ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the crucial period where the Republic’s main governmental institutions were developed. These include the positions of interrex, dictator, master of cavalry, consul, censor, quaestor, praetor, aedile, and plebeian tribune. Priesthoods and other aspects of Roman political life are also discussed. The development of the so-called ‘struggle of the orders’ between patricians and plebeians, and the laws that resulted, such as the Licinian-Sextian laws and the Hortensian law, are also examined, and the concept of Roman slavery is introduced. Rome’s early conflicts, so important for her development, included three wars against the Samnites, several with the Latin League, and numerous conflicts with the Gauls, who may have sacked Rome in 390. Arrangements with neighbours witnessed the development of the system of municipia, grants of citizenship with or without the vote, and Latin rights. Important military developments also occurred in the period, which included the introduction of the maniple. By the end of the fourth century, Rome was master of central Italy.
