GEOGRAPHY
1. Introduction: Rome and Her Neighbours
To understand the trajectory of the Roman Republic it is important to understand Rome's place in the Mediterranean World. Rome was at first only a small city-state situated in central Italy, with a traditional founding date of 754 B.C.E., a date arrived at by correlating the founding of the city with an eclipse which was noted in third year of the sixth Olympiad (Olympic Games cycle) in Greece (Plutarch Romulus XII.2; for the mythic origins of Rome as collected in one literary epic, see Virgil’s Aeneid). Like many neighbouring states, Rome was essentially a civic centre controlling an adjacent region of country-side. In this she at first seemed little different to many neighbouring cities, e.g. Cumae to the south, or nearby Corioli, and not substantially different in these geographical factors from the city-states of classical Greece. Prior to the large-scale conquest of neighbouring territories, Rome probably controlled around 800-960 square kilometers (smaller than Attica), and probably could support a population of 60,000 in total (Delbrück 1975, p260; Brunt 1971, p1).
There were certain strategic benefits to the position of Rome. Originally an Iron Age settlement of the 9th and 8th centuries built on two hills, she was able to spread out to the nearby hills and then drain the marshy ground between them (see Scullard 1979; Ogilvie 1980). According to late sources key phases of expansion were completed by the kings TullusHostilius and ServiusTullius, with the wall of the city extended to include these new areas (Livy I.44; EutropiusCompendium of Roman History I.1-8, in Lewis & Reinhold 1990, pp60-62). This gave Rome a large city area, which, when enclosed by fortified walls, was easily defended. Likewise, her position on the Tiber River was ideal. The site controlled a fjord which routed north-south trade, while the river was navigable by small ships not much further upstream (Delbrück 1975, p258). In this way Rome had easy communication to the sea, but was less vulnerable to sea-borne attack, or piracy, (a common way of life in the first millennium B.C.E.) than coastal cities. She was also well-located for access to mountain passes to the centre, east, and north-east of Italy, with somewhat easier access to the south (Brunt 1971, p28).
Historical Background
The Latins settled in the wider area of Rome around 1000 BC. Though those early settlements were not to be mistaken for anything like a city. They kept pigs, herded sheep, goats, cattle and lived in primitive, round huts. So how could such archaic beginnings ever lead to a city of power which would rule the world? The rise of Rome was certainly not inevitable, but it had many advantages right from the start. Rome lies only a few miles from the sea with all its possibilities of trade. It lies central to the Italian peninsula, which in turn lies central to the entire Mediterranean Sea. Italy is guarded by the Alps to the North and by the sea all around. Add to this the influence of the Greeks who were settling southern Italy, founding cities like Cumea and Tarentum, bringing advanced civilization to the country, and you have a place with lots of potential.
How did geography influence Roman history?
-Italian Peninsula - midpoint of Mediterranean Sea
-Alps isolated the peninsula from Europe
-built 15 miles inland from the sea on the Tiber River
-excellent location to send out trade and military ships
GOVERNMENT
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c. 508 BC, and lasted 482 years until its subversion, through a series of civil wars, into the Principate form of government and the imperial period.
The Roman Republic was governed by a complex constitution, which centered on the principles of a separation of powers and checks and balances. The evolution of the constitution was heavily influenced by the struggle between the aristocracy (the patricians), and other Romans who were not from famous families, the plebeians. Early in its history, the republic was controlled by an aristocracy of individuals who could trace their ancestry back to the early history of the kingdom. Over time, the laws that allowed these individuals to dominate the government were repealed, and the result was the emergence of a new aristocracy which depended on the structure of society, rather than the law, to maintain its dominance.
During the first two centuries, the Republic saw its territory expand from central Italy to the entire Mediterranean world. In the next century, Rome grew to dominate North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Greece, and what is now southern France. During the last two centuries of the Roman Republic, it grew to dominate the rest of modern France, as well as much of the east. At this point, the republican political machinery was replaced with imperialism.
THE TWELVE TABLES
This is the earliest attempt by the Romans to create a CODE OF LAW; it is also the earliest (surviving) piece of literature coming from the Romans. In the midst of a perennial struggle for legal and social protection and civil rights between the privileged class (patricians) and the common people (plebeians) a commission of ten men (Decemviri) was appointed (ca. 455 B.C.) to draw up a code of law which would be binding on both parties and which the magistrates (the 2 consuls) would have to enforce impartially.
