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69-521: In 450 BC, during what was to be the 200-year Conflict of the Orders between the patricians and the plebeians , the patricians gave “consent to the appointment of a body of legislators, chosen in equal numbers from plebeians and patricians to enact what would be useful to both orders and secure equal liberty for each.” The plebeians wanted a published set of laws so that there were clear and known rules and protections as well as punishments. Up until that time,

138-531: A compromise was reached, and while the consulship remained closed to the plebeians, consular command authority ( imperium ) was granted to a select number of military tribunes. These individuals, the so-called consular tribunes ("military tribunes with consular powers" or tribuni militum consulari potestate ) were elected by the Centuriate Assembly , and the Senate had the power to veto any such election. This

207-406: A god or the gods in addition to the sacrosanct object or person, became forfeit to the god(s), anyone who killed him/her was performing sacred duty and would not be punished and the dead violator was surrendered to the god(s) in question. The principle of the inviolability of the plebeian tribunes had been established following the first plebeian rebellion. Besides being the leaders of the plebeians,

276-417: A government exempt from the right to appeal to the people against arbitrary actions on their part. The conduct of the first decemvirate was exemplary and it drew up ten bronze tablets of laws. It was felt that two more laws were needed to complete the legislation. A new decemvirate was elected. According to Livy, the second decemvirate was despotic and abused the people, taking advantage of their exemption from

345-452: A new patricio-plebeian aristocracy ( nobilitas ) emerged, which replaced the old patrician nobility. It was the dominance of the long-standing patrician nobility which ultimately forced the plebeians to wage their long struggle for political power. The new nobility, however, was fundamentally different from the old nobility. The old nobility existed through the force of law, because only patricians were allowed to stand for high office, and it

414-437: A plebeian by the decemviri and had shown sympathy towards the plebeians, were sent to Mons Sacer negotiate. The negotiations were successful, the decemviri resigned and the secession was called off. Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius were elected as the consuls for the year. They restored the right to appeal to the people and passed measures which were favourable to the plebeians to address their grievances which had emerged during

483-484: A series of reforms were passed (the leges Valeria Horatio or the "laws of the consuls Valerius and Horatius "), which ultimately required that any law passed by the Plebeian Council have the full force of law over both plebeians and Patricians. This gave the plebeian tribunes, who presided over the Plebeian Council, a positive character for the first time. Before these laws were passed, tribunes could only interpose

552-568: Is a Latin word meaning power or faculty. It is an important concept in Roman Law . The idea of potestas originally referred to the power, through coercion , of a Roman magistrate to promulgate edicts, give action to litigants, etc. This power, in Roman political and legal theory, is considered analogous in kind though lesser in degree to military power. The most important magistrates (such as consuls and praetors ) are said to have imperium , which

621-427: Is the apparent absence of armed revolt; as the history of the late Republic shows, similar types of grievances tended to lead to bloodshed rather quickly, yet Livy's account seems to entail debate mostly, with the occasional threat of secessio . None of this is helped by our basic uncertainty as to who the plebs actually were; many of them are known to have been wealthy landowners, and the "lower class" label dates from

690-530: Is the ultimate form of potestas, and refers indeed to military power. Potestas strongly contrasts with the power of the Senate and the prudentes , a common way to refer to Roman jurists . While the magistrates had potestas , the prudentes exercised auctoritas . It is said that auctoritas is a manifestation of socially recognized knowledge, while potestas is a manifestation of socially recognized power. In Roman political theory, both were necessary to guide

759-470: The res publica and they had to inform each other. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire , most institutions of Roman public law fell into disuse, but much of Roman political theory remained. In a letter, Duo Sunt , Pope Gelasius I argued that Christendom was ruled, in theory, by the priests and princes. The former had the spiritual authority, which was identified with auctoritas, while

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828-464: The Roman censors . It also codified a commonplace practice, which all but required the censor to appoint any newly elected magistrate to the Senate. While this was not an absolute requirement, the language in the law was so strict that the censors rarely disobeyed it. It is not known what year this law was passed, although it was probably passed between the opening of the censorship to plebeians (in 339 BC) and

