Roman Government Essay

881 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Roman republic

Many times in history people challenged or still challenge their government for equal rights on its people. No one wants to have fewer rights than someone else for any reason being. Everyone wants to be treated equally with the same rights. That’s one of the reasons why governments have evolved remarkably over time. One of the early civilizations who challenged their government were the Romans. In 509 BCE the people of Rome created a new type of government: they called it the Roman Republic.
Although many things started to be different, and the government was improving, women and slaves were not considered citizens of Rome. “They had no voice in government. Only adult free Roman men were citizens.” The people got tired of this and challenged their government. By 451-449 BCE, Rome’s first codes of laws were created and called them the Twelve Tables. These sets of laws were created in order to protect the civil rights of the patricians and the plebeians. The plebeians requested laws that would be decoded fairly. “In 450 the code was formally posted, likely on bronze tablets, in the Roman Forum. The written recording of the law in the Twelve Tables enabled the plebeians both to become acquainted with the law and to protect themselves against patricians’ abuses of power.” Yet, the twelve tables are not the first known codes of laws in western civilization; there is much to know about them. Without them our system of government today might have been slightly different. To learn more about these laws, it is essential to understand and analyze its roots.
While many civilizations were falling and others rising, in 759 BCE, Rome was starting to form under a monarchy. The Romans hate toward monarch type of government mot...

... middle of paper ...

... and also protected Plebeians from being abuse by the Patricians. “The Twelve Tables prevented patrician judges from giving judgments in legal cases only according to their own wishes”. To keep the Roman Republic united, the Romans created these code of laws to avoid civil wars from ruining the republic.
The Twelve Tables were displayed in public for everyone to see. This was very important because being written down, the people could now know what the laws were and they could know what was legal and illegal. “The Tables themselves were pieces of stone with writing carved into them. The main benefit of having laws written down was that the lawmakers and law-enforcers couldn't change them to suit their whims.” This made a huge change in the Roman Republic, not only people could see what the laws were but also everyone was treated equally under those laws.

Show More
Related

  • Pros And Cons Of The Roman Constitution

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    The roman republic constitution was a set of guidelines and principles passed down through precedent, the roman republic instead of creating a democracy such as that the Athenians created, a monarchy which was previously being used by previous roman rulers and an aristocracy which Sparta used, the Constitution combined elements of all three of these governments to create a combined government known as “Senatus populusque que romanus” (S.P.Q.R) this meant “the senate and the roman people”. The Roman magistrates were elected officials during the period of the Roman kingdom, the ‘king’ (although the Romans preferred not to be called a king and instead a rex) of Rome was the principal executive magistrate, his power was absolute similar to that of a tsar

    Read More

  • Rome's Contributions To Western Civilization

    664 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout time, it has been said that the Romans have made some major contributions when it came to Western civilization. A plethora of the contributions were in the categories of the law and engineering. In the law field, Romans left behind a great legacy for Western civilization, for instance one contribution being their Twelve Tables. The Twelve Tables established written rules of criminal and civil law. Not only with the Twelve Tables, but they developed the distinction between public law in which the state is concerned directly and private law which involves disputes between persons, the process of making laws has also had an influence on modern democratic political systems. During the Roman Republic, lawmaking was a bicameral activity and legislation was passed by an assembly of the citizens. It was then approved by the representatives of the upper class, or the senate, and issued in the name of the senate and the people of Rome. Many countries like the United States have adopted the republican Rome as a reproduction for their own governments.

    Read More

  • Why Is Augustus The Most Important Emperor In Roman History

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Roman Republic was a political system which was stamped and swayed, but it was not by parties and programmes which we are so familiar with which is a modern and parliamentary variety. And it was not swayed even by the powerful opposition between Senate and People, Optimates and Populares, nobiles and novi homines. The main locomotive force of politics was the strife for power, wealth and glory. (ref: Syme, Ronald 1960 The Roman Revolution, Oxford University Press) [1]

    Read More

  • The Political Decay of the Roman Republic

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Political Decay of the Roman Republic The fall of the Western Roman Empire was the first example in history on the collapse of a constitutional system which was caused by the internal decay in political, military, economics, and sociological issues. The government was becoming corrupt with bribery. Commanders of the Roman army turned their own army inward towards their own Constitutional systems, fueled by their own ruthless ambition. This paper will talk about how the violence and internal turmoil in 133 B.C.-27 B.C. was what provoked the economic stagnation in the city of Rome and to the end of the Republic and the many corrupt politicians and generals who only thought of nothing more than personal gains and glory. The senate lost control of the Roman military and the reason they rose against the senate was because the senate were no longer able to help manage the social problems or the military and administrative problems of the empire.

    Read More

  • The Rise Of The Roman Republic

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    Over the span of five-hundred years, the Roman Republic grew to be the most dominant force in the early Western world. As the Republic continued to grow around the year 47 B.C it began to go through some changes with the rise of Julius Caesar and the degeneration of the first triumvirate. Caesar sought to bring Rome to an even greater glory but many in the Senate believed that he had abused his power, viewing his rule more as a dictatorship. The Senate desired that Rome continued to run as a republic. Though Rome continued to be glorified, the rule of Caesar Octavian Augustus finally converted Rome to an Empire after many years of civil war. Examining a few selections from a few ancient authors, insight is provided as to how the republic fell and what the result was because of this.