The commission produced enough statutes (most of them were already `customary law' anyway) to fill TEN TABLETS, but this attempt seems not to have been entirely satisfactory--especially to the plebeians. A second commission of ten was therefore appointed (450 B.C.) and two additional tablets were drawn up. The originals, said to have been inscribed on bronze, were probably destroyed when the Gauls sacked and burned Rome in the invasion of 387 B.C.
The Twelve Tables give the student of Roman culture a chance to look into the workings of a society which is still quite agrarian in outlook and operations, and in which the main bonds which hold the society together and allow it to operate are: the clan (genos, gens), patronage (patron/client), and the inherent (and inherited) right of the patricians to leadership (in war, religion, law, and government).
TABLE I / Procedure: for courts and trialsTABLE II / Trials, continued.
TABLE III / Debt
TABLE IV / Rights of fathers (paterfamilias) over the family
TABLE V / Legal guardianship and inheritance laws
TABLE VI / Acquisition and possession
TABLE VII / Land rights
TABLE VIII / Torts and delicts (Laws of injury)
TABLE IX / Public law
TABLE X / Sacred law
TABLE XI / Supplement I
TABLE XII / Supplement II
Rome had changed. The people of Rome had changed. They were tired of being ruled by others. They wanted to rule themselves. So after years of fighting against the last king of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, the people of Rome created a new form of government. It was called a republic. In a republic, every citizen votes for leaders who create their laws.
In the Roman republic, every citizen could vote for their leaders, but who were the citizens? Only adult free men could be citizens. That meant women, children and slaves were not citizens, and could not vote.
The new Roman Republic wanted everyone to know what the laws were. They also wanted to make sure that the law applied to everyone, rich and poor alike. So they engraved the law on tablets of metal and put them in the forum for everyone to read. They remained there, on display, throughout the time period that Rome was a republic. These laws were called the Twelve Tables because there were twelve different sections. These laws were about crime and property and family matters like marriage and inheritance.
It didn't matter if you were rich or poor; the law applied to every citizen.
Here are a few of the laws of the Roman Republic from the Twelve Tables. These have been simplified and reworded but hopefully the meanings have not been changed.
If you are called to appear in court you have to go. If you don't you can be arrested and forced to go.
If you need a witness in court and they refuse to go you can stand in front of their house and shout out how they are refusing to do their duty as a citizen. You can do this once every three days.
Should a tree on a neighbor's farm be bent by the wind and lean over onto your farm, you can go to court and get the tree cut down.
If fruit falls from your trees it is yours no matter where it falls.
If you lied in court you would be thrown off of the Tarpeian Rock.
You could not hold a political or business meeting at night. Dinner parties and religious festivals at night were ok.
Everyone who died had to buried or burned outside the city.
Rich people could not marry poor people and vice versa (plebeians and patricians). This law did get changed later.
The Roman code of the Twelve Tables lasted as long as the Roman Empire itself. Though more importantly, they represented a written code which applied right across the social scale from the patricians to the plebeians. The Twelve Tables are generally seen as the beginning of European law and are hence seen as a milestone in history. It is surprising though that only excerpts of the laws survive to this day. The original tables were destroyed in 390 BC when the Gauls occupied and looted Rome. Naturally they must have survived in other form, yet little has passed down through time to the present. Some manuscripts are only partially legible. The list on this page is not absolutely complete. Some points remain confused. From what remains, it seems evident that the rules seemed to have been derived specifically from cases the decemvirs presided over. Hence it can appear a bit of a jumble. Some laws can appear quaint, others seem extremely harsh.
Here is what remains of the Twelve Tables…
Table One
If a man was summoned to court, he had to go. If he did not, then a witness would be called (to confirm that he did not come). Thereafter he could be seized and brought to court by force. If age or infirmity was preventing the summoned person from coming to court, then transport was to be provided. The summoned person could be represented by an advocate. The advocate of a wealthy man had to be a wealthy man himself. (This because, by being his ‘defender’, he in law assumed the liabilities of the accused) If the two sides in court agreed to compromise then the judge (praetor) announced this. If they could not reach agreement, then they were to state their case at the Forum before noon. If one failed to show up the judge would find in favour of the one who came. If both came, the trial was to last no longer than until the sun set.
Table Two
If a serious disease or an important religious duty, or affairs of state, prevented other the summoned or his advocate to attend, then the case was to be deferred to a more suitable date. If a witness failed to turn up, the party who summoned him could shout and scream in front of his house on every third day for him to show up in court. It was deemed legal, if a thief was killed in the act of theft by night, or if he was killed by day when trying to fight back with a weapon. Regarding theft; if a thief was a freeman he was flogged and then handed to the person from whom he had stolen to repay what damage he'd done, if necessary by working for him. If the thief however was a slave he was flogged and then thrown to his death off the cliff of the Capitoline Hill known as the Tarpeian Rock.