897-440: The Roman dictatorship and the Roman censorship since only former consuls could hold either office. 356 BC saw the appointment of the first plebeian dictator, and in 339 BC the plebeians facilitated the passage of a law (the lex Publilia ), which required the election of at least one plebeian censor for each five-year term. In 337 BC, the first plebeian praetor (Q. Publilius Philo) was elected. In addition, during these years,

966-468: The plebeian tribune (tribunus plebis ). During the 5th century BC, there were a number of unsuccessful attempts to reform Roman agrarian laws to distribute newly conquered territories amongst the plebs. In a number of instances, these reforms were advocated by the plebeian tribunes. In 471 BC, the Lex Publilia was passed, marking an important reform shifting practical power from the patricians to

1035-559: The Council's resolutions as laws binding on the whole people and therefore on the patricians as well. Livy wrote that as “it was as it were a point in controversy, whether patricians were bound by regulations enacted in an assembly of the commons, they [the consuls] proposed a law in the assembly of the centuries [the Assembly of the Soldiers , which voted on laws proposed by the consuls], that whatever

1104-637: The Orders The Conflict of the Orders or the Struggle of the Orders was a political struggle between the plebeians (commoners) and patricians (aristocrats) of the ancient Roman Republic lasting from 500 BC to 287 BC in which the plebeians sought political equality with the patricians. It played a major role in the development of the Constitution of the Roman Republic . Shortly after the founding of

1173-423: The Plebeian Council. The law of 339 BC might have partially removed these restrictions and that of 287 BC probably abolished them altogether and, therefore these two laws were not repetitions, but re-enactments which introduced specific amendments which decreased patrician obstruction of the plebiscites. This could be possible as the sources do not provide the ‘detailed provisions of these laws.’ Conflict of

1242-594: The Republic, this conflict led to a secession from Rome by the Plebeians to the Sacred Mount at a time of war. The result of this first secession was the creation of the office of plebeian tribune , and with it the first acquisition of real power by the plebeians. At first, only patricians were allowed to stand for election to political office, but over time these laws were revoked, and eventually all offices were opened to

1311-522: The Senate had over this power. In the decades following the passage of the Licinio-Sextian law of 367 BC, a series of laws were passed which ultimately granted plebeians political equality with patricians. The patrician era came to a complete end in 287 BC, with the passage of the Hortensian law. When the curule aedileship had been created, it had only been opened to Patricians. However, an agreement

1380-454: The Senate, although it remained difficult for a plebeian from an unknown family to enter the Senate. On the rare occasion that an individual of an unknown family ( ignobilis ) was elected to high office, it was usually due to the unusual character of that individual, as was the case for both Gaius Marius and Marcus Tullius Cicero . Several factors made it difficult for individuals from unknown families to be elected to high office, in particular

1449-507: The Tribes refer specifically to the Plebeian Council . The distinction between the joint Tribal Assembly (composed of both Patricians and Plebeians) and the Plebeian Council (composed only of Plebeians) is not well defined in the contemporary accounts, and because of this, the very existence of a joint Tribal Assembly can only be assumed through indirect evidence. During the 5th century BC,

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1518-437: The assemblies, rather than after the law had already been voted on. It is not known why, but this modification seems to have made the auctoritas patrum irrelevant. By 287 BC, the economic condition of the average plebeian had become poor. The problem appears to have centered around widespread indebtedness, and the plebeians quickly demanded relief. The senators, most of whom belonged to the creditor class, refused to abide by

1587-399: The auctoritas partum or to the subsequent vote of the comitia populi, or indeed both.” Auctoritas patrum meant authority of the fathers (the patricians) through the patrician-controlled senate. This would explain the difficulties in getting proposals passed into law, such as the various failed attempts at agrarian reform to help the poor, which must have had the support of the poor plebeians and

