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141-693: In the Roman Republic , citizens did not elect legislative representatives. Instead, they voted themselves on legislative matters in the popular assemblies (the Comitia Centuriata , the Comitia Tributa, and the plebeian council ). Bills were proposed by magistrates and the citizens only exercised their right to vote. In the Tribal Assembly, citizens were organized on the basis of thirty-five tribes : four urban tribes of

282-449: A comitia or concilium (for this term, see below). Gellius wrote about a further distinction between comita and concilium , which he based on a quote from a passage written by Laelius Felix, a jurist of the early second-century: He who orders not the entire people ( populus ) but some part thereof to be present ought to proclaim not a comitia , but a concilium . Moreover, the [plebeian] tribunes neither summon patricians nor have

423-616: A great victory for Metellus. Rome then besieged the last Carthaginian strongholds in Sicily, Lilybaeum and Drepana , but these cities were impregnable by land. Publius Claudius Pulcher , the consul of 249, recklessly tried to take the latter from the sea, but suffered a terrible defeat ; his colleague Lucius Junius Pullus likewise lost his fleet off Lilybaeum . Without the corvus , Roman warships had lost their advantage. By now, both sides were drained and could not undertake large-scale operations. The only military activity during this period

564-477: A call for help from Syracuse, where tyrant Thoenon was desperately fighting an invasion from Carthage . Pyrrhus could not let them take the whole island, as it would have compromised his ambitions in the western Mediterranean, and so declared war. The Carthaginians lifted the siege of Syracuse before his arrival, but he could not entirely oust them from the island as he failed to take their fortress of Lilybaeum . His harsh rule soon led to widespread antipathy among

705-408: A consul or a praetor) ensured that each tribe had at least five members voting; if a tribe did not, then individuals from other tribes were reassigned to the vacant places in that tribe. The order in which the tribes voted was determined by lot. An urn into which lots were cast was brought in. From this point, the plebeian tribunes were not allowed to exercise their right to veto. The first tribe to vote

846-406: A court, its being broken up was equivalent to an acquittal of the accused. On the day of the vote, the tribes convened at dawn. The meeting started with a prayer, unaccompanied by sacrifice. For legislative meetings, the presiding magistrate was the one who proposed the bill ( rogatio legis ) to be voted on, and after the prayer he laid his bill before the people. For electoral meetings, he announced

987-465: A deviation from correct procedure found in the late Republic, or instances in which these officials had the plebeian tribunes propose bills for them. Lintott disagrees with the notion that there was only one assembly based on the tribes, which was the one of the plebeians. He notes that there are examples in which laws were proposed to the Comitia Tributa by the consuls, who did not preside over

1128-414: A flexible suggestion, 17 days or more. There could be only one assembly operating at a time. The augur Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus (who was consul in 53 BC) wrote a rule book ( On Auspices ). Among other things, it established that lesser magistrates could not call off ( avocare , call away) an assembly which had already been convened. Thus, "whoever of them first summons the people to an election has

1269-569: A garrison in Tarentum, to wage a new campaign in Greece against Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedonia . His death in battle at Argos in 272 BC forced Tarentum to surrender to Rome. Rome and Carthage were initially on friendly terms, lastly in an alliance against Pyrrhus, but tensions rapidly rose after the departure of the Epirote king. Between 288 and 283 BC, Messina in Sicily was taken by

1410-517: A long-lasting alliance with Rome. In 262 BC, the Romans moved to the southern coast and besieged Akragas . In order to raise the siege, Carthage sent reinforcements, including 60 elephants—the first time they used them—but still lost the battle . Nevertheless, Rome could not take all of Sicily because Carthage's naval superiority prevented it from effectively besieging coastal cities. Using a captured Carthaginian ship as blueprint, Rome therefore launched

1551-433: A massive construction program and built 100 quinqueremes in only two months. It also invented a new device, the corvus , a grappling engine that enabled a crew to board an enemy ship. The consul for 260 BC, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina , lost the first naval skirmish of the war against Hannibal Gisco at Lipara , but his colleague Gaius Duilius won a great victory at Mylae . He destroyed or captured 44 ships and

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1692-466: A platform to deliver the votes. Once this place became too crowded, the steps of the Temple of Castor and Pollux at the forum's south-east end were used as the tribunal. Elevated gangways ( pontes ) which provided access to the tribunal were built by the second century BC. Meetings were also sometimes held in the area Capitolina , an open space in front and around the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus , on

1833-433: A renewed effort to tackle indebtedness; required the election of at least one plebeian consul each year; and prohibited magistrates from holding the same magistracy for the next ten years or two magistracies in the same year. In 339 BC, the plebeian consul and dictator Quintus Publilius Philo passed three laws extending the plebeians' powers. His first law followed the lex Genucia by reserving one censorship to plebeians,

1974-504: A result of the end of the patrician monopoly on senior magistracies, many small patrician gentes faded into history during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC due to the lack of available positions. About a dozen remaining patrician gentes and 20 plebeian ones thus formed a new elite, called the nobiles , or Nobilitas . By the early 3rd century BC, Rome had established itself as the major power in Italy, but had not yet come into conflict with

2115-582: A significant defeat at the Battle of the Cremera in 477 BC, wherein it fought against the most important Etruscan city, Veii ; this defeat was later avenged at the Battle of Veii in 396 BC, wherein Rome destroyed the city. By the end of this period, Rome had effectively completed the conquest of its immediate Etruscan and Latin neighbours and secured its position against the immediate threat posed by

