Class Notes 4/4

The Romans not only imitated Greek Civilization but also improved on it, at least so far as government is concerned.

They arrived in a Mediterranean land with farming resources that were basically similar to those of Greece or Palestine, but able to support a larger population

The Etruscans were non-Indo-European immigrants who arrived in Italy from somewhere to the east about the ninth century b.c.

the Greek city-states had begun to plant colonies in southern Italy as early as the eighth century b.c. and these spread northward up the coast almost to the borders of Latium

Under the influence of the Etruscans and the Greeks, the Romans acquired the skills that enabled them to build their unique political institutions

The King was advised by a council of elders called the Senate (from the Latin senex, meaning "old man"

patricians or "men with fathers" -- that is, with fathers who already belonged to the hereditary group of leading families

When a king died, his successor was chosen by the senate from among its own members, subject to approval, however, was automatic, for apart from the king, it was the senate and the patricians who dominated the city- state

Around 500 b.c. Rome overthrew its Etruscan rulers, and the monarchy was also abolished. The government of the Roman city-state became officially the "people's business"

The result, however, was a system of government that was neither a Greek-style democracy nor an oligarchy, but a mixture of both

The consuls had veto power over each other

plebeians (from the Latin plebs, meaning "the common people"

Republic, the "people's Business" was in practice run by the senate an assembly of about three hundred heads of patrician families.

Two among the senators functioned as consuls (colleagues), wielding for a year at a time the military and government power that had formerly belonged kings.

At times of crisis the senate voted one of the consuls the dictator for a six month period

Etruscan government ruled from 535-509 b.c.

The one-year terms of consuls, and the fact there were two of them (each empowered to veto the other's lawmaking proposal)

The romans were so eager to avoid this possibility that the practice grew up of appointing two or more men for one-year terms to every magistracy (public office)

Among the chief complaints of the plebian was that they lacked legal protection. Before the fifth century b.c. there has been no written code of law. Instead, the sacred traditional