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2021 Lecture 35 Roman Republic 1 — Transcript

by The Friendly Historian · 3,357 words · 601 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:04whether through the dramatic events that
0:05are described in the mythological
0:07origins or perhaps a more gradual
0:09process
0:10we know that by the time we reach the
0:125th 4th century bce
0:15roman society had been transformed from
0:18a monarchy
0:20to a republic and the next couple
0:22centuries
0:23there are going to be various steps
0:25along that path to the roman
0:27style of republicanism but we're going
0:29to just
0:30wheedle that down a little bit and talk
0:32about the main
0:33core aspects and one of the most
0:35important things to remember at the
0:37beginning is that rome is a very
0:38stratified society
0:40and they are very happy being a
0:42stratified society at least if you are
0:44in the upper
0:45classes there's never really an attempt
0:48to have
0:48universal suffrage where everyone's
0:51participating we're not
0:52there's nothing on that scale however
0:55they are going to turn
0:57very firmly for several centuries away
0:59from having one person in control
1:01and try to divide power up among
1:05different contributing bodies so let's
1:07talk about how that worked
1:10basically the romans were divided into
1:13in the beginning the haves and the
1:15have-nots and we have these two
1:17words that still continue to be in our
1:19lexicon today
1:20patrician and plebeian the patricians
1:24were made up of the most
1:25wealthy families the oldest families
1:29they probably had the most land and they
1:31certainly
1:32had the most military gear and by that
1:35i mean early on in roman history men
1:39between the ages
1:40of 18 and around 40 were expected to
1:42come when called
1:44to defend rome or to go out and
1:47in campaigns of aggression to to
1:49overtake other areas
1:51that was part of the expectation now if
1:54you were able to
1:55to show up for those battles fully
1:58outfitted
1:58which meant that you had a spear you had
2:00a shield
2:01you had a breastplate a helmet and you
2:04had a horse
2:05then you're very valuable to that
2:08society and so you would be considered
2:10the very highest class and they call
2:12them the equates or sometimes you'll
2:14hear them called the
2:15knights so these are really the highest
2:18members of society
2:19then you had a people that were also
2:21showing up without a horse but they had
2:23all of the rest of the gear they were
2:25able to really show up and be ready for
2:27battle
2:28at the very lowest end of the totem pole
2:31you have people who are not
2:33able to um send anyone to fight
2:37and then you have this large group of
2:39people that are considered the plebeians
2:41and many of these
2:44men could have perhaps shown up to
2:47battle with slingshots
2:48with stones with sticks and
2:52so they were still valuable a valuable
2:54commodity for rome but they're not going
2:55to have the kind of
2:56influence in the beginning that these
2:59patricians had
3:00and much of the early history of rome
3:03is about the tension between these two
3:06groups
3:07the much smaller in numbers but greater
3:09in power patricians
3:11and the much larger group of plebeians
3:14who are becoming more important
3:16and one of the things that happens
3:19is a push from the plebeians to
3:22have more say in government
3:27and there's a moment very um
3:30famous moment in roman history in which
3:33the lowest members of the military
3:35orders basically go on strike
3:38and they say we're not going to fight
3:40anymore
3:41unless we have some kind of
3:43representation
3:45in government and that's the point when
3:47which you have
3:48um you have the development of the
3:52plebeian representation
3:54that we'll talk about in a minute
4:02so let's think about how the republic
4:04worked
4:06you can already see on your screen that
4:07it's kind of divided into two
4:09on one hand you have the voices of the
4:11plebeians
4:12being represented and on the other side
4:14you're seeing the voices of the
4:16patrician class so let's start with that
4:18left side the patrician class
4:20the highest office in rome during the
4:22republic is console
4:25and console you can think of as being
4:26kind of the executive
4:28branch and you'll notice i have that
4:32two there which is to tell you that
4:34there are actually two consoles
4:36at any given time and they have the
4:38power of veto
4:39over each other's decrees so although
4:43they are
4:43heading the ship of rome there is
4:45already built in
4:47a system of checks and balances they're
4:49working in tandem
4:51the other important check on the power
4:53of the consoles is
4:54there are term limits you are only
4:56allowed to be counsel for a year
4:59so there really is you can sense that
5:01anxiety that the romans had about
5:04one person getting too much power
5:08the consoles are going to be drawn from
5:10the patricians and in particular from
5:12the senatorial class
5:15and or the senate the senate will say
5:17something about in a minute but this is
5:19the voice of the patricians that come
5:21together and meet regularly
5:23and again help the consul to steer the
