in Roman history, as well as agrarian history.
A great place was given to the study of the ideological struggle (S. L. Utchenko, P. F. Preobrazhensky), which was seen even in the most favorable periods of the empire (N. A. Mashkin, E. M. Shtaerman, A. D. Dmitrev, etc.) .
Attention was also paid to the conditions for the transition from the Republic to the Empire, considered, for example, in the work of Mashkin "Principate of Augustus" or in "Essays on the History of Ancient Rome" by V. S. Sergeev, and to the provinces, in the study of which A. B. Ranovich stood out.
Among those who studied the relations of Rome with other states, A. G. Bokshchanin stood out.
Since 1937, the Herald of Ancient History began to appear, where articles on Roman history and archaeological excavations began to be published frequently.
After a break caused by the Great Patriotic War, in 1948 the “History of Rome” by S. I. Kovalev and “The History of the Roman People” by critic V. N. Dyakov were published. In the first work, the Roman tradition is considered reliable in many respects, in the second, doubt was expressed on this point.
see also
primary sources
- Dio Cassius. "Roman History"
- Ammianus Marcellinus. "Acts"
- Polybius. "General history"
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus. "History", "Annals"
- Plutarch. "Comparative Lives"
- Appian. "Roman History"
- Sextus Aurelius Victor. "On the Origin of the Roman People"
- Flavius Eutropius. "Breviary from the founding of the city"
- Gaius Velleius Paterculus. "Roman History"
- Publius Annaeus Florus. "Epitomes of Titus Livius"
- Herodian. "History of Rome from Marcus Aurelius"
- Diodorus Siculus. "Historical Library"
- Dionysius of Halicarnassus. "Roman Ancient History"
- Gaius Suetonius Tranquill. "Biography of the Twelve Caesars"
- The so-called "Authors of the biographies of the Augusts" ( Scriptores Historiae Augustae): Aelius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, Vulcation Gallicanus, Aelius Lampridius, Trebellius Pollio and Flavius Vopiscus
Fragments
- Gnaeus Nevius. "Punian War"
- Quintus Ennius. "Annals"
- Quintus Fabius Pictor. "Annals"
- Lucius Cincius Aliment. "Chronicle"
- Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder. "Beginnings"
- Pompey Trog. "Philip's Story"
- Gaius Sallust Crispus. "Yugurtinskaya war"
- Granius Licinianus
Later fundamental works
- Theodor Mommsen Roman History.
- Edward Gibbon History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
- Platner, Samuel Ball. A topographical dictionary of Ancient Rome
Notes
Links
| Portal "Ancient Rome " | |
| Ancient Rome at Wikimedia Commons |
- X Legio - Military equipment of antiquity (including fragments of Russian translations of Roman authors and articles on the military affairs of Ancient Rome)
- Roman glory Antique warfare
- The Roman Law Library by Yves Lassard and Alexander Koptev.
- Art of Ancient Rome - Stevan Kordic Photo Gallery
| Ancient Rome | ||
|---|---|---|
| Epochs | Founding of Rome Royal Period Republic (Early, Middle, Late) Empire (Principate and Dominate) Western Roman Empire / Eastern Roman Empire | |
| Constitution | History · Constitution of the Imperial Rome / Republic / Empire / Late Empire · Senate · Assemblies of the People (Curiate Comitia, Centuriate Comitia, Comitia Tributes, Plebeian Council) · Magistracy | |
| State | Curia Forum Cursus honorum Collegiality Emperor Legate Dux Official Prefect Vicar Vigintisexviri Lictor Master of War Emperor Emperor Princeps of the Senate Pontifex Grand Augustus Caesar Tetrarch Province Prefecture Diocese | |
| Masters |
| |
The Great Roman Empire is rightfully considered one of the greatest civilizations of the Ancient World. Before its heyday and for a long time after the collapse, the Western world did not know a more powerful state than Ancient Rome. In a short period of time, this power was able to conquer vast territories, and its culture continues to influence humanity to this day.
