Political institutions of Rome
Encyclopedia
A list regarding the political institutions of ancient Rome follows.

Constitutions

  • Roman Constitution
    Roman Constitution
    The Roman Constitution was an uncodified set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The Roman constitution was not formal or even official, largely unwritten and constantly evolving. Concepts that originated in the Roman constitution live on in constitutions to this day...

  • Constitution of the Roman Kingdom
    Constitution of the Roman Kingdom
    The Constitution of the Roman Kingdom was an unwritten set of guidelines and principles originating mainly through precedent. During the years of the Roman Kingdom, the constitutional arrangement was centered around the king, who had the power to appoint assistants, and delegate to them their...

  • Constitution of the Roman Republic
    Constitution of the Roman Republic
    The Constitution of the Roman Republic was a set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The constitution was largely unwritten, uncodified, and constantly evolving...

  • Constitution of the Roman Empire
    Constitution of the Roman Empire
    The Constitution of the Roman Empire was an unwritten set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. After the fall of the Roman Republic, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the Roman Senate to the Roman Emperor. Beginning with the first emperor, Augustus, the...

  • Constitution of the Late Roman Empire
    Constitution of the Late Roman Empire
    The Constitution of the Late Roman Empire was an unwritten set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The constitution of the Roman Principate , which was established by the emperor Augustus in the 1st century BC, had governed the "Roman Empire" for three centuries...


Legislatures

  • Roman senate
    Roman Senate
    The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

  • Roman assemblies
    Roman assemblies
    The Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital...

  • Roman Curia
    Curia
    A curia in early Roman times was a subdivision of the people, i.e. more or less a tribe, and with a metonymy it came to mean also the meeting place where the tribe discussed its affairs...

  • Comitia curiata
  • Comitia centuriata
  • Comitia tributa
  • Concilium plebis

Social ranks

  • Nobiles
    Nobiles
    During the Roman Republic, nobilis was a descriptive term of social rank, usually indicating that a member of the family had achieved the consulship. Those who belonged to the hereditary patrician families were noble, but plebeians whose ancestors were consuls were also considered nobiles...

  • Patricians
  • Equites
  • Plebs
    Plebs
    The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...

  • Proletarians

State offices

  • aedile
    Aedile
    Aedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order. There were two pairs of aediles. Two aediles were from the ranks of plebeians and the other...

  • censor
    Censor (ancient Rome)
    The censor was an officer in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances....

  • comes palatinus
    Palatine
    A palatine or palatinus is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times...

  • consul
    Roman consul
    A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...

  • decemviri
    Decemviri
    Decemviri is a Latin term meaning "Ten Men" which designates any such commission in the Roman Republic...

  • dictator
    Roman dictator
    In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...

  • dux
    Dux
    Dux is Latin for leader and later for Duke and its variant forms ....

  • emperor
    Roman Emperor
    The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

  • governor
    Roman governor
    A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire...

  • imperator
    Imperator
    The Latin word Imperator was originally a title roughly equivalent to commander under the Roman Republic. Later it became a part of the titulature of the Roman Emperors as part of their cognomen. The English word emperor derives from imperator via Old French Empreur...

  • legatus
    Legatus
    A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...

  • lictor
    Lictor
    The lictor was a member of a special class of Roman civil servant, with special tasks of attending and guarding magistrates of the Roman Republic and Empire who held imperium, the right and power to command; essentially, a bodyguard...

  • magistrate
  • officium
    Officium
    Officium is a Latin word with various meanings in Ancient Rome, including "service", " duty", "courtesy", "ceremony" and the like...

  • pontifex maximus
    Pontifex Maximus
    The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...

  • praefectus
  • praetor
    Praetor
    Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...

  • praetor peregrinus
  • princeps senatus
    Princeps senatus
    The princeps senatus was the first member by precedence of the Roman Senate. Although officially out of the cursus honorum and owning no imperium, this office brought enormous prestige to the senator holding it.-Overview:...

  • procurator
    Procurator (Roman)
    A procurator was the title of various officials of the Roman Empire, posts mostly filled by equites . A procurator Augusti was the governor of the smaller imperial provinces...

  • promagistrates
  • quaestor
    Quaestor
    A Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed....

  • rex
    King of Rome
    The King of Rome was the chief magistrate of the Roman Kingdom. According to legend, the first king of Rome was Romulus, who founded the city in 753 BC upon the Palatine Hill. Seven legendary kings are said to have ruled Rome until 509 BC, when the last king was overthrown. These kings ruled for...

  • senator
  • tribune
    Tribune
    Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...

  • triumviri
  • vicarius
    Vicarius
    Vicarius is a Latin word, meaning substitute or deputy. It is the root and origin of the English word "vicar" and cognate to the Persian word most familiar in the variant vizier....

  • vigintisexviri
    Vigintisexviri
    The Vigintisexviri was a college of minor magistrates in the Roman Republic; the name literally means "Twenty-Six Men"...


Lists of individual office holders

  • List of Roman kings
  • List of Roman Consuls
  • List of Roman Emperors
  • List of principes senatus
    Princeps senatus
    The princeps senatus was the first member by precedence of the Roman Senate. Although officially out of the cursus honorum and owning no imperium, this office brought enormous prestige to the senator holding it.-Overview:...

