The heyday of the Hansa and its decline In 1362, the wars of the Hansa began against Valdemar III, who created the greatness and power of Denmark. In the same year, the island of Gotland was occupied. Visby, and the German courtyard in it, were plundered, and a lot of blood was shed. Then the Hansa made an alliance with

Order writing a unique work

"Main Forms of Government in Ancient Rome"

MINISTRY OF GENERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Krasnoyarsk Agrarian University

The main forms of government in ancient Rome

Is done by a student

Checked:

Krasnoyarsk 98

Introduction

1. Rex period

Reform of Servius Tullius

2. Political organization of the slave-owning aristocratic Roman Republic

Master's degree

Dictator

"collective" bodies

Features of the Roman aristocratic republic

Crisis of the Roman Republic and transition to monarchy

3. The state organization of Rome during the period of the empire: principate and dominate

Principate

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction.

The history of ancient Rome dates back to the eighth century BC. (754-753). The Roman people are divided into clans (genses), unions of clans (curia) and three tribes - the Ramnes, Titii and Luceres. The head of the city was the rex (king). There were seven kings in total - starting with Romulus and ending with Tarquinius the Proud.

In 509 BC Tarquinius the Proud was overthrown, the consul Junius Brutus was elected head of the city. The royal period ends and the period of the republic begins, which took about 500 years (509-27 BC).

From 27g. and up to 476. AD Rome is going through a period of empire, which in turn breaks up into a period of principate (27 BC - 193 AD) and domination (193-476).

1. Rex reign period.

The Roman community of the period of military democracy is heterogeneous in its social structure. Noble families, patrician aristocrats, stood out. From their midst come military leaders, city magistrates. They derived their origin from gods, kings, heroes. Little by little, the aristocracy acquires clientele dependent on itself, and even earlier slaves.

On certain days, clans, curias, tribes, and then the whole union of tribes, converged on meetings to consider cases related to their competence; about disputed inheritances and litigation in general, death sentences, etc.

There were 300 genera in total, 100 in each tribe. 10 genera formed a curia, 10 curia formed a tribe (tribe). Such an organization has been and remains the subject of scientific discussion, because its artificial origin is striking. This is - in fact - an army, rationally arranged, at an early stage, under Romulus, conquering and defending the occupied land, and then proceeding to the systematic capture of Italy.

The genus was a naturally formed unit and was paternal. The relatives had the same name. This generic name was derived from the name of a real or mythical ancestor. Kindred should not intermarry within a clan.

As a member of the clan and tribe, a Roman citizen:

1. was a participant in common land ownership in the form of an allotment allocated to him and his family;

2. received the right to inherit the allotment and family property in general;

3. could demand for himself from the kind of help, and proper protection;

4. participated in common religious festivities

In turn, the curia, the tribe and the union of tribes as a whole could demand from each citizen the performance of his military and other public duties. The rights and obligations of citizens were until a certain time in a kind of harmony.

The heads of the clans constituted the council of elders or the senate, which over time acquired the importance of the main government authority. As tribal masters, they were called fathers. The Senate had the right to preliminary discussion of all those cases that were submitted for decision by the people's assembly. He was also in charge of many current affairs in the management of Rome. In total, there were 100 senators at first, then 300 people.

The Senate also existed under the kings, as well as the popular assembly, which was originally an assembly of the Roman curiae. Voting was also carried out for the curiae. Finally, the head of the Roman community, its civil administrator and supreme military leader was the rex - the king. It was an elected office, accountable to the people. Rex held the functions of military leader, high priest and sometimes supreme judge.

Also, the general meeting of the Roman people was, in addition to what was said by the army meeting, a review of the military strength of Rome. According to its divisions, it was built and voted.

Members of the clans, and through them the tribes, made up the Roman people. Thanks to the growth of productive forces, the emergence of patriarchal slavery and the property differentiation that arose on this basis, inequality developed among the Romans both between clans and within clans. In contrast to the clan, the patriarchal family became stronger. Separate noble families stood out. Their members began to claim a better share of the booty, as well as the exclusive right to enter the Senate, become military leaders, etc. This tribal elite separated itself as patricians. On the contrary, poorer families supplied a layer of bonded slaves and people in various types of dependence, often similar to patriarchal slavery.

