Rome and the Roman Empireby Alexander Moiseev15.98RomeThe accounts of the regal period have comedown overlaid with such a mass of myth and legend that few statements can beaccepted as factual the Roman historians of later times, lacking authenticrecords, relied on fabrications of a patriotic records, relied on fabricationsof a patriotic fancy.The Legendary Period of the kings 753-510BC Rome was said to have been founded by Latincolonists from Alba Longa, a nearby city in ancient Latium.
The legendary dateof the founding was 753 BC it was ascribed to Romulus and Remus, the twin sonsof Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin and thedaughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa. Later legend carried the ancestry ofthe Romans back to the Trojans and their leader Aeneas, whose son Ascanius, orlulus, was the founder and the first king of Alba Longa. The tales concerningRomulus s rule, notably the rape of the Sabine women and the war with theSabines under the leader Titus Tatius, point to an early infiltration of Sabinepeoples or to a union of Latin and Sabine elements at the beginning.
The threetribes, the Ramnes, Titieus, and Luceres, that appear in the legend of Romulusas the parts of the new commonwealth suggest that Rome arose from theamalgamation of three stocks, thought to be Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan.The seven kings of the regal period and thedates traditionally assigned to their regns are as follows Romulus, from 753to 715 BC Numa Pompilius, from 715 to 676 or 672 BC, to whom was attributedthe introduction of many religious customs Tullus Hostilius, from 673 to 641BC, a warlike king, who destroyed Alba Longa and fought against the Sabines Ancus Marcius, from 641 to 616 BC, said to have built the port of Astia and tohave captured many Latin towns, transferring their inhabitants to Rome LuciusTarquinius Priscus, from 616 to 578 BC, celebrated both for his militaryexploits against neighboring peoples and for his construction of publicbuildings at Rome Servius Tullius, from 578 to 534 BC, famed for his newconstitution and for the enlargement of the boundaries of the city and LuciusTarquinius Superbus, from 534 to 510 BC, the seventh and the last king, whosetyrannical rule was overthrow when his son ravished Lucretia, the wife of akinsman.
Tarquinius was banished, and attempts by Etruscan or Latin cities toreinstate him on the throne at Rome were unavailing.Although the names, dates, and events ofthe regal period are considered as belonging to the regal of fiction and mythrather than to that of factual history, certain facts seem well attested theexistence of an early rule by kings the growth of the city and its struggleswith neighboring peoples the conquest of Rome by Etruria and the establishmentof a dynasty of Etruscan princes, symbolized by the rule of the Tarquins theoverthrow of this alien control and the abolition of the kingship.
Theexistence of certain social and political conditions may also be accepted, suchas the division of the beginning into two orders the patricians, who alonepossessed political rights and constituted the populus, or people and theirdependents, known as clients or the plebs, who had originally no politicalexistence.
The rex, or king, chosen by the Senate senatus , or Council ofElders, from the ranks of the patricians, held office for life, called out thepopulus for war, and led the army in person he was preceded by officers, knownas lictors, who bore the faces, the symbols of power and punishment, and wasthe supreme judge in all civil and criminal suits.
The senatus gave its adviceonly when the king chose to consult it, but the elders patres possessed greatmoral authority, inasmuch as their tenure was for life. Originally onlypatricians could bear arms in defense of the state.
At some stage in the regalperiod an important military reform occurred, usually designated as the Servianreform of the constitution, because it was decided that all property andwealth, it was ascribed to Servius Tullius.
As the plebs could by this timeacquire property and wealth, it was decided that all property holders, bothpatrician and plebian, must serve in army, and each took a rank in accordancewith his wealth.This arrangement, although initially military, paved the wayfor the great political struggle between the patricians and the plebs in theearly centuries of the Republic.The RepublicOn the overthrow of Tarquininus Superbus a republic was established.Conquest of Italy 510-264 BC In place of the king, two chief executiveswere chosen annually by the whole body of citizens.
These were known as praetors,or leaders, but later received the title of consuls. The participation of acolleague in the exercise of supreme power and the limitation of the tenure toone year prevented the chief magistrate from becoming autocratic.The characterof the Senate was altered by the enrollment of plebeian members, known asconscreipti, and hence the official designation of the senators thereafter waspatres conscripti conscript fathers . As yet, only patricians were aligible forthe magistracies, and the discontent of the plebs led to a violent strugglebetween the two orders and the gradual removal of the social and politicaldisabilities under which the plebs had labored.In 494 BC a secession of plebian soldiersled to the institution of the tribuni plebis, who were elected annually asprotectors of the plebs they had the power to veto the acts of patricianmagistrates, and thus served as the leaders of the plebs in the struggles withthe patricians.
The appointment of the decemvirate, a commission of a famouscode of laws. In 445 BC, under the Canuleian law, marriages between patriciansand members of the plebs were declared legally valid.
By the Licinian-Sextianlaws, passed in 367 BC, it was provided that one of the two consuls shouldthenceforth be plebeian. The other magistracies were gradually apened to theplebs in 356 BC, the dictatorship, an extraordinary magistracy, the incumbentof which was appointed in times of great danger in 350 BC, the censorship in337 BC, the praetorship and in 300 BC, the pontifical and augural colleges.A World Power 264-133 BC In 264 BC, 11 years after the victory overPyrrhus, Rome engaged with Carthage in a struggle for the control of theMediterranean Sea. Carthage at this time was the foremost maritime power in theworld, ruling as absolutely in the central and western Mediterranean as didRome on the Italian Peninsula.The EmpireCeasar s assassination by Republican nobleson March 15, 44 BC, was followed by Cicero s attempt to restore the oldRepublican constitution, but Mark Antony, who had been appointed consul withMarcus Aemilius Lepidus and Caesar s grandnephew, the youthful Octavian, laterRmperor Augustus, to form the second triumvirate.Octavian received the title of Augustus in27 BC and began the new regime by an apparent restoration of the Republic, withhimself as princeps, or chief citizen.During the last 80 years of the WesternRoman Empire the provinces, drained by taxes levied for the support of the armyand the bureacracy, were visited by internal war and by barbarian invasions.
Atfirst the policy of conciliating the invader with military commands andadministrative offices succeded.
Gradually, however, the barbarians estublishedin the east began to aim at conquest in the west, and Alaric I, king of the Visigoths,first occupied illyricum, whence he ravaged Greece.
In 410 he captured andsacked Rome, but died soon after.
His successor, Ataulf r. 410-15 , drew offthe Visigoths to Gaul, and in 419 a succeeding king, Wallia, received formalpermission from Honorius to settle in southwestern Gaul, where at Toulouse hefounded the Visigothic dynasty.The last Western Roman emperor, RomulusAugustulus, was overthrown by the mercenary Herulian leaderOdoacer c.435-93 ,who was proclaimed king of Italy by his troops.The historyof Rome would subsequently merge with that of the papacy, the Holy RomanEmpire, the Papal States, and Italy. For the history of the Eastern Empire fromthe time of Theodosius the Great.