1656-449: The commons ordered collectively, should bind the entire people; by which law a most keen-edged weapon was given to motions introduced by tribunes." Lex Valeria Horatia de provocatione . This was restoration of the right of appeal to the people (provocatio ad populum), which means calling out to the people. A citizen could call out to the people against the summary use of power against him by the consuls or officials. With this type of appeal

1725-402: The conflict, do not mention it (which may not be surprising, since Polybius' history covered a period after the conflict), while the writers who do speak of the conflict, such as Livy or Cicero , are sometimes thought to have reported fact and fable equally readily, and sometimes assume that there were no fundamental changes in Roman institutions in nearly 500 years. Potestas Potestas

1794-437: The content of the law of 300 BC. He notes that Livy said that Marcus Valerius Corvus’ law of appeal had was ‘more carefully set down’ and that this must be in comparison with previous laws on appeal. Livy also wrote “this was the third time since the expulsion of the kings that such a law had been introduced, by the same family in every instance” He specified that the second and third laws were renewals and said that he thought that

1863-543: The demands of the plebeians, and the result was the final plebeian secession. The Plebeians seceded to the Janiculum Hill , and to end the secession, a dictator named Quintus Hortensius was appointed. Hortensius, a plebeian, passed the lex Hortensia which ended the requirement that an auctoritas patrum be passed before any bill could be considered by either the Plebeian Council or the Tribal Assembly. The requirement

1932-449: The dogma was also used by Edward I. Although its ultimate use is ambiguous, it was used to give to parliament representatives the authority of making choices in parliament (full powers). This, in turn, helped Edward I coerce shire representatives to grant taxes. In some of the Italian city states , the term "Potestas" describes the authority of a magistrate developed into " Podestà ", which

2001-493: The effective power of the Holy Roman Empire declined, kingdoms asserted their own independence. One way to do this was to claim that the king had, in his kingdom, the same power as the emperor in the empire, and so the king assumed the attributes of potestas. The concept of plena in re potesta was often used in 13th-century Europe, of ownership as being "in full power" to do what one likes with one's property. The use of

2070-432: The election of at least one plebeian censor every five years, contained another provision. Before this time, any bill passed by an assembly could only become a law after the patrician senators gave their approval. This approval came in the form of an auctoritas patrum ("authority of the fathers"). The lex Publilia modified this process, requiring the auctoritas patrum to be passed before a law could be voted on by one of

2139-410: The first known lectio senatus by a censor (in 312 BC). By this point, plebeians were already holding a significant number of magisterial offices, and so the number of plebeian senators probably increased quickly. It was, in all likelihood, simply a matter of time before the plebeians came to dominate the Senate. Under the new system, newly elected magistrates were awarded with automatic membership in

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2208-466: The fruits of the resulting conquests. The plebeians, by now exhausted and bitter, demanded real concessions, so the tribunes Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus passed a law in 367 BC (the Lex Licinia Sextia ) which dealt with the economic plight of the plebeians. However, the law also required the election of at least one plebeian consul each year. The opening of the consulship to

2277-419: The institution of laws by the second plebeian dictator Q. Publilius Philo , these acts began to apply to both plebeians and patricians. The most fundamental change, however, was the granting of tribunicia potestas (tribunician power) in which tribunes of the plebs could veto unfavorable legislation. The Conflict of the Orders began less than 20 years after the Republic was founded. Under the existing system,

2346-491: The late Republic. Some scholars, such as Richard E. Mitchell, have even argued that there was no conflict at all, the Romans of the late Republic having interpreted events of their distant past as if they were comparable to the class struggles of their own time. The crux of the problem is that there is no contemporaneous account of the conflict; writers such as Polybius , who might have met persons whose grandparents participated in

2415-714: The latter had temporal power, identified with potestas. At first, the Pope crowned secular rulers after Pope Stephen II crowned the Frankish king Pepin the Short in January 754, and secular rulers often appointed local bishops and abbots, but after the Investiture Controversy the Pope was instead chosen by the College of Cardinals and, at least in theory, approved episcopal nominations. As