    Read More

  • Justinian and The Byzantine Empire

    1707 Words  | 4 Pages

    7. "Law of the Twelve Tables." Britannica School High. Britannica Digital Learning, n.d. Web. 3 May 2014. .

    Read More

  • Individual Rights Versus Public Order

    1646 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first inception of individual rights began with the founding fathers of the United States, who had a vision in which all citizens would have the right to live in this country without being discriminated based on race, gender, religion, or sexual preference (US Constitution, 2010). These are basic human rights for which many people lost their lives to protect as this country was formed. Nonetheless, today one lives in a society in which one must fight to continue to posses those rights once again. Similar to the rest of history, when there have many examples of individual rights were not protected.

    Read More

  • The Gortyn Law Code In Ancient Greece

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    Due to some of the conservative elements, as well as the oral tradition common in Ancient Greek societies, it is thought that some, if not many, of the laws present in the code have been passed down from previous generations. Consequently, it can be inferred that due to the post hoc nature of the text in addition to oral tradition, many of the laws of the code could have been influenced by other

    Read More

  • The Origins of American Democracy

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    The structure of representative American government was heavily shaped by the political systems of the Roman Republic. By definition, a republic is type government that uses elected officials to manage a state and its voters. Roman law started being written down as a constitution in 450 B.C.E., and known as the Law of the Twelve Tables, it was a collection of laws and traditions. The Twelve Tables ensured that the common citizens of Rome, the plebeians, would not be unjustly prosecuted by the aristocracy, called the patricians. This was a significant step forward for civil rights, and the republic was able to form a mixed government of three distinct branches: the office of Consuls, the Senate...

    Read More

  • The United States of Greece and Rome

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the year 499 A.D. Rome's government leaders came together to form the first Roman laws put into writing, the Twelve Tables. The Twelve Tables resembles the U.S. constitution and how they came together to make the law. The Romans established a republic, which is similar to the U.S. democracy. The major difference is that in a democra...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The 12 Table Of The Roman Law

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    The twelve tables are a document during 451 to 450 B.C. it was one of the earliest attempts of creating code of law so it’s basically the roman law each table is responsible for a section in the law for example table one is the law pertaining to procedure for the courts and trials this part in the document states that the prosecutor summons the defendant to court they have to attend what I took from this part of the roman law was that fair justice was a

    Read More

  • The Roman Republic

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    Due to the constraint of the plebeians, the council of decemviri “was created with the task of regularizing and publishing the laws” (Spielvogel 118). The outcome of this was the creation of the Twelve Tables, published around 450 B.C. which only “led to further agitation from the plebeians” (Spielvogel 118). The benefits of this were t...

    Read More

  • Comparing the Roman Empire and the United States of America

    1290 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rome's Republican era began after the overthrow of the last Roman King Tarquin Superbus by Lucius Brutus in 509 BC(1), the Senate was ruled the by the people of Rome. The Roman Republic was governed by a largely complex constitution, which established many checks and balances, so no man could have complete control. The evolution of the constitution was heavily influenced by the struggle between the patricians and the other prominent Romans who were not from the nobility. Early in Rome’s history, the patricians controlled the republic, over time, the laws that allowed these individuals to dominate the government were repealed, and the result was the emergence of a the republic which depended on the structure of society, rather than the law, to maintain its dominance. This is similar to the creation of the American system of government. Starting with the over throw of t...

    Read More

  • The Fall of The Roman Republic

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC after the ruling Tarquins abused their extensive power as monarchs and were overthrown. The goal of the Roman Republic was to have a strong government, governed equally by the patricians and the plebians, and to avoid another Roman Monarchy. For years Rome was guided by great men, such as Cincinnatus and Scipio Africanus, who led the Republic through hard times, conquering such enemies as the Etruscans and the Carthaginians. Large-scale war united Roman society in its common goals. However, after Scipio’s victory at Zama in 202 BC, a new Roman world began to take shape. Roman soldiers returned home from their victory to find that they could not pay for their farms, becoming “squatters” on their own lands after having to sell them to richer men. The Senate became corrupted, and despite the Gracchi brothers’ best efforts, the rich patricians soon monopolized nearly all aspects of the Republic, from trading and “farming” to governing the people. After marching on Rome, Sulla became dictator in 82 BC. After Sulla, the First Triumvirate: Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar, owned virtually all power in Rome, yet each had his own desire to defeat the other two and become Emperor. When Crassus died in battle, Caesar had his chance. He defeated Pompey and marched on Rome, victorious. After declaring himself Dictator for Life, Caesar was assassinated, and another Civ...

    Read More

  • Life, Liberty, and Security

    883 Words  | 2 Pages

    A past example of this right being violated is with the establishment of the thirteen colonies. The people of Britain wanted to be free, -liberty-, and not be associated with the taxes and monarchy of Great Britain. Britain wanted to control a lot of the aspects of their lives, but the living classes were not equal. So they fought for independence, and eventually became their own colonies. A present example of these...

    Read More

More about Roman Government Essay

Open Document