The Governance of ROME

Next to the Bible, Shakespeare, the French revolution and Napoleon, ancient Rome is one of the most plowed-through fields of historical experience. One of the truly great periods of history, Rome, over the centuries, deservedly has attracted the passionate attention of historians, philologists and, more recently, archeologists. Since Roman of the legal life of most of Western Europe, the legal law constituted the source profession had a legitimate interest. Veritable libraries have been built around the history of Rome. In the past confined mostly to Italian, German, and French scholars the fascination with things Roman by now has spread to other civilized nations in­ cluding the Anglo-Saxon. Among the contributors to our knowledge of ancient Rome are some of the great minds in history and law. Our bibliography - selective, as neces­ sarily it has to be - records outstanding generalists as well as some of the numerous specialists that were helpful for our undertaking. Why, then, another study of the Roman political civilization and one that, at least measured by volume and effort, is not altogether insubstantial? And why, has to be added, one presented by an author who, whatever his reputation in other fields, ostensibly is an outsider of the classical discipline? These are legitimate questions that should be honestly answered. By training and avocation the author is a constitutional lawyer or, rather, a political scientist primarily interested in the operation of governmental institutions.

One: The Republic.- I: The Origins: The Period of the Mythological Kings.- 1. The Etruscans and Rome.- 2. The Period of the Mythological Kings.- a. The Sociopolitical Structure.- aa. The Patrician gentes.- bb. The curiae.- cc. The Centuriate Division.- dd. The Plebs.- b. The King.- c. The Senate.- d. The Curiate Comitia.- II: The Class Struggle and the Merger between the Patricians and the Plebeians.- 1. The Foundation of the Roman Republic.- 2. Patricians and Plebeians: The Dual State.- 3. The Legislation of the Twelve Tables.- 4. The Constitutional Implications of the Valerian-Horatian Legislation.- 5. The Final Liquidation of the Patrician-Plebeian Conflict.- a. The Equalization of Access to Office.- b. The Equalization of the Legislative Authority of the Assemblies.- 6. The New Class Stratification.- a. The Patrician-Plebeian Nobility.- b. The Equestrian Order.- aa. The Fate of the Small Citizen Farmer.- bb. The New Plutocracy.- cc. Capitalism and the Senatorial Class.- c. The Relations Between the Two Orders.- III: The Political Institutions of the Republic I: The Magistrates.- A. General Observations.- 1. General Principles of the Republican Organization.- a. Sovereignty and State Organs.- b. Interdependence of the State Organs.- c. The Authority of Office: Legitimation by Election.- d. The Powers of Office: imperium and potestas.- aa. The imperium.- ? Military Command.- ?. The Lictors.- ?. The Auspices.- bb. The potestas.- 2. Principles of Office Organization.- a. Collegiality and Intercession.- b. The Nonexistence of the Separation of Powers.- c. Qualifications for Office.- d. Eligibility, Terms, and Sequence of Access to Office.- aa. Eligibility: The Sociological Aspect.- bb. Terms of Office.- cc. Reeligibility.- dd. Access to Office: The cursus honorum.- e. Office Responsibility.- B. The Individual Magistracies.- 1. The Consuls.- 2. The Praetors.- 3. The Quaestors.- 4. The Aediles.- 5. The Censors.- a. Census-taking and Registration.- b. Financial Assignments.- c. Supervision of Morals.- 6. The Plebeian Magistrates.- a. The Tribunes of the People.- aa. The Origins: ius auxilii for Plebeians.- bb. The Tribune as a Regular State Organ.- cc. The Tribunate in the Service of the Senatorial Oligarchy.- dd. The Decline of the Institution.- b. The Plebeian Aediles.- 7. The Administrative Personnel of the Magistracies.- 8. The Dictator.- a. An Extraordinary Magistracy.- b. Appointment and Investiture.- c. Role of the Senate.- d. Powers and Functions.- e. Constitutional Limitations.- f. Purposes and Objectives.- g. The magister equitum.- h. Evaluation.- 9. Neo-dictatorship.- a. Lucius Cornelius Sulla.- b. Gaius Julius Caesar.- 10. The Abolition of the Office of Dictatorship.- 11. Pro-Magistrates.- a. The Incumbency of Former Magistrates.- b. Private Persons as Promagistrates.