elected by the plebeians to defend the lives and property of
plebeians. During the Republic 10 such tribunes were elected
each year. Th ey did not hold the same power as other magis-
trates because they were not elected by all the Roman people,
but they had one important right that made them very pow-
erful: Th ey had the right to veto any law, act of government,
decree, or election.
In times of emergency the Senate could appoint a special
kind of magistrate called a dictator. Th e dictator had almost
unlimited power but was supposed to be limited to six months
in offi ce. Th e paradigmatic dictator was Lucius Quinctius
Cincinnatus, a former consul who, in 458 b.c.e., was called
from his farm by the Senate and made dictator. He then de-
feated Rome’s enemy of the moment, the Aequi, laid down his
offi ce, and returned to his farm in the space of 15 days. In the
late republic Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138–78 b.c.e.) and Julius
Caesar (100–44 b.c.e.) both made themselves dictators and
ignored all the offi cial restrictions, which led the Senate to
abolish the offi ce aft er Caesar’s death.
If a man aspired to high political offi ce, he had to take
certain steps in an order called the cursus honorum, or “way
of honor.” First he had to serve in the army as a young man.
Aft er joining the Senate at the age of 30, he had to hold each
of the major offi ces: quaestor, praetor, and consul. He did not
have to be a curule aedile, but holding that offi ce was consid-
ered advantageous to those with political ambition. He might
then become a censor. It was considered proper for a man to
serve as a provincial governor at some point along the way,
too. Rome had numerous provinces. To keep them in order,
the government appointed Romans to serve as governors.
Governors had to live in their provinces and might spend
several years away from Rome while in offi ce.
THE EMPIRE
Aft er a period of civil war from around 44 b.c.e. to 31 b.c.e.
Julius Caesar’s nephew and adopted son, Gaius Julius Caesar
Octavianus, assumed more or less complete power over the
workings of the Roman government. He did this by winning
the support of the Roman armies to such an extent that their
loyalties were to him personally more than to any notion of a
Roman state or the Roman people. Th is marked the end of the
Roman Republic and the beginning of the Imperial Period.
Th is change was not marked by any offi cial alteration in
the constitution of the Roman government. Th e Senate re-
mained the offi cial governing body, men still pursued the of-
fi ces of the cursus honorum, the various assemblies still met,
the aediles still took care of the city, and so forth. Gaius Ju-
lius Caesar Octavianus, known simply as Octavian, simply
asserted that he was the “fi rst citizen,” princeps. But every-
one knew that with the army loyal to him alone, the Senate
and assemblies legislated at the pleasure of Octavian. No law
could be passed, much less enforced, without his approval,
and no funds would be released from the treasury except by
his permission. Aft er the chaos of the preceding decades, the
Roman Senate welcomed this new authority, which brought
order to the governance of Rome. Th e Senate granted Octa-
vian various honors, including the title Augustus, and passed
laws giving him perpetual powers like those of a consul.
Th e structure of Roman government during the Impe-
rial Period was, therefore, at once stable and unpredictable.
Th e old republican offi ces remained in place for centuries,
with their formal and offi cial powers intact. But the day-to-
day functioning of the government depended largely on who
sat on the throne. Since no formal laws defi ned the offi ce of
emperor—in fact, there was no offi cial rule, or even unoffi cial
custom, for determining the imperial succession upon the
death of an emperor—each emperor assumed diff erent pow-
ers, for diff erent purposes.
Th e focus of imperial power was always twofold: the
treasury and the army. Emperors could (and did) choose to
spend Rome’s income, sometimes on lavish parties for the
royal court and at other times for programs of road build-
ing, harbor construction, and civic architecture. Much of this
work was done by the army, always at the beck and call of the
emperor.
Upon assuming power over the other arms of the Ro-
man government, Octavian focused his energies on govern-
mental reform, to reestablish order aft er decades of unrest
and gradual undermining of the principles of Roman gov-
ernment. Because the army had been instrumental in per-
petuating the state of civil war, Augustus reduced its size;
elevated certain units, of certain loyalty, to be his “Praeto-
rian Guard”; and assigned them the task of keeping order
in Rome and Italy. Formerly, public order was the concern
of the consuls, neither of whom had the necessary authority
to bring an army inside the city of Rome and who, serving
two at a time, oft en had confl icting interests. Octavian and
his ally, the general Agrippa, arranged to be appointed cen-
sors in 28 b.c.e. and used this opportunity to revise the rolls
of the Senate, getting rid of any senators who did not sup-
port them. In 27 b.c.e. the Senate, now made up of senators
chosen by Octavian himself, granted to the “fi rst citizen” the
title of Augustus, “Honored One.”
With large amounts of public treasure freed by this re-
duction in the standing army and with Roman victories in
Egypt, Augustus worked, through the Senate and the aediles,
to reinvigorate the city of Rome through a project of public
works. By exercising some control over whom the Senate
chose to govern the provinces of the Roman Empire, Augus-
tus was able to ensure that the taxes collected in those prov-
inces made their way to Rome rather than into the pockets of
the governors, further enhancing public revenues. Th us the
Senate and the magistrates were better able, under Augustus’s
supervision, to make improvements to the city. Augustus
claimed at the end of this life to have found Rome a city of
bricks and to have left it a city of marble.
Subsequent emperors and their administrations made
other eff orts to increase revenues for the city. During the
fi rst century of the Common Era, Vespasian, for example, in-
creased the Senate’s membership from 200 to 1,000 members,government organization: Rome 533