Читать книгу Western Civilization - Paul R. Waibel - Страница 37

The early Romans were influenced by both the Greeks who settled independent city‐states in the southern “boot” of the Italian peninsula and on the island of Sicily, and the Etruscans, who occupied the area north of Rome between the Arno and the Tiber rivers, known as Etruria. Of the two, the Etruscan influence was the most important. The Etruscans dominated Rome to the end of the monarchy and the founding of the Republic in 509 BC.

The Etruscans remain a mysterious people whose origins are not known with certainty. Recent scholarship supports the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus whose history of Rome, written around 7 BC, claims that the Etruscans were native to western Italy. Others find merit in Herodotus' belief that the Etruscans originated in Asia Minor and migrated to Italy around 800 BC. Whatever their origin, by the sixth century BC, the Etruscans had established a loose confederation of 12 cities that ruled over most of Italy, except for the Greek city‐states in the south.

The Romans inherited the alphabet from the Etruscans, the use of the arch and vault in construction, portrait sculpture, and the practice of divining the future by examining the entrails of animals or observing the flight of birds. The distinctive practice of reclining on low coaches while eating and the distinctive Roman dress, the toga, were also borrowed from the Etruscans. The names of certain Roman gods are Etruscan in origin. The concept of imperium – that is, sovereignty or authority to rule in political, military, and religious affairs – originated with the Etruscans. On a darker note, the Romans derived the cruel entertainment of gladiatorial contests from an Etruscan religious ceremony in honor of the dead.

Roman government was initially a monarchy. The king was appointed by the Etruscans who dominated Rome. When the last Etruscan king was driven out in 509 BC by the Romans, Rome became a republic. The imperium was transferred to two consuls elected by the Comitia Centuriata (a popular assembly) for terms of one year. This transfer of the imperium marks the beginning of the Republic. The two consuls shared the imperium, each possessing the right of veto. In a time of dire emergency, the consuls, with the approval of the Senate, could appoint a dictator for a limited period of time up to six months. During the designated period, the authority of the consuls was subordinate to that possessed by the dictator.

The Senate was the only continuously‐existing deliberative body in government throughout Roman history. The Senate consisted of 300, later 600, members drawn mostly from the landed aristocracy. They were normally ex‐magistrates (elected officials) who served for life. The Senate was not a legislative body, but rather an advisory body that gave advice (considered binding) to the consuls and other magistrates. The Senate exercised effective control over the government during the Republican period. It controlled finances, government administration, and foreign affairs.

The population of the Republic was divided by birth into two classes, patricians and plebeians. The patricians were the landowning aristocracy who monopolized the elected offices, and who alone could interpret the unwritten laws of the Republic. The plebeians were mostly peasant farmers and shepherds, but some were merchants, tradesmen, and artisans. They were the backbone of the Roman army, but were excluded from holding public office or serving in the Senate. Kept for the most part in poverty, they were subject to being sold into slavery outside Rome by their creditors for non‐payment of debts.

Around 494 BC, the plebeians withdrew from the city to one of the nearby hills, where they set up their own assembly. The patricians were forced to recognize the plebeians' right to elect two, then later ten, magistrates called tribunes, with the power to protect plebeians by vetoing arbitrary acts by the magistrates. The tribune's person was declared sacrosanct. Any person who harmed a tribune could be put to death without trial. Eventually, the tribunes could veto any act of any magistrate (including other tribunes) or any measure passed by the Senate or other assemblies.

The struggle by the plebeians for political, legal, and social equality with the patricians continued for roughly two centuries. In 450 BC, the laws of Rome were codified and published on wooden tablets (or tables) known as the Law of the Twelve Tables. Five years later, plebeians won the right to marry patricians. By 409 BC, elected offices were open to plebeians. Beginning in 342 BC, one of the two consuls was a plebeian. The “Struggle of the Orders,” as this early civil rights struggle is often called, culminated in 287 BC with the passage of a law that made decisions of the Plebeian Assembly (concilium plebis) binding on all Romans.

Having achieved legal equality with the patricians, the plebeians did not go on to establish a democracy. Instead, they allowed the Senate to continue to rule Rome. A new class struggle appeared, one of rich patricians and plebeians versus poor patricians and plebeians, while the government remained in the hands of a wealthy aristocracy. Evidence of this is found in the fact that between 233 and 133 BC, 26 families provided 80% of the consuls. The same families that monopolized the consulships also controlled the Senate.