History Of The Constitution Of The Roman Empire
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History Of The Constitution Of The Roman Empire
The history of the constitution of the Roman Empire begins with the establishment of the Principate in 27 BC and is considered to conclude with the abolition of that constitutional structure in favour of the Dominate at Diocletian's accession in AD 284. The Roman Empire's constitution emerged as a transformation of the late Roman Republic's constitution, utilising various late republican precedents, to legitimise the granting of incredible legal powers to one man and the centralisation of legal powers into bodies which that man controlled. The creation of the Principate and the Roman Empire is traditionally dated to 27 BC with the first Augustan constitutional settlement, where Octavian, the victor of the final war of the Roman Republic, gave up his extraordinary powers and was vested with proconsular authority over the imperial provinces, which he held along with the tribunician power granted to him by the Senate in 36 BC. Concurrently, he held the Roman consulship, granting hi ...
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Principate
The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. The Principate is characterised by the reign of a single emperor (''princeps'') and an effort on the part of the early emperors, at least, to preserve the illusion of the formal continuance, in some aspects, of the Roman Republic. Etymology and anticipations *'Principate' is etymologically derived from the Latin word ''princeps'', meaning ''chief'' or ''first'', and therefore represents the political regime dominated by such a political leader, whether or not he is formally head of state or head of government. This reflects the principate emperors' assertion that they were merely "first among equals" among the citizens of Rome. *Under the Republic, the ''princeps senatus'', traditionally the oldest or most honoured member of the Senate, ...
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Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses include censuses of agriculture, traditional culture, business, supplies, and traffic censuses. The United Nations (UN) defines the essential features of population and housing censuses as "individual enumeration, universality within a defined territory, simultaneity and defined periodicity", and recommends that population censuses be taken at least every ten years. UN recommendations also cover census topics to be collected, official definitions, classifications and other useful information to co-ordinate international practices. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in turn, defines the census of agriculture as "a statistical operation for collecting, processing and disseminating data on the structure of agriculture, covering th ...
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Julia The Elder
Julia the Elder (30 October 39 BC – AD 14), known to her contemporaries as Julia Caesaris filia or Julia Augusti filia (Classical Latin: IVLIA•CAESARIS•FILIA or IVLIA•AVGVSTI•FILIA), was the daughter and only biological child of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, and his second wife, Scribonia. Julia was also stepsister and second wife of the Emperor Tiberius; maternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and the Empress Agrippina the Younger; grandmother-in-law of the Emperor Claudius; and maternal great-grandmother of the Emperor Nero. Her epithet 'the Elder' distinguishes her from her daughter, Julia the Younger. Life Early life At the time of Julia's birth, 39 BC, Augustus had not yet received the title "Augustus" and was known as "Gaius Julius Caesar Divi Filius", though historians refer to him as "Octavian" until 27 BC, when Julia was 11. Octavian divorced Julia's mother on the day of her birth and took Julia from her soon thereafter. Octavian, in accordance w ...
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Marcus Claudius Marcellus (Julio-Claudian Dynasty)
Marcus Claudius Marcellus (42–23 BC) was the eldest son of Gaius Claudius Marcellus and Octavia Minor, sister of Augustus (then known as Octavian). He was Augustus' nephew and closest male relative, and began to enjoy an accelerated political career as a result. He was educated with his cousin Tiberius and traveled with him to Hispania where they served under Augustus in the Cantabrian Wars. In 25 BC he returned to Rome where he married his cousin Julia, who was the emperor's daughter. Marcellus and Augustus' general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa were the two popular choices as heir to the empire. According to Suetonius, this put Agrippa at odds with Marcellus, and is the reason why Agrippa traveled away from Rome to Mytilene in 23 BC. That year, an illness was spreading in Rome which afflicted both Augustus and Marcellus. Augustus caught it earlier in the year, while Marcellus caught it later, after the emperor had already recovered. The illness proved fatal and killed Marcellus a ...
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Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (; BC – 12 BC) was a Roman general, statesman, and architect who was a close friend, son-in-law, and lieutenant to the Roman emperor Augustus. He was responsible for the construction of some of the most notable buildings in history, including the original Pantheon, Rome, Pantheon, and is well known for his important military victories, notably the Battle of Actium in 31 BC against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Born to a Plebs, plebeian Vipsania gens, family around 63 BC, in an uncertain location in Roman Italy, he met the future emperor Augustus, then known as Octavian, at Apollonia (Illyria), Apollonia, in Illyria. Following the Assassination of Julius Caesar, assassination of Octavian's great-uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Octavian returned to Italy. Around this time, he was elected tribune of the plebs. Agrippa served as a military commander, fighting alongside Octavian and Caesar's former general and right-hand man Mark Antony in the Bat ...