2256-708: A similar revolt in Sardinia to seize the island from Carthage, in violation of the peace treaty. This led to permanent bitterness in Carthage. After its victory, the Republic shifted its attention to its northern border as the Insubres and Boii were threatening Italy. Meanwhile, Carthage compensated the loss of Sicily and Sardinia with the conquest of Southern Hispania (up to Salamanca ), and its rich silver mines. This rapid expansion worried Rome, which concluded

2397-704: A stalemate, with the Treaty of Phoenice signed in 205. In Hispania, Scipio continued his successful campaign at the battles of Carmona in 207, and Ilipa (now Seville ) in 206, which ended the Punic threat on the peninsula. Elected consul in 205, he convinced the Senate to invade Africa with the support of the Numidian king Masinissa , who had defected to Rome. Scipio landed in Africa in 204. He took Utica and then won

2538-611: A third term in 121 but was defeated. During violent protests over repeal of an ally's colonisation bill, the Senate moved the first senatus consultum ultimum against him, resulting in his death, with many others, on the Aventine. His legislation (like that of his brother) survived; the Roman aristocracy disliked the Gracchan agitation but accepted their policies. Lex Hortensia Too Many Requests If you report this error to

2679-680: A treaty with Hasdrubal in 226, stating that Carthage could not cross the Ebro river . But the city of Saguntum , south of the Ebro, appealed to Rome in 220 to act as arbitrator during a period of internal strife . Hannibal took the city in 219, triggering the Second Punic War. Initially, the Republic's plan was to carry war outside Italy, sending the consuls P. Cornelius Scipio to Hispania and Ti. Sempronius Longus to Africa, while their naval superiority prevented Carthage from attacking from

2820-481: Is found only in the quote by Gellius which comes from a text which was written in the imperial period; that is, after the fall of the Roman Republic and long after the assemblies of the Republic had ceased to function. This implies that Laelius Felix was not sufficiently familiar with these republican institutions. Forsythe argues that the distinctions between two assemblies based on the tribes "has no support in

2961-487: Is said to have sided with the plebeians, ruined by the sack and largely indebted to patricians. According to Livy, Capitolinus sold his estate to repay the debt of many of them, and even went over to the plebs, the first patrician to do so. Nevertheless, the growing unrest he had caused led to his trial for seeking kingly power; he was sentenced to death and thrown from the Tarpeian Rock . Between 376 BC and 367 BC,

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3102-610: The Aqua Appia , and the first Roman road, the Via Appia . In 300 BC, the two tribunes of the plebs Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius passed the lex Ogulnia , which created four plebeian pontiffs, equalling the number of patrician pontiffs, and five plebeian augurs, outnumbering the four patricians in the college. The Conflict of the Orders ended with the last secession of the plebs around 287. The dictator Quintus Hortensius passed

3243-543: The Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the Senate's grant of extraordinary powers to Octavian as Augustus in 27 BC—which effectively made him the first Roman emperor —marked the end of the Republic. Rome had been ruled by monarchs since its foundation . These monarchs were elected, for life, by the men of the Roman Senate . The last Roman monarch was called Tarquin the Proud , who in traditional histories

3384-455: The Battle of Bovianum in 305 BC. By 304 BC, Rome had annexed most Samnite territory and begun to establish colonies there, but in 298 BC the Samnites rebelled, and defeated a Roman army, in a Third Samnite War . After this success, it built a coalition of several previous enemies of Rome. The war ended with Roman victory in 290 BC. At the Battle of Populonia , in 282 BC, Rome finished off

3525-810: The Battle of Zama in 202 BC, becoming the dominant power of the ancient Mediterranean world. It then embarked on a long series of difficult conquests, defeating Philip V and Perseus of Macedon , Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire , the Lusitanian Viriathus , the Numidian Jugurtha , the Pontic king Mithridates VI , Vercingetorix of the Arverni tribe of Gaul , and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra . At home, during

3666-469: The Battle of the Great Plains , which prompted Carthage to open peace negotiations. The talks failed because Scipio wanted to impose harsher terms on Carthage to prevent it from rising again as a threat. Hannibal was therefore sent to face Scipio at Zama . Scipio could now use the heavy Numidian cavalry of Massinissa—which had hitherto been so successful against Rome—to rout the Punic wings, then flank

3807-625: The Conflict of the Orders , the patricians , the closed oligarchic elite, came into conflict with the more numerous plebs ; this was resolved peacefully, with the plebs achieving political equality by the 4th century BC. The late Republic, from 133 BC onward, saw substantial domestic strife , often anachronistically seen as a conflict between optimates and populares , referring to conservative and reformist politicians, respectively. The Social War between Rome and its Italian allies over citizenship and Roman hegemony in Italy greatly expanded

3948-594: The Cornelii , Aemilii , Claudii , Fabii , and Valerii . The leading families' power, privilege and influence derived from their wealth, in particular from their landholdings, their position as patrons , and their numerous clients. The vast majority of Roman citizens were commoners of various social degrees. They formed the backbone of Rome's economy, as smallholding farmers, managers, artisans, traders, and tenants. In wartime, they could be summoned for military service. Most had little direct political influence. During

4089-486: The Mamertines , a band of mercenaries formerly employed by Agathocles . They plundered the surroundings until Hiero II , the new tyrant of Syracuse , defeated them (in either 269 or 265 BC). In effect under a Carthaginian protectorate, the remaining Mamertines appealed to Rome to regain their independence. Senators were divided on whether to help. A supporter of war, the consul Appius Claudius Caudex , turned to one of

