Republic of Rome

1
Republic of Rome
2
Social Classes

• Patricians (10 of population)
• Aristocratic (land owning) upper class
• Owned large farms (Latifundia)
• Controlled the Senate
• Overthrew Etruscan King Tarquin in 509 BC
• Plebeians (90 of population)
• Common people (some were land owners) farmers,
  merchants, traders
• Little power in government
• Could not hold office or marry patricians

3
(No Transcript)
4
Social Classes

• Slaves (lowest class)
• Prisoners of war or of debt
• Not citizens and had no legal rights

5
Early Republican Government

• Consuls (executive power)
• 2 Patricians served for 1 year
• Senate
• Comprised of 300 patricians, advisors, controlled
  public and served for life
• Centuriate Assembly (legislative power)
• Comprised of citizen-soldiers but controlled by
  Senate
• Dictator temporary official who was appointed
  by consuls in an emergency (maximum of six
  months)
• Praetors
• Served as judges (usually military commanders)
• Censors
• Recorded wealth of citizens, appointed senators,
  moral police

6
Grievances of Plebeians

• All aspects of Rome controlled by patricians
  (little political power)
• Smaller farmers found it harder and harder to
  compete with large estates (Latifundia) owned by
  patricians and farmed by slaves
• Harsh punishment for debt (many plebeians fell
  into debt slavery)
• Unequal justice dispensed by patricians

7
Conflict of Orders

• Struggle between Patricians and Plebeians (the
  orders) that lasted for centuries
• Began in 475 BC when Plebeians refused to serve
  in military until reforms in government were made

8
Result of Conflict of Orders

• Tribal Assembly
• Elected the tribunes and made laws for the common
  people
• Tribunes gained power protected rights of
  plebeians from unfair acts of patrician officials
  (veto)
• Twelve Tables 451BC
• 1st written law code guaranteed rights to all
  Roman citizens

9

• Eventually plebeians gained the right to
• Hold any office
• Slavery for debt abolished
• Right to intermarry with patricians
• End of the Conflict of Orders
• Not until the 200s BC when laws passed by the
  Tribal Assembly finally applied to all citizens
  of Republic