If the thief was a child it was left to the judge (praetor) to decide if he was to be flogged and forced to make up for his deeds. If a thief was convicted, yet the stolen goods were not recovered, the thief would have to pay twice their value. Should anyone secretly cut down someone else’s trees, he would haveot pay twenty five asses for each tree. If a man had settled with a thief out of court and received reparations he could thereafter not take him to court for the crime. Stolen goods remained the property of the owner, no matter how long he was parted from them. They cannot be legally bought by another.
Table Three
If anyone defrauded another by not returning what was given to him for safe keeping, he would have to pay twice the amount in penalty. There was now a maximum rate of interest, the unciarumfaemus (foemus?) (most likely 10%) For the payment of a debt confirmed by a court one had thirty days to pay. Thereafter one could be seized by force and the court would hand one to the creditor for a term of up to sixty days (most likely for labour). Thereafter one could be sold into slavery. A non-Roman could not acquire property by usucapio (See Table Four). A Roman proprietor could always demand it to be restored back to him. A very frightening paragraph suggests that should a man owe a debt to several, then they after sixty days may be entitled to divide him into parts. It is likely that this division applied to the value he fetched as a slave, yet it is not clear. Some suspect it may indeed have been a division of the body.
Table Four
A father had the right of life and death over his children (patria potestas). Should, however, he sell the son three times, then the son should be free of this bond of authority. A father was to right to kill his deformed child.
A child born within ten months after the death of the man, is to be considered his rightful heir.
Table Five
A female was to remain under the guardianship of a man, irrespective of her age. The only exception were Vestal Virgins. A woman’s dowry could not be fully acquired in marriage, unless with her permission and that of her guardian. (upon divorce she (i.e. her guardian) received her dowry back) If a man died leaving a will, then this is legally binding. If he had no son and died without a will, then the nearest male relative from a shared male ancestor (agnate) was the heir. If there was no such man either, then the members of his extended family (the gens) would inherit his property. If a man grew insane and had no guardian, the agnates or the gens were to take care of him and his belongings. A ‘wasteful’ person (a ‘spendthrift’) could not be left to administer his own estate. For this he should be placed under guardianship of his agnates. If a freed slave died without heirs, his belongings should fall to his former patron, or the patron’s descendents. The heirs of a deceased could only be sued for the proportion of the debt according to their share of the inheritance. The same applied to their right to sue, if they were to claim from the deceased’s debtors.
Table Six
For a sale of land a formal agreement was required. This agreement could be verbal. Once made, it was legally binding. If a patron ordered his slave set free in his will, or agreed to free him on a condition which the slave fulfils, or if the slave paid his purchase price to the owner, then the slave was to be set free. Had property been sold, then it should not be deemed acquired until the purchaser had provided payment. Usucapio was the acquisition of property by possession. If it was in your hands for a year, then it was yours by right. For land and buildings the time was two years. If a women lived with a man for a year, she was his in marriage by usucapio. (Notice that this is the same rule as for a woman as for any possession.) If she wished to avoid this, she was to stay absent from his house for three successive nights a year. If there were two conflicting claims by others over a man, one claiming him a slave, the other claiming him free, then in the absence of proof the judge (praetor) shall rule in favour of freedom. No-one was to remove material from or alter a building or vineyard without the permission of the owner. Who did so, was liable to pay twice the cost of the damage. If a man wished to divorce his wife he needed to provide a reason for doing so.
Table Seven (or eight)
A distance of two and a half feet was to be left between buildings. Societies and associations could form internal rules as they wished, as long as these did not breech the law. A space of five feet was to be left between adjoining fields. If a dispute arose over the boundary between adjoining fields, the praetor was to send three investigators to review the problem. On hearing their report he should decide the boundary. One was permitted to remove a branch from a neighbour's tree which overhung one's property. In fact, one was entitled to remove the whole tree. The owner of a tree was permitted to gather up fruit which had fallen onto his neighbour’s land. A road running straight was to be eight feet wide and where it curved it was to be sixteen feet wide. If a man’s land may next to the road, anyone would be entitled to drive their wagons or animals across it, unless he encloses it (With a hedge, wall or fence one would assume. - This law was most likely to enable travellers to veer off the road should it have been made impassable by rain.) The maintenance of roads was the responsibility of those on whose property they bordered.