4230-529: The Second Triumvirate in 43 BC effectively abolished the functions of the comitia , as the triumvirs were granted authority by the lex Titia to appoint practically all offices without consulting the senate or the people. Some actions were still passed using the assemblies, with certain laws providing for the erection of temples, the remission of rents in 41 BC, and the lex Falcidia governing inheritance in 40 BC; similarly, various laws granting

4371-591: The Seleucid Empire made increasingly aggressive and successful attempts to conquer the entire Greek world. Now not only Rome's allies against Philip, but even Philip himself, sought a Roman alliance against the Seleucids. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Hannibal was now a chief military advisor to the Seleucid emperor, and the two were believed to be planning outright conquest not just of Greece, but also of Rome. The Seleucids were much stronger than

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4512-545: The Seleucid Empire . In 202, internal problems led to a weakening of Egypt's position, disrupting the power balance among the successor states. Macedonia and the Seleucid Empire agreed to an alliance to conquer and divide Egypt. Fearing this increasingly unstable situation, several small Greek kingdoms sent delegations to Rome to seek an alliance. Rome gave Philip an ultimatum to cease his campaigns against Rome's new Greek allies. Doubting Rome's strength, Philip ignored

4653-436: The comitia took effect as soon as the results were announced. It has been speculated that the word suffragium (vote) indicates that in the early days the men in the assembly made a crash with their arms to signal approval, rather than vote. Another speculation is that the term rogatores (sing. rogator , a teller, an official who asked the people for their votes or collected votes) indicates that in later times, but before

4794-443: The comitia's judicial functions, though these functions had fallen into disuse long before. This assembly's electoral functions also became nominal, with the assemblies being dominated by the emperor. Augustus filled half of the magistracies with his own candidates, though the magistracies as a whole had, by this point, so little political importance that imperial control over elections was minimal. His successor, Tiberius transferred

4935-454: The contio (contracted from conventio ). The word comitia (coming together), which was the plural of comitium (a purpose-built meeting place), referred to assemblies convened to make decisions on legislative or judicial matters, or to hold elections. The word contio (coming together) referred to meetings where 'nothing was legally enacted'. They were convened to hear public announcements and pronouncements, speeches and debates, to witness

5076-409: The curule aediles . It conducted trials for non-capital crimes. However, the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla gave this responsibility to special jury courts ( quaestiones perpetuae ) in 82 BC. There are disagreements among modern historians regarding the number and nature of the tribal assembly (see below). The Romans distinguished between two types of assemblies, the comitia (or comitatus ) and

5217-491: The lex Coelia (106 BC) for capital punishment trials (which were conducted before the Comitia Centuriata ). This was an introduction of secret ballots, which reduced undue influence or intimidation by the powerful elites, which had until then been a problem. Although the order of voting was determined by lot, there was also an official order of the tribes, known as the ordo tribuum . The first four tribes were

5358-427: The lex Hortensia , which reenacted the law of 339 BC, making plebiscites binding on all citizens, while also removing the requirement for prior Senate approval. These events were a political victory of the wealthy plebeian elite, who exploited the economic difficulties of the plebs for their own gain: Stolo, Lateranus, and Genucius bound their bills attacking patricians' political supremacy with debt-relief measures. As

5499-462: The tribus Popillia , one of the earlier tribes. The location of the meetings of the Tribal Assembly varied. Up to 145 BC, they were centred on the comitium , a templum (open-air space) built for public meetings at the north end of the Roman Forum . The rostra , a speaking platform on the southern side of the comitium , was used for speeches. It was also used as a tribunal ; that is, as

5640-460: The Boii ambushed the army of the consul-elect for 215, L. Postumius Albinus , who died with all his army of 25,000 men in the Battle of Silva Litana . These disasters triggered a wave of defection among Roman allies, with the rebellions of the Samnites, Oscans, Lucanians, and Greek cities of Southern Italy. In Macedonia, Philip V also made an alliance with Hannibal in order to take Illyria and

5781-601: The Great , he was eager to build an empire for himself in the western Mediterranean and saw Tarentum's plea as a perfect opportunity. Pyrrhus and his army of 25,500 men (with 20 war elephants) landed in Italy in 280 BC. The Romans were defeated at Heraclea , as their cavalry were afraid of Pyrrhus's elephants. Pyrrhus then marched on Rome, but the Romans concluded a peace in the north and moved south with reinforcements, placing Pyrrhus in danger of being flanked by two consular armies; Pyrrhus withdrew to Tarentum. In 279 BC, Pyrrhus met

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5922-476: The Macedonians had ever been, because they controlled much of the former Persian Empire and had almost entirely reassembled Alexander the Great's former empire. Fearing the worst, the Romans began a major mobilization, all but pulling out of recently conquered Spain and Gaul. This fear was shared by Rome's Greek allies, who now followed Rome again for the first time since that war. A major Roman-Greek force

6063-455: The Punic army—and confronted Hannibal, who was encamped at Cannae , in Apulia . Despite his numerical disadvantage, Hannibal used his heavier cavalry to rout the Roman wings and envelop their infantry, which he annihilated. In terms of casualties, the Battle of Cannae was the worst defeat in Roman history: only 14,500 soldiers escaped, and Paullus was killed as well as 80 senators. Soon after,

6204-712: The Rhone, sent his elder brother Gnaeus with the main part of his army in Hispania according to the initial plan, and went back to Italy with the rest to resist Hannibal in Italy, but he was defeated and wounded near the Ticino river . Hannibal then marched south and won three outstanding victories. The first one was on the banks of the Trebia in December 218, where he defeated the other consul Ti. Sempronius Longus. More than half