The tribal organization of the Romans was destroyed. This process was aggravated by the fact that on the expanded territory of Rome, thanks to the conquests, there was a new settlement from the conquered and from the strangers who voluntarily settled in the city. These settlers, whose number grew, were called the plebs, i.e. lots of.

The plebeians were free, they achieved the right to private ownership of land, being engaged in crafts and trade. In terms of property, they were heterogeneous. In their environment, not constrained by tribal ties, private property developed faster. Because of this, one part of them grew rich, while the other became impoverished and easily fell into debt bondage. Initially, the plebeians were not part of the tribal organizations of the indigenous Romans, they were politically disenfranchised. Sometimes some of the plebeians turned to powerful patricians, seeking protection and help. On this basis, dependency relationships arose - "clients". The patron - the patron-patrician accepted the client into his family, gave him his name, allocated him part of the land, defended him in court. The “client” (i.e., faithful obedient) obeyed the patron in everything, was obliged to participate along with his family in the war. The bonds of the clientele were considered sacred and indestructible.

Mostly plebeians fell into the number of clients and even indentured slaves, but the native Romans also found themselves in such dependence.

At the end of the tsarist era (6th century BC), Roman society was already well aware of inequality and oppression, tribal relations gave way to class relations, and tribal institutions were transformed into state ones.

Reform of Servius Tullius.

An important stage on the path of Roman statehood was the reform, which Roman tradition associates with the name of the sixth rex, Servius Tullius. Under him, the plebeians were introduced into the Roman community, and the territorial tribes somewhat pressed the tribal tribes.

It was done this way, Servius Tullius divided the entire male population of Rome, both patricians and plebeians, into six property categories. The criterion of the property condition was the land allotment, livestock inventory and so on. The 1st class included people whose property was estimated at no less than 100,000 copper asses. The minimum size for the 2nd class was a property of 75,000 asses; for the 3rd - 50000, for the 4th - 25000, for the 5th - 11500 ass. All the poor made up the 6th class - the proletarians, whose wealth was only their offspring.

Each class exhibited a certain number of military units - centuries (hundreds): 1st class - 80 centuries of heavily armed and 18 centuries of horsemen, a total of 98 centuries; Grade 2 - 22; 3 - 20; 4-22; 5 - 30 lightly armed centuries and 6th class - 1 century, in total 193 centuries. Since each century had one vote, the combined opinion of the richest centuries gave 98 votes out of 193, that is, a majority. Therefore, with a coordinated vote of the first two categories, the rest were not asked.

In such a simple way, the beginning of the domination of the rich and noble was laid, regardless of whether they were patricians or plebeians.

Along with all this arrangement, another important innovation was introduced to the undoubted benefit of the plebeians: the territory of the city was divided into 4 territorial districts - tribes, which serves as evidence of the victory of the principle of territorial division of the population over tribal division.

The significance of the reforms of Servius Tullius is enormous. The solution of all the most important issues in the life of the Roman community passed to the centuriate comitia, in which the entire population liable for military service participated, while the curate comitia lost their significance. By merging patricians and plebeians into a single people, introducing territorial districts, bringing to the fore rich people, and not just well-born people, the reform of Servius Tullius destroyed a society based on consanguinity, and instead created a state system based, as F. Engels wrote, on property differences and territorial division.

2. The political organization of the slave-owning aristocratic Roman Republic.

The reform of Servius Tullius was an important concession to the plebeians, but it was still far from equalizing them with the patricians. Especially in regard to the allocation of land, which became more and more as the conquest of Italy. Another problem concerned the abolition of debt slavery, which is inevitable when debt is not paid on time.