History of Ancient Rome
The history of one of the most influential states of Antiquity began with small settlements located on the hills along the banks of the Tiber. In 753 B.C. e. these settlements merged into a city called Rome. It was founded on seven hills, in a swampy area, in the very epicenter of the constantly conflicting peoples - Latins, Etruscans and ancient Greeks. From this date began the chronology in ancient Rome.
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According to ancient legend, the founders of Rome were two brothers - Romulus and Remus, who were the children of the god Mars and the vestal Remy Sylvia. Once at the center of the conspiracy, they were on the verge of death. From certain death, the brothers were saved by a she-wolf, who fed them with her milk. Growing up, they founded a beautiful city, which was named after one of the brothers.
Rice. 1. Romulus and Rem.
Over time, perfectly trained warriors emerged from ordinary farmers who managed to conquer not only all of Italy, but also many neighboring countries. The management system, language, achievements of the culture and art of Rome spread far beyond its borders. The decline of the Roman Empire came in 476 BC.
Periodization of the history of ancient Rome
Formation and development the eternal city taken to be divided into three important periods:
- Royal . Ancient period Rome, when the local population consisted mostly of fugitive criminals. With the development of crafts and the formation of the political system, Rome began to develop rapidly. During this period, the power in the city belonged to the kings, the first of which was Romulus, and the last - Lucius Tarquinius. Rulers received power not by inheritance, but were appointed by the Senate. When manipulation and bribery began to be used to obtain the coveted throne, the Senate decided to change the political structure in Rome and proclaimed a republic.
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Slavery was widespread in ancient Greek society. The slaves who served the masters in the house enjoyed the greatest privileges. The slaves had the hardest time, whose activities were once associated with exhausting work in the fields and the development of mineral deposits.
- Republican . During this period, all power belonged to the Senate. The boundaries of Ancient Rome began to expand due to the conquest and annexation of the lands of Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica, Macedonia, the Mediterranean. The Republic was headed by representatives of the nobility, who were elected at the people's assembly.
- The Roman Empire . Power still belonged to the Senate, but a single ruler appeared on the political arena - the Emperor. For that period of time, Ancient Rome increased its territories so much that it became more and more difficult to manage empires. Over time, there was a split of the state into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern, which was later renamed Byzantium.
Urban planning and architecture
The construction of cities in ancient Rome was approached with great responsibility. Each major settlement was built in such a way that two roads perpendicular to each other intersected in its center. At their intersection there was a central square, a market and all the most important buildings.
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Engineering thought in ancient Rome reached its highest peak. The local architects were especially proud of the aqueducts - water conduits, through which a large amount of clean water was supplied to the city every day.
Rice. 2. Aqueduct in ancient Rome.
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One of the oldest temples of Ancient Rome was the Capitol, built on one of the seven hills. The Capitoline temple was not only the center of religion, it was of great importance in strengthening the state and served as a symbol of the strength, power and might of Rome.
Numerous canals, fountains, an excellent sewerage system, a network of public baths (terms) with cold and hot pools greatly facilitated the life of city residents.
Ancient Rome became famous for its roads, which provided troops and postal services with rapid movement, and contributed to the development of trade. They were built by slaves who dug deep trenches and then filled them with gravel and stone. Roman roads were so solid that they could safely survive more than one hundred years.
Culture of Ancient Rome
The deeds worthy of a true Roman were philosophy, politics, agriculture, war, civil law. This was the basis of the early culture of Ancient Rome. Particular importance was given to the development of sciences and various kinds of research.
Ancient Roman art, in particular painting and sculpture, had much in common with the art of Ancient Greece. A single ancient culture gave rise to many excellent writers, poets, playwrights.
The Romans were very fond of entertainment, among which gladiatorial fights, chariot races and hunting wild animals were in the greatest demand. Roman spectacles have become an alternative to the incredibly popular Olympic Games in ancient Greece.
Rice. 3. Gladiator fights.
What have we learned?
When studying the topic “Ancient Rome”, we briefly learned the most important thing about Ancient Rome: the history of its emergence, the features of the formation of the state, the main stages of development. We got acquainted with ancient Roman art, culture, architecture.
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