Roman Early Republic (jan 1, 509 BC – jan 1, 133 BC)

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"Romans fought numerous wars with their neighbors on the Italian peninsula, with an army initially made up primarily of citizens of Rome who volunteered or were conscripted for short terms by ballots, essentially a lottery among all male citizens ages sixteen to forty-six."

"Conquered territories were often turned into allies, and other territories became allies of Rome without fighting. Alliances with the towns around them in Latium gave the Romans a large population that could be tapped for military needs, though allied armies were led by Romans. Wealth gained from victories using troops from Rome’s allies was split between Rome itself and all her allies, a strategy that encouraged loyalty to Rome. Rome often declared conquered territory public land, sometimes settling Roman colonists in it or selling it to private landholders, but often allowing conquered or allied people to continue to inhabit and farm it. The Romans also ensured good behavior by threatening to reassign lands if the allies rebelled."

“Starting in 343 B.C.E., they turned south and grappled with the Samnites in a series of bitter wars for the possession of Campania. The Samnites were a formidable enemy and inflicted serious losses on the Romans, but the Romans won in the end and continued their expansion southward.”

"Romans enlisted religion in their expansion. Victorious generals made sure to honor the gods of the people they had conquered and to invite those gods to settle in Rome. By doing so they transformed them into gods they could also call on for assistance in their future campaigns. In this way Greek deities and mythical heroes were absorbed into the Roman pantheon."

"The main goal of religion was to secure the peace of the gods, what was termed pax deorum, and to harness divine power for public and private enterprises. Religious rituals were an important way of expressing common values, which for Romans meant those evident in their foundation myths: bravery, morality, seriousness, family, and home."

"Once they had conquered an area, the Romans built roads. These roads provided an easy route for communication between the capital and outlying areas, allowed for the quick movement of armies, and offered an efficient means of trade. Many were marvels of engineering, as were the stone bridges the Romans built over Italy’s many rivers."

THE ROMAN STATE
"in the early republic, social divisions determined the shape of politics. Political power was in the hands of a hereditary aristocracy — the patricians, whose privileged legal status was determined by their birth as members of certain families. Once a patrician, always a patrician, though belonging to a family whose members had been in the Senate did not guarantee entrance. If a patrician couldn’t finance a campaign, he couldn’t get elected."

"The common people of Rome, the plebeians (plih-BEE-uhns), were free citizens with a voice in politics, but initially they had few of the patricians’ political and social advantages. Most plebeians were poor artisans, small farmers, and landless urban dwellers, though some increased their wealth in the course of Roman expansion and came to rival the patricians economically."

"The Romans created several assemblies through which men elected high officials and passed legislation. The earliest was the Centuriate Assembly, in which citizens were organized into groups called centuries. Each citizen was assigned to a century depending on his status and amount of wealth, and the patricians possessed the majority of centuries. When an election was ordered, each century met separately and voted as a bloc, which meant that the patricians could easily outvote the plebeians. In 471 B.C.E., plebeian men won the right to meet in an assembly of their own, the Plebeian Assembly, and to pass ordinances."

"The highest officials of the republic were the two consuls, who were elected for one-year terms by the Centuriate Assembly. The consuls commanded the army in battle, administered state business, presided over the Senate and assemblies, and supervised financial affairs. In effect, they ran the state. The consuls appointed quaestors (KWEH-stuhr) to assist them in their duties, and in 421 B.C.E. the quaestorship became an elective office open to plebeian men. In 366 B.C.E., the Romans created a new office, that of praetor (PREE-tuhr). When the consuls were away from Rome, the praetors could act in their place; they could also command armies, act as governors in the provinces, interpret law, and administer justice."

"the Senate, which during the republic grew to several hundred members. Senate membership was a lifetime position, and all senators had previously been elected to one of the high positions, which automatically conferred Senate membership. Because the Senate sat year after year with the same members, it provided stability and continuity. It passed formal decrees that were technically “advice” to the magistrates, who were not bound to obey them but usually did. The Senate directed the magistrates on the conduct of war and had the power over the expenditure of public money. In times of emergency, it could name a dictator."

