While the Romans were engaged in acquiring political supremacy in Italy, the Roman state itself underwent a profound transformation as the result of severe internal struggles between the patrician and the plebeian elements.
The constitution of the early republic: the magistrates. Upon the overthrow of the monarchy, the Romans set up a republican form of government, where the chief executive office was filled by popular election. At the head of the state were two annually elected magistrates, or presidents, called at first praetors but later consuls. They possessed the auspicium or the right to consult the gods on behalf of the state, and the imperium, which gave them the right of military command, as well as administrative and judicial authority. Both enjoyed these powers in equal measure and, by his veto, the one could suspend the other’s action. Thus from the beginning of the Republic annuality and collegiality were the characteristics of the Roman magistracy. Nevertheless, the Romans recognized the advantage of an occasional concentration of all power in the state in the hands of a single magistrate and so, in times of emergency, the consuls, acting upon the advice of the senate, nominated a dictator, who superseded the consuls themselves for a maximum period of six months. The dictator, or magister populi, as he was called in early times, appointed as his assistant a master of the horse (magister equitum).
The Senate. At the side of the magistrates stood the Senate, a body of three hundred members, who acted in an advisory capacity to the officials, and possessed the power of sanctioning or vetoing laws passed by the Assembly of the People. The senators were nominated by the consuls from the patrician order and held office for life.
The comitia curiata. During the early years of the Republic, the popular Assembly, which had the power of electing the consuls and passing or rejecting such measures as the latter brought before it, was probably the old comitia curiata. But, as we shall see, it was soon superseded in most of its functions by a new primary assembly.
The priesthoods. In Rome a special branch of the administration was that of public religion, which dealt with the official relations of the community towards its divine protectors. This sphere was under the direction of a college of priests, at whose head stood the pontifex maximus. Special priestly brotherhoods or guilds cared for the performance of particular religious ceremonies, while the use of divination in its political aspect was under the supervision of the college of augurs. With the exception of the pontifex maximus, who was elected by the people from an early date, the priesthoods were filled by nomination or coöptation. The Roman priesthood did not form a separate caste in the community but, since these priestly offices were held by the same men who, in another capacity, acted as magistrates and senators, the Roman official religion was subordinated to the interests of the state and tended more and more to assume a purely formal character.
The lines of constitutional development. Both the consulate and the priestly offices, like the senate, were open only to patricians, who thus enjoyed a complete monopoly of the administration. They had been responsible for the overthrow of the monarchy, and, consequently, at the beginning of the Republic they formed the controlling element in the Roman state.
From conditions such as these the constitutional development in Rome to 287 B. C. proceeded along two distinct lines. In the first place there was a gradual change in the magistracy by the creation of new offices with functions adapted to the needs of a progressive, expanding, community; and, secondly, there was a long struggle between the patricians and the plebeians, resulting from the desire of the latter to place themselves in a position of political, legal, and social equality with the former.
II. The Assembly of the Centuries and the Development of the Magistracy
The Assembly of the Centuries. At a time which cannot be [pg 49]determined with precision, but most probably early in the fifth century, the Assembly of the Curiae was superseded for elective and legislative purposes by a new assembly, called the Assembly of the Centuries (comitia centuriata), of which the organization was modelled upon the contemporary military organization of the state. The land-holding citizens were divided into five classes, according to the size of their properties, and to each class was allotted a number of voting groups, divided equally between the men under 46 years of age (juniores) and those who were 46 and over (seniores). The number of voting groups, called centuries, in each class was possibly in proportion to the total assessment of that class. Thus the first class had eighty centuries, the second, third, and fourth classes had twenty each, while the fifth class had thirty. Outside of the classes, at first six but later eighteen centuries were allotted to those eligible to serve as cavalry (equites) whose property qualification was at least that of the first class; four centuries were given to musicians and mechanics who performed special military service; and one century was assigned to the landless citizens (proletarii). Of the total of 193 centuries, the first class had eighty and the equestrians eighteen: together ninety-eight, or a majority of the voting units. As they had the privilege of voting before the other classes, they could, if unanimous, control the Assembly. The term century, it must be noted, which in its original military sense had been applied to a detachment of 100 men, in political usage was applied to a voting group of indefinite numbers. The organization of this Assembly probably was not completed until near the end of the fourth century, when the basis for enrollment in the five census classes was changed from landed estate to the total property assessment reckoned in terms of the copper as.