Institutions of the Roman Republic

The installation of the republican institutions

The heritage of the monarchical period

The proclamation of the Republic towards 509 av. J.C is not a revolution, only the king is driven out, the institutions of the royal time remain in place. According to the indications of Tite-Live, are in place:

Senate Roman or assembled old, which gathers the chiefs of the former families ( Shepherds , i.e. Fathers, that one must less include/understand like biological bond that like hierarchical differentiation)
the popular assemblies or Comices, which gathers by tribe or Centurie the Roman citizens, free men inhabitants of Rome and its neighborhoods.
various the sacerdotal colleges, in charge of the religious worships

The king disappeared, but remains the royal capacity: Imperium , capacity absolute which makes of it the interpreter of the will of the gods by his capacity of Augure, administrator of city, that which states the right and judges conflicts, which gathers, organizes and orders the Roman people for the war. The continuity of this transmitted capacity of magistrate as a magistrate is guarantor of the continuity of Rome, and will be one of the principles of organization of the Republic.

First magistrates

Always according to Tite-Live, the king was appointed by the Roman people, election which was ratified by the Senate. Probably mythical vision, but which justifies the operation in the name of the Senate and of the Roman people ( Senatus Populusque Romanus ) of the incipient republic: the imperium is entrusted to an elected official of the people, validated by the Senate.

And to eliminate any royal despotism, the imperium is entrusted in -509 to two magistrates: they are indicated in the oldest Roman documents sometimes by the term of Consul , sometimes by the term of Préteur . They take again the old royal emblems: curule Chair, coat crimson, escort of 12 Lictor S, carrying the Beam X, but these magistrates exert only for one limited time at one year, and can neutralize themselves mutually: in the event of dissension, a consul can strike nullity the act of his colleague. When they are together, these magistrates exert the imperium in turn, by mutual agreement.

Immediate evolutions: dictator and powerful orator of the plebs

The external and interior dangers will oblige to entrust imperium according to other methods: as of 502 av. J.C or 494 av. J.C, the imperium is transmitted without division to a dictator , designated by the consul to face the threat of war. The senate moderates this return to the absolutism by limiting the mandate of the dictator to six months to the maximum, and by imposing an assistant, the to him Maître of cavalry. If the collegial structure is thus respected, the imperium is not divided any more equitably: it is exposed with 24 lictors for the dictator, against 6 granted to its Master of cavalry.

Always in the first years of the Republic, in 494 av. J. - C, the Roman city undergoes a political serious attack, probably related to an economic crisis, because Tite-Live calls upon the Esclavage for debts of many poor citizens. One can also evoke a political disappointment of the people, the Plèbe, disappointed by the installation of the oligarchical Republic monopolized by the Patricien S, which are only estimated able to exert imperium and the catch of auspices. Part of the Roman people makes secession at the time of its convocation out of weapons. It leaves the city, and leaves to be established on Mount-Crowned: it is the First secession of the plebs.

To bring back this population, the patricians had to admit the representatives whom it had given itself, the powerful orators of the plebs. Their role is to defend the interests of the plebs, individually or collectively.

They do not have any the traditional capacities: they do not have the Imperium, they cannot take the Auspices. On the other hand, they untouchable under penalty of died ( sacrosanctus ), and offer their inviolable person in protection to the absolute power of the consuls (function of assistance, or auxilium ). This capacity can be exerted by the powerful orator himself, or a threatened citizen who calls upon the powerful orator. This auxilium is also exerted to defend of the plebs as a whole. The powerful orator uses of his right of Veto ( juice intercessionis ) is exerted against the action of the magistrate, whatever it is: decision taken against a citizen, convocation of an assembly, votes of a law, behavior of elections, lifting of the legions.

Consuls against powerful orators of the plebs

During more than one century and half, the class struggle between the patricians and the plebs, will crystallize by the competitions between consuls and powerful orators of the plebs. Vis-a-vis the arrogance of certain magistrates, and the brute force their lictors draws up sometimes a combattif or claiming powerful orator, who tries to use of his capacity of blocking or to propose some law favorable to the plebs.

Traditional institutions

Between IVe front century J.C and the end of IIe century, the political system knows its period of balance. It is articulated with a division of the capacities between the various following actors:

The Senate

With the head of the Republic is the Senate, a permanent assembly made up of 300 members approximately who all are of old the Magistrat S. Several conditions are required to have access to the Senate: to have exerted one of the magistratures of the Course honorum , diposer of a land fortune, and to be chosen by the critics which supplement every five years the senatorial Album . The senators deliver their opinion on the laws (right of Veto on the decisions of the Comices) and direct the foreign politics and the diplomacy. They also control the magistrature and have the upper hand on finances and public works, the lifting and the distribution of the quotas. The senate met in the Curie.