But to achieve both, the plebeians needed political rights. It came to sharp clashes, but in the end, the plebeians achieved the satisfaction of all their demands:

1. Institutions of a special plebeian magistracy, the so-called. the people's tribunate, called upon to protect the plebeians from the arbitrariness of the patricians;

2. Access to public land on a par with patricians;

3. Protection against the arbitrariness of patrician judges (by introducing a code of laws known as the Laws of the 12 Tables);

4. Permission of marriages between patricians and plebeians;

5. The right to hold first some, and then all the main government posts, including the military.

In 287 BC it was decided that the decisions of the plebeian meetings have the same force as the decisions of the centuriate comitia, i.e. obligatory for all without exception Roman citizens and all state institutions of Rome. In addition, these decisions were not subject to either the approval of the Senate or its revision.

Of course, respect for the antiquity of origin, nobility did not disappear immediately, and the patrician families retained an undoubted advantage in replacing - albeit by election - all the main posts in the state, but the legal predominance of the old Roman aristocracy in relation to the plebeians did not. Thus, the process of formation of slave-owning statehood was completed: the remnants of tribal relations are a thing of the past.

Master's degree.

At the head of Rome were the centuriate comitia and plebeian gatherings, then the senate. From the magistracies remained, as in former times, consuls, praetors and tribunes of the people. All of them were elected by the people's assemblies for a year and were responsible for their actions - after the expiration of their term of office. Adhering to the principle of the collegiality of the magistracies, the Romans elected annually two consuls, two (and then more) praetors, and the plebeians of several people's tribunes. As a general rule, the magistrates (chiefs) did not interfere with one another in the affairs of the other, but with one exception: if, say, the consul found that the order of his colleague was wrong and harmful, he could suspend it with his "veto". It followed from this that the magistrates had to consult among themselves before deciding on any important measure (order).

The consuls were engaged in all the primary affairs of the civil and military parts, and during the war one of them remained in Rome, the other commanded the army.

Praetors, who acquired the importance of an independent magistracy (4th century BC), dealt with litigation. In its importance, the praetorship followed the consulate. Starting from the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC. praetors became the interpreters of law and its creators.

The task of the people's (plebeian) tribunes was originally to protect the plebeians from the arbitrariness of the patrician magistrates, but over time, when this duty practically disappeared, they assumed the function of guardians of the law, defenders of every innocently offended citizen. In the exercise of this function, the people's tribune was endowed with the important power of imposing a ban on the actions of magistrates, which he considered unlawful. Gradually, patrician politicians, such as the Gracchi brothers, began to apply for the posts of plebeian tribunes, since the tribunes could enter with legislative proposals in all types of popular assemblies.

The board of censors also played an important role in the political life of Rome. It consisted of five members and was elected for five years.

The censors had to distribute people according to centuries with the definition of their property qualification. Hence their name. Then they were entrusted with the appointment of senators, which gave the board of censors an important weight in the political system of the state. Another function of the censors was to monitor morals. An immoral act gave censors reason to strike out an unworthy person from among the senators or equestrians and transfer him to lower centuries.

Dictator.

All the above magistracies were ordinary, ordinary. Extraordinary was considered the only position of a dictator, appointed by one of the consuls by agreement with the Senate. The reasons for the appointment of a dictator could be any crisis situations in the war and within the country, requiring urgent, indisputable and quick action. The person appointed by the dictator had the highest civil, military and judicial power at the same time. The dictator had legislative power, he was not afraid of any legal means of opposition, including the veto of the plebeian tribunes.

All other magistrates continued to function, but under the authority of a dictator.

At the end of the six-month period, the dictator was obliged to resign. The last known republican dictatorship took place in 220. BC.

Directly opposite to the republican dictatorship were the "dictatorships" that arose with a gross violation of the republican constitution - the perpetual dictatorships of Sulla, Caesar, etc.

collective bodies.

As for the "collective" authorities, there were several of them.

In the first place should be placed centuriate meetings. They were empowered - from ancient times - to accept or reject a bill presented by any of the magistrates - consul, praetor, tribune of the people. They voted by centurion.

In addition to legislative functions, the centuriate comitia elected or rejected the candidates of officials proposed to them, resolved issues of war and peace, judged especially grave crimes that threatened the death penalty to the perpetrator, etc.

