Roman Republic

4 Pages 977 Words

The legend of the “Rape of Lucretia” tells the story of how the son of King Tarquin raped a high standing woman, Lucretia, to demonstrate his power. Lucretia, shamed, killed herself and her family, led by Junius Brutus expelled King Tarquin. They then created what is called the Roman Republic. Romans were now wary of monarchies, and created a somewhat democratic system, where not one man held power.
The Romans, at the beginning of the Republic, had a constitution which had laid down the traditions and institutions of government. These traditions and laws were based on the institution of a monarchy, so while the Romans did not revive the monarchy, there was still a great amount of power in their officials. At the top were the consuls, two patricians, (the elite and wealthy families of Rome), elected to the office for one year. These consuls commenced legislation, served as the head of the judiciary, military, and as chief priests to the nation. Under the consuls were two financial officers called quaestors, who were financial administrators. Under the quaestors were the praetors, who performed judicial and military command duties. Only patricians were allowed to hold any of these offices. Eventually, the office of the censor acquired great powers, such as the power to dismiss senators from the Senate but for any reason at all. By the time of the late Republic, the censors, and the patricians, had become some of the most powerful politicians in Rome.
It was evident that power was not evenly divided, thus brought about the “Struggle of the Orders”. The patricians obviously held more sway in this new system than the plebeians, (farmers and merchants, some equally, if not wealthier than some patricians). The conflict was mainly about the patricians trying to retain their power, while the plebeians attempted to gain some social and political equality. When the plebeians as whole decided to leave Rome to occupy the Sacred Mount...