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Plebeian Council
The ''Concilium Plebis'' (English: Plebeian Council., Plebeian Assembly, People's Assembly or Council of the Plebs) was the principal assembly of the common people of the ancient Roman Republic. It functioned as a legislative/judicial assembly, through which the plebeians (commoners) could pass legislation (called plebiscites), elect plebeian tribunes and plebeian aediles, and try judicial cases. The Plebeian Council was originally organized on the basis of the Curia but in 471 BC adopted an organizational system based on residential districts or tribes. The Plebeian Council usually met in the well of the Comitium and could only be convoked by the tribune of the plebs. The patricians were excluded from the Council. History From 509 to 471 BC When the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC, the Roman people were divided into a total of thirty curiae. Plutarch and Dionysus of Helicarnassus believed that these curiae were subdivisions of the three Romulean Tribes. The curiae were or ...
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Tribune
Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the authority of the senate and the annual magistrates, holding the power of ''ius intercessionis'' to intervene on behalf of the plebeians, and veto unfavourable legislation. There were also military tribunes, who commanded portions of the Roman army, subordinate to higher magistrates, such as the consuls and praetors, promagistrates, and their legates. Various officers within the Roman army were also known as tribunes. The title was also used for several other positions and classes in the course of Roman history. Tribal tribunes The word ''tribune'' is derived from the Roman tribes. The three original tribes known as the ''Ramnes'' or ''Ramnenses'', ''Tities'' or ''Titienses,'' and the ''Luceres,'' were each headed by a tribune, who rep ...
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Augustus Prima Porta BM GR1812
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Principate, which is the first phase of the Roman Empire, and Augustus is considered one of the greatest leaders in human history. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult as well as an era associated with imperial peace, the ''Pax Romana'' or '' Pax Augusta''. The Roman world was largely free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries despite continuous wars of imperial expansion on the empire's frontiers and the year-long civil war known as the "Year of the Four Emperors" over the imperial succession. Originally named Gaius Octavius, he was born into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian ''gens'' Octavia. His maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesar ...
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Princeps
''Princeps'' (plural: ''principes'') is a Latin word meaning "first in time or order; the first, foremost, chief, the most eminent, distinguished, or noble; the first man, first person". As a title, ''princeps'' originated in the Roman Republic wherein the leading member of the Senate was designated ''princeps senatus''. It is primarily associated with the Roman emperors as an unofficial title first adopted by Augustus () in 23 BC. Its use in this context continued until the regime of Diocletian (r. 284 – 305 AD) at the end of the third century. He preferred the title of ''dominus'', meaning "lord" or "master". As a result, the Roman Empire from Augustus to Diocletian is termed the "principate" (''principatus'') and from Diocletian onwards as the "dominate" (''dominatus''). Other historians define the reign of Augustus to Severus Alexander (r. 222 – 235) as the Principate, and the period afterwards as the "Autocracy". The medieval title Prince#Prince_as_generic_for_ruler, "Pri ...
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Roman Army
The Roman army (Latin: ) was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom (c. 500 BC) to the Roman Republic (500–31 BC) and the Roman Empire (31 BC–395 AD), and its medieval continuation, the Eastern Roman Empire. It is thus a term that may span approximately 2,205 years (753 BC–1453 AD), during which the Roman armed forces underwent numerous permutations in size, composition, organisation, equipment and tactics, while conserving a core of lasting traditions. Historical overview Early Roman army (c. 500 BC to c. 300 BC) The early Roman army was the armed forces of the Roman Kingdom and of the early Roman Republic. During this period, when warfare chiefly consisted of small-scale plundering raids, it has been suggested that the army followed Etruscan or Greek models of organisation and equipment. The early Roman army was based on an annual levy. The army consisted of 3,000 infantrymen and 300 cavalrymen, all of ...
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Praetor
Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge various duties. The functions of the magistracy, the ''praetura'' (praetorship), are described by the adjective: the ''praetoria potestas'' (praetorian power), the ''praetorium imperium'' (praetorian authority), and the ''praetorium ius'' (praetorian law), the legal precedents established by the ''praetores'' (praetors). ''Praetorium'', as a substantive, denoted the location from which the praetor exercised his authority, either the headquarters of his '' castra'', the courthouse (tribunal) of his judiciary, or the city hall of his provincial governorship. History of the title The status of the ''praetor'' in the early republic is unclear. The traditional account from Livy claims that the praetorship was created by the Sextian-Licinian Rogatio ...
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Roman Legion
The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period of the Roman Empire (27 BC – AD 476). Size The size of a typical legion varied throughout the history of ancient Rome, with complements ranging from 4,200 legionaries and 300 equites (drawn from the wealthier classes – in early Rome all troops provided their own equipment) in the Republican period of Rome (the infantry were split into 10 cohorts each of four maniples of 120 legionaries), to 4,800 legionaries (in 10 cohorts of 6 centuries of 80 legionaries) during Caesar's age, to 5,280 men plus 120 auxiliaries in the Imperial period (split into 10 cohorts, nine of 480 men each, with the first cohort being double-strength at 960 men). It should be noted the above numbers are typical field strengths while "paper strength" was sli ...
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