The tributary comitia had, in principle, the same competence as the centuriate comitia, but in matters of lesser importance (they elected lower magistrates, decided on the imposition of fines, etc.).

However, these meetings were not regular and gathered at the behest of one of the magistrates - the consul, the praetor, the people's tribune, the high priest. Their decrees were most often foreordained by the magistrates.

Really important was the Senate, which arose under the Roman kings as a strictly patrician advisory body. The transition to a republic strengthened the influence of the Senate, as the only permanent constitutional authority expressing the will of the patriciate.

The Senate was convened by one of the magistrates, who informed the audience both the reason for the convening and the subject of discussion. The speeches and decisions of the senators were recorded in special books.

Initially, the Senate had the right to approve or reject the decisions of the comitia. But already from the 4th c. BC. the Senate began to express its consent or disagreement with the bill submitted for approval by the comitia in advance. The opinion of the senate was, in this case, far from being a formality, for it was supported by both the magistrates and the corresponding comitia (and, above all, the first 98).

But the senate did not have executive power, and in this respect it had to turn to the help of the magistracies.

The special competence of the Senate included, first of all, international affairs, financial (revenues and expenses), religious issues, declaring and waging war, foreign policy in general, etc.

The peak of the power of the Senate, when without it not a single significant measure was taken in the field of foreign and domestic policy, falls on the years 300-135. BC. The fall of the role of the Senate began in the era of civil wars (2-1 centuries BC), when state affairs were managed by strong personalities (Marius, Sulla, Caesar). During the period of the empire, the senate, while maintaining external grandeur, lost its power in favor of the emperors.

Features of the Roman aristocratic republic.

What are the fundamental features of the Roman aristocratic republic in the best years of its existence? What prevented its transition to democracy of the Athenian type, monarchy, oligarchy?

To this question, it can be said: the system of checks and balances in the functioning of the ruling magistracy, firstly, and more broadly, a stable, reasonable distribution of power between democracy and aristocracy, even if the latter is clearly dominant. The system of checks and balances runs through the entire system of the Roman form of government:

Two meetings, one of which was at first purely plebeian.

Collegiality of magistracies with the right of intercession of one of the magistrates in the affairs of another, his colleague.

Non-intervention of one magistracy in the affairs of another (a kind of separation of powers).

Strictly enforced urgency of all magistracies without exception and responsibility of magistrates for abuses.

Separation of the judiciary from the executive. Exclusive powers of the people's tribunes.

The presence of the Senate, as an appointed body with the highest authority, but devoid of executive power.

During all the years of the republic (until the era of dictatorships), the army was a people's militia and for this reason alone was a force that stood in the way of royal power or an oligarchic form of government.

When, with the broad aggressive policy of Rome, the Roman army became a permanent instrument of politics, a mercenary force maintained at the expense of the conquered peoples, the barrier to military dictatorships was destroyed, and then the transition to monarchical rule.

The crisis of the Roman Republic and the transition to the monarchy.

In the second century BC. after the victory over Carthogen, Rome dominates almost all the lands washed by the Mediterranean Sea. These lands, in addition to their special value, became a source from which Rome drew new and new masses of slaves who found wide use in the vast estates of the old and new nobility - all these senators and horsemen who were transformed in the 4th-3rd centuries BC. into the nobility.

In the 1st century BC. Rome was drawn into a difficult Allied war for him, as a result of which he was forced to grant Roman citizenship to the entire population of Italy.

The allied war brought neither Rome nor Italy true peace. The era of personal power, the era of dictatorships, was coming. The first among the dictators was the general Sulla, who, relying on an army devoted to him, established a regime of sole power or dictatorship in Rome. It was open-ended, and in this alone it differed from the republican dictatorship. In addition, Sulla arrogated to himself legislative functions and the right to arbitrarily dispose of the lives and property of citizens. He granted new rights to the senate and sharply limited the powers of the people's assemblies. The tribunes were deprived of political functions. The dictatorship of Sulla meant the advent of a new historical era in Roman history and, above all, the end of the republic.