Popular assemblies: comices

The Comices are assemblies of the Roman people as a whole, plebeian and patricians, according to various methods of regrouping of the Roman citizens: curie, tribe, Centurie.

the Comices curiates: They are oldest, according to the Roman tradition, they were organized under the Roman Monarchie, and play only one minor part under the Republic, arbitrating on the points of family law of the patricians (marriage, heritage, adoption, etc).

the Comices tributes: They probably derive from the concilium plebis , and elect the municipal officials and the powerful orators of the plebs.

They vote the laws and make the judgments.

the Comices centuriates: They elect the consuls, the critics and the questeurs.

The 2 comices have warheads, legislative and legal.

The comices are joined together apart from the city on the field of Mars, with the call of a magistrate necessarily holder of imperium. This one makes sure first of all of the approval of the gods by taking the Auspice S. Any sign interpreted in an unfavourable way causes the carryforward at following the ostentation day. The candidates with the election are proposed by the magistrate who organizes the vote, and which can refuse certain candidatures. Candidates, vêtus of a Toga bleached with the chalk (from where the name candidate, of candidus , white in Latin) circulate among the voters and incite them to vote in their favor.

Each unit, tribe or centurie vote in turn. The vote is made body present, and will be secret only after 139 av. J.C, when the law Gabinia imposes the vote using shelf bearing the name of the candidate. The calculation of the voices is done immediately, so that the vote of the first centurie or tribe is known the following ones at the time when they vote; this vote takes the value of one predicts for the continuation of the poll, and often involves that of the centuries or following tribes. The popular expression is regarded as a means of expression of the gods.

When the results of the vote are acquired, the organizing magistrate proclaims the name of the elected officials, obligatory condition for their nomination.

Ordinary magistratures

The magistratures were created gradually after the proclamation of the Roman République in 509 av. J. - C..

The various magistratures of Rome are organized in various groups, which are not recut:

magistratures of the people (censorship, consulate, prétorat, curule municipal administration and quaestorship), accessible to any citizen and plebeian magistratures (tribunat of the plebs and plebeian municipal administration), accessible to only plebeian.
magistratures cum imperio (consulate and prétorat) and magistratures sine imperio (censorship, municipal administration, tribunat of the plebs and quaestorship). The imperium being capacity of command, which is expressed in particular by the right of life or death. All the magistrates profit from the auctoritas which is the capacity of execution of the law.
magistratures sacrosaintes (censorship, tribunat of the plebs and plebeian municipal administration) which offers to their holder a religious inviolability, and magistratures not sacrosaintes (consulate, prétorat, curule municipal administration and quaestorship)
magistratures cum swears auspiciorum majorum (censorship, consulate and prétorat) which has the right to take the Auspice S in all places, and magistratures cum swears auspiciorum minorum (tribunat of the plebs, municipal administration and quaestorship) which can take the auspices only in Rome.
curule magistratures (censorship, consulate, prétorat and curule municipal administration) and noncurule magistratures (tribunat of the plebs, plebeian municipal administration and quaestorship). The badge of the curule magistrates is the curule chair which is only one honorary privilege.

Under the terms of these various classifications, several historians tried to establish a distinction between higher magistratures and lower magistratures, some adopting in the first groups only the magistratures cum juice auspiciorum majorum , of other the curule magsitratures.

The only hierarchisation which is universally accepted is that of the Cursus honorum , which forces to receive the magistratures in a certain order.

The Critic S

The 2 critics, former consuls, are elected by the Comices centuriates every 5 years for one 18 months period. They index and classify the citizens according to their age and their richness (the census) and compose the list of the senators, by noting their name in a register called album .

The critics supervise also manners, and can erase the senators of the list if they do not have a control in conformity with their row. They deal finally with public works, allocate also the government contracts.

At the conclusion of their mandate, they proceed to ceremonies of purification ( lustrum or gloss).

The Consul S

The 2 consuls are elected every year by the comices centuriates. They must make carry out the laws, take care of the lifting of the soldiers and name the officers and order the army. The consuls can also choose a dictator in the event of insecurity of Rome.

The Praetor S

They are elected every year by the comices centuriates. They are in charge of justice and can compensate the consuls in the command of the army.

The municipal official S

They are elected every year by the comices tributes. They take care of the provisioning of Rome, they organize the official plays and spectacles.

The Questeur S

They are the elected civils servant of finances every year by the comices centuriates. They are the guards of the Treasury which is in the Saturn temple (equivalent of Cronos). They are also in charge with the financial investigations and the management of the fines.

