Government

Government By Callan O. The Ancient Roman government is extraordinarily interesting and had many parts to it. First, there was a monarchy. At the beginning of Roman history, a series of kings ruled ancient Rome. Then, the Roman Republic was established in 500 B.C.; it was the most complicated because it had so many parts. Next, there was a triumvirate. After that, there was an empire. The Roman Empire was established in 27 B.C., after the collapse of the republican government. All of these involved law, high rankings, and low rankings within the types of government.

First, came the monarchy. A group of people called the Etruscans ruled Rome first. At that time, Rome was not called Rome until Romulus killed his twin brother Remus in 753 B.C., and named the advanced city Rome. Romulus became the first king of Rome. There were a total of seven kings during the Roman monarchy. Also, there was a senate under the kings, but the senate had only been there to advise the king. The kings, though, wanted power for themselves and no written set of laws. They made the laws. After the seven kings ruled in the monarchy, the plebeians, or ordinary citizens, thought it was unfair for the patricians, or wealthy citizens, to have all the power; so, that was the start of the republic. After the monarchy came the sophisticated republic. There were many parts to it, including the consuls, senate, and patricians. The highest position was consul and there were two who headed the government. The consuls were commander-in-chief during war. They were supreme judges when needed and they were also able to veto laws. The consuls stayed in office for one year only. The consuls were also the head over the senate. The patricians elected the consuls. After that came the senate. There were 300 senators. They discussed financial offerings, foreign affairs, and most importantly, they made laws. The senators stayed in office for life. The patricians also elected the senate and they had a lot of power. In addition, the republic had ten tribunes who protected the rights of the plebeians and had vetoing powers. The tribunes were different from the consuls and senate because the plebeians voted for them and not the patricians. In addition, the Roman soldiers needed to protect the officials, including the consuls, senators, and tribunes, because they were so critical to the smooth functioning of the republic. That is why there were guards, or soldiers all around Ancient Rome. Also in the Roman Republic, there were two judges who balanced and interpreted the law and the code of written laws, which were called the Laws of the Twelve Tables. This system was not working out so well because there were a select few who wanted more power, so Rome went on with a triumvirate. A triumvirate involved 3 leaders and the 300 senators until Julius Caesar made it 900 senators. In the First Triumvirate, Pompey, Carcass, and Caesar all led the Roman people. They were having a lot of battles because each of them wanted to be the dictator of Rome. Julius Caesar succeeded at killing the other two and became dictator-for-life, but not for long. The senate killed Caesar in 44 B.C.. His son, Octavian, was in the Second Triumvirate. Octavian did the same thing as his father by eliminating his competition in the triumvirate. Octavian then went on to become the first emperor of Rome.

The empire started when Octavian became the first emperor in 27 B.C., after the republican government collapsed. Octavian wanted to be referred to as the “Revered One” or Augustus. During the course of the empire, there were five good emperors and a lot of bad ones. The good emperors relied on the senate to rule, not only themselves. The emperors had different approaches to leading the army and governing. For example, Augustus captured Great Britain, but from then on, none of the emperors captured any more land and the empire did not expand.

One of the good emperors, Hadrian, possibly the best Roman emperor, made laws to protect women, children, and slaves. He also built a wall so invaders could not get in. However, there was a bad emperor named Nero who blamed the Christians for starting a huge fire. He also murdered a lot of his own family. Those kinds of bad emperors made the empire go down. Another reason why the empire went down was that the economy was very bad. Invaders entered the city because the army did not defend the borders further weakened the empire. Also, there was a bad emperor named Constantine who moved the capital to Turkey. The new capital was called Constantinople. That affected the decline of the Roman Empire because all the roads were going to Rome, but now the roads needed to go to Constantinople. That was bad because while the soldiers were occupied doing that, the invaders were attacking. The last emperor was Romulus Augustus and it was during his time that the empire finally collapsed. After the empire went down, Rome was just a city.

Rome was now a city, and still is today, and it functions very well. Rome does not have the problems it did a long time ago. Rome had a very big empire for a long time. While it was a monarchy, the plebeians thought it was unfair, so they made a written set of laws. Ancient Rome’s government in the early and middle phases solved a lot of problems but when Rome was getting bigger, there were problems that could not be solved. The size of the Roman Empire ultimately was a major cause of its collapse.

__Works Cited__ Adams, Simon. //Life in Ancient Rome//. Kingfisher Knowledge. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2005. Gedacht, Danial C. //Politics and Government in Ancient Rome//. Rome. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004. Nice, Alley T. “Rome, Ancient”//.//  //World Book Online Reference Center//. 2008.