"Roman civil law, the ius civile, consisted of statutes, customs, and procedures that regulated the lives of citizens, especially in matters of concern to those who owned property, such as ownership, inheritance, and contracts. It became increasingly complex over the centuries, and later emperors would try to develop uniform codes that brought what was a bewildering group of statutes and rulings together (see Chapter 7). By contrast, Roman criminal law was brutally simple, and often harsh. As the Romans came into more frequent contact with foreigners, the consuls and praetors applied a broader ius gentium, the “law of the peoples,” to matters such as peace treaties, the treatment of prisoners of war, and the exchange of diplomats. In the ius gentium, all sides were to be treated the same regardless of their nationality."

SOCIAL CONFLICT IN ROME
"Inequality between plebeians and patricians led to a conflict known as the Struggle of the Orders, which lasted for the entire early republican period. In this conflict the plebeians sought to increase their power by taking advantage of the fact that Rome’s survival depended on its army, which needed plebeians to fill the ranks of the infantry...Their general strike worked, and the patricians grudgingly made important concessions. They allowed the plebeians to elect their own officials, the tribunes, who presided over the Plebeian Assembly, brought plebeian grievances to the Senate for resolution, could stop debate in the Senate, and could veto the decisions of the consuls if they wished. The tribunes were regarded as being legally inviolate, and if anyone harmed them, the Plebeian Assembly pledged to avenge them immediately."

"The law itself was the plebeians’ primary target during the Struggle of the Orders. Only the patricians knew what the law was, and only they could argue cases in court. All too often they used the law for their own benefit."

"Roman politics operated primarily through a patron-client system whereby free men promised their votes to a more powerful man in exchange for his help in legal or other matters. The more powerful patron looked after his clients, and his clients’ support helped the patron advance his career. This system held Roman society together even as it was undergoing political upheavals."

ROMAN FAMILIES
"In the early republic, legal authority over a woman generally passed from her father to her husband on marriage, but the Laws of the Twelve Tables allowed it to remain with her father even after marriage. That was advantageous to the father, and could also be to the woman, because her father might be willing to take her side in a dispute with her husband, and she could return to her birth family if there was quarreling or abuse."

"To marry, both spouses had to be free Roman citizens. Most citizens did marry, with women of wealthy families marrying in their midteens and non-elite women in their late teens. Grooms were generally somewhat older than their brides. Marital agreements, especially among the well-to-do, were stipulated with contracts between the families involved. According to Roman law, marriage required a dowry, a payment of money, property, and/or goods that went from the bride’s family to the groom."

"The ceremony typically began with the bride welcoming the groom and the wedding party to her home for a feast, and then later the whole group progressed with much noise to the groom’s household. It would be very unlucky if the bride tripped while going into the house, so the groom often carried her across the doorstep. The bride’s entrance into the groom’s house marked the point at which the two were married. As elsewhere in the ancient world, no public officials or priests were involved."

"Women could inherit and own property under Roman law, though they generally received a smaller portion of any family inheritance than their brothers did. A woman’s inheritance usually came as her dowry on marriage. In the earliest Roman marriage laws, men could divorce their wives without any grounds, and women could not divorce their husbands. By the second century B.C.E., however, these laws had changed, and both men and women could initiate divorce. By then, women had also gained greater control over their dowries and other family property, perhaps because Rome’s military conquests meant that many husbands were away for long periods of time and women needed some say over family finances."

"the Romans, in something of a contradiction, viewed the model marriage as one in which husbands and wives were loyal to one another and shared interests and activities. The Romans praised women who were virtuous and loyal to their husbands and devoted to their children."

"Traditionally minded Romans thought that mothers should nurse their own children and personally see to their welfare. Non-elite Roman women did nurse their own children, although wealthy women increasingly employed slaves as wet nurses and to help them with child rearing. Very young children were under their mother’s care, and most children learned the skills they needed from their own parents."

“Most people in the expanding Roman Republic lived in the countryside…many farmers raised crops to be sold. These included wheat, flax for making linen cloth, olives, and wine grapes.”

