Ancient Rome I

The core area of the Roman civilisation was Central Italy, but the Roman Empire expanded in the entire Mediterranean. Founded in the sixth century BCE, Rome became the dominant city of this civilisation. Its location on the banks of River Tiber gave it several locational advantages in the early stages of its foundation, including protection from external invasions, trade and commerce, and movement of army. In the initial phase of its existence, the Roman city-state was ruled by Monarchy but in 510 BCE it was replaced by Republic.

Under the Republic, Roman territorial expansion took place in the Italian Peninsula, Western Mediterranean and Eastern Mediterranean. The Republic was controlled by an oligarchy dominated by the Roman aristocracy. Roman society was divided into two broad ‘orders’ or classes, namely Patricians and Plebeians. Patricians were the rich aristocratic class who held this status based on birth, while plebeians consisted of all those who did not belong to the governing class and all other common masses. Patricians were the dominant social group exercising control over political, social, economic, and religious matters.

The oligarchy under the Republic functioned through a council (Senate) through which the aristocracy exercised its power. The senate did not have any legislative power but issued decrees to the magistrates of the assemblies which expressed senate’s views on important issues like military, war, foreign policy, and financial and legislative affairs. The actual civil and military powers lay in the hands of annual magistrates (consuls). Other magistrates like censors, Praetor, Aediles, Quaestors, and Apparitores assisted the consuls.

Assemblies were the third important element of the Roman Republican system besides the senate and the magistrates. The earliest assembly of Roman citizens was known as Comitia Curiata , which was functional under the monarchy, but under the Republic it was replaced by Comitia Centuriata , whose membership included all adult male citizens of Rome. Members were divided into centuries (lowest army unit in Rome) and voted not individually but as a group. The Comitia Centuriata appointed the magistrates and passed all legislations through a voting system based on property qualification. The Centuriate assembly was dominated by the aristocracy and the plebeians had no say in the decision making. Opposing this monopolisation of political power by the aristocracy, plebeians created their own assembly called Concilium Plebis , which discussed plebeian issues and appointed their own magistrates called tribunes, who later became their representative in the senate. Comitia Tributa was another assembly which included all citizens of the state including both patricians and plebeians.

The monopolisation of political power and the deteriorating condition of the plebeians led to a severe social struggle between the two traditionally known as ‘conflict of orders’. This struggle brought about some benefits to the plebeian class as the patricians could not ignore the demands of the former because plebeians constituted bulk of the army and the state needed them for both offence and defence. The outcome of this social struggle included codification of laws (in the form of Laws of Twelve Tablets), passing of Licinian laws which made plebeians eligible for consulship, abolition of Nexum which ended debt bondage, and passing of Lex Hortensia which made laws enacted by Concilium Plebis binding on the senate.

Nature of the Roman Republic has been a subject of much debate among scholars. One group of scholars argue that though theoretically democratic, there were practical difficulties in the effective working of democratic institutions and therefore nature of the Republican constitution (dominated by the aristocracy) was more authoritarian than democratic. Others, citing democratic procedures like elections and legislation argue that the Roman constitution was a direct democracy. Still others argue that the Roman constitution was framed in a manner where no individual or family group became supreme; at the same time public will was not allowed to hinder public policy.

The last years of the Republic were full of turmoil as powerful military commanders competed against each other to control political power and the senate and other popular assemblies were rendered defunct.

The Principate (27 BCE–235 CE) rulers, Augustus Caesar in particular, reestablished order in the Roman Empire through his political, administrative, economic, and military reforms. The principle of Pax Romana brought about relative peace and economic prosperity to the empire. Successor of Augustus Caesar continued with his policy, and the Roman Empire reached its territorial climax under Trajan. Under the rule of the so-called five good rulers, the empire continued to prosper on account of efficient administration, recognition given to the senate, and other democratic institutions and construction of public works.

The period of ‘third century crisis’ (235–284 CE) was marked by political chaos and economic crisis bringing the empire to the brink of ruin. The dominance of the army disturbed the delicate balance of power between the emperor, senate, and the army creating conditions of civil war.

The Dominate rulers, particularly Diocletian and Constantine, tried to halt the decline of the empire by restructuring its polity and administration. For the sake of administrative convenience, the empire was divided into two administrative units (Western and Eastern) and a new system of governance called ‘Tetrarchy’ was introduced to avoid succession dispute and to enforce decentralisation. This ultimately proved to be the basis of formal division of the Roman Empire into two halves, Eastern and Western under Constantine.

Slavery in Rome arose under specific socio-economic circumstances and was developed as a systematic mode of production. The large population of slave labour and their usage in agriculture, handicrafts, mining, and construction as well as administration besides domestic work turned Rome into a true ‘slave society’ instead of being a mere ‘society with slaves’. Legalised by law, slavery was turned into an institution where slaves were declared as commodities to be bought and sold in the market. The working conditions of the slaves depended on their nature of work, but most of them worked in pitiable conditions. Therefore, in specific circumstances they were goaded into rebellion. Although the extent of slavery and its role in the Ancient Roman economy is a debatable issue among Marxist and non-Marxist scholars, it is agreed upon that slave labour was the basis of surplus generated in the hands of the wealthy Roman aristocrats. But since slave labour was cheap and made labour in general cheap, it did in some manner obstruct technological innovations, turning the Roman economy into a static economy which had its repercussions when the Roman Empire entered a phase of economic crisis.