Roman Republic

There existed extreme patriarchy and hierarchy within ancient Roman society. The male of the family was considered the head of the family and enjoyed many legal powers and privileges that gave him the jurisdiction of the entire family. But there was eventually a lot of clash between the cross hierarchy at play within the society as a whole. Within the hierarchy, the position that is held by one might be higher or lower as compared to the other in the system. The freeborn Romans were determined by the three following points:-

1. Citizenship with which they all were graded for the varying rights along with privileges.

2. The ranking in the census eventually determines an individual’s wealth and political holds and privileges.

3. The ancestry

On the bank of the tribe river of Italy, the Roman society was first established as the small town referred to like Rome. Though the city is said to have been established in 753 BCE it was much earlier inhabited by the Latin tribes who were known as Latini or Latinas. They were the legitimate descents whose inheritance was from their father’s bloodline worshipped Jupiter who was also known as father god or sky god “Deus Pater”. The family of ancient Rome was considered as the nucleus of Roman society and was considered as the identity of a particular community. For instance, a stable family was made for a stable society and had a very strict hierarchy based on gender, citizenship, ancestry, and census rank. 

Politically the hierarchy goes like the leader on top followed by the Senator, judges, and assemblies while socially it is always the man of the family who is the head of the house followed by the wife, children and then his extended family like widowed mother, aged father or unmarried sister etc. the rule of patronage is followed in both the sphere, be it, political or social. The rule says that those in power must care for those who underlies beneath them. Be it the consul, emperor or the head of the house, they were in charge of providing the parental care and feed in with the necessities and in return, they expect their loyalty and services towards them.   

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History of Rome

The civilization of Rome as well as the city of Rome makes the entire history of Rome. Roman history had a greater influence on the modern world, especially, on the catholic church history. Many modern legal systems were also influenced by ancient Roman law. Thus the History is classified into the following period with their brief description as followers:-

1. Pre-historic and early Rome comprises of the inhabitants of Rome and the legends who founded Rome is famous twin brothers referred to as Romulus according to Roman mythology.

2. Second is the period of Etruscan civilization that covered a greater territorial land of ancient Italy which now comprises modern day’s  Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio as well as parts of what are now the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto, and Campania. It also includes the regal period of ancient Rome when the territories of Rome was controlled by the kings. According to the Roman Monarchy, Romulus was the first of the seven kings.

3. In 509 BC, the Roman republic was commenced when kings were replaced by the elected magistrate according to the state rules. In this period there was the vast expansion of the Roman territory. During the 5th century in Lathim, Rome marked its regional dominance.  From 264 to 146 BC, because of the Punic wars, Rome acquired supremacy over the Western Mediterranean by replacing Carthage who was the central regional power. 

4. Then came the republic that depicted the rise of Julius Ceaser and all the equations were sorted after the win of Julius adopted son post the civil war over Mark Antony. After the win of Julius’ adopted son, the Rome empire witnessed its own collapse and with that, the power of Rome started declining. As the result of the decline, it became a part of the Eastern Roman Empire in name of the Duchy of Rome and remained so until the 8th century. It was sacked several times in the 5th and 6th centuries that resultant in the reduction of its size to just a fraction and eventually depopulated completely. 

5. Medieval Rome was known for the formation of the Papal States by the breaking of Constantinople. With the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy struggled to retain its influence. With the retention of the Papacy in the Saeculum obscurum, the roman population dropped down to mere 30,000 inhabitants. 

6. In the 15th century, the Roman Renaissance took place where Rome managed to replace Florance from being the centre of the cultural and artistic influence. With the devastation of the city in 1527, the Roman Renaissance was cut short that was again reasserted by the Papacy in the counter-reformation. In this way, the city began to grow flourishing as the centre of the cultural and artistic hu during the early modern period. But from 1798 to 1814, it was a part of the French Empire when it was annexed by Napoleon.

Rise of the Roman Empire

One of the main reasons for the rise of the roman empire from many different small-city states into one big influential empire is their political institutions. Because of its political intuitions that proved both as resilient as well as adaptable, it incorporated vast and diversified classes of people and thus its influence started to grow. 

In 509 BCE, as per the Roman tradition, the republic of Rome began after a few of the noblemen overthrew the hold of the last king of Rome. the kings were replaced by the consuls who enjoyed the same power as that of the kings but was an elected body that served the term of a year. All the consuls had the right to use Veto or reject a proposal of another consul. Although the consul existed with its power it did not have any official format of its office in the Roman governance until around 300 BCE. the major idea of not building an office for the consul is to prevent anyone from becoming too powerful. This thought that was present in the early Roman period has helped in shaping the political framework of Rome along with its intuitions. 

The power of the Roman political setup was visible in the society of Rome which was divided into categories, namely, the patricians, wealthy elites, and the plebeians, the common people. In the early political framework, only the elite riches could hold the position in the political offices and could involve in decision making. But later in between the time period of 494 and 287 BCE, new political offices were established for the common public of Rome to participate in politics. They were also made eligible to run for the position of consul and other high official posts. The last law that came into action in 287 BCE has ultimately abolished the last barrier. According to this law, there would be no requirement for the approval of the patrician senators before the Plebeian council could consider them.  The plebeians had gained major powers over the period of time in the political council. This has resulted in opportunities for the common people to gain wealth from being a part of the political framework.

The Economic Expansion of Roman Empire

The involvement of Rome in trade during the early Roman empire was the main reason for the nation to become this great and big in modern times. Despite the excessive public and private expenditure habit of Emperor Augustus, he was successful in taking the trade from the hands of the government and expanded the arena of trade overseas by capturing the markets of Germany, Britain as well as Africa. This has resulted in establishing the influence of Rome in the overseas market.  Though during the period of the Roman Empire, the country did extremely well in the trades it failed to build the industrial as well as manufacturing processes. Thus this had majorly affected and threatened the expanding trade that Augustus has brought to the country and has been remembered by the nation because of the same. 

Thus listing a few of the economic expansions that are done by the roman empire are as follows:-

1. The roman empire has a huge setup as well as infrastructure for harbours, mines, quarries, brickyards, olive oil factories etc. they use to massively trade Wheat, rice and olive oil that was also heavily consumed by them. They were mainly imported from Italy, North Africa, Egypt, Spain and Gallic province where the best conditions of these crops are available. 

2. Large containers were used to transport liquids like wine and olive oil through the sea route. 

3. Slowly the Roman Empire has captured the olive oil market from their Italian counterparts as they produced better quality olive oil at less price.

4. As Romans expanded their empire in North Africa, the density of their pastures started dropping at a higher rate and their movement was also restricted from one place to another.

5. The main indicator of the roman economy is the presence of well organized commercial and banking networks that allows the widespread use of money.