2484-492: The laws were unwritten and open to arbitrary use and, at times, abuse. A ten-man commission was appointed to develop the laws, the Decemviri Legibus Scribundis Consulari Imperio (decemviri means ten men). The consulship (the office of the two annually elected heads of the republic) and the plebeian tribunes (the representatives of the plebeians) were suspended. The decemviri were also to act as

2553-418: The man who put him to death be held guilty of murder.” Lex Valeria Horatia de tribunicia potestate. This law restored the potestas tribunicia, the powers of the plebeian tribunes (often referred to as tribunician powers). It also put in place the principle of the inviolability ( sacrosanctitas ) of the plebeian tribunes, the aediles (the assistants of the tribunes) and the decemviri into law. This principle

2622-569: The office themselves to prevent the plebeian tribunes from exercising their powers, led to the passage of the Lex Trebonia , forbidding the plebeian tribunes from co-opting their colleagues in the future. In 445 BC, the plebeians demanded the right to stand for election as consul (the chief-magistrate of the Roman Republic), but the Roman Senate refused to grant them this right. Ultimately,

2691-541: The old aristocratic Patrician families had always had, but these new plebeian aristocrats were as uninterested in the plight of the average plebeian as the old patrician aristocrats had always been. During this time period, the plebeian plight had been mitigated due to the constant state of war that Rome was in. These wars provided employment, income, and glory for the average plebeian, and the sense of patriotism that resulted from these wars also eliminated any real threat of plebeian unrest. The lex Publilia , which had required

2760-406: The patricians frequently tried to thwart them by gaining the support of another tribune. One example of this occurred in 448 BC when only five tribunes were elected to fill ten positions; following tradition and pressured by the patricians, they co-opted five colleagues, two of whom were patricians. Concerns that the patricians would attempt to influence future elections in this manner, or by obtaining

2829-453: The plebeian Tribunes and the senators grew increasingly close. The Senate realized the need to use plebeian officials to accomplish desired goals, and so to win over the tribunes, senators gave the tribunes a great deal of power, and unsurprisingly, the tribunes began to feel obligated to the Senate. As the tribunes and the senators grew closer, plebeian senators were often able to secure the tribunate for members of their own families. In time,

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2898-416: The plebeian tribunes were the protectors of the plebeians. They had the power to stop actions by the consuls or officials which they deemed as summary and harmful to individual plebeians. This power rested on the principle that the person of the plebeian tribune was sacrosanct. Anyone who hurt him would be declared sacer. In effect this meant that the plebeians swore to kill whoever hurt their tribunes and this

2967-508: The plebeians was probably the cause behind the concession of 366 BC, in which the praetorship and curule aedile were both created, but opened only to patricians. Shortly after the founding of the republic, the Centuriate Assembly became the principal Roman assembly in which magistrates were elected, laws were passed, and trials occurred. Also around this time, the plebeians assembled into an informal plebeian Curiae Assembly, which

3036-461: The plebeians. It was convened and presided over by the plebeian tribunes, positions which had been created during the first plebeian rebellion. These tribunes proposed resolutions to the vote of the Council. These plebeian institutions were created for the self-defence of the plebeians against abuse by the consuls and the Roman aristocracy and were separate from the institutions of the patrician-controlled Roman senate. The patricians refused to recognise

3105-480: The plebeians. Since most individuals who were elected to political office were given membership in the Roman Senate , this development helped to transform the Senate from a body of patricians into a body of both patrician and plebeian aristocrats. This development occurred at the same time that the plebeian legislative assembly, the Plebeian Council , was acquiring additional power. At first, its acts (" plebiscites ") applied only to plebeians, although after 339 BC, with

3174-464: The plebeians. The law transferred the election of the tribunes of the plebs to the Tribal Assembly ( comitia populi tributa) , thereby freeing their election from the influence of the patrician clients . During the early years of the republic, the plebeians were not allowed to hold magisterial office. While the plebeian tribunes regularly attempted to block legislation unfavorable to their order,