- IV: The Political Institutions of the Republic II: The Popular Assemblies.- 1. Citizenship.- a. General Requisites.- b. Citizenship for non-Romans and the Social War.- 2. The Size of the Population of the City of Rome.- 3. The Curiate Assembly.- 4. The Centuriate Assembly.- a. Composition and Structure Under the Organization of Servius Tullius.- aa. Military Character.- bb. Property Evaluation.- b. The Reform of the Third Century.- c. Manipulation of the Voting Technique: The Weighted Vote.- 5. The Tribute Assembly.- a. Origins: The concilium plebis.- b. The Thirty-five Tribes.- c. Legislative Jurisdiction.- d. Political Implication of the Tribute Division.- 6. The Popular Assemblies in Operation.- a. Preparing and Convening the Meetings: contiones and comitia.- b. Locations of the Meetings.- c. The Presiding Officer.- d. The Voting Procedure in General.- e. Legislative Procedure.- f Procedure for Elections.- aa. The Election Schedule.- bb. The Candidates and the Election Campaign.- 1. The Candidates.- 2. The Campaign.- g. Money in Politics.- h. Frequency of Assembly Meetings.- i. Attendance of the Assembly Meetings.- aa. The Limitations of Direct Democracy.- bb. Attendance in Centuriate Elections.- cc. Attendance in the Tribal Assembly.- dd. Mobilization of the Absentee Vote.- ee. General Conclusions.- 7. Political Groupments and “Parties”.- a. Pluralism in Rome.- b. The “Personalized” Style of Politics.- c. Political Alignments Within the Ruling Nobility: optimates and populares.- aa. The Revolution of the Gracchi Brothers.- bb. Marius and Sulla.- cc. Caesar and the Victory of the populares.- dd. The End of Factionalism: Octavianus-Augustus.- d. The Absence of Organized Political Parties.- e. Inapplicability of the Customary Party Criteria.- aa. No Mass Basis.- bb. No Political Program or Ideology.- cc. No Party Organization.- dd. No Distinguishing Party Identification.- V: The Political Institutions of the Republic III: The Senate.- 1. Size of Membership.- 2. Term of Office.- 3. Qualifications and Mode of Investiture.- 4. The Senatorial Ruling Class.- 5. Procedure of the Meetings.- a. The Setting.- b. The Debates.- c. The Vote.- 6. Jurisdiction.- a. The interregnum.- b. The auctoritas patrum.- aa. Legislation.- bb. Elections.- 7. The Senate as the Supreme State Organ.- a. The Historical Record.- b. The Roman Political System and the Reality of the Power Process.- 8. Senatorial Functions.- a. Control of Foreign Policy.- b. Military Control.- c. Financial Control.- d. Additional Expansions of Senatorial Powers.- e. Emergency Regime and the “Ultimate Decree”.- aa. The Mechanics.- bb. The Record of the Practice.- cc. The Problem of Constitutionality.- 9. Attacks Against the Supremacy of the Senate.- a. The Reforms of Appius Claudius.- b. The Conflict with the Gracchi.- 10. Sulla’s Constitutional Reforms.- a. The Reconstruction of the Senate.- b. The Emasculation of the Tribunate.- c. Magistracies and Provincial Governorships.- d. Senatorial Control of Criminal Justice.- 11. The Senate; A Retrospective Evaluation.- VI: The Administration of Justice.- 1. Roman Law.- 2. The Administration of Civil Justice.- a. The Praetor as Source of Law.- b. Praetor and Trial Judge (judex).- c. The Transformation of the Praetorian Jurisprudence.- d. Single Judge or Judicial Bench.- 3. The Administration of Criminal Justice.- a. Private Retribution.- b. Criminal Jurisdiction of the Magistrates.- c. Criminal Justice by Juror Courts.- 4. Concept and Reality of Freedom.- a. Liberias and auctoritas.- b. Civil Liberties.- VII: The Collapse of the Republican Order.- 1. The Decomposition of the Social Structure.- a. The Plutocracy.- b. The Disappearance of the Independent Middle Class.- 2. The Failure of the Agrarian Reform.- a. The Growth of the latifundia Economy.- b. The Agrarian Reforms of the Gracchi.- c. The Disappearance of the Independent Farmer.- 3. The Rise of the condottieri.- a. The Tradition: Military Command and Civilian Office.- b. The Ascendancy of the Military Over the Civilian Function.- c. The Change in the Military Organization.- 4. The Erosion of the Republican Constitution.- a. Constitutional Irregularities.- b. The coups d’état of Sulla.- c. The Principate That Failed: Pompey.- d. The First Triumvirate.- e. The Conquest of the Republic by Caesar.- 5. Caesar’s Monocracy.- a. The Pattern of Government: Plebiscitary Caesarism.