The Government In Ancient Rome: Who Ruled in Early Rome

News & SocietyPolitics

  • Author Stefano Sandano
  • Published May 21, 2007
  • Word count 509

The city of Rome has an historical legacy of 3000 years and was founded in 753 BC by Romulus considered the first King of Rome. Romulus was fed by the she Wolf with his brother Remus when their mother was obliged to leave them in a basket on the docks of the Tiber River. Romulus accomplished many important reformations in ancient Rome like the creation of the army and the institution of the roman senators, which represented the richest members of the roman families.

After Romulus other kings like Numa Pompilius took care more of the religious habits of the Romans and instead created more priests in order to get deeper into the respect of the rules belonging to the roman religion. In fact, observing respectfully the roman religion could guarantee a better peace between the romans and their gods.

The last period of the monarchic period in early Rome was characterized by the Etruscan Kings which made important constructions in Rome like the Cloaca Maxima and the Circus maximus but they were considered tyrants by the population and they were overthrowned in 509 BC.

The latin writers said that , at this point of the roman history, the romans would never stand to be governed by one person. In this way they decided to split the religious power and the civil and political powers giving them to two men elected every year: the consuls.

The consuls marked the roman annual calendar as we know from many inscriptions and were also the chief commanders of the roman army. At the end of their ruling period, they became life senators as a way to be rewarded for having been working for the state.

senators were helped also by other minor magistrates, like the praetors, encharged to celebrate the trials every day in the Roman forum.

There were also prefects in Rome, whose job it was to run the city – some heard court cases, some ran the vegetable markets or the meat markets or the port.

The forum, originally a marshy valley between the Quirinal and Esquiline Hills, became the focus of public and political life. It was divided down the middle by the cloaca maxima, probably originially meant to be a storm sewer or drainage ditch. By the 6th century BC it was covered, and by the 2nd century BC it was Rome's chief sewer. Shops and houses lined the forum on the northeast and southwest sides. People assembled in the Comitium, a rectangular enclosure oriented to the four points of the compass. The Senate House (curia) was built into the north end of the Comitium, as was a speaker's platform, the rostra. On the southeast end of the forum stood the regia, the former kings' palace. It was now occupied by the Pontifex Maximus and Vestal Virgins.

There were tribunes, who were supposed to speak for the poorer people in the Senate. Tribunes were elected by the assembly, and they could veto (stop) anything the Senate voted for that affected the poor (which ended up being pretty much anything the Senate voted on).

Discovering the history of ancient Rome allows us to understand how we live today and why we have some institutions. To know more about the history of Rome visit http://www.gladiatour.com

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