How Did The Roman Republic Form Of Government

Patrick Ferraiolo

Ms. Zbreznj

Early Civilizations

May 13, 2014

The Roman Republic Throughout time, history has proven that a great government style is the key for having a dominant and long lasting civilization. Without a solid government structure, a civilization is doomed to fail and will eventually fall into ruin. A republic is one of the styles of government that is beneficial to everyone who uses it. The republic style of government was created to benefit the common people and hard working citizens and reward them for their efforts. By using this republic, a civilization would thrive and be riddled with countless luxuries. The republic’s originated from the city of Rome. Therefore, the Romans used this new type of governing a

Rome took an oath to never allow another king to reign over Rome. They strived for an equal government that would bring justice to Rome and its citizens. The new government they did come up was called a republic: a form of government that protected the rights of its citizens while still being limited by laws. The word republic translated into latin is ‘res publica’, which means ‘for the people. By using this new form of government, Rome was now considered more stable. The Roman Republic was considered stable because it was balanced and contained aspects of other governments. The Romans wanted a strong government that possessed strong executive control, though they did not want to fall into the hands of a full time dictator ( Grant. History of Rome.) The republic consisted of three major branches of government. The first branch, representing the Monarchical Branch of the Republic were the consuls. The consuls were two main leaders that had complete civil and military authority in the Republic. They carried on the former tradition of kings and queens from the past, except they were more fair and just. But, each consul only held that position for one year. Only on exception would one of the consuls be ‘promoted’ to a dictator for only a 6 month period. The reason of an interim dictator was to fix whatever problem

Now, the citizens were granted more freedoms and were given back some of the moral rights that was stricken from them by the monarchy. These rights included; the right to speak, write and even have a fair trial. Also, the government granted the citizens with multiple holidays,days of relaxation, styles of entertainment. For example, the government created sports for people to play to entertain the citizens. These sports included wrestling, and lion fighting. These activities provided the public with satisfaction by giving them interesting and exotic ways to use their free time. Furthermore, the government provided water, food, and shelter to each family. By giving these necessities, the government was doing two things; one of them was keeping the citizens happy, thus keeping Rome in peace. Second, by keeping them happy, they would avoid an uprise from the citizens, therefore giving them assurance that they were protected Putting all of these aside, perhaps the best part of the Roman Republic for the citizens was now each person had an active role in their government. Essentially, the male citizens single handedly controlled who the consuls would be because they now possessed the ability to vote. The Roman Republic was a great innovative idea, but it could not have been successful without the cooperation of the citizens. The