The powerful orators of the plebs

Magistrature created into -494, to avoid the secession of the plebs.

They are elected every year by the comices tributes. They have the right to veto ( intercessio ) on the decisions of the magistrates cum imperio . Although the tribunat does not form strictly speaking part of the course honorum , he is regarded as intermediary between municipal administration and the prétorat, the capacity brought by the right to veto enabling him to counterbalance the influence of the consuls. but they do not have an important capacity like the senate

The powerful orator is the chief of the plebs. He convenes the assembly of plebeian and chairs the adoption of the plebiscites. Moreover, the person of the powerful orator is sacro-holy, by the lex valeriæ Horatiæ of -449.

Exceptional magistratures

The Interroi is a selected temporary supreme magistrate among the senators, in the absence of holder of the consular or dictatorial capacity. It " règne" five days, and if no consul is elected in the interval, it names a interroi which succeeds to him.

The dictator and its Maître of cavalry were chosen by one of the consuls in exercise, temporarily in emergency time, among the former consuls. It had the full powerss for 6 months to the maximum. Contrary to the pejorative current direction of the term, the dictator did not exert his power inevitably in an arbitrary and authoritative way. Starting from 202 av JC, the load of dictator is not allotted any more.

The Promagistrat S

As from the 3rd century, period of important conquests, the Propréture and the proconsul At were created which were accessible respectively to the former praetors and consuls. It was about the command of a province. For the year 52, it was necessary to wait five years with leaving a magistrature before reaching a promagistrature.

It is about a whole of small magistratures which make it possible to young people resulting from the equestrian order to prepare with the exercise of the magistratures of the course honorum . One counts there:

the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis college of ten judges in charge of of the lawsuits of less importance
the tresviri monetales college of three men who supervises the striking of the capital currencies
the tresviri or tresviri nocturni college of three men charged with the night police force of Rome
the quatuorviri viis in urbe purgandis college of four men in charge of the maintenance of the streets of Rome
the duoviri viis ex urbe purgandis college of two men in charge of maintenance with the roads apart from Rome
the quatuorviri iure dicundo college with four judges in charge of with the lawsuits in the towns of Campania

Disfonctionnements and reforms

Abuses

The reform of Sylla (81-79)

After having eliminated the partisans from Marius, Cinna and Carbo, Sylla was made name Roman Dictateur to undertake an in-depth reform of the institutions: he was dictator legibus scribundis and rei publicae constituendae (dictator charged to write the laws and to organize the State). Sylla taken of many reforms, to reinforce the capacity of the Senate, to prevent the maintenance with the capacity of ambitious and to manage the widening of the Roman world:

reconstitution of manpower of the Senate, decimated by the civil war, and rise in its number from 300 to 600 senators. The new senators were selected among the 35 tribes at a rate of 9 senators per tribe. This method of recruitment thus extended with the Latium, the Campania and the Étrurie improved the geographical representativeness of the Senate
modification of the Cursus honorum, raising of the conditions of age at 30 years for quaestorship, 36 years for municipal administration, 40 years for préture and 43 years for the consulate. Municipal administration became optional, and the exercise of the tribunat of the plebs excluded from office of the course honorum.
a decennial interval minimum enters the exercise of the same magistrature in reaction to monopolizations of the consulate year after year per Marius then Cinna
settlement of the date of the elections in July, and either to autumn, to leave time to regulate before the entry in load of the magistrates the dispute making following the election, of which accusations of corruption electoral
increase in the number of magistrates, to face the needs increased for administration: the Questeur S pass from 12 to 20, the Préteur S from 6 to 8
organization of the government of the ten provinces, entrusted to the praetors and to the consuls of the previous year with the title of Proconsul S. the pacified provinces would be intended to the former praetors, the others with the former consuls
the powerful orators of the plebs were the subject of limitation to be able to them: their private bill were to be subjected to the prior approval of the Senate, restriction of the their capacity of intercession on the only help of private individual against a decision

Anti-syllanienne reaction

Reforms of César

In its turn dictator starting from 48 av. J.C, Jules César takes again certain reforms of Sylla:

new increase in the number of magistrates, to as much face the needs increased for administration by the conquests in the East and a Gaulle, that to offer loads to its partisans: the Questeur S pass from 20 to 40, the Préteur S from 8 to 16, the municipal official S are from now on 6
reconstitution of manpower of the Senate; the losses of the civil war are compensated by the massive introduction novel members, well beyond the old manpower of 600 senators.

After the assassination of César in 44 av. J.C, the magistrature of dictator is definitively removed, measurement of circumstance suggested by Marc Antoine.

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