Roman Republic

The other day in class I thought it was interesting how Rome went from a small city state barely able to support itself to a vast empire controlling a huge amount of territory. When Rome was a small city state they had to kidnap neighboring women to reproduce. This is when the Etruscans came and started to rule over the Romans. Under the Etruscans rule Rome expanded, but many were unhappy with the King, so in 509 BCE the Roman’s overthrew the king and created a republic.

The organizing principles behind the republic were an anti-monarchy feeling, and the idea of a controlled distribution of power. Roman society was had two classes, the patricians or the wealthy class, and the plebeians or the poorer classes. The patricians held most of the power in the early days of this empire, but gradually the plebeians were able to penetrate the political sphere and serve on assembles.

The Roman Republic had set up executive and legislative branches as well as a system of checks and balances. I thought this was a particularly interesting piece of information because of how this resembles the United States government. The Roman political structure was set up into a counsel, assemblies, and the senate. The counsel was made up of a group of men who were elected yearly. The senate was made up of 300-600 aristocrats who were appointed for life, and dealt with trials, and had advisory powers. The assemblies are where plebeians had a say in what was going on in roman society. They also had the initial power to elect people for the senate.

Reference
Ways of the World: A Brief Global History by Robert W. Strayer