6345-675: The Roman Empire, throughout the republican era Rome was in a state of near-perpetual war. Its first enemies were its Latin and Etruscan neighbours, as well as the Gauls , who sacked Rome in 387 BC. After the Gallic sack, Rome conquered the whole Italian Peninsula in a century and thus became a major power in the Mediterranean. Its greatest strategic rival was Carthage , against which it waged three wars . Rome defeated Carthage at

6486-414: The Roman Republic. Therefore, they denote a distinction which can be disputed. It is based on the text by Gellius quoted above. Lintott notes that some modern historians reject the Comitia Tributa / Concilium Plebis distinction and the use of the quote by Gellius as its basis. They argue that this terminology is a convention established by modern historians which ancient writers did not make and that there

6627-425: The Roman army was lost. Hannibal then ravaged the country around Arretium to lure the new consul C. Flaminius into a trap at Lake Trasimene . This clever ambush resulted in the death of the consul and the complete destruction of his army of 30,000 men. In 216, the new consuls L. Aemilius Paullus and C. Terentius Varro mustered the biggest army possible, with eight legions—some 80,000 soldiers, twice as many as

6768-437: The Roman state by being given Roman citizenship were also registered in tribes. Consequently, "the tribe might therefore, come to bear little relationship to the whereabouts of the citizen's domicile or property." With regard to the tribal assembly, the tribes were its voting districts. Each tribe had further subdivisions, which in the urban tribes were called vici (sing. vicus , in an urban context it meant neighbourhood) and in

6909-403: The Romans believed that the gods communicated their approval or disapproval with proposed actions, the presiding magistrate performed augury (the divination of the omens of the gods) the night before a meeting. There were also augurs (priests who performed augury), either in attendance or on-call, who would be available to help interpret the omens of the gods. The meeting could only proceed if

7050-415: The Romans' inability to conceive of plausible alternatives to the traditional republican system in a "crisis without alternative". The second instead stresses the continuity of the republic: until its disruption by Caesar's civil war and the following two decades of civil war created conditions for autocratic rule and made return to republican politics impossible: and, per Erich S. Gruen , "civil war caused

7191-469: The Sicilians; some cities even defected to Carthage. In 275 BC, Pyrrhus left the island before he had to face a full-scale rebellion. He returned to Italy, where his Samnite allies were on the verge of losing the war. Pyrrhus again met the Romans at the Battle of Beneventum . This time, the consul Manius Dentatus was victorious and even captured eight elephants. Pyrrhus then withdrew from Italy, but left

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7332-598: The Spartan general marched on Regulus, crushing the Roman infantry on the Bagradas plain ; only 2,000 soldiers escaped, and Regulus was captured. The consuls for 255 nonetheless won a naval victory at Cape Hermaeum, where they captured 114 warships. This success was spoilt by a storm that annihilated the victorious navy: 184 ships of 264 sank, 25,000 soldiers and 75,000 rowers drowned. The corvus considerably hindered ships' navigation and made them vulnerable during tempest. It

7473-464: The abusive treatment of plebeian debtors by the wealthy during a famine. The patrician Senate was compelled to give them direct access to the written civil and religious laws and to the electoral and political process. To represent their interests, the plebs elected tribunes , who were personally sacrosanct, immune to arbitrary arrest by any magistrate, and had veto power over legislation. By 390 BC, several Gallic tribes were invading Italy from

7614-533: The aftermath of the Social War. In the winter of 138–137 BC, a first slave uprising, known as the First Servile War , broke out in Sicily. After initial successes, the slaves led by Eunus and Cleon were defeated by Marcus Perperna and Publius Rupilius in 132 BC. In this context, Tiberius Gracchus was elected plebeian tribune in 133 BC. He attempted to enact a law to limit

7755-475: The agreement when Philip's emissaries were captured by a Roman fleet. The First Macedonian War saw the Romans involved directly in only limited land operations, but they achieved their objective of occupying Philip and preventing him from aiding Hannibal. The past century had seen the Greek world dominated by the three primary successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great 's empire: Ptolemaic Egypt , Macedonia and

7896-493: The amount of land anyone could own and establish a commission to distribute public lands to poor rural plebs. The aristocrats, who stood to lose an enormous amount of money, bitterly opposed this proposal. Tiberius submitted this law to the Plebeian Council , but it was vetoed by fellow tribune Marcus Octavius . Tiberius induced the plebs to depose Octavius from his office on the grounds that Octavius acted contrary to

8037-628: The area around Epidamnus , occupied by Rome. His attack on Apollonia started the First Macedonian War . In 215, Hiero II of Syracuse died of old age, and his young grandson Hieronymus broke the long alliance with Rome to side with Carthage. At this desperate point, the aggressive strategy against Hannibal the Scipiones advocated was abandoned in favour of a slow reconquest of the lost territories, since Hannibal could not be everywhere to defend them. Although he remained invincible on

8178-402: The assembly of the plebeians. For example, the law that increased the number of quaestors to twenty, attributed to Lucius Cornelius Sulla ; the lex Gabinia Calpurnia de insula Delo of 58 BC; and the lex Quinctia of 9 BC. Moreover, the consuls conducted the elections of the curule aediles, who were not plebeian officials, before the tribes. Therefore, it is likely that the term Comitia Tributa

8319-437: The assembly which was reserved for the plebeians (or plebs, the commoners), thus excluding the patricians (the aristocracy), and which was convened by the tribunes of the plebs – see plebeian council . Since the meetings of the plebs excluded the patricians, they were not considered as representing the whole of the Roman people and because of this, according to Laelius Felix, the term concilium applied to them. By contrast,

