2/7/12 The Senate: Advisory Power The Magistrates = execuDve power • From Kings to Republic: Advise Two annually elected Consuls (509): imperium • Previous magistrates: about 300 unDl 1st cent. • State Religion • Convened by magistrates only • Command of army (at least two legions) • Pedarii: feet-voters • Convene senate and assemblies • Why such power? • Issue edicts with force of law - ConDnuity • Enforce punishment - Space for debang Symbols of power: - Presge: patres, auctoritas, senatusconsulta colored toga; curule chair; lictors with fasces Fasces Lincoln Memorial and the fasces US Senate Seal 1 2/7/12 More magistrates Checks & Balances • th Quaestor (5 century), finances Tremendous power, but… System of checks: • th Censor (5 century), census • All magistracies collegial at Rome – enroll ciDzens in census classes acc. to $ • Veto – morality & religious purificaon • – elected every five years; serve 18 months Time limit in office • Aedile (4th century), city and public games • Cursus honorum (course of honors) • Praetor (4th century), jusDce and army Sets sequence of magistracies in a career-path and prescribes appropriate intervals between – Second in rank aer consuls offices. – Had imperium and carried fasces Cursus Honorum More about checks & balances (Course of Honors: Career Path) • 10 years of military service Strengths: • Quaestor age 30 • Disperse power, no concentraon • Aedile age 36 • Consensus • Praetor age 39 Weaknesses: • Consul age 42 • Amateurism • Danger of paralysis • Age-ist system 2 2/7/12 Wild Cards in Roman ConsDtuDon Rome as militarisDc state? 1. Dictator > dictum (word) • Equaon of ciDzenship and property ownership • Emergency with military service • elecDon needs senate, consul, and assembly • Popular assembly organized as army • 10 yrs military service before public office • Specific task and limited Dme, 6 months max • Highest magistracies defined by imperium • Dangers • Discipline and reward system of army! 2. Tribunes of the Plebs • Propose legislaon in Plebeian Assembly = excepDonal unity at home and on balefield • Intercessio; veto Nobility: nobiles < nosco (I know) A Roman funeral • Nobiles = men who are known or noteworthy • Inherited, expected to be born with nobility and talent: ingenium • BUT– sDll requires a lot of you as you live up to your family reputaon. • Esp. in military service! 3 2/7/12 Peter Paul Rubens, Death of Consul Decius Mus, c. 1618 Publius Decius Mus Moral: in?mate involvement of aristocracy and warfare -Three generaons spanning 4th & 3rd centuries BC -Bale of Sennum 295 BC vs. Samnites - Devoo Peter Paul Rubens Decius Mus Addressing the Legions c. 1616 PoliDcal monopoly of nobiles HBO series: Rome. Caesar’s Triumph • Novus homo (new man) = first of family to be consul (eg. Marius and Cicero) • If you were elected consul as a “new man”, your family became “noble” • Hard to do: (res novae) Between 232-133 BC, 50% of consuls were from ONLY 10 GENTES • Military glory/fame = laus and gloria 4 2/7/12 Relief from Arch of Titus: spoils from Rome’s annual engagement with war? sack of Jerusalem • Increase territory (key in agrarian economy) • Slaves (key in agrarian economy when free men are away fighDng) • Plunder • Collecng taxes on new territories • CompeDDon among aristocracy • Defensive Imperialism? 5 .