3243-422: The plebiscites to be binding on the whole people were also proposed, one by Quintus Publilius Philo in 339 BC and one by Quintus Hortensius in 287 BC. This has led some historians to argue that in both cases the first and second laws are unhistorical and that only the third one is historical. Cornell disputes the above view. He points out that Roman legislators repeatedly dealt with the same subject and incorporated

3312-411: The poorer plebeians made up the bulk of the Roman army. During their military service, the farms on which their livelihood depended were left abandoned. Unable to earn a sufficient income, many turned to the patricians for aid, which left them open to abuse and even enslavement. As the patricians controlled Roman politics, the plebeians found no help from within the existing political system. Their solution

3381-465: The provisions of the existing law into the amendments or the new provisions of a new law. He argues that it cannot be proved that the three laws on appeal were identical, that the purpose of the Valerio-Horatian Law was “not to grant the right of appeal per se [in fact, it was a restoration], but to prohibit the creation of magistracies not subject to appeal,” and that we do not know anything about

3450-428: The reason for this was that the wealth of a few carried more power than the liberty of the plebs. He added that the law forbade the scourging or execution of those who appealed, but merely provided that if anyone should disregard [its] injunctions it should be deemed a wicked act. Regarding the law on plebiscites constituting laws binding the whole people, Cornell, again, thinks that the record of three subsequent laws on

3519-422: The rebellion. Lex Valeria Horatia de plebiscitis. This established that the resolutions passed by the Plebeian Council were binding on all. The plebeians had created this body as their own assembly where they could debate their own issues during their first rebellion, the first plebeian secession (494 BC). The patricians were excluded from the Plebeian Council. The Council could also vote on laws which concerned

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3588-501: The regal period, the king nominated two equestrians to serve as his assistants, and after the overthrow of the monarchy, the Consuls retained this authority. However, in 447 BC, Cicero tells us that the Equators began to be elected by a tribal assembly that was presided over by a magistrate. It seems as though this was the first instance of a joint Patricia-Plebeian Tribal Assembly, and thus

3657-500: The right to appeal. This eventually led to the plebeian rebellion known as the second plebeian secession . The plebeians seceded to Mons Sacer (Sacred Mount) outside the city and pledged to remain there until their demands were met. Their demands were the resignation of the decemviri, the restoration of the right to appeal to the people and the restoration of the plebeian tribunes and their powers. Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius, two patricians who had stood up to one instance of abuse of

3726-450: The sacrosanct of their person ( intercessio ) to veto acts of the Senate, assemblies, or magistrates. It was a modification to the Valerian law in 449 BC which first allowed acts of the Plebeian Council to have the full force of law over both plebeians and patricians, but eventually the final law in the series was passed (the "Shortening Law"), which removed the last check that the patricians in

3795-538: The same subject need not imply that the first two were unhistorical. He notes that between 449 BC (the year of the Lex Valeria-Horatia) and 287 BC (the year of the Lex Hortensia) there were thirty-five plebiscites which had the force of law. He argues that the law of 449 BC probably established the general principle, “but in some way restricted its freedom to do so, for instance, by making the plebiscites subject to

3864-491: The summary action undertaken would be stopped. This law also forbade the creation of any official positions that were exempt from the people’s right of appeal. Livy stated that through this law the right of appeal to the people “was not only restored but strengthened for the future by a fresh enactment. This forbade the appointment of any magistrate from whom there was no right of appeal, and provided that anyone who did so appoint might be rightly and lawfully put to death, nor should

3933-540: The tribunate became a stepping stone to higher office. During the era of the kingdom, the Roman King appointed new senators through a process called lectio senatus , but after the overthrow of the kingdom, the consuls acquired this power. Around the middle of the 4th century BC, however, the Plebeian Assembly enacted the " Ovinian Plebiscite " ( plebiscitum Ovinium ), which gave the power to appoint new senators to

4002-581: The tribunes], or decemviral judges, his person should be devoted to Jupiter, his possessions sold and the proceeds assigned to the temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera …”. In both the case of the law on the right of appeal and that on the plebiscites, there were three instances of such law. There were two other laws on appeal which were proposed by two consuls who were also members of the Valeria family, one by Publius Valerius Publicola in 509 BC and one by Marcus Valerius Corvus in 300 BC. Two other laws which provided for