5:26ship of rome
5:28on the other side of the page let's talk
5:30about the plebeians
5:31the plebeians again were those who were
5:33often fighting in these wars of
5:35expansion
5:36that rome was constantly engaged in
5:38during the first centuries of her
5:40history
5:41and they are always striving for more
5:43representation
5:44always striving to have a voice against
5:46these against these old powerful
5:48families
5:50after one particular war the volcan wars
5:54they are told that their all of their
5:55debts are going to be wiped out
5:57if they fight within the vulcian wars
5:59and lo and behold
6:00after they do their duty those promises
6:03are
6:05disappearing as many political promises
6:07do
6:08and they are left without this this uh
6:10remission of debt
6:12and at that point they threaten to
6:14succeed
6:15unless they are given more voice
6:18in the government at that point we have
6:21the creation
6:22of the office of tribune and the tribune
6:25is a legislative group it can be two
6:29or up to ten at different points in
6:30history two to ten
6:33are representing the needs of the people
6:37within rome coming out of these
6:39assemblies now things like judges
6:42civil officials these are generally
6:45appointed and can be
6:46can be filled by both groups you could
6:48be from the philippine side or from the
6:49patrician side
6:51kind of work your way up in government
6:53positions
6:55so i'll say something just a little bit
6:57more about the senate on the next page
7:05the word senate comes from the latin
7:07senators which means
7:08old old man and it's the oldest body
7:12within rome
7:14even back in the time of romulus and his
7:17successors in the earliest days of rome
7:20there was a tradition of having the
7:22oldest
7:23uh most prominent families come together
7:26the men of those families and talk about
7:29roman policy
7:32and they rule really by tradition
7:35how do you become a senator well you
7:37become you're a member of these
7:38old families it's not an elected
7:42position and that
7:43remains true throughout roman history a
7:46little bit of a contrast
7:47to what we saw with athens where people
7:49were chosen by lot
7:51this is definitely more of a closed
7:52system representing
7:54the most powerful families in rome and
7:58this is going to be true of rome
8:00throughout its history
8:01even when we move into the imperial
8:03period
8:04the senate will continue to meet and the
8:06senate will continue to be in rome until
8:09the very last days
8:10of the roman empire so it does it
8:12becomes emblematic
8:14of rome as long as the senate is meeting
8:18then rome is is good it's moving forward
8:23you've probably seen the uh
8:26spqr represented on things
8:30such as roman military gear you see it
8:32on flags
8:33and this is for the the translation is
8:35roughly for the senate and people of
8:37rome
8:38so as a roman military you're really
8:42pledging yourself to the senate to
8:44protect the senate so it becomes an
8:46emblem as well as a functioning body
8:50one of the things that is going to
8:52develop within the senate
8:53is the notion of pro-consular power we
8:56talked about the consoles
8:58the consoles are only able to have power
9:01for
9:02a year right well we develop as rome
9:05expands it becomes necessary for people
9:08to have power for
9:09more than a year if they're in the field
9:12which meant that if they were outside
9:15of that central italian part it really
9:18didn't make sense for them to only have
9:20power for a year if you're going to be
9:22in places
9:23as remote as gaul or spain or north
9:26africa
9:26so what they do is to extend that period
9:30and they call that pro-consular power
9:33so in addition to the two councils
9:34ruling in rome you would have pro
9:37councils who had power for longer
9:39periods of time
9:41and i mentioned that at this point
9:42because this is going to play a real
9:44role
9:45in the death of the republic in the
9:48movement
9:49into the imperial period they have all
9:52of these safeguards set up to make sure
9:55that one person doesn't become too
9:56powerful but there is this little caveat
9:59with a pro-consular power
10:01which allows someone to keep power in
10:03the field and as we see that's going to
10:05be
10:06become a real factor in roman history
10:12we've seen the structure of roman
10:13government with the assemblies
10:16the senate the tribunes the consuls the
10:18proconsuls
10:19but there's another partner in this
10:21relationship and that is
10:22the law now as early as the 5th century
10:25bce
10:26the romans had set forth the 12 tables
10:29which were a written law code
10:31they were on public display much like
10:33the code of
10:34hammurabi and the idea is that all of
10:37these government institutions are
10:38supposed to operate underneath the
10:40umbrella of roman
10:42law the first formulation of that as we
10:46just mentioned is the twelve
10:47tables uh history tells us that it was
10:50put into effect by the dechaviri which
10:53is
10:54these ten men who came together to talk
10:57about the most important aspects of
10:59society
11:00and the 12 tables deal with everything
11:02from
11:03land inheritance they talk about
11:06marriage laws
