Boone Ayala’s Reviews > Politics in the Roman Republic > Status Update

The breakdown of the Roman elite was the consequence of the influx of wealth associated with imperial expansion, as conflict over honores and the booty of empire led to instability within the Roman aristocracy

The republic's long life was not thanks to its constitution but "social, ideological, and geo-political features... the system worked because of strong social cohesion underpinned by a powerful ideological framework... summed up in the concept of mos maiorium, the traditions and norms passed down from the ancestors. When observance of this unwritten code of conduct began to weaken" constitutional flaws appeared

The primary purpose of the senate “was to focus opinion and formulate a strategy behind which the ruling elite could unite” (143). The chief problem facing the republican was “that legislation was far too easy to implement” (142) and that in the absence of elite consensus different elites could use offices against each other

The stability of the middle-republic resulted from the military expansion of Rome during the same period. Socially, military service formed bonds across Roman social divides; it also allowed all soldiers to see their interests (in spoils and glory) as aligned with the nobilitas (99-104).

Although institutions and ideas made it conceivable that citizens could participate in politics, practical limits on those institutions (especially the extent of magisterial control of comitia and contiones) meant that for the small minority who attended assemblies, they were compliant subjects rather than political actors (91-2)

The lottery element in elections - whereby the first group of voters would be randomly selected, and the results announced - is contra-democratic in a modern sense. Rather than expressing the will of the people, these assemblies were tasked with conferring legitimacy by arbitrating conflicts among the elite for office and honors (50-53).

The augurs (senate and magistrates + priests) managed the relationship between gods and populus. This privilege “represented an autonomous source of authority - embedded in religious concepts and practices - and allowed them to claim formal ascendancy over the populus.” (23) The power of the people was highly circumscribed