Ancient Rome Essay, Research Paper
Ancient RomeWord Count: 4378
The Romans have had almost every type of government there is. They’ve had a
kingdom, a republic, a dictatorship, and an empire. Their democracy would be the
basis for most modern democracies. The people have always been involved with and
loved their government, no matter what kind it was. They loved being involved in
the government, and making decisions concerning everyone. In general, the Romans
were very power-hungry. This might be explained by the myth that they are
descended from Romulus, who’s father was Mars, the god of war. Their government
loving tendencies have caused many, many civil wars. After type of government,
the change has been made with a civil war. There have also been many civil wars
between rulers. But it all boils down to wanting to be involved in government.
When the Greeks finally entered Troy after ten long years of siege, a man named
Aeneas escaped the city with his father, Anchises, and his son, Ascanius. They
went to Mt. Ida, where they were to meet Aeneas’ wife, Creusa, but she never
showed up. Saddened, Aeneas acquired a boat and sailed around the Mediterranean.
He bounced around from Asia Minor to Greece to Crete looking for a place to
found a new Troy, but he couldn’t find a satisfactory place. As told by Homer in
the Aeneid, Aeneas was cared for by the gods. Venus, in particular, was very
worried about him. She asked Jupiter, king of the gods about him, and he said
this: “Since you are so consumed with anxiety for Aeneas, I shall turn forward
far The hidden pages of fate and speak of the future. He shall conduct a great
campaign for you. And conquer all Italy and its haughty peoples. He shall impose
laws on his own people. And build walled cities for them; the third summer Shall
see him rule in Latium, the third winter Of warfare see the Rutulians [an
Italian tribe] subdued. But his son Ascanius… It is he who shall consolidate
your power-For thirty years with all their turning months; Then shall he move
his capital from Lavinium To Alba Longa, which he shall fortify To the
uttermost; and there a line of kings… Shall reign and reign till Ilia [Rhea
Silvia], a priestess Of royal blood, bear twins begotten by Mars; And one of
these, Romulus, fostered by a she-wolf, And joyfully wearing her tawny hide,
shall rule And found a city for Mars, a new city, And call his people Romans,
after his name. For them I see no measure nor date, I grant themDominion without
end. Yes, even Juno…Even she will mend her ways and vie with me In cherishing
the Romans, the master-race, The wearers of the Toga. So it is willed.”(Nardo
13) Finally, he wound up at the mouth of the Tiber River in Italy. He went
inland up the river, which was a miracle in itself, because the river is very
swift. He found Latium, ruled by King Latinus, and married his daughter,
Lavinia. With King Latinus’ permission, Aeneas and Lavinia founded a city called
Lavinium, where they ruled side by side for many years. When Aeneas died, his
son Ascanius took over. Ascanius founded a new city, which he called Alba Longa,
and made it his capital. Now we advance four centuries. The king of Alba Longa
is Numitor. He had a jealous brother named Amulius, who seized the throne and
drove out Numitor. To prevent Numitor’s daughter, Rhea Silvia, from having
children who could claim the throne, Amulius made her a celibate priestess.
While she was a priestess, Mars, the god of war, came and visited her and she
had twin boys named Remus and Romulus (Burrell 7). When Amulius found out about
the twins, he was furious. He ordered Rhea imprisoned and the boys drowned on
the Tiber. The slave who was ordered to drown them felt pity for them, and
instead sent them down the river in a basket. When they landed, a she-wolf found
them and nursed them because her cubs had just been killed and she was still
fertile. Romulus and Remus were found by a shepherd named Faustulus, who took
them home to his wife to raise them. As they grew up, being sons of Mars, they
turned out to be very athletic and natural leaders, especially of the local
boys. When the boys grew up, they heard the story of Numitor and Amulius. With
their local friends, they attacked Alba Longa, killed Amulius, restored their
grandfather to the throne, and freed their mother. After restoring Numitor to
the throne, the boys decided to found a city on one of the seven hills near
where their basket wasfound by the wolf. This was a natural spot for a city.
Accounts Livy, “Not without good reason did gods and men choose this spot as the
site of a city, with its bracing hills, its [spacious] river by means of which
the produce of inland countries may be brought down and inland supplies
obtained; a sea near enough for all useful purposes, but not so near as to be
exposed to danger from foreign fleets; a district in the very center of Italy,
in a word, a position singularly adapted by a nature for the growth of a city.”
(Nardo, 12) The two boys couldn’t decide between themselves which hill to start
on, so they decided that whoever saw a vulture first could pick. Remus saw the
first vulture and five others, and Romulus saw twelve. Remus had rightfully won,
but Romulus claimed he should pick since he saw more vultures. He borrowed a
plow and team, and plowed a furrow around the Palatine hill. He told his brother
that was where the city would be, and if Remus crossed the line, he would be
killed. Contemptuous Remus immediately crossed the line, and Romulus killed him.
