The Influence Of Democracy In Ancient Rome

In class we have been debating on whether Rome was a democratic empire or not. We have been collecting information about how the Romans voted and who was allowed to. I believe the Roman Republic was truly democratic, but there are reasons why they were not.

Democracy:is a system of government by the whole population or all of the eligible members of a state,typically through elected representatives. In the Roman Republic they were kind of a democratic because anyone who was in the democratic was allowed to vote. People who were picking the councilmen were able to know who be selected at the end and didn’t tell anyone until everyone was not voting anymore.If people did not live in the democracy they were automatically not able to vote nor would they still be in the democratic society. Democracy of historical of racism was a big deal back in the day because when people heard that there was a big problem

I believe that the Roman Empire was mostly a democracy. If you look at how they ran their government with three branches, the Senate, the Consuls, and the Assemblies you can see that they were run by the people. Although they did have some trouble with their constitution in my opinion Rome was more of an exact variation of democracy not a true democracy.

Democracy, the form of government in which there is a rule by the people, is said to have originated and thrived in the classical period of Athens, from 500-350 B.C.. Democracy inherently gave all that were considered citizens power to participate in politics. That being said, it is highly debated as to how much power the people, also known as the demos, exercised in this democracy. Many practices and informal institutions can be said to have limited the power of the demos. The democracy in Athens could be said to have been a democracy in theory yet not in practice, as can be proven through a variety of primary sources recounting Athenian political institutions and practices. Such primary sources that can demonstrate this include Herodotus’ History, Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, and Demosthenes’ Oration Against Eubulides.

Although many famous Roman Rulers were known as dictators, the Roman Republic was a strong democracy for quite a long time. Ancient Rome was ruled by a kingdom from northern Italy, which treated the Romans badly. The Romans revolted and made their own nation, and used a democratic government to help make sure that the people were treated more equally. Henceforth, the Roman Republic was quite democratic where almost everybody could vote, there was a balance in power, and the government officials were elected by the people.

In Roman society, the aristocrafts we know as patricians. For example, the Roman constitution has three elements.The Senate proposes laws and has the control of the treasury. For instance Although nominally allied with Rome, the League offered only tepid support to the Roman army in its campaign against the Kingdom of Macedonia. Born in Megalopolis in Arcadia, central southern Greece, around 201 B.C., Polybius was the son of Lycoris, a prominent politician of the Achaean League, which united most of the city-states of the Peloponnesian peninsula.However with the exception of the first five books, which have survived intact, Polybius's Histories have come down to us in a fragmentary state.

Some policies and institutions of the Roman Republic were useful to help them succeed in conquering first Italy and then the Mediterranean world. Before of the institution of the republic, the romans were a monarchy since their beginning and they were basically a pastoral people. Rome suffer several changes and improvements under the control of the Etruscan kings. The Etruscan were civilization settled north of Rome in Etruria, and they once had control over almost all the Italic peninsula. The Etruscans influences in Rome were profound, they transformed Rome from a pastoral community to a city (91). The Etruscan built the street and roads that help the development of temples, markets, shops, streets, and houses. They basically brought urbanization to Rome. It is fairly to say that the Rome republic was a fusion between the elements of the Etruscan civilization and the Rome elements. The combination of the different political institutions and policies made the Romans succeed in their conquest territories.

Over a long course of time the Romans had many different forms of government. From oligarchies to dictatorships Rome had experience with most forms of government. With all of these happening so far in the past many questions are asked today. One of the most talked and quested forms of Roman government is the Roman Republic. The Republic of Rome is normally thought to be a democracy. But an extremely common question still arise. This questions is whether the Roman Republic was truly democratic. In a simple answer the Roman Republic was a democratic government.

In ancient times, the Greek and Roman Empires were the leading figures in their world. In these civilizations, the world saw continuous new inventions of items, thoughts, and ways of living. As ancient Greece and Rome grew, the characteristics of culture grew as well, with cities, arts and architecture, technology and science, social structure, government, religion and philosophy, and writing and literature becoming more diverse and modernized. Though they began nearly 3,000 years ago, the Greek and Roman Empires’ advancements still impact the modern world in all areas of culture, particularly in government, religion and technology.

The Roman Republic was a “democratic” republic, which allowed first citizens to vote, and to choose their governors in the senate (Hence, their consuls). However, it was a nation ruled by its aristocracy, and, consequently, the entire Republic`s power was concentrated in a few individuals. Furthermore, the Senate was controlled by Patricians, which directed the government by using wealth to buy control and power over the decisions of the senate and the consuls. This situation aroused the inconformity of the people; as result, a civil war took place in the Republic (destroying it), and then the Roman Empire was born.

Rome was a highly hierarchical and class-conscious society; yet, since its power extended for centuries, the distinction between different classes varied in time. In the Roman kingdom and the early Roman Republic, the most important division in Roman society was between the Patricians and the Plebeians. The struggle for power between these two classes resulted in the development of the Roman system of government (McManus, 1997).

As Rome became independent from the Etruscan ruling, its government walked away from having a monarch and transformed into a Republic as a way to avoid the tyranny that many times comes with an absolute autocrat. Rigorous precautions were taken from the start in order to keep the power balanced. Moreover, the structure of the government was meant to be resilient to bad judgment. The structure of the Roman Republic with its government and law provided for a more just system.

Both Greek Democracy and the Roman Republic contributed greatly to the development of the modern world, bringing into it the notions of democracy and republic. The evolution of these concepts took them to a level much higher than one present in Ancient Greece and Rome respectively. However, modern society continues to draw on somewhat idealized accounts of the ancient world for inspiration in improving today’s governing procedures.

Some people think that ancient Roman is a democratic society but some are not. Personally, I think that the ancient Rome is a democratic society. In this essay, we are going to discuss about the democracy of ancient Rome. To know the democracy of the ancient Rome, we first need to understand its structure and base on it to identify the ancient Rome is a democratic society or not. In order to deeply interpret the structure and democracy of Rome, there are some aspects we need to know, including social development, economic aspect, political development, and military development.

The contemporary United States has been influenced by many ancient civilizations, mainly Classical Rome and Classical Greece. Even though Greece had a tremendous influence over our civilization, out of these two classical civilizations, I believe that Classical Rome has had a bigger impact on many aspects of the contemporary United States. In this essay, I am going to examine the political system, economic system, and the architecture of the Classical Rome Empire, and explain how these influenced the contemporary United States.