Government Organization
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The three kinds of government, aristocracy, democracy, and monarchy were all united in Rome. Rome was divided into two classes, the Patricians and the Plebeians. The Patricians were a small group of wealthy aristocratic families and the Plebeians were everybody else. The Senate was a body of Patrician legislators chosen from a group of elite families by the Consul. Once you were chosen, you served for life. Their main job was to make policies for the Consul. Each year the city would choose 2 co-Consuls (Patrician) from the Senate to serve as a sort of the chief executives of Rome. There was 2 of them so they could check each other's ambition and also so that one could take care of Rome domestically, while the other was fighting wars. There were 2 additional checks on power as well. The first was that there was a one year term and the second was once you had served on Consul, you could not serve again for at least 10 years. The Romans also had a position of a dictator so so one Consul could take over if they were in extreme danger. Lastly, there was a group of Plebeians called an Assembly. The Assembly's purpose was to choose who was Consul. Meaning if someone wanted to be elected Consul, they needed to win the favor of the Plebeians.
Roman Law
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In the history of governments, the Twelve Tables occupy a special place. They were the basis of the Roman Republic and the basis of Roman Law for centuries. Since the patricians made up most of the ruling class and made the laws, they tended to make laws to protect their own interests. If the interests of the plebeians got in the way, then the laws came first or at least that's what the patricians thought. The Plebeians wanted certain basic rights, and they were willing to cause civil disturbances to get them. Finally, the Plebeians caught the Patricians' attention and the result was the Twelve Tables. The Tables were pieces of stone with laws carved into them. The benefit of having laws written down was that the lawmakers couldn't change them to suit their whims. Once a law was made public, the law was known to everyone. This also had the benefit for the lawmakers of ruling out a lawbreaker's argument that he or she didn't know that what he or she was doing was against the law. If a law was made public, then it was everyone's responsibility to know and obey.
Here are some of the tables:
Here are some of the tables:
- Table I (1) mandates that when a person is accused of something, both accused and accuser must be present at a hearing or trial on the matter. Also, if both parties don't show up for a court date, the judge is free to rule in favor of the party that did show up.
- Table III (3) gives debtors 30 days to pay off a debt. After that, a creditor is free to seize the debtor and make him or her a prisoner.
- Table VIII (8) lists specific punishments for certain crimes. It also says that if a person fails to show up as a trial witness, then that person will never again be allowed to be a witness. Most importantly, it says that a person shown to have lied in court will be put to death.
- Table IX (9) specifies capital punishment for judges who have taken bribes and for people who have committed treason.
- Table XI (11) prohibits marriages between plebeians and patricians.