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Roman Consul
A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspired) after that of the censor. Each year, the Centuriate Assembly elected two consuls to serve jointly for a one-year term. The consuls alternated in holding '' fasces'' – taking turns leading – each month when both were in Rome and a consul's '' imperium'' extended over Rome and all its provinces. There were two consuls in order to create a check on the power of any individual citizen in accordance with the republican belief that the powers of the former kings of Rome should be spread out into multiple offices. To that end, each consul could veto the actions of the other consul. After the establishment of the Empire (27 BC), the consuls became mere symbolic representatives of Rome's republican heritage and held very litt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Office
The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-election or not. In some situations, there may not be an incumbent at time of an election for that office or position (ex; when a new electoral division is created), in which case the office or position is regarded as vacant or open. In the United States, an election without an incumbent is referred to as an open seat or open contest. Etymology The word "incumbent" is derived from the Latin verb ''incumbere'', literally meaning "to lean or lay upon" with the present participle stem ''incumbent-'', "leaning a variant of ''encumber,''''OED'' (1989), p. 834 while encumber is derived from the root ''cumber'', most appropriately defined: "To occupy obstructively or inconveniently; to block fill up with what hinders freedom of motion or action; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hypatos
''Hypatos'' ( gr, ὕπατος; plural: , ''hypatoi'') and the variant ''apo hypatōn'' (, "former ''hypatos''", literally: "from among the consuls") was a Byzantine court dignity, originally the Greek translation of Latin ''consul'' (the literal meaning of ''hypatos'' is "the supreme one," which reflects the office, but not the etymology of the Roman ''consul''). The dignity arose from the honorary consulships awarded in the late Roman Empire, and survived until the early 12th century. It was often conferred upon the rulers of the south Italian principalities. In Italian documents the term was sometimes Latinised as ''hypatus'' or ''ypatus'', and in Italian historiography one finds ''ipato''. The feminine form of the term was ''hypatissa'' (). The creation of ordinary consuls in Late Antiquity was irregular, and after their division in 395, the two halves of the Roman Empire tended to divide the two consulships between them; the office, which had become both effectively honora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire. His extensive writings include treatises on rhetoric, philosophy and politics, and he is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and served as consul in 63 BC. His influence on the Latin language was immense. He wrote more than three-quarters of extant Latin literature that is known to have existed in his lifetime, and it has been said that subsequent prose was either a reaction against or a return to his style, not only in Latin but in European languages up to the 19th century. Cicero introduced into Latin the arguments of the chief schools of Hellenistic philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novus Homo
''Novus homo'' or ''homo novus'' ( Latin for 'new man'; ''novi homines'' or ''homines novi'') was the term in ancient Rome for a man who was the first in his family to serve in the Roman Senate or, more specifically, to be elected as consul. When a man entered public life on an unprecedented scale for a high communal office, then the term used was ''novus civis'' ( ''novi cives'') or "new citizen". History In the Early Republic, tradition held that both Senate membership and the consulship were restricted to patricians. When plebeians gained the right to this office during the Conflict of the Orders, all newly elected plebeians were naturally ''novi homines''. With time, ''novi homines'' became progressively rarer as some plebeian families became as entrenched in the Senate as their patrician colleagues. By the time of the First Punic War, it was already a sensation that ''novi homines'' were elected in two consecutive years ( Gaius Fundanius Fundulus in 243 BC and Ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucius Sextius
Lucius Sextius Sextinus Lateranus was a Roman tribune of the plebs and is noted for having been one of two men (the other being Gaius Licinius Stolo) who passed the Leges Liciniae Sextiae of 368 BC and 367 BC. Originally, these were a set of three laws. One law provided that the interest already paid on debts should be deducted from the principal and that the payment of the rest of the principal should be in three equal annual installments. Another one provided restricted individual ownership of public land in excess of 500 iugeras (300 acres) and forbade the grazing of more than 100 cattle on public land. The most important law provided that one of the two consuls be a plebeian. Having been reelected nine times, Lucius Sextius Lateranus and Gaius Licinius Stolo held the plebeian tribunate for ten years. In 368 BC the laws regarding debt and land were passed, but the law regarding the consulship was rejected. In 367 BC this law was passed. In the same year the two tribunes of the pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Licinio-Sextian Rogations
The Licino-Sextian rogations were a series of laws proposed by tribunes of the plebs, Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus, enacted around 367 BC. Livy calls them ''rogatio'' – though he does refer to them at times as ''lex'' – as the plebeian assembly did not at the time have the power to enact ''leges'' (laws). These laws provided for a limit on the interest rate of loans and a restriction on private ownership of land. A third law, which provided for one of the two consuls to be a plebeian, was rejected. Two of these laws were passed in 368 BC, after the two proponents had been elected and re-elected tribunes for nine consecutive years and had successfully prevented the election of patrician magistrates for five years (375-370 BC). In 367 BC, during their tenth tribunate, this law was passed. In the same year they also proposed a fourth law regarding the priests who were the custodians of the sacred Sibylline Books. These laws and the long struggle to pas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plebeians
