Government 1 Assemblies

Question 1

3 elements to Roman government 509 BCE - start of the republic

Answer 1

• voting assemblies (3 + 1)
• express will of populus
• senate
• elected officials (called “magistrates”)

Question 2

Roman voting practices

Answer 2

• free citizen males
• vote in person (have to come to Rome)
• always vote in assigned groups
• no individual votes
• no debate in assemblies
• written ballot (secret) starts later 2nd c. BCE

Question 3

193 centuries (comitia centuriata)

Answer 3

• group citizens by wealth and age for army
• citizen militia
• censors assign groups
• origin: group with enough resources to provide 100 soldiers
• equites - originally these are the cavalry, later become a social class
• other terms you might see for them: knights, equestrians

Question 4

Comitia centuriata acts as the military assembly

Answer 4

• one vote for each century
• start with wealthiest
• stop when majority reached (97 centuries)
• meet on field of mars (= campus martius)

Question 5

Pomerium

Answer 5

• sacred boundary of Rome
• tombs must be outside
• military imperium operates outside it
• no soldiers in city
• exception: triumph granted by senate

Question 6

Functions of comitia centuriata

Answer 6

• elects consuls, praetors, censors
• passes laws (leges, singular is lex)
• consuls propose the laws for voting

Question 7

35 tribes in Rome

Answer 7

• geographically based (originally)
• 4 urban, 31 rural
• mix of wealth within a tribe
• patronage (patron/client relationships)
• socii assigned only to urban tribes at first

Question 8

Comitia tributa (tribal assembly)

Answer 8

• one vote per tribe
• draw lots for sequence
• elect quaestors and curule aediles
• pass leges (laws)

Question 9

Comitia curiata

Answer 9

• 30 wards (curiae)
• little used
• adoptions, wills
• confer military imperium

Question 10

Assembly of the plebeians: concilium plebis

Answer 10

• only plebeians are members
• organized by tribes
• founded 494/493 BCE
• pass plebiscites
• plebiscites only apply to plebeians at first
• 287 BCE - now apply to all of Roman society

Question 11

Concilium plebis

Answer 11

• elect 10 tribunes (have to be plebeian)
• tributes to know: Tiberius Gracchus, Gaius Gracchus
• elect the plebeian aediles
• before the Gracchi, tribunes mostly are in sync with senate

Question 12

List of assembles

Answer 12

For all Roman citizens
- comitia centuriata
- comitia tributa
- comitia curiata (not important politically)

For plebeians only:
- concilium plebis

Question 13

The senate

Answer 13

• advisory body
• 300 people during republic
• membership is for life
• chosen by censors
• financial decisions: taxes, tributes
• where to spend it
• receives embassies
• administers provinces

Question 14

Eligibility for senate

Answer 14

• ex-quaestors eligible
• patrician or plebeian
• wealth requirement: one million sesterces (1 sestertius = 4 denarii, to be in equestrian class, you need 400,000 sesterces)
• wealth must be based on land in Italy
• senators can’t engage in banking, public contracts or foreign trade (at least, not directly)

Question 15

Senatus consultum

Answer 15

• give advice: senatus consultum
• senatus consultum ultimum: final decree of the senate
• senate is most experienced body in Roman government
• membership for life
• consuls rejoin senate after year in office

Question 16

Ways to make “laws” in the Roman republic

Answer 16

Lex (plural: leges)
- comitia tributa or comitia centuriata
- named after consuls who proposed it
Senatus consultum (plural: senatus consulta)
- decree of the senate
plebiscites (called leges)
- concilium plebis
- only plebeian tribes vote on these