Western Civilization. Paul R. Waibel
many of the world's legal systems. Roman concepts of government have periodically influenced the development of European governmental institutions. And not least in importance, is the lingering memory of the Pax Romana (Roman Peace), roughly 200 years of peace under a “universal” government.
The essence of Roman civilization is often summed up by the saying that it consisted of an army, an arch, and a law. The Roman army was the best the world had yet seen. With weapons no different than most of their opponents, the Roman legions conquered the Mediterranean world. They were also great builders. From Scotland in the north, to North Africa in the south, and from Spain in the west to Mesopotamia in the east, soldiers and merchants traveled in peace on paved roads from city to city. Mighty stone aqueducts carried water from mountain streams to the cities. Amphitheaters, coliseums, temples, and domed structures built of brick and/or stone shaped the skyline of Roman cities. For centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire, these great structures served as stone quarries for the conquerors, and still today, the surviving ruins testify to the engineering skills of the Romans and the glory that was Rome.
The Roman discovery of a “common law of nature” enabled them to create a system of laws that was suitable for governing a world empire of diverse cultures. They believed that what is right and what is wrong, what is just and what is unjust, is knowable by reason. Natural law refers to a kind of universal conscience that is shared by all humankind. It provides the basis for law that does not merely reflect the will of the stronger or the whim of the masses. It makes a civilized society possible by giving “both privileges or rights, and responsibilities or duties to the truly wise.” Natural law has profoundly influenced Western legal systems down to the present.1
Early Republic
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.
Early Conquest Under the Republic
The early Roman army was conscripted for each campaign. The backbone of the army was the infantry, drawn from the small farmers. The wealthy citizens provided the cavalry, while the poor served as light armed infantry troops. The “citizen soldiers” soon proved themselves to be the best army the world had yet seen. In c. 396 BC, the Romans crossed the Tiber River and destroyed the Etruscan stronghold of Veii. Victorious over the Etruscans, the Romans soon suffered a major defeat at the hands of the invading Gauls (Celts) from the north. The Gauls captured and sacked the city of Rome in 390 BC. No enemy army penetrated the walls of Rome for the next 800 years.
During the fourth and early third centuries BC, Roman armies defeated the Etruscans, the Gauls, and another neighboring tribe, the Samites. By 265 BC, Rome controlled all of Italy south of the Po River. Even the Greek city‐states in Sicily acknowledged Roman authority. Roman presence in Sicily set the stage for the decisive showdown between Rome and Carthage on the northern coast of Africa. Carthage originated as a Phoenician colony on the Mediterranean coast of Africa. By the beginning of the third century BC, it dominated the western Mediterranean Sea, including the western side of Sicily. At first the Carthaginians, whose navy controlled the seas, appeared to be the more formidable foe. But after a series of three wars known as the Punic Wars, between 264 and 146 BC, Carthage was utterly destroyed and Rome was master of the western Mediterranean world.
Rome