8460-408: The battlefield, defeating all the Roman armies on his way, he could not prevent Claudius Marcellus from taking Syracuse in 212 after a long siege , nor the fall of his bases of Capua and Tarentum in 211 and 209 . In Hispania, Publius and Gnaeus Scipio won the battles of Cissa in 218, soon after Hannibal's departure, and Dertosa against his brother Hasdrubal in 215, which enabled them to conquer

8601-423: The citizens in the city of Rome, and thirty-one rural tribes of citizens outside the city. Each tribe voted separately and one after the other. In each tribe, decisions were made by majority vote, and its decision counted as one vote regardless of how many electors each tribe held. Once a majority of tribes had voted in the same way on a given measure, the voting ended, and the matter was decided. The Tribal Assembly

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8742-425: The comitia's remaining electoral authority to the senate. Although the emperors received many of their powers from the Comitia Tributa , this was only a formality. The Comitia Tributa continued to exist until the third century AD, but its remaining functions were only symbolic. It took auspices and gave prayer. It conferred the emperor's legislative powers and other authority only in a ceremonial manner. It proclaimed

8883-464: The consuls Publius Decius Mus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio at the Battle of Asculum , which remained undecided for two days. Finally, Pyrrhus personally charged into the melee and won the battle but at the cost of an important part of his troops ; he allegedly said, "if we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." He escaped the Italian deadlock by answering

9024-428: The convening of the assembly. Later, for elections it was established that there should be a trinundinum , an interval of at least three market-days between the announcement of the election and the vote of the assembly, during which no legislation was permitted. The lex Caecilia Didia of 98 BC required a trinundinum interval between the announcement of a law and the vote. In the case of prosecutions before an assembly,

9165-727: The dominant military powers of the Mediterranean : Carthage and the Greek kingdoms. In 282, several Roman warships entered the harbour of Tarentum , triggering a violent reaction from the Tarentine democrats, who sank some. The Roman embassy sent to investigate the affair was insulted and war was promptly declared. Facing a hopeless situation, the Tarentines (together with the Lucanians and Samnites) appealed to Pyrrhus , king of Epirus , for military aid. A cousin of Alexander

9306-439: The early Republic, the plebs (or plebeians) emerged as a self-organised, culturally distinct group of commoners, with its own internal hierarchy, laws, customs, and interests. Plebeians had no access to high religious and civil office. For the poorest, one of the few effective political tools was their withdrawal of labour and services, in a " secessio plebis "; the first such secession occurred in 494 BC, in protest at

9447-626: The eastern coast of Hispania. But in 211, Hasdrubal and Mago Barca successfully turned the Celtiberian tribes that supported the Scipiones, and attacked them simultaneously at the Battle of the Upper Baetis , in which the Scipiones died. Publius's son, the future Scipio Africanus , was then elected with a special proconsulship to lead the Hispanic campaign, winning a series of battles with ingenious tactics. In 209, he took Carthago Nova ,

9588-457: The end of the war, the consuls for 256 BC decided to carry the operations to Africa, on Carthage's homeland. The consul Marcus Atilius Regulus landed on the Cap Bon peninsula with about 18,000 soldiers. He captured the city of Aspis , repulsed Carthage's counterattack at Adys , and took Tunis . The Carthaginians hired Spartan mercenaries, led by Xanthippus , to command their troops. In 255,

9729-422: The extensive writings of Cicero and Livy , who must have been far more knowledgeable in these matters than Laelius Felix." Cicero lived during the late Republic. Livy was born during the late Republic and wrote a detailed history of the republican period. Forsythe also argues that the word comitia was used for formal assemblies convened 'to vote on legislative, electoral and judicial matters', and that concilium

9870-462: The fall of the republic, not vice versa". A core cause of the Republic's eventual demise was the loss of elite's cohesion from c.  133 BC : the ancient sources called this moral decay from wealth and the hubris of Rome's domination of the Mediterranean. Modern sources have proposed multiple reasons why the elite lost cohesion, including wealth inequality and a growing willingness by aristocrats to transgress political norms, especially in

10011-471: The first time a Roman army had ever entered Asia . The decisive engagement was fought at the Battle of Magnesia , resulting in complete Roman victory. The Seleucids sued for peace, and Rome forced them to give up their recent Greek conquests. Rome again withdrew from Greece, assuming (or hoping) that the lack of a major Greek power would ensure a stable peace. In fact, it did the opposite. In 179, Philip died. His talented and ambitious son, Perseus , took

10152-482: The gods manifested their displeasure by rain, thunder, or lightning, or if the sun set before the proceedings were completed: the last because the auspices were considered valid only for one day, from dawn to sunset. Other reasons were the veto of a plebeian tribune, or if one of the assembled citizens suffered an epileptic fit ( morbus comitialis ). In the politically volatile years of the late Republic, assemblies were sometimes broken up by riots. If an assembly convened as

10293-415: The ground that, because of their exclusion, did not apply to the whole of the people. Andrew Lintott notes that many modern historians follow Theodor Mommsen 's view that during the Roman Republic there were two assemblies of the tribes and that the ancient sources used the term Comitia Tributa with reference both of them. One was the assembly by the tribes which was used for plebeian meetings to which

10434-535: The infantry, as Hannibal had done at Cannae. Defeated for the first time, Hannibal convinced the Carthaginian Senate to pay the war indemnity, which was even harsher than that of 241: 10,000 talents in 50 instalments. Carthage also had to give up all its elephants, all its fleet but ten triremes , and all its possessions outside its core territory in Africa (what is now Tunisia ), and it could not declare war without Roman authorisation. In effect, Carthage

