The Roman Republic was founded in 509 B.C.Eastward. after the final Etruscan male monarch that ruled Rome was overthrown. Rome's next authorities served as a representative democracy in the grade of a republic. Initially, Rome'south wealthiest families, the patricians, held power and simply they could hold political or religious offices. Everyone else was considered plebeian, and no member of this grouping could agree role. Over a menses of near 200 years, however, the plebeians fought for and gained power within the government.

At the heart of the Roman Democracy was the Senate. The Senate advised on matters pertaining to rules governing the city and population. In the republic, members of the patrician grade served equally directorate to the other governing bodies of the republic. Although the Senate did non formally brand laws, the prestige of its members gave the Senate great influence over Rome's law-making bodies.

The Senate lasted equally a sole governing body for the republic for only a brief time, lasting from the commonwealth's founding in 509 B.C.Eastward. until 494 B.C.Eastward., when a strike orchestrated by the plebeians resulted in the establishment of the Concilium Plebis, or the Councilof the Plebs. This gave the plebeians a vocalisation in the regime. As a result, new legislative, or law-making, bodies of the Roman Republic were formed. Called assemblies, these legislative bodies shared power in the following ways:

      • Comitia Centuriata— This body decided about war, passed laws, elected magistrates (consuls, praetors, and censors), considered appeals of majuscule convictions, and conducted foreign relations.
      • Concilium Plebis— This body elected its ain officials and formulated decrees for observance by the plebeian class; in 287 B.C.E., it gained the ability to brand all decrees binding for the unabridged Roman community.
      • Comitia Tributa— The tribal assemblies, open up to all citizens (who only could be free, developed males), elected small-scale officials, canonical legislative decisions ofttimes on local matters, and could wield judicial powers just could just levy fines rather than administer punishment.

Leading the republic were 2 consuls who were elected by legislative assemblies. They served for 1 twelvemonth, presided over the Roman Senate, and commanded the Roman military. Though their power was somewhat limited by the establishment of other magistrate positions, the consuls were effectively the heads of land.

The republic stood strong for several centuries. However, as Rome'southward ability and territory expanded, internal conflicts began to emerge every bit citizens and families struggled for ability. For example, in the 1st century B.C.Eastward., the famous Roman orator Marcus Cicero uncovered a plot by a Roman senator, Lucius Catiline, to overthrow the Roman government. Some citizens, such every bit the Gracchus brothers, attempted to establish government reforms and social reforms to help the poor. Ultimately, factions emerged (loyal to either the patrician or plebeian classes or to a specific military general), hostilities erupted, and a serial of civil wars plagued the republic. During these ceremonious wars, a prominent general and statesmen named Julius Caesar began gaining meaning power. He commanded the loyalty of the soldiers in his army and enjoyed admission to substantial wealth subsequently conquering the province of Gaul.

The Senate, fearful of Caesar's power, demanded he give up control of his ground forces and render to Rome as a citizen. Caesar refused, instead marching his ground forces south directly into Rome. Equally a outcome, another civil war erupted between Caesar and his chief political rival, Pompey. Caesar emerged victorious and was named dictator for life. Previously, the title dictator was given to an appointed, and temporary, leader in times of armed services emergency. Other leaders inside the republic feared Caesar would become a tyrant with this new championship. To forbid this, a group of senators conspired and assassinated him. In response to Caesar's death, his nephew and heir Augustus defeated the conspirators. He then established himself as the first Roman emperor.

The Roman Empire dramatically shifted power away from representative republic to centralized imperial dominance, with the emperor holding the nearly power. For example, under Augustus'southward reign, emperors gained the ability to innovate and veto laws, also as command the army. Furthermore, the emperor wielded meaning authority over those who served in lower-level executive positions. No citizen could hold role without the emperor's consent. As a result of this redistribution of power, the popular assemblies that functioned during the republican flow became less important and lost power.

While the assembly became nigh ceremonial, the Senate survived. Primarily, the Senate survived during the early flow of the empire as a legitimizer of an emperor's rule. The powers given to the emperor still came from the Senate. Since the Senate was composed of Rome's elite and intellectual citizens, they impacted public opinion. With this ability, the Senate could declare an emperor to exist an enemy of the state, or following an emperor's removal or decease, the Senate could officially wipe the record of his reign from official history.