Romulus later said he regretted killing his brother, but life goes on. He built
his city on the Palatine Hill, and called it Rome. When Romulus founded Rome in
753 BC, he made himself the king. Being a brand new city, it had very few
people. Romulus built up the population by allowing anybody who wanted to live
there, including criminals who flocked to the city. This caused a shortage of
women. To get some, the Romans hosted athletic games and invited their
neighbors, the Sabines. While they were at the games, some of the Romans sneaked
off and stole the Sabine women (Burrell 14-15). Realizing what had happened, the
Sabines prepared their army. Expecting this, the Romans were ready and the two
forces lined up preparing to fight. Surprisingly, some of the women ran into the
no-man’s-land in between the armies. This is what their leader said: “We were
just daughters a short while ago, now we are both wives and daughters. We did
not choose our husbands – they chose us. We want this fighting to stop. If it
goes ahead, many will be slain. When our fathers are dead, we shall be orphans,
but if our husbands die, we shall be widows. We lose either way.” (Burrell,
14-15) Surprisingly, the two armies listened and put down their weapons. Since
anyone was allowed to reside, Rome had great diversity in its people. There were
three main ethnic groups: the Romans, who were first generation, the Sabines,
and the Latins, who Romulus is descended from. The Sabines lived in the
mountains east of the Tiber and north of the Latins. Later on, another group of
people called the Etruscans started moving in. They were unique in that their
language had no relation to any other known language, the only one like that.
Romulus established a government with a king, who was imperium, “Over all
persons and in all causes supreme” (Adcock 6). Romulus chose one hundred fathers
to form the Senate. These people and their descendants are known as Patricians,
from the Latin word pater, meaning father. He divided the people into three
tribes, mentioned above, and each tribe was divided into smaller curiae. The
succession of kings wasn’t hereditary. The previous king appointed someone, and
that person had to show the good will of heaven. Once king he had to keep the
pax deorum, Latin for peace of the gods. Romulus created an army that was to
have three thousand infantry and three hundred horsemen, one-third from each
tribe. This was a national guard, with people keeping their day jobs. When
Romulus died in 717 BC, the two main tribes, the Romans and the Sabines,
couldn’t decide how to pick a king. Finally it was decided that the Romans would
pick a Sabine king. They picked Numa Pompilius. This is what Plutarch had to say
about him: “He banished all luxury and softness from his own home, and… in
private he devoted himself not to amusement… but to the worship of he immortal
gods.” (Nardo 19) One of Pompilius’ notable achievements was rearranging the
calendar so it had twelve months instead of ten. The third king, Tullus
Hostilius, was a war monger. He believed his subjects would grow soft if they
weren’t engaged in a war. Conquering neighboring people, including Alba Longa,
he extended Rome’s rule out to twelve miles. Supposedly the gods got angry with
him and killed him with a lightning bolt (Burrell, 12). The fourth king, Ancus
Martius, was a Sabine. He extended Rome’s boundary to the sea and built the Pons
Sublicus, the firstbridge across the Tiber. He also captured the Janiculum hill
on the far bank. The fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, was the first
Etruscan king. He got the throne when he persuaded Martius to send his sons
away. He was an architect king. He built the capitol temple, drained the marsh
between the Paletine and Aventine Hills, built the Cloaca Maxima, or great
sewer, and designed the Circus Maximus. The sixth king was Servius Tullius,
another Etruscan. He divided the citizens into five social classes, from richest
to poorest. All but the poorest had to provide soldiers. The seventh, and final,
king was Tarquinius Superbus. He was a bad king. He got the throne by marrying
Tullius’ daughter, Tullia. He then pushed Tullius down a flight of stairs. He
sent men to finish him off, but Tullia ran over her father with a cisium, Latin
for a light, two-wheeled carriage. As king, he paid absolutely no attention to
what the people wanted. According to Asimov, when he was off at war withthe
Volscians, the Senate voted to exile him, and he wasn’t let back into the city.