Sulla's abdication (79 BC) restored the republican constitution to Rome, but not for long. The new Roman dictatorship was in the hands of Gaius Julius Caesar. It came at a time that came after the Spartacist slave uprising (74 BC), which clearly revealed the crisis of the republican form of government and the need for an authoritarian state.

The peculiarity of Caesar's dictatorship is that it united in the same hands not only the consular and tribunal authorities, but also the censorship and the highest priestly authorities. By his position as commander of the army, Caesar received the title of emperor. The comitia made dependent on him, although they continue to exist, imitating the preservation of the republic, follow the instructions of the emperor, including those relating to the election to office.

In addition, Caesar received the authority to dispose of the army and the treasury of the state, the right to distribute provinces between proconsuls and recommend half of the candidates for magistrates in general, the right to vote first in the Senate, which was important, etc.

3. The state organization of Rome in the period of the empire: principate and domination.

Principate.

After the victory of the great-nephew and successor of Julius Caesar - Octavian - over his political opponents (during Action 31 BC), the Senate handed Octavian supreme power over Rome and its provinces (and even presented him with the honorary title of Augustus). Veste with that in Rome and the provinces established political system, which we call the principate. From "princeps senatus" - the first senator, who, even in previous times, was called the first in the list of senators (usually the oldest of the former censors), who was the first to express his opinion. For Augustus, "princeps" meant "the first citizen of the Roman state", and in accordance with the unwritten Roman constitution, the office of emperor.

The history of monarchical Rome is usually divided into two periods: the first - the period of the principate, the second - the dominance. The border between them is the 3rd century AD.

The principate still retains the semblance of a republican form of government and almost all the institutions of the republic. People's assemblies meet, the senate sits. Consuls, praetors and tribunes of the people are still elected. But all this is nothing more than a cover for the post-republican state system.

The emperor-princeps combines in his hands the powers of all the main republican magistracies: dictator, consul, praetor, people's tribune. Depending on the type of cases, he appears in one or another capacity. As a censor, he completes the senate, as a tribune, he cancels the action of any authority of his own free will, arrests citizens at his own discretion, and so on. As a consul and dictator, the princeps determines the policy of the state, gives orders for the branches of government; as dictator he commands the army, governs the provinces, and so on.

The popular assemblies, the main organ of power in the old republic, are in complete decline, and Cicero writes on this occasion that gladiator games attract Roman citizens to a greater extent than comitia meetings. Such signs of the extreme degree of decomposition of comitia as bribery of votes, dispersal of meetings, violence against their participants, etc., became commonplace.

Emperor Augustus, although he reformed the comitia in a democratic spirit (eliminated qualifying ranks, allowed absentee voting for residents of Italian municipalities), took away judicial power from the assemblies - the most important of their former competencies.

At the same time, assemblies are deprived of their original right to elect magistrates. First, it was decided that candidates for consulate and praetorship were to be tested by a special commission composed of senators and equestrians, i.e. approbation, then, after the death of Augustus, under his successor Tiberius, the election of magistrates was transferred to the competence of the senate.

There was, however, the Senate. But already under Augustus, it was filled with provincial nobility, who owed everything to the princeps, and especially those of the horsemen who had reached the rank of senatorial. From an organ of power extending to the "city of Rome", the senate became a kind of all-imperial institution. For all that, his position was humiliated, and his powers were limited. The bills that came to the Senate came from the princeps and were provided with his authority. In the end, an unwritten rule arises and is approved, according to which: "everything that the princeps decides has the force of law."

The election of the princeps himself belonged to the senate, but even this became a mere formality. In many cases, the matter was decided by the army.

The "court" and precisely the court of the princeps became the center of the highest institutions of the empire. This is the imperial office with legal, financial and other departments. Finances occupy a special place: never before has the state shown such ingenuity in finding sources of taxation as it was learned in the departments of the empire, never before - before Augustus - there were so many imperial officials-bureaucrats.