11:07and so we'll have a chance to look at a
11:09couple of of these in a minute
11:11but it's not a static body
11:14in the beginning we do have these
11:16tablets that are written in stone
11:18but over the the next five six seven
11:21centuries of roman history
11:23many many new laws are going to be added
11:25to this original code
11:27until you get all the way up until the
11:296th centuries ce
11:31with the corpus eures sevillas which is
11:34this large
11:35codification of roman law that takes
11:38place during the reign
11:39of the emperor justinian and by this
11:41point roman law has
11:42really become prolific and so much so
11:46that the emperor decides that it needs
11:48to be
11:49reorganized and codified and in fact if
11:52you're
11:53pursuing law or you enter into the
11:56law library you're going to still find
11:59co
11:59copies of this justinionic code it
12:02really has lent a lot
12:03to our current legal system so let's
12:06take a look at a few of those codes from
12:09the original 12 tables
12:12the 12 tables is really easy to access
12:15it's been translated you can do a google
12:17search and see
12:18a lot of the original 12 tables but i've
12:20pulled out
12:21a couple of things which i think are
12:23particularly revealing about
12:24roman society the first one
12:27has to do with due process of law so you
12:30see they're putting to death of
12:32any man who has not been convicted
12:34whoever he might be
12:35is forbidden and this is something that
12:38perhaps we take for granted but again
12:40this is something that really stands out
12:42with an ancient society
12:44you don't have a king or a royal family
12:47who has the power of life and death over
12:50their citizens
12:52that term whoever he might be indicates
12:54that all of these different governmental
12:56bodies both patrician and plebeian
12:58are still operating underneath the
13:00umbrella of law
13:04and everyone must participate that
13:06second item there
13:07if the plaintiff summons the defendant
13:09to court he has to go
13:11you have to show up to defend yourself
13:14in a legal
13:15way if he doesn't go the plaintiff shall
13:18call a witness
13:19and if they don't show up then only he
13:21shall take him by force
13:23but i think the idea being again here
13:25this isn't a vigilante justice system
13:27each person is entitled to their day in
13:29court
13:30however they're going to need to abide
13:33by the procedures of the court
13:35and by the rulings of the court a little
13:37further down it says the magistrate is
13:40going to announce it if the litigants
13:41settle their case by compromise
13:43so even in those cases in which they are
13:46able to reach an agreement
13:48it's all going to operate within an
13:50orderly
13:51system of law now i don't want to give
13:54the impression and go too
13:56far that this is a straight egalitarian
13:58system
14:00the romans were big slave owners there
14:02were millions of slaves
14:04literally millions of slaves within the
14:06roman empire at its peak
14:08and slaves have very little protection
14:12under the law much like what we saw with
14:14athens remember that slaves could not
14:16participate
14:17in the political system the same is
14:20going to be true in rome
14:22we'll talk about slavery a little bit
14:23more later but just remember that we are
14:26leaving out large members of the
14:27population even as we have the
14:30system of law even
14:33written into the code you can also see
14:35that rome is continuing to support a
14:38classed
14:38society marriages should not take place
14:41between philippians and patricians
14:44so even as plebeians continue to gain a
14:47voice and become quite powerful actually
14:49within the roman political system
14:51there's the idea that patricians and
14:53publians are really made of different
14:55stuff
14:56and you don't want to mix that blood
14:58together
14:59um so that's something that and the same
15:02is going to be true for marriages
15:03between
15:04slaves and free citizens there's going
15:07to be all kinds of prohibitions on that
15:09so they're definitely not a society
15:11which is completely egalitarian
15:14however you do have the notion of
15:16accountability
15:17um there's where do women fit into all
15:20of this well you can see
15:22they talk about at the end that women by
15:25reason of levity of disposition
15:27are going to remain under the um under
15:30the charge of their male relatives
15:32that's what it means by saying they're
15:33going to remain
15:35as children essentially and that really
15:37does tell us a lot i think about how
15:40roman society viewed women it's not as
15:43if they're not
15:44valued they don't have a place they
15:46aren't capable of doing things that are
15:48important
15:49but they really never trust the fact
15:51that women have their
15:52full capacities they're going to make
15:55decisions that are
15:57wise or good instead they have to be
15:59watched much like we would watch our own
16:01children
16:02this is why they can't participate in
16:05government they can't become senators or
16:07consuls or plebia or i'm sorry tribunes
16:10because you can't really trust them to
16:13make
16:13wise decisions now we'll see