At the time of Augustus's reign, the Roman Empire had solidified command over the Italian peninsula, established North African colonies following its victory over Carthage during the Punic Wars and controlled large swaths of territory in Spain and Gaul. Under the emperors, Roman territory expanded farther, dominating most of the European continent, including Britain and major areas of mod-day Eastern Europe.

This expansion, while bringing to Rome neat wealth, ability, and prestige, ultimately helped bring well-nigh its downfall. Even with the Roman road system contributing to the mobility of the military and merchandise, the cost of maintaining the vast empire weighed heavily on Rome's treasury and its political assistants. Added to this brunt were increasing raids and attacks by strange tribes and communities. Emperors attempted to solve these problems through internal reforms.

For case, the emperor Diocletian carve up control of the Roman Empire into ii halves, a western and an eastern portion. Diocletian believed the territories throughout the empire would be easier to control and back up if they were overseen by two administrations. Futurity emperors attempted similar reforms, but ultimately internal conflict between the eastern and western halves, external force per unit area by foreign tribes, and the ongoing depletion of Rome's wealth and infrastructure finally rendered the empire vulnerable to collapse.

In C.Eastward 476, the last of the western Roman emperors, Romulus Augustulus, was dethroned. Withal, the eastern half of the Roman Empire, identified in history as the Byzantine Empire, would last another thousand years until falling to the Ottoman Turks in C.E. 1453.

Rome's Transition from Republic to Empire

Though the Roman Commonwealth stood for several centuries, tensions within the regime began to tear information technology apart. Civil wars started between groups with different loyalties, which brought about the transformation of the republic into an empire. The Curvation of Severus (middle) was added during the imperial phase of Rome, an addition to a republican icon, the Roman Forum.

assassinate

Verb

to murder someone of political importance.

capital penalty

Noun

death penalty.

censor

Verb

to ban, edit, or suppress fabric for political or social reasons.

ceremonial

Describing word

used for a ritual or formal occasion.

collapse

Verb

to fall apart completely.

conquer

Verb

to overcome an enemy or obstacle.

consul

Noun

one of 2 chief officials of the ancient Roman democracy who were elected every year.

council

Noun

group of people selected to act in an informational, administrative, or legislative capacity.

commonwealth

Noun

arrangement of organisation or government where the people make up one's mind policies or elect representatives to do and then.

dictator

Substantive

person with consummate control of a government.

emperor

Substantive

ruler of an empire.

Etruscan

Adjective

(~768 BCE-264 BCE) people and civilisation native to Etruria, in what is now northern and central Italian republic.

executive

Noun

person with a high amount of authority and power in a company or business.

foreign

Adjective

having to do with another civilisation, land, or nation.

formulate

Verb

to develop or create.

Gaul

Noun

Western European civilization that became a major part of ancient Rome.

government

Substantive

system or order of a nation, state, or other political unit.

caput of state

Substantive

public representative of a nation, sometimes the official leader of a country's regime.

infrastructure

Noun

structures and facilities necessary for the operation of a guild, such as roads.

Julius Caesar

Noun

(100 BCE-44 BCE) leader of ancient Rome.

Ottoman Empire

Substantive

(1299-1923) empire based in Turkey and stretching throughout southern Europe, the Centre East, and North Africa.

overthrow

Verb

to forcibly remove from power.

patrician

Noun

a noble or person of high rank.

Noun

piece of state bulging into a body of h2o.

pertain

Verb

to be related or connected to something.

plebeian

Noun

mutual or depression-ranking person.

political

Describing word

having to do with public policy, government, administration, or elected office.

prestige

Noun

positive reputation.

prominent

Adjective

important or continuing out.

Noun

partitioning of a country larger than a town or canton.

religious

Adjective

having to do with spiritual conventionalities.

representative

Noun

someone or something who acts in identify of a group of people.

Roman

Adjective

having to practise with the civilization of ancient Rome, including the kingdom, republic, and empire.

Roman Empire

Noun

(27 BCE-476 CE) period in the history of aboriginal Rome when the state was ruled by an emperor.

significant

Adjective

important or impressive.

sole

Adjective

simply or individual.

strike

Noun

situation of people refusing to work in society to telephone call attention to their working conditions.

swath

Noun

path or line of cloth.

Noun

country an fauna, human, or government protects from intruders.

victorious

Describing word

having won.

vulnerable

Describing word

capable of being injure.