The army became permanent and mercenary. The soldiers served for 30 years, receiving a salary, and upon retirement - a significant plot of land. The command structure of the army was completed from the senatorial and equestrian estates. An ordinary soldier could not rise above the position of commander of a hundred - a centurion.

In the 3rd century AD (since 284), a regime of unlimited monarchy was established in Rome - dominat (from dominus - master). The old republican institutions are disappearing. The management of the empire is concentrated in the hands of several main departments, led by dignitaries who are subordinate to the unlimited head of the empire - the emperor.

Among these departments, two deserve special mention: the state council under the emperor (discussion of major policy issues, preparation of bills) and the financial department. The military department is commanded by generals appointed by the emperor and only by him.

Officials receive a special organization: they are assigned a uniform, they are endowed with privileges, at the end of their service they are assigned a pension, etc.

Among the many reforms and laws of the empire, the reforms of the emperors Diocletian and Constantine deserve special attention.

Diocletian, son of a freedman, became Roman emperor in 284 (284-305). The time of his reign was marked by two major reforms. The first concerned the state structure of a huge empire, the best form of its management.

This reform can be reduced to the following:

1. The supreme power was divided between 4 co-rulers. Two of them, who bore the title of "August", occupied a leading position, each ruling their own half of the empire - Western and Eastern. At the same time, Diocletian-August himself retained the right of supreme power for both parts of the empire. The Augusti elected their co-rulers, who were given the title of "Caesars". This is how the "tetrarchy" arose - the rule of four emperors, who were considered members of a single "imperial family".

2. The army, increased by one third, was divided into two parts: one part of it was located on the borders of the empire, the other, mobile, served for internal security purposes.

3. The administrative reform led to the disaggregation of the provinces (according to some sources up to 101, according to others up to 120).

4. The provinces, in turn, were made part of the dioceses, of which there were 12.

5. Divided into provinces and dioceses, Italy, among other lands of the empire, was now completely deprived of its special significance and position (although Rome continued to be considered the capital of the empire for some time).

With his other reforms, Diocletian strengthened the power of the landowners over the peasantry, and above all by the fact that the landowner was responsible for the receipt of taxes from the peasants. The landowner also received the right to send, at his choice, a certain number of dependent people for military service in the imperial army.

The work begun by Diocletian was continued by Emperor Constantine (285-337). Under Constantine, the process of enslavement of the colonial peasants and artisans was completed. According to the imperial constitution of 332, the colon was deprived of the right to move from one estate to another. A column that did not obey this law was shackled like a slave and returned to its former owner in this form. The person who received the runaway column paid his master the full amount of payments due from the runaway column. The same line was drawn in relation to artisans.

The direct appropriation of the surplus product became the main form of exploitation of the peasants and artisans.

It was under Constantine that the capital of the Roman Empire was transferred to the old Byzantium, then called Constantinople. Accordingly, the highest government institutions were transferred here from Rome and the Senate was recreated.

The final division of the empire into two parts - Western, with its capital in Rome, and Eastern, with its capital in Constantinople, occurred in 395.

Conclusion.

With the transfer of the capital to Constantinople, the history of Roman statehood ends and the history of Byzantium begins. It happened that the western and eastern parts of the empire were still united under the rule of a successful emperor, but not for long. In the 4th century, Rome and Byzantium finally stand apart.

The Roman Empire existed until 476, when the head of the German mercenaries, Odoacer, overthrew the Roman emperor of the infant Romulus-Augustulus and took his place. This event was preceded by the actual collapse of the entire western part of the empire. As for the Eastern Roman Empire, it lasted for about 1000 years.

Bibliography.

1. Chernilovsky Z.M. General history of state and law of foreign countries. - M.: Nauka, 1996.

2. Chernilovsky Z.M. Reader on the general history of state and law. - M.: Nauka, 1996.

3. General history of state and law. / Ed. K.I. Batyr. - M.: Bylina, 1997.

4. History of ancient Rome. / Ed. IN AND. Kuzishchina. - M.: high school, 1994.

5. History of the state and law of foreign countries. / Ed. O.A. Zhidkov. - M.: Norma, 1996. - Ch.I.

MINISTRY OF GENERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Krasnoyarsk Agrarian University

The main forms of government in ancient Rome

Is done by a student

Checked:

Krasnoyarsk 98

Introduction.