- b. Caesar’s Constitutional Powers.- c. The Public Image.- d. The Emasculation of the Republican Institutions.- aa. The Senate.- bb. The Magistracies.- cc. The Assemblies.- e. Caesar’s Domestic Reforms.- f. The Ambivalence of Caesar’s Monocracy.- aa. A Terminological Clarification.- bb. Caesar’s Attitude Toward Monarchy.- cc. Caesar’s Rule in the Context of the Roman Political Civilization.- A Postscript: Why the Roman Republic Never Became a Democracy.- a. The Intangible Factors of the National Character.- b. The Institutional Arrangements.- Two: The Empire.- Section One: Augustus and the Foundation of the Principate.- Introduction: Principate and Dominate.- I: The Establishment of the Principate.- 1. The Historical Record from Caesar’s Death to the Consolidation of Augustus’ Rule.- a. The Second Triumvirate.- b. The Establishment of Octavian’s Constitutional Leadership.- 2. Augustus’ Constitutional Monocracy.- a. Measures of Constitutional Normalization.- b. The Settlement of January 13, 27: Return to Constitutional Government.- c. The Lex as the Legal Basis of Imperial Rule.- d. The Military Basis of the Constitutional Monocracy.- 3. The Consummation of the Augustan Principate.- a. The Power Configuration After the Settlement of 23 B.C..- aa. The Tribunician Powers.- bb. The Supreme Proconsular Imperium.- b. The Constitutional Character of the Augustan Principate.- II: The Institutions of the Augustan Principate I.- A. The Republican Magistracies.- 1. The Consuls.- 2. The Praetors.- 3. The Censors.- 4. The Aediles.- 5. The Quaestors.- 6. The Tribunate.- 7. The Provincial Governors.- 8. The Cursus Honorum.- 9. Sociological Observations on the Republican Magistracy.- B. The Popular Assemblies.- 1. The Electoral Process.- a. General Observations.- b. The Experiment of the Absentee Ballot.- c. Candidacies for Elective Office.- d. The Manifestation of Imperial Preference for Candidacies.- e. The Electoral Process Under Augustus’ Rule.- f. Electoral Reform: The Primary (destinatio).- g. Transfer of the Nominating Procedure to the Senate.- 2. Comitial Legislation.- 3. The Investiture of the Princeps by Comitial Act and the Lex Regia.- III: The Institutions of the Augustan Principate II.- C. The Senate.- 1. Composition of Membership.- 2. Organization and Procedure.- 3. Jurisdiction and the Concept of the Dyarchy.- 4. Augustus’ Senatorial Policy.- D. The New Bureaucracy.- 1. Professional Bureaucracy and Constitutional Government.- 2. The Imperial Bureaucracy: General Observations.- 3. The Social Classes and the Imperial Bureaucracy.- 4. The Central Imperial Administration.- 5. The Imperial Chancery.- 6. The Imperial Council of State (consilium).- IV: The Administration of Justice.- 1. Administration of Civil Justice.- a. The Praetorian Jurisdiction.- b. Jurisdiction of the Princeps-Emperor.- 2. Administration of Criminal Justice.- a. Traditional Organs.- b. Jurisdiction of the Senate.- c. Imperial Jurisdiction.- 3. The Role of Jurisprudence.- V: The Augustan Reform Legislation.- 1. Financial Reforms.- a. Taxation and Revenue.- b. The Treasuries.- c. Financial Administration.- 2. Social Reforms.- a. Improvements in the Administration of the City of Rome.- b. Municipal Government in Italy and the Provinces.- c. Legislation for the Improvement of Morals.- d. Religious Policy.- VI: The Creator and His Work.- 1. Augustus and the Problem of Succession.- 2. Augustus Personality.- 3. The Augustan Principate as a Pattern of Government.- a. The Controversy and Its Importance for the Theory of Government.- b. The Three-Level Aspect of the Regime.- c. The RepubHcan Concept of the Princeps and Cicero’s Influence.- d. A Military Dictatorship?.- e. The Regime as a Monarchy.- f. The Republican Frame of the Regime.- g. The Augustan Principate as a Republican Monocracy.- Section Two: The Principate in Operation.- VII: The Period in Retrospect.- VIII: The Emperor.- 1. Some Vital Statistics of the Emperorship.- 2. Investiture and the Problem of Succession.- 3. The Stability of the Principate as a Political System.- a. The Republican Opposition.- b. The Obliteration of the Republican Past.- c. The Growth of the Imperial Idea.- 4. Powers and Functions ― General Character.- a. Legal Basis.- b. Individual Imperial Attributions.- c. Delegation of Imperial Powers.- d. The Co-Regency within the Context of the Principate Government.