10575-409: The interests of the plebeians. These included the plebeian tribunes, the plebeian aediles and the plebeian assembly. Forsythe takes the revisionist view further. He rejects the idea there was a plebeian assembly and maintains that the Comitia Tributa was an assembly of the whole of the Roman people, and opines that the plebeian secession was a myth created in later times. Roman historians emerged in

10716-465: The interrogation of someone accused of in a trial, and to watch executions. Opinions expressed in a contio did not have any legal validity. The Tribal Assembly was a comitia. Private citizens who did not hold political office could make speeches in a contio , but not before a comitia or a concilium . Citizens always assembled first in a contio to hear debates or to enable canvassing by electoral candidates before voting. The actual voting took place in

10857-444: The introduction of the written ballot, the assembled men were asked to express their votes verbally, and that this was recorded with marks inscribed in tablets. However, there is no evidence for either of these. The written ballot was introduced by a series of laws, the lex Gabinia tabellaria (139 BC) for elections, the lex Cassia tebellaria (137 BC) for non-capital punishment trials, the lex Papiria (131 BC) for legislation, and

10998-437: The last vestiges of Etruscan power in the region. In the 4th century, plebeians gradually obtained political equality with patricians. The first plebeian consular tribunes were elected in 400. The reason behind this sudden gain is unknown, but it was limited as patrician tribunes retained preeminence over their plebeian colleagues. In 385 BC, the former consul and saviour of the besieged capital, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus ,

11139-432: The late third and early second century BC, some three hundred years after the date attributed to this secession and the events of Rome's early history were poorly documented. Based on T. P. Wiseman's view that many of Rome's early historical traditions 'were created, propagated, accepted and reshaped' from the middle of the fourth century BC onward, through dramas played on the stage at religious festivals, Forsythe argues that

11280-418: The law on his side, because it is unlawful to take the same action twice with the people nor can one minor magistrate call away an assembly from another." However, a consul could call off a comitia or contio convened by another magistrate and a praetor could call off one summoned by magistrates other than a consul. If an assembly was called "to address a contio without laying any measure before them, it

11421-405: The laws presented to it for approval by acclamatio , rather than a real vote. The thirty-five tribes were not ethnic or kinship groups, but geographic divisions into which Roman citizens were distributed. They were administrative districts which served for the purposes of taxation, the military levy, and for the registration of citizens. This registration occurred regularly during the census, and

11562-507: The league's surrender. Rome decided to divide Macedonia into two new, directly administered Roman provinces, Achaea and Macedonia . For Carthage, the Third Punic War was a simple punitive mission after the neighbouring Numidians allied to Rome robbed and attacked Carthaginian merchants. Treaties had forbidden any war with Roman allies; viewing defence against banditry as "war action", Rome decided to annihilate Carthage. Carthage

11703-530: The main Punic base in Hispania. The next year, he defeated Hasdrubal at the Battle of Baecula . After his defeat, Carthage ordered Hasdrubal to reinforce his brother in Italy. Since he could not use ships, he followed the same route as his brother through the Alps, but the consuls M. Livius Salinator and C. Claudius Nero were awaiting him and defeated him in the Battle of the Metaurus , where Hasdrubal died. It

11844-477: The manifest will of the people, a position that was unprecedented and constitutionally dubious. His law was enacted and took effect, but, when Tiberius ostentatiously stood for reelection to the tribunate, he was murdered by his enemies. Tiberius's brother Gaius was elected tribune ten years later in 123 and reelected for 122. He induced the plebs to reinforce rights of appeal to the people against capital extrajudicial punishments and institute reforms to improve

11985-452: The monarchy did not succeed. The first Roman republican wars were wars of expansion . One by one, Rome defeated both the persistent Sabines and the local cities. Rome defeated its rival Latin cities in the Battle of Lake Regillus in 496 BC, the Battle of Ariccia in 495 BC, the Battle of Mount Algidus in 458 BC, and the Battle of Corbio in 446 BC. But it suffered

12126-472: The most important cities in the Roman Empire. Views on the structural causes of the Republic's collapse differ. One enduring thesis is that Rome's expansion destabilized its social organization between conflicting interests; the Senate's policymaking, blinded by its own short-term self-interest, alienated large portions of society, who then joined powerful generals who sought to overthrow the system. Two other theses have challenged this view. The first blames

12267-469: The names of citizens and their families were entered in the registers of the tribes. Lintott notes that "the tribe was the critical indicator of Roman citizenship" for the adult sons of Roman fathers and also for "those incorporated into the citizen body from the outside". A man who came of age was enrolled as an adult in the tribe of his father, and could change it only through adoption into another family. Inhabitants of Italic towns who were incorporated into

12408-429: The names of the candidates. If the meeting was for a trial, he acquainted the people with the nature of the offence on which the people had to pass a verdict. He concluded the announcement with the words velitis, jubeatis Quirites (command your wish, citizens). A rogatio was read out by the praeco (the crier or herald). Then the contio begun. The voters were not sorted into their tribes. For legislative matters there

12549-422: The nearby Apennine hill tribes. Beginning with their revolt against Tarquin, and continuing through the early years of the Republic, Rome's patrician aristocrats were the dominant force in politics and society. They initially formed a closed group of about 50 large families, called gentes , who monopolised Rome's magistracies, state priesthoods, and senior military posts. The most prominent of these families were

12690-571: The north. The Romans met the Gauls in pitched battle at the Battle of Allia River around 390–387 BC. The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia rivers, 11 Roman miles (10 mi or 16 km) north of Rome. The Romans were routed and subsequently Rome was sacked by the Senones . There is no destruction layer at Rome around this time, indicating that if a sack occurred, it