  • List of Roman censors
  • List of Roman governors of Britain

Glossary of law & instutions

  • auctoritas
    Auctoritas
    Auctoritas is a Latin word and is the origin of English "authority." While historically its use in English was restricted to discussions of the political history of Rome, the beginning of phenomenological philosophy in the twentieth century expanded the use of the word.In ancient Rome, Auctoritas...

  • civitas
    Civitas
    In the history of Rome, the Latin term civitas , according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the cives, or citizens, united by law . It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities on the one hand and rights of citizenship on the other...

  • collegia
  • consilium
    Consilium
    Consilium may refer to :*Consilium, the Council of the European Union*The Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia, a 1536 report commissioned by Pope Paul III on the abuses in the Catholic Church...

  • consortium
    Consortium
    A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....

  • consuetudo
  • contractus
    Contract
    A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...

  • curiae
  • cursus honorum
    Cursus honorum
    The cursus honorum was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in both the Roman Republic and the early Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The cursus honorum comprised a mixture of military and political administration posts. Each office had a minimum...

  • decreta
  • digesta
  • edicta
  • equitas
    Equitas
    Equitas is the general label given to a group of companies linked to Lloyd's of London. It was set up in 1996 specifically to reinsure liabilities that had accumulated in the syndicates at Lloyd's of London on policies written from the 1930s up to and including 1992. This business was reinsured by...

  • fiducia
  • gravitas
    Gravitas
    Gravitas was one of the Roman virtues, along with pietas, dignitas and virtus. It may be translated variously as weight, seriousness, dignity, or importance, and connotes a certain substance or depth of personality.-See also:*Auctoritas...

  • imperium
    Imperium
    Imperium is a Latin word which, in a broad sense, translates roughly as 'power to command'. In ancient Rome, different kinds of power or authority were distinguished by different terms. Imperium, referred to the sovereignty of the state over the individual...

  • iudex
  • ius
    Ius
    Ius or Jus etymologically means "that which is binding" and comes from the same root as iungere, "to join." In ancient Rome it was used primarily to mean a right to which a citizen was entitled by virtue of his citizenship...

  • lex
    Lex
    -Written law :* Legislation* Statute* Statutory law* Act of Parliament* Act of Congress-Fictional characters:*Lex Luthor, a fictional supervillain in DC Comics*Lex in the TV series The Tribe .* Lex in game Fire Emblem...

  • libertas
    Libertas
    Libertas was the Roman goddess and embodiment of liberty.- Temples and derived inspirations :In 238 BC, before the Second Punic War, having long been a Roman deity along with other personified virtues, Libertas assumed goddess status...

  • mos maiorum
    Mos maiorum
    The mos maiorum is the unwritten code from which the ancient Romans derived their social norms. It is the core concept of Roman traditionalism, distinguished from but in dynamic complement to written law. The mos maiorum The mos maiorum ("ancestral custom") is the unwritten code from which the...

  • municipium
    Municipium
    Municipium , the prototype of English municipality, was the Latin term for a town or city. Etymologically the municipium was a social contract between municipes, the "duty holders," or citizens of the town. The duties, or munera, were a communal obligation assumed by the municipes in exchange for...

  • obligatio
    Obligation
    An obligation is a requirement to take some course of action, whether legal or moral. There are also obligations in other normative contexts, such as obligations of etiquette, social obligations, and possibly...

  • patria
    Patria
    Patria may refer to:* Homeland * Patria, a cycle of theatrical works by composer R. Murray Schafer* Patria AMV * Patria , of Finland...

  • pietas
    Pietas
    Pietas was one of the Roman virtues, along with gravitas and dignitas. It is usually translated as "duty" or "devotion."-Definition:The word pietas is originally from Latin. The first printed record of the word’s use in English is from Anselm Bayly’s The Alliance of Music, Poetry, and Oratory,...

  • potestas
    Potestas
    Potestas is a Latin word meaning power or faculty. It is an important concept in Roman Law.-Origin of the concept: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...

  • responsa
    Responsa
    Responsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them.-In the Roman Empire:Roman law recognised responsa prudentium, i.e...

  • provincia
    Roman province
    In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...

  • ratio
    Ratio
    In mathematics, a ratio is a relationship between two numbers of the same kind , usually expressed as "a to b" or a:b, sometimes expressed arithmetically as a dimensionless quotient of the two which explicitly indicates how many times the first number contains the second In mathematics, a ratio is...

  • senatus consultum
    Senatus consultum
    A senatus consultum is a text emanating from the senate in Ancient Rome. It is used in the modern phrase senatus consultum ultimum...

  • First Triumvirate
    First Triumvirate
    The First Triumvirate was the political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Unlike the Second Triumvirate, the First Triumvirate had no official status whatsoever; its overwhelming power in the Roman Republic was strictly unofficial influence, and...

  • Second Triumvirate
    Second Triumvirate
    The Second Triumvirate is the name historians give to the official political alliance of Octavius , Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony, formed on 26 November 43 BC with the enactment of the Lex Titia, the adoption of which marked the end of the Roman Republic...

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