After his reign, the people vowed never to have a king again, and a law was made
where anybody who even talked about having a king back was executed. A senator
named Brutus said, “I swear, and you, o gods, I call to witness that I will
drive [away]… Tarquinius Superbus, together with his wicked wife and his whole
family, with fire and sword and every means in my power, and I will not [allow]
them or anyone else to reign in Rome.” (Nardo 25) Republic is English for the
Latin Res Publica, meaning the public thing. A republic is “a country governed
by the elected representatives of the people” (Encarta “Republic”). Instead of a
president or king, the Republic has two praetors, later known as consuls, who
were elected annually. The one exception was emergency dictators, who served for
six months and six months only. The Senators served for life. The object of the
Republic was to give the people a voice in the government, and to keep just one
person from having all the power. Noting the Greek government, the Romans
created the Centuriate Assembly of citizens. This was an assembly where citizens
discussed and voted on important issues. Many of the members were Patricians,
but there were a few Plebs, or commoners too poor to own land. Only free Roman
adult men who owned weapons were citizens. Not long after the Republic was
formed, the Patricians closed off immigration of new patriarchal families. In
the early years of the Republic, the Patricians often made laws unfair to the
Plebs. Only Patricians could become consul, thesenate was almost all Patricians,
and the Patricians controlled the Plebs in the Assembly by giving the Plebs
financial aid, who in turn voted the way they were told. Public Officials
weren’t paid, so only wealthy people could afford to serve on a regular basis.
One time, the Plebs refused to serve in the army until they got their way. As
Livy said, “The Patricians dreaded the Plebians [who were striking]…. How long
could it be supposed that the multitude which had seceded would remain inactive?
And what would be the consequence if in the meantime a foreign war should break
out? No glimpse of hope could they see left except in concord between the
citizens, which must be re-established in the state on any terms.” (Nardo 28) In
494 BC, the Patricians gave up and allowed the striking Plebs their own council,
called the Popular Assembly, which excluded Patricians. This assembly couldn’t
make laws, but they elected ten tribunes each year who had the power of veto.
The Patricians pronounced the validity of decisions made by the assembly. As the
Republic grew older, it became more complicated. The Assembly had to elect
officials to help. They elected eight praetors, or court judges, four aediles,
whomanaged public streets and buildings, two censores, who took censuses,
admitted new senators and collected taxes, and twenty five quaestores, or
financial officers. In 450 BC, the Plebs demanded that the laws of Rome be
written down so that the praetors couldn’t twist the law in their favor. They
were written down on the Twelve Tables. An example of a law from the Twelve
Tables was, “If plaintiff summons defendant to court, he shall go. If he does
not go, plaintiff shall call witness [to this]. Then only shall he take the
defendant [to court] by force.” (Nardo 28-29) The Tribunes of the Plebs
protected the Plebs from unjustness, and the Plebs protected them by threatening
to strike. As time went on, Patrician control over Plebians gradually decreased,
until in 366 BC, the Plebs were allowed to become consul. Soon it became a
custom to elect one Pleb and one Patrician (Nardo 28). In 287 BC, the Popular
Assembly gained the right to make laws. Rome was ever expanding. In 496 BC, Rome
conquered Latium. In 449 BC, the Sabines fell, and in 396 BC, the Etruscans.
Instead of trying to oppress conquered tribes and peoples, Rome absorbed them,
integrating them into their culture. This made them much easier to control,
because they felt like they belonged to Rome. This is what Cicero had to say
about it: “Every citizen of a corporate town [one annexed by Rome] has, I take
it, two fatherlands, that of which he is a native, and that of which he is a
citizen. I will never deny my allegiance to my native town, only I will never
forget that Rome is my greater fatherland, and that my native town is but a
portion of Rome.” (Nardo 31) The Senators of Rome also felt great loyalty
towards the city. In 390 BC, raiders from Gaul invaded the city. Some of the
Senators stayed in the city. Livy tells what happened: “[The Senators
sat]…without fear or concern…. The Gauls, for a great while, stood wondering
at the strangeness of the sight, not daring to approach of touch them, taking
them for an assembly of superior beings. But then one [Gaul], bolder than the
rest, drew near to one elderly senator, and… gently stroked [the Senator's]
chin and touched his long beard; the Senator with his staff struck him a severe
blow on the head; upon which the barbarian drew his sword and slew him. This was
the introduction to the slaughter.” (Nardo 32) The Romans didn’t look kindly
upon failures. After the consul Varro lost fifty thousand soldiers in battle
with Hannibal’s army, he was ejected from office. According to Nardo, the only
reason he wasn’t executed was that he fought along side the army, and didn’t
desert (45). In the Punic wars against Carthage, Rome had to develop naval
technology. After Carthage was defeated, Roman merchants adopted ships to do
their trading, making them more and more wealthy. Eventually, these wealthy
merchants formed a new class, called the ‘equestrian order’. This new class
competed with the patricians for power in the government. The citizens began
splitting into two parties. The Imperialists, led by General Scipio Africanus,
wanted to continue expanding eastward. The Conservatives, led by Senator Cato
the Elder, wanted to settle down and stop expanding. As time went on, the
Imperialists increasingly prevailed. By the second century BC, the government
became more and more imperialistic, to the point that theywould attack anything
with the smallest excuse. In 192 BC, the Seleucid king Antiochus III took over a
few freed Greek cities. Rome invaded, conquered everything, and drove Antiochus
III to Asia Minor. The Roman army chased him, and conquered the territories he