4071-405: The very presence of a long-standing nobility, as this appealed to the deeply rooted Roman respect for the past. In addition, elections were expensive, neither senators nor magistrates were paid, and the Senate often did not reimburse magistrates for expenses associated with their official duties. Therefore, an individual usually had to be independently wealthy before seeking high office. Ultimately,

4140-420: Was based on the lex sacrata (sacred law), which was a religious sanction according to which a temple, sacred object or person could be declared physically inviolable (sacrosanct). According to Festus "Sacred laws are laws which have the sanction that anyone who broke them becomes accursed to one of the gods, together with his family and property". The violator became sacer (accursed), was considered as having harmed

4209-405: Was given a religious basis. The plebeians undertook to protect their protectors. Livy said that the consuls renewed the potestas tribunicia “with certain sacred rites revived from a distant past, and in addition to securing their inviolability by the sanctions of religion, they enacted a law that whoever offered violence to the magistrates of the plebs, whether tribunes, aediles [the assistants of

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4278-456: Was long accepted as factual, but it has a number of problems and inconsistencies, and almost every element of the story is controversial today. For instance, the fasti report a number of consuls with plebeian names during the 5th century BC, when the consulate was supposedly only open to patricians, and explanations to the effect that previously patrician gentes somehow became plebeians later are difficult to prove. Another point of difficulty

4347-406: Was not changed for the Centuriate Assembly. The Hortensian Law also reaffirmed the principle that an act of the Plebeian Council have the full force of law over both plebeians and patricians, which it had originally acquired as early as 449 BC. The importance of the Hortensian law was in that it removed from the patrician senators their final check over the Plebeian Council. The traditional account

4416-498: Was probably an enormous gain for the plebeians. While patricians were able to vote in a joint assembly, there were never very many Patricians in Rome. Thus, most of the electors were plebeians, and yet any magistrate elected by a joint assembly had jurisdiction over both plebeians and patricians. Therefore, for the first time, the plebeians seemed to have indirectly acquired authority over Patricians. Most contemporary accounts of an assembly of

4485-657: Was the first of many attempts by the plebeians to achieve political equality with the Patricians. Starting around the year 400 BC, a series of wars were fought against several neighboring tribes (in particular the Aequi , the Volsci , the Latins , and the Veii ). The disenfranchised plebeians, who made up significant portion of the army, grew restless from bloodshed while the patrician aristocracy enjoyed

4554-695: Was the original Plebeian Council . Since they were organized on the basis of the Curia (and thus by clan), they remained dependent on their Patrician patrons. In 471 BC, a law was passed due to the efforts of the Tribune Volero Publilius, which allowed the plebeians to organize by tribe, rather than by curia. Thus, the Plebeian Curiae Assembly became the Plebeian Tribal Assembly, and the plebeians became politically independent. During

4623-489: Was to go on strike. In 494 BC Rome was at war with three Italic tribes (the Aequi , Sabine and Volsci ), but the plebeian soldiers, advised by Lucius Sicinius Vellutus , refused to march against the enemy and instead seceded to the Sacred Mount outside Rome. A settlement was negotiated and the patricians agreed that the plebs be given the right to meet in their own assembly, the Plebeian Council ( Concilium Plebis ), and to elect their own officials to protect their rights,

4692-401: Was ultimately overthrown after those laws were changed. Now, however, the new nobility existed due to the organization of society, and as such, it could only be overthrown through a revolution. The Conflict of the Orders was finally coming to an end, since the plebeians had achieved political equality with the patricians. A small number of plebeian families had achieved the same standing that

4761-417: Was ultimately secured between the plebeians and the patricians. One year, the curule aedileship was to be open to plebeians, and the next year, it was only to be open to patricians. Eventually, however, this agreement was abandoned and the plebeians won full admission to the curule aedileship. In addition, after the consulship had been opened to the plebeians, the plebs acquired a de facto right to hold both

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