"Until the late republic most Romans, rich and poor, ate the same plain meals of bread, olives, vegetables, and a little meat or fish, with fruit for dessert. They used fingers and wooden spoons to serve themselves from simple pottery or wooden bowls and plates. They usually drank water or wine mixed with water from clay cups. Drinking unmixed wine was considered a sign of degeneracy. The Romans took three meals a day: an early breakfast, a main meal or dinner in the middle of the day, and a light supper in the evening. Dinner was also a social event, the main time for Romans to visit, chat, and exchange news. Afterward everyone who could afford the time took a long nap, especially during the hot summer months."

"To the Romans, slavery was a misfortune that befell some people, but it did not entail any racial theories. Slave boys and girls were occasionally formally apprenticed in trades such as leatherworking, weaving, or metalworking. Well-educated slaves served as tutors or accountants, ran schools, and designed and made artwork and buildings. For loyal slaves, the Romans always held out the possibility of freedom, and manumission, the freeing of individual slaves by their masters, was fairly common, especially for household slaves, who remained part of the familia. Because they also became citizens, freedmen were part of wealthy men’s networks of patronage and clientage. "

NEW SOCIAL CUSTOMS AND GREEK INFLUENCE
"But the conquest of the Mediterranean world and the wealth it brought gave the Romans leisure, especially in cities. The spoils of war went to build theaters, stadiums, and other places of amusement. This new urban culture reflected Hellenistic Greek influences. Some Romans, especially younger people, developed a liking for Greek literature, and it became common for an educated Roman to speak both Latin and Greek. The new Hellenism profoundly stimulated the growth and development of Roman art and literature."

"All early Roman literature was derived from that of the Greeks, but it flourished because it also spoke to Roman ways of thinking."

" In the early first century B.C.E. artisans in Syria developed glassblowing, a technique they took to Rome when Syria was conquered by the Romans in 64 B.C.E."

"The Romans spread the custom of bathing, which they had adopted from the Greeks, to the outer reaches of their empire. In addition to hot water, bathers used oil for massage and metal scrapers to clean and exfoliate their skin."

"by the period of the early empire, baths had become an essential part of any Roman city. The baths were socially important places where men and women went to see and be seen. Social climbers tried to talk to the right people and wangle invitations to dinner; politicians took advantage of the occasion to discuss the affairs of the day; marriages were negotiated by wealthy fathers. Baths were also places where people could buy sex; the women and men who worked in bathhouses often made extra income through prostitution."

OPPOSING VIEWS: CATO THE ELDER AND SCIPIO AEMILIANUS
“Marcus Cato was born a plebeian and owned a small rural estate… He fought in the Second Punic War under Scipio Africanus and then returned to Rome, where he worked his way up through various offices. In 195 B.C.E., he was elected consul. A key issue facing Cato was the heated debate over the repeal of the Oppian Law… the law decreed that no woman was to own more than a small amount of gold, or wear clothing trimmed in purple, or drive a chariot in the city of Rome itself. These were all proclaimed to be luxuries that wasted money and undermined the war effort. The law was passed in part for financial reasons, but it also had gendered social implications, as there was no corresponding law limiting men’s conspicuous consumption… Cato led the battle to prevent its repeal, arguing that women’s desire to spend money was a disease that could never be cured and that women were like wild animals and would engage in an orgy of shopping if the law were lifted. The women’s political actions were more effective than Cato’s speeches, however…”

“[Cato] made speeches in the Senate decrying Greek influence, and set himself up as the defender of what he saw as traditional Roman values: discipline, order, morality, frugality, and an agrarian way of life.”

“Scipio Aemilianus, in contrast to Cato an avid devotee of Hellenism. Like his grandfather, Scipio believed that broader views had to replace the old Roman narrowness…He developed a more personal style of politics that looked unflinchingly at the broader problems that the success of Rome brought to its people…Perhaps more than anyone else of his day, Scipio represented the new Roman — imperial, cultured, and independent.”

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