16:16that this is uh this is the standard
16:20women are able to access power in
16:23outside of the standard we've talked
16:25about that before how do different
16:27groups and marginalized groups access
16:29power
16:30so there will be some very powerful
16:31women in roman history
16:34however they're never going to be part
16:36of the institutionalized
16:38system of power they can't participate
16:40in the government
16:41they have very few legal rights to
16:43property and inheritance and things like
16:48that
16:52in looking at the enduring legacy of the
16:54ancient world sometimes we pause
16:57at those moments which i think are
16:59really
17:00representative of things that have
17:02continued to come down to us in a very
17:04meaningful way
17:05from the ancient world and this is one
17:08of those moments
17:09when you think about law and their
17:11public display we've talked about that a
17:13couple different societies that we've
17:14looked at before
17:15the laws of shaka in india we've talked
17:19about the code of hammurabi
17:21and in roman law it's going to add to
17:24that by this
17:25overarching assumption of innocence
17:28until proof of guilt
17:30so you can't just accuse someone of
17:33something
17:34and then carry out that justice that you
17:37think
17:38is appropriate you know you can't think
17:40that someone stole your cow
17:42and because of that go next door and
17:44kill their cow right there
17:46has to be a due process of law involved
17:48and all of us have probably experienced
17:50this in some way or another
17:52if you've gotten a speeding ticket there
17:55you can go to court and have your day in
17:57court and say
17:58no i wasn't speeding and the judge is
18:00obligated to hear your side of the story
18:03and make a ruling on that
18:04so that's definitely something that i
18:06think has been adapted
18:08by most western societies and um indeed
18:12globally at this point
18:18speaking of legacy the last thought i
18:20want to leave you with
18:21in our discussion of the roman republic
18:24is a visual representation of our
18:27capital
18:28in washington and you have to ask
18:30yourself why does washington dc
18:32look like an ancient italian city
18:35most of washington dc was constructed
18:38during
18:39the 19th century
18:42no that was not the style of the 19th
18:45century the victorian era
18:48so why did they very intentionally
18:50choose to emulate
18:52some of those same architectural styles
18:54that you would have found in rome
18:56and i think two things are going on
18:58first of all
18:59the founders of the united states were
19:02very
19:03aware of the influences of
19:06roman republicanism and when they're
19:08setting up their government
19:09they are mimicking in many ways a lot of
19:12the institutions that were founded in
19:14rome
19:15when you think about the division for
19:16example between the senate
19:19and the house of representatives right
19:21the senate is a much smaller body
19:24people who are in the senate are
19:25traditionally a little bit older
19:27and they're really seen as being the
19:29elder statesman
19:31and then you have the house of
19:32representatives a much more inclusive
19:34body
19:35which is giving voice to the people then
19:37you have that executive branch with the
19:39president
19:40and the vice president it's not a
19:42shot-for-shot remake of what was going
19:44on in rome
19:45but clearly they're very influenced by
19:48that
19:49and so it makes sense that they want
19:50their buildings
19:52to reflect it they're very proud of the
19:54fact they seem to have been
19:55very proud of the fact that they're
19:57emulating this
19:59republican system and the other thing i
20:01would mention because you've seen the
20:03parthenon and some of the other
20:04buildings on the acropolis
20:06roman itself is borrowing from
20:10some of the greek traditions so if you
20:12look for example
20:13um at the pantheon which is the the the
20:16building there on the bottom left in
20:18black and white this was a
20:20building that was built to honor all of
20:22the gods in rome
20:25do you see those similarities to greek
20:27structures
20:28they're really stealing it right off of
20:32the acropolis in greece we have the use
20:34of the corinthian columns in the front
20:37you have that triangular section the
20:40portico
20:40at the top um so the romans themselves
20:44are borrowing from the greeks
20:46and then if you look at the image just
20:47above that within the united states
20:50um you really start to see
20:53us borrowing from the romans so there's
20:55really an amalgam
20:57of traditions going on with the
20:59architecture within washington dc and i
21:01think
21:02it speaks to the level of influence the
21:05level of legacy that the romans are
21:07going to leave
21:08for western society next time when we
21:12come back we're going to talk about how
21:13this roman republic which was so
21:15interested in preventing a king
21:19is going to give way to a ruler the
21:22emperor who has
21:23more power than probably anyone had ever
21:25had in the west
21:27how did that happen we'll talk about
21:28that next time

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