12831-473: The offices of praetor and curule aediles, both reserved to patricians. Lateranus became the first plebeian consul in 366 BC; Stolo followed in 361 BC. Soon after, plebeians were able to hold both the dictatorship and the censorship. The four-time consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus became the first plebeian dictator in 356 BC and censor in 351 BC. In 342 BC, the tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius passed his leges Genuciae , which abolished interest on loans, in

12972-415: The old kingdom. The Romans swiftly defeated the Macedonians at the second battle of Pydna . The Achaean League , seeing the direction of Roman policy trending towards direct administration, met at Corinth and declared war "nominally against Sparta but in reality, against Rome". It was swiftly defeated: in 146, the same year as the destruction of Carthage , Corinth was besieged and destroyed , forcing

13113-494: The omens were favourable. On several occasions, presiding magistrates claiming unfavourable omens suspended sessions that were not going the way they wanted. If after the assembly, the augurs decided that some formality had been neglected, its vote became void. In the case of elections, those persons who had been elected to an office had to resign. There were several means by which an assembly could be adjourned. Besides unfavourable auspices, this could happen on religious grounds when

13254-432: The overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the Roman Republic, the plebeians seceded from the city of Rome, which started the two hundred-year Conflict of the Orders between the patricians and the plebeians. During this first secession, the plebeians created their own institutions which were separate from those of the Roman state, which at that time was controlled by the patricians, and were intended to protect

13395-420: The patricians were excluded and which was convened by the plebeian tribunes. The other assembly based on the tribes was convened by the consuls or the praetors , and was an assembly of the whole of the Roman people, both patricians and plebeians. However, the ancient sources did not have a differentiation in terminology for the two of them and used the term Comitia Tributa for both. Many modern historians use

13536-485: The people's welfare. While ancient sources tend to "conceive Gracchus' legislation as an elaborate plot against the authority of the Senate... he showed no sign of wanting to replace the Senate in its normal functions". Amid wide-ranging and popular reforms to create grain subsidies, change jury pools, establish and require the Senate to assign provinces before elections, Gaius proposed a law that would grant citizenship rights to Rome's Italian allies. He stood for election to

13677-461: The plebs, resulting in a stalemate. In 367 BC, they carried a bill creating the Decemviri sacris faciundis , a college of ten priests, of whom five had to be plebeians, thereby breaking patricians' monopoly on priesthoods. The resolution of the crisis came from the dictator Camillus , who made a compromise with the tribunes: he agreed to their bills, and they in return consented to the creation of

13818-639: The popular assemblies to get a favourable vote by promising plunder to the voters. After the assembly ratified an alliance with the Mamertines, Caudex was dispatched to cross the strait and lend aid. Messina fell under Roman control quickly. Syracuse and Carthage, at war for centuries, responded with an alliance to counter the invasion and blockaded Messina, but Caudex defeated Hiero and Carthage separately. His successor, Manius Valerius Maximus , landed with an army of 40,000 men and conquered eastern Sicily, which prompted Hiero to shift his allegiance and forge

13959-413: The power of the Senate, which was by now protected from the influence of the consuls and became the central organ of government. In 312 BC, following this law, the patrician censor Appius Claudius Caecus appointed many more senators to fill the new limit of 300, including descendants of freedmen, which was deemed scandalous. Caecus also launched a vast construction program, building the first aqueduct ,

14100-466: The power to propose anything to them. Thus, measures which were accepted on the proposal of the plebeian tribunes are not properly called laws ( leges ) but plebiscites . Patricians were not bound by these bills until the dictator Quintus Hortensius [287 BC] carried that law whereby all the Quirites (the Roman people) were bound by whatever the plebs had determined. This has been taken as referring to

14241-454: The presiding magistrate was required to give notice ( diem dicere ) to the accused of the first day of the investigation ( inquisitio ), then at the end of each hearing he announced the adjournment to the next ( diem prodicere ). After this, there was a trinundinum interval before the assembly voted the verdict. There are disagreements among scholars about how many days this interval lasted. Mommsen proposes 24 days, Michels 25 days. Lintott gives

14382-561: The quasi-mythological detailing of an aristocratic coup within Tarquin's own family or a consequence of an Etruscan occupation of Rome rather than a popular revolution. According to Rome's traditional histories, Tarquin made several attempts to retake the throne, including the Tarquinian conspiracy , which involved Brutus's own sons, the war with Veii and Tarquinii , and finally the war between Rome and Clusium . The attempts to restore

14523-472: The republican system was an elective oligarchy , not a democracy ; a small number of powerful families largely monopolised the magistracies. Roman institutions underwent considerable changes throughout the Republic to adapt to the difficulties it faced, such as the creation of promagistracies to rule its conquered provinces , and differences in the composition of the senate. Unlike the Pax Romana of

14664-559: The request, and Rome sent an army of Romans and Greek allies, beginning the Second Macedonian War . In 197, the Romans decisively defeated Philip at the Battle of Cynoscephalae , and Philip was forced to give up his recent Greek conquests. The Romans declared the "Peace of the Greeks", believing that Philip's defeat now meant that Greece would be stable, and pulled out of Greece entirely. With Egypt and Macedonia weakened,

14805-416: The rural tribes were called pagi (sing. pagus – which were rural sub-districts with a number of vici (which in a rural context meant villages and hamlets) and had a fortress. Professional guilds ( collegia ), were organised along tribal lines. The tribes were originally presided over by tribuni aerarii (tribunes of the public treasury) who had the tribal register, collected the property tax, and paid

