Expansion v Struggle of the Orders

Question 1

Imperium

Answer 1

This was the supreme authority, involving command in war and the interpretation and execution of law, including the infliction of the death penalty. The magistrates with imperium were accompanied by attendants (lictors) who carried the symbol of the Imperium - the fasces (bundle of rods). Consuls were attended by twelve lictors each, praetors by six lictors each and the dictator by twenty-four lictors.

Question 2

Potestas

Answer 2

This was the general term for the power of a magistrate to enforce the law by the authority of his office; the power was restricted to the carrying out of certain defined actions. All magistrates had potestas.

Question 3

First Phase

Answer 3

Conquest of Italy:
+ Rome against the Latins

+ Treaty with Latins (Latin League lasting 150 years)

+ War with Veii

+ Intermittent wars with Aequi and Volsci for next fifty years

+ Decisive battle against Aequi

Struggle between the orders - constitutional developments:
449BC [TRIBUNES] + The plebeians obtained the right to elect their own officials (tribunes), who possessed the power to prevent any action by the state that was against plebeian interests
-> POLITICAL

471BC [CONCILIUM PLEBIS]+ Plebeians gained their own assembly, in which they elected the tribunes who presided over it. It could not pass laws but passed resolutions called plebiscita
-> POLITICAL

449BC [VALERO-HORATION LAWS]+ The Laws of the Twelve Tables defined public and private codes of behaviour inscribed on twelve stone tablets and set up in the Forum.
-> SOCIAL, LEGAL

445BC [CANULEIAN LAW]+ This law legalised intermarriage between patricians and plebeians
-> SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, LEGAL

Question 4

Second Phase

Answer 4

367BC [LICIAN-SEXTIAN LAWS]+ They provided for at least one consul to be plebeian and restricted the amount of public land a patrician could lease from the state
-> POLITICAL

Question 5

Third Phase

Answer 5

300BC [OGULIAN LAW]+ The plebeians achieved the right to hold priestly offices in the state. Some pontiffs and augurs had to be plebeian
-> RELIGIOUS

Question 6

Fourth Phase

Answer 6

287BC [HORTENSIAN LAW]+ this recognised that the plebiscita passed in the concilium plebis were binding on all Romans (plebeians and patricians). The people’s assembly became a law-making body and the influence of the tribunes was greatly increased.
-> LEGAL

Question 7

First Secession significance

Answer 7

494BC was a general strike where the plebeians withdrew a short distance from Rome and threatened to form a separate state of their own - Caused the patricians to make a concession: an official recognition of the tribunes of the plebeians as the guardians of plebeian rights

Question 8

Tribunes

Answer 8

Previously only been unofficial representatives of the plebeians

Now their position was legal and they could continue to protect the plebeians against acts of injustice by the patricians. At first there were only two tribunes, but eventually the number increased to ten

Question 9

The Twelve Tables

Answer 9

The plebeians were anxious to have a written set of laws to which all people would be subject and not the old system where a patrician magistrate could favour his friends because of customs that favoured the rich

The Twelve Tabes, as a result of over ten commisions over two years, was the basis of all Roman Law.

Question 10

Lex Canuleia

Answer 10

This law legalised intermarriage between patricians and plebians