- e. The Paraphernalia of the Imperial Dignity.- aa. Titles.- bb. Insignia.- cc. Deification.- f. Dethronement of the Emperor.- 5. The Emperor as Source of Law.- a. The Conflicting Literary Tradition.- b. The Traditional Sources of Law.- aa. The Withering-Away of Comitial Legislation.- bb. Legislation by the Senate.- cc. Ius Honorarium and the Julian Edict of Hadrian.- c. Imperial Law-making.- aa. Edicta.- bb. Mandata.- cc. Rescripta.- dd. Décréta.- d. The Imperial Legislator and the Jurisconsults.- aa. Lawyers as Imperial Advisors.- bb. Lawyers as Imperial Officials.- IX: The Fate of the Republican Institutions.- 1. The Obliteration of the Elective Procedures.- 2. The Republican Magistracies.- a. The Consulate.- b. The Praetorship.- c. The Censorate.- 3. The Senate.- a. The Effacement of the Political Functions.- b. The Investiture of the Emperor as Constitutional Function.- X: The Social Classes.- 1. The Senatorial Order.- 2. The Equestrian Order.- 3. The Decuriones.- 4. The Masses.- XI: The Administration of the Empire.- 1. The Territorial Expansion.- 2. Patterns of Territorial Integration Under the Republic.- a. The Area of Italy.- b. The Provinces.- 3. Empire Administration Under the Principate.- a. Italy.- b. Senatorial and Imperial Provinces.- 4. Citizenship and Law as Instruments of Empire Integration.- a. Common Citizenship.- b. The Empire as Community of Law.- XII: Decline and Fall of the Principate.- 1. Economic and Financial Deterioration.- 2. The Military Situation.- a. The Defense Perimeter.- b. The Barbarization of the Armies.- 3. The Alienation of the Individual from the State.- 4. The Failure of the Governmental Institutions.- Section Three: The Dominate.- XIII: The Period in Retrospect.- 1. The Dominate as a Novel Political System.- 2. Chronological Delineation of the Period.- 3. Division and Unity of the Empire.- 4. Defense Against the Barbarian Invaders.- 5. The Want of Consensus.- XIV: The Rise of Christianity as the State Religion.- 1. Christianity and Paganism.- 2. Christianity as the Established Church.- 3. The Organization of Christianity as a Church.- a. The Papacy.- b. The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.- c. The Synods and Councils.- d. The Monastic Element.- XV: The Emperor.- 1. General Observations.- 2. Investiture and Succession.- a. Collegiate Government: The Tetrarchy.- b. The Ascendancy of Dynastic Legitimism.- 3. The Constitutional Position.- 4. The Imperial Style.- a. Titles.- b. Imperial Sanctity.- 5. Powers and Functions.- a. Legislation.- b. Other Attributions.- XVI: The Organization of the Imperial Government.- A. The Central Government.- 1. Territorial Reorganization.- 2. Institutions of the Central Government.- a. The Imperial Court.- aa. The Palace.- bb. The Consistory.- cc. The Imperial Retinue.- b. The Offices of the Central Administration.- aa. The Top Level of Imperial Officials.- c. The Bureaucratic Establishment.- aa. Organization and Status.- bb. Control of the Bureaucratic Apparatus.- 3. The Residues of the Republican Institutions.- a. The Senate.- b. Republican Offices.- B. The Government of the Territorial Subdivisions.- 1. The Empire as “Decentralized” Unitary State.- 2. The Levels of Territorial Organization.- 3. Territorial Decentralization in Operation.- a. The Prefectures.- b. The Dioceses.- c. The Provinces.- d. Municipal Administration.- e. The City of Rome.- C. Observations on the Bureaucracy as the Ruling Class.- 1. Bureaucracy as Restraint on Absolutism.- 2. The Bureaucracy as the Ruling Elite.- 3. Titles as Elements of Bureaucratic Hierarchization.- XVII: The Administration of Justice and the Law.- 1. The Ordinary Courts.- 2. Judicial Protection of the Lower Classes.- a. The Defensor Civitatis.- b. The Bishop as Judicial Organ.- 3. The Decline of Jurisprudence and the Emergence of “Vulgar” Law.- 4. The Eastern Law Schools.- 5. Justinian’s Codification.- a. Forerunners.- b. The Drafting Procedure.- c. The Divisions of the Corpus Juris Civilis.- aa. The Two Codices.- bb. The Digests or Pandects.- cc. The Institutes.- 6. Roman Law after Justinian.- a. The Eastern-Byzantine World.- b. The Triumph of Roman Law in the West.- XVIII: The Coercive State.- 1. The Economic Crisis.- a. The Agrarian Feudalization.- b. The Dislocation of Trade.- c. The Discrepancies in the Distribution of Wealth.- 2. The Monetary Syndrome: Inflation and Devalu...