The history of ancient Rome dates back to the eighth century BC. (754-753). The Roman people are divided into clans (genses), unions of clans (curia) and three tribes - the Ramnes, Titii and Luceres. The head of the city was the rex (king). There were seven kings in total - starting with Romulus and ending with Tarquinius the Proud.

In 509 BC Tarquinius the Proud was overthrown, the consul Junius Brutus was elected head of the city. The royal period ends and the period of the republic begins, which took about 500 years (509-27 BC).

From 27g. and up to 476. AD Rome is going through a period of empire, which in turn breaks up into a period of principate (27 BC - 193 AD) and domination (193-476).

1. Rex reign period.

The Roman community of the period of military democracy is heterogeneous in its social structure. Noble families, patrician aristocrats, stood out. From their midst come military leaders, city magistrates. They derived their origin from gods, kings, heroes. Little by little, the aristocracy acquires clientele dependent on itself, and even earlier slaves.

On certain days, clans, curias, tribes, and then the whole union of tribes, converged on meetings to consider cases related to their competence; about disputed inheritances and litigation in general, death sentences, etc.

There were 300 genera in total, 100 in each tribe. 10 genera formed a curia, 10 curia formed a tribe (tribe). Such an organization has been and remains the subject of scientific discussion, because its artificial origin is striking. This is - in fact - an army, rationally arranged, at an early stage, under Romulus, conquering and defending the occupied land, and then proceeding to the systematic capture of Italy.

The genus was a naturally formed unit and was paternal. The relatives had the same name. This generic name was derived from the name of a real or mythical ancestor. Kindred should not intermarry within a clan.

As a member of the clan and tribe, a Roman citizen:

1. was a participant in common land ownership in the form of an allotment allocated to him and his family;

2. received the right to inherit the allotment and family property in general;

3. could demand for himself from the kind of help, and proper protection;

4. participated in common religious festivities

In turn, the curia, the tribe and the union of tribes as a whole could demand from each citizen the performance of his military and other public duties. The rights and obligations of citizens were until a certain time in a kind of harmony.

The heads of the clans constituted the council of elders or the senate, which over time acquired the importance of the main government authority. As tribal masters, they were called fathers. The Senate had the right to preliminary discussion of all those cases that were submitted for decision by the people's assembly. He was also in charge of many current affairs in the management of Rome. In total, there were 100 senators at first, then 300 people.

The Senate also existed under the kings, as well as the popular assembly, which was originally an assembly of the Roman curiae. Voting was also carried out for the curiae. Finally, the head of the Roman community, its civil administrator and supreme military leader was the rex - the king. It was an elected office, accountable to the people. Rex held the functions of military leader, high priest and sometimes supreme judge.

Also, the general meeting of the Roman people was, in addition to what was said by the army meeting, a review of the military strength of Rome. According to its divisions, it was built and voted.

Members of the clans, and through them the tribes, made up the Roman people. Thanks to the growth of productive forces, the emergence of patriarchal slavery and the property differentiation that arose on this basis, inequality developed among the Romans both between clans and within clans. In contrast to the clan, the patriarchal family became stronger. Separate noble families stood out. Their members began to claim a better share of the booty, as well as the exclusive right to enter the Senate, become military leaders, etc. This tribal elite separated itself as patricians. On the contrary, poorer families supplied a layer of bonded slaves and people in various types of dependence, often similar to patriarchal slavery.

The tribal organization of the Romans was destroyed. This process was aggravated by the fact that on the expanded territory of Rome, thanks to the conquests, there was a new settlement from the conquered and from the strangers who voluntarily settled in the city. These settlers, whose number grew, were called the plebs, i.e. lots of.