14946-602: The scope of civil violence. Mass slavery also contributed to three Servile Wars . Tensions at home coupled with ambitions abroad led to further civil wars . The first involved Marius and Sulla . After a generation, the Republic fell into civil war again in 49 BC between Julius Caesar and Pompey . Despite his victory and appointment as dictator for life , Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar's heir Octavian and lieutenant Mark Antony defeated Caesar's assassins in 42 BC, but they eventually split. Antony's defeat alongside his ally and lover Cleopatra at

15087-583: The sea. This plan was thwarted by Hannibal's bold move to Italy. In May 218, he crossed the Ebro with a large army of about 100,000 soldiers and 37 elephants. He passed in Gaul , crossed the Rhone , then the Alps , possibly through the Col de Clapier . This exploit cost him almost half of his troops, but he could now rely on the Boii and Insubres, still at war with Rome. Publius Scipio, who had failed to block Hannibal on

15228-464: The second made plebiscites binding on all citizens (including patricians), and the third required the Senate to give its prior approval to plebiscites before they became binding on all citizens. During the early Republic, consuls chose senators from among their supporters. Shortly before 312 BC, the lex Ovinia transferred this power to the censors, who could only remove senators for misconduct, thus appointing them for life. This law strongly increased

15369-418: The soldiers registered in the tribe. Later this title became obsolete, and the heads of the tribes were called curatores tribuum . Besides these curatores there were also the divisores tribuum , who were treasurers. These two types of officials probably had their own registers; the curatores were involved in the census. By the late republic, their main task was to distribute bribes. Because tribal membership

15510-676: The southern summit of the Capitoline Hill . In the late Republic, the meetings were held outside the city walls, at the Campus Martius (the Field of Mars) a large flat area that could accommodate the simultaneous voting of all the tribes, thus speeding up the process. In the politically volatile final years of the Roman Republic, the popular assemblies were susceptible to corruption, and vulnerable to politically-motivated violence by contending political factions. The establishment of

15651-400: The story of the plebeian secession was invented to explain the origin of the temple of Ceres , and its plebeian associations. It was inspired by Herodotus ' account of how Telines, a ruler of Gela, a Greek town in Sicily, used the rites of Demeter and Persephone to bring back to Gela a group of political exiles. This story of civil discord, reconciliation and integration and the cult of Demeter

15792-422: The term Comitia Tributa or Comitia Populi Tributa ( Comitia Tributa of the people) to indicate meetings by the tribes which involved the whole of the Roman people (populus) and the term Concilium Plebis or Concilium Plebis Tributum (plebeian council by the tribes) for assemblies based on the tribes which were exclusively for the plebeians. However, they are not found in the ancient Roman literature related to

15933-416: The term comitia applied to assemblies which represented the whole of the Roman people. Measures passed by assemblies of the whole citizen body were called leges (laws), whereas those passed only by the plebeians were called plebiscites (resolutions of the plebs). Until the lex Hortensia passed by Quintus Hortensius in 287 BC, the patricians refused to accept the plebiscites as being binding on them on

16074-471: The throne and showed a renewed interest in conquering Greece. With its Greek allies facing a major new threat, Rome declared war on Macedonia again, starting the Third Macedonian War . Perseus initially had some success against the Romans, but Rome responded by sending a stronger army which decisively defeated the Macedonians at the Battle of Pydna in 168. The Macedonians capitulated, ending

16215-513: The tribes with the formula discedite, quirites (depart to your separate groups, citizens). The tribes voted one by one. The voters assembled in enclosures called saepta and voted by placing a pebble or written ballot into an appropriate jar. The baskets ( cistae ) that held the votes were watched by officers (the custodes ) who then counted the ballots and reported the results to the presiding magistrate. The majority of votes in each tribe decided how that tribe voted. The presiding magistrate (either

16356-503: The tribunes of the plebs Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus continued the plebeian agitation and pushed for an ambitious legislation, known as the Leges Liciniae Sextiae . The most important bill opened the consulship to plebeians. Other tribunes controlled by the patricians vetoed the bills, but Stolo and Lateranus retaliated by vetoing the elections for five years while being continuously reelected by

16497-485: The triumvirs the right to wear the civic crown were passed by plebiscite, as it would have been unseemly for them to grant themselves those honours. With the establishment of absolute rule by the emperors after the fall of the Republic, the Republican assemblies were emasculated. Augustus, the first emperor, became the real legislator and the comitia's role in passing laws became only a ceremonial one. He also removed

16638-732: The urban tribes, in the order: Suburana, Palatina, Esquilina, Collina. The rural tribes followed, concluding with Aniensis. Crawford postulates that the rustic tribes were enumerated along the major roads leading from Rome (the Viae Ostiensis , Appia , Latina , Praenestina , Valeria , Salaria , Flaminia and Clodia ), in a counter-clockwise order: Romilia, Voltinia, Voturia, Aemilia, Horatia, Maecia, Scaptia, Pomptina, Falerina, Lemonia, Papiria, Ufentina, Terentina, Pupinia, Menenia, Publilia, Cornelia, Claudia, Camilia, Aniensis, Fabia, Pollia, Sergia, Clustumina, Quirina, Velina, Stellatina, Tromentina, Galeria, Sabatina, Arniensis. This list omits

16779-443: The war. Convinced now that the Greeks (and therefore the rest of the region) would not have peace if left alone, Rome decided to establish its first permanent foothold in the Greek world, and divided Macedonia into four client republics. Yet Macedonian agitation continued. The Fourth Macedonian War , 150 to 148 BC, was fought against a Macedonian pretender to the throne who was again destabilizing Greece by trying to reestablish

16920-503: Was soundly defeated by Catulus. Exhausted and unable to bring supