Constitution of the Roman Republic

Politics of ancient Rome
Periods
Roman Kingdom 753–509 BC Roman Republic 509–27 BC Roman Empire 27 BC – AD 395 Principate 27 BC – AD 284 Dominate AD 284–641 Western AD 395–476 Eastern AD 395–1453 Timeline
Constitution
Kingdom Republic Sullan republic Empire Augustan reforms Late Empire
Political institutions
Imperium Collegiality Auctoritas Roman citizenship Cursus honorum
Assemblies
Centuriate Curiate Plebeian Tribal
Ordinary magistrates
Consul Praetor Quaestor Promagistrate Aedile Tribune Censor Governor
Extraordinary magistrates
Corrector Dictator Magister equitum Consular tribune Rex Triumviri Decemviri Interrex
Public law
Mos maiorum Ius Senatus consultum Quaestio perpetua Senatus consultum ultimum
Titles and honours
Emperor Legatus Dux Officium Praeses Praefectus Vicarius Vigintisexviri Triumvir monetalis Lictor Magister militum Imperator Princeps senatus Pontifex maximus Augustus Caesar Tetrarch
Other countries
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The constitution of the Roman Republic was a set of uncodified norms and customs which,^[1] together with various written laws,^[2] guided the procedural governance of the Roman Republic. The constitution emerged from that of the Roman kingdom, evolved substantively and significantly – almost to the point of unrecognisability^[3] – over the almost five hundred years of the republic. The collapse of republican government and norms beginning in 133 BC would lead to the rise of Augustus and his principate.^[4]

The republican constitution can be divided into three main branches:^[5]

• the Assemblies, composed of the people, which served as the supreme repository of political power and had the authority to elect magistrates, accept or reject laws, administer justice, and declare war or peace;^[6]
• the Senate, which advised the magistrates,^[7] acting primarily not on legal authority per se, but rather with its influence, and
• the magistrates, elected by the people to govern the republic, exercising religious, military, and judicial powers, along with the right to preside over and call upon the assemblies.

A complex set of checks and balances developed amongst these three branches. For example, the assemblies theoretically held all power, but were called and governed by the magistrates, who, controlling discussion, exercised dominating influence over them.^[8] Other magistrates could also veto proceedings before the assemblies, though until the late republic, this was rare.^[9] Similarly, to check the power of the magistrates, each magistrate could veto one of their colleagues and the plebeians elected tribunes who could intercede and veto the actions of a magistrate.^[10]

The republic's constitution, while malleable and evolving, still had substantive entrenched norms. Institutions such as the consuls, the senate, and tribunes evolved significantly in the early republic but remained relatively stable from the fourth century BC. Starting from a period of patrician domination, the Conflict of the Orders eventually granted plebeian citizens equal political rights, while also creating the tribunate to check patrician power and empowering the plebeian assembly, an assembly composed of the plebeians of Rome, with full legislative authority.^[11] Nor was it entirely unwritten, as there were many laws which required procedural changes or changed the number of magistrates elected.^[12]

The late republic saw a breakdown in elite cohesion which led to its loss of control over the state to a limited number of powerful dynasts within the elite.^[13] The resources of the provinces and a growing culture of political violence heightened competition within the Roman elite while weakening republican political norms that maintained cohesion.^[14] The increasing legitimisation of violence and centralisation of authority into fewer and fewer men would, with the collapse of trust in the republic's institutions,^[15] put it on a path to civil war and its transformation by Augustus into an autocratic regime cloaked with republican imagery and legitimacy.^[16]