The plebeians were free, they achieved the right to private ownership of land, being engaged in crafts and trade. In terms of property, they were heterogeneous. In their environment, not constrained by tribal ties, private property developed faster. Because of this, one part of them grew rich, while the other became impoverished and easily fell into debt bondage. Initially, the plebeians were not part of the tribal organizations of the indigenous Romans, they were politically disenfranchised. Sometimes some of the plebeians turned to powerful patricians, seeking protection and help. On this basis, dependency relationships arose - "clients". The patron - the patron-patrician accepted the client into his family, gave him his name, allocated him part of the land, defended him in court. The “client” (i.e., faithful obedient) obeyed the patron in everything, was obliged to participate along with his family in the war. The bonds of the clientele were considered sacred and indestructible.

Mostly plebeians fell into the number of clients and even indentured slaves, but the native Romans also found themselves in such dependence.

At the end of the tsarist era (6th century BC), Roman society was already well aware of inequality and oppression, tribal relations gave way to class relations, and tribal institutions were transformed into state ones.

Reform of Servius Tullius.

An important stage on the path of Roman statehood was the reform, which Roman tradition associates with the name of the sixth rex, Servius Tullius. Under him, the plebeians were introduced into the Roman community, and the territorial tribes somewhat pressed the tribal tribes.

It was done this way, Servius Tullius divided the entire male population of Rome, both patricians and plebeians, into six property categories. The criterion of the property condition was the land allotment, livestock inventory and so on. The 1st class included people whose property was estimated at no less than 100,000 copper asses. The minimum size for the 2nd class was a property of 75,000 asses; for the 3rd - 50000, for the 4th - 25000, for the 5th - 11500 ass. All the poor made up the 6th class - the proletarians, whose wealth was only their offspring.

Each class exhibited a certain number of military units - centuries (hundreds): 1st class - 80 centuries of heavily armed and 18 centuries of horsemen, a total of 98 centuries; Grade 2 - 22; 3 - 20; 4-22; 5 - 30 lightly armed centuries and 6th class - 1 century, in total 193 centuries. Since each century had one vote, the combined opinion of the richest centuries gave 98 votes out of 193, that is, a majority. Therefore, with a coordinated vote of the first two categories, the rest were not asked.

In such a simple way, the beginning of the domination of the rich and noble was laid, regardless of whether they were patricians or plebeians.

Along with all this arrangement, another important innovation was introduced to the undoubted benefit of the plebeians: the territory of the city was divided into 4 territorial districts - tribes, which serves as evidence of the victory of the principle of territorial division of the population over tribal division.

The significance of the reforms of Servius Tullius is enormous. The solution of all the most important issues in the life of the Roman community passed to the centuriate comitia, in which the entire population liable for military service participated, while the curate comitia lost their significance. By merging patricians and plebeians into a single people, introducing territorial districts, bringing to the fore rich people, and not just well-born, the reform of Servius Tullius destroyed a society based on blood relationship, and instead created state device based, as F. Engels wrote, on property differences and territorial division.

2. The political organization of the slave-owning aristocratic Roman Republic.

The reform of Servius Tullius was an important concession to the plebeians, but it was still far from equalizing them with the patricians. Especially in regard to the allocation of land, which became more and more as the conquest of Italy. Another problem concerned the abolition of debt slavery, which is inevitable when debt is not paid on time.

But in order to achieve both, the plebeians needed political rights. It came to sharp clashes, but in the end, the plebeians achieved the satisfaction of all their demands:

1. Institutions of a special plebeian magistracy, the so-called. the people's tribunate, called upon to protect the plebeians from the arbitrariness of the patricians;

2. Access to public land on a par with patricians;

3. Protection against the arbitrariness of patrician judges (by introducing a code of laws known as the Laws of the 12 Tables);

4. Permission of marriages between patricians and plebeians;

5. The right to hold first some, and then all the main government posts, including the military.

In 287 BC it was decided that the decisions of the plebeian meetings have the same force as the decisions of the centuriate comitia, i.e. obligatory for all without exception Roman citizens and all state institutions of Rome. In addition, these decisions were not subject to either the approval of the Senate or its revision.