Roman Republic, The State System

This paper offered a perspective discussion of the Roman Republican constitution, its origins, its composition and substantial characters, from the points of both history and laws. It also elucidated the conceptions of the related historical and law terms, and rectified the deviated cognition and the mistakes in the translation into Chinese. Except the preface and the part of conclusion, it can be divided into five major parts according to the content: the introduction, the origins of the Roman Republican constitution, the three main organizations of it, the various federal forms developed from the expansion of Rome in Italy and the provincial system.The point of view of Polybius, Cicero and modern scholars has been discussed in the introduction. The theory put by Polybius has been touched that the Roman constitution is a mingled and balanced form of the three fundamental principles: kingship, aristocracy and democracy. An investigation has been made on Cicero's ideal constitution of res publica. In the last part of the introduction it has been made an overall survey of the opinions of modern western scholars.In the first two chapters the writer has inquired into the origins of formation of the Roman Republican constitution, i.e. the tradition of the dynasty and the struggle between the two orders (the patrician and the plebs) in the earlier stage of the Roman Republic. In the discussion of the former a differentiation between the Latin kings and the Etruscan kings is made. Strictly speaking, the real Roman dynasty started from the Etruscan conquest. The Latin kings or the indigenous kings before then were in fact only heads of the clan coalition or chieftains. The Etruscan conquest introduced the fundamental concept of the state power, i.e. the so-called imperium, which is symbolized by fasces and lictores, and handed down to the Republic. The supreme magistrates of the Republic also held the imperium, but it is divided and limited in application and thus a balanced power system appeared in practice.In the second chapter the writer has probed the characteristics of the Roman state, the magistracy and the conflict between the two orders (the plebsand the patrician) in the earlier stage of the Republic. It is elucidated that the Roman Republican constitution seemed improbable to have been established through an armed riot. On the contrary, it was formed and established through the long conflict between the two orders (the plebs and the patrician) in the earlier stage of the Roman Republic. Such conflict was certainly accompanied and connected with the Roman external struggle. In front of the precarious situation of the state, the conflict was often compromised by negotiations. In addition, in the earlier stage of the Republic, which is governed by the patrician, the supreme magistrates are called praetores, not consules.In the following three chapters the writer has discoursed upon the three main organizations of the Roman Republican constitution: the magistracy, the senate and the people assemblies. They represented the constitution and its substantial character existed in their mutual cooperation and restriction. The system of the magistracy had been shaped and completed due to the long-lasted struggle between the plebs and the patricians, and it left the traces of the struggle and reflected the conservative inclination of combining tradition with reality. As the conflicts between the two orders developed and the magistrate system was improved, the composition of the membership and the function of the senate changed profoundly. On the one hand, more and more homines novi, i.e. the members of the upper-class plebian family, were being enrolled in the senate and thus the exclusive monopoly of the patricians was broken. On the other hand, the senate changed into a vital institution of the state from a consulting organization of the supreme magistrates in the early Republic and played an important role in the political and social life of the Roman society. Except the routine affairs of the magistrates, all t...