In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the group and the term are unclear, but may be related to the Greek, ''plēthos'', meaning masses. In Latin, the word is a singular collective noun, and its genitive is . Plebeians were not a monolithic social class. Those who resided in the city and were part of the four urban tribes are sometimes called the , while those who lived in the country and were part of the 31 smaller rural tribes are sometimes differentiated by using the label . ( List of Roman tribes) In ancient Rome In the annalistic tradition of Livy and Dionysius, the distinction between patricians and plebeians was as old as Rome itself, instituted by Romulus' appointment of the first hundred senators, whose descendants became the patriciate. Modern hypothes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrician (ancient Rome)
The patricians (from la, patricius, Greek: πατρίκιος) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom, and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after the Conflict of the Orders (494 BC to 287 BC). By the time of the late Republic and Empire, membership in the patriciate was of only nominal significance. The social structure of Ancient Rome revolved around the distinction between the patricians and the plebeians. The status of patricians gave them more political power than the plebeians. The relationship between the patricians and the plebeians eventually caused the Conflict of the Orders. This time period resulted in changing the social structure of Ancient Rome. After the Western Empire fell, the term "patrician" continued as a high honorary title in the Eastern Empire. In the Holy Roman Empire and in many medieval Italian republics, medieval patrician classes were once again fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consular Dating
A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people of the two countries. A consul is distinguished from an ambassador, the latter being a representative from one head of state to another, but both have a form of immunity. There can be only one ambassador from one country to another, representing the first country's head of state to that of the second, and their duties revolve around diplomatic relations between the two countries; however, there may be several consuls, one in each of several major cities, providing assistance with bureaucratic issues to both the citizens of the consul's own country traveling or living abroad and to the citizens of the country in which the consul resides who wish to travel to or trade with the consul's country. A less common usage is an administrative consu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lex Curiata De Imperio
In the constitution of ancient Rome, the ''lex curiata de imperio'' (plural ''leges curiatae'') was the law confirming the rights of higher magistrates to hold power, or '' imperium''. In theory, it was passed by the ''comitia curiata'', which was also the source for ''leges curiatae'' pertaining to Roman adoption. In the late Republic, historians and political theorists thought that the necessity of such a law dated to the Regal period, when kings after Romulus had to submit to ratification by the Roman people. Like many other aspects of Roman religion and law, the ''lex curiata'' was attributed to Numa Pompilius, Rome's second king. This origin seems to have been reconstructed after the fact to explain why the law was required, at a time when the original intent of the ceremony conferring ''imperium'' was no longer understood. The last two kings, however, were said to have ruled without such ratification, which at any rate may have been more loosely acclamation. The law was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curiate Assembly
The Curiate Assembly (''comitia curiata'') was the principal assembly that evolved in shape and form over the course of the Roman Kingdom until the Comitia Centuriata organized by Servius Tullius. During these first decades, the people of Rome were organized into thirty units called "Curiae".Taylor, 3, 4 The Curiae were ethnic in nature, and thus were organized on the basis of the early Roman family, or, more specifically, on the basis of the thirty original patrician (aristocratic) clans.Abbott, 250 The Curiae formed an assembly for legislative, electoral, and judicial purposes. The Curiate Assembly passed laws, elected Consuls (the only elected magistrates at the time),Abbott, 253 and tried judicial cases. Consuls always presided over the assembly. While plebeians (commoners) could participate in this assembly, only the patricians (the Roman aristocrats) could vote. Since the Romans used a form of direct democracy, citizens, and not elected representatives, voted before each a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centuriate Assembly
The Centuriate Assembly (Latin: ''comitia centuriata'') of the Roman Republic was one of the three voting assemblies in the Roman constitution. It was named the Centuriate Assembly as it originally divided Roman citizens into groups of one hundred men by classes. The centuries initially reflected military status, but were later based on the wealth of their members. The centuries gathered into the Centuriate Assembly for legislative, electoral, and judicial purposes. The majority of votes in any century decided how that century voted. Each century received one vote, regardless of how many electors each Century held. Once a majority of centuries voted in the same way on a given measure, the voting ended, and the matter was decided.Taylor, 40 Only the Centuriate Assembly could declare war or elect the highest-ranking Roman magistrates: consuls, praetors and censors.Abbott, 257 The Centuriate Assembly could also pass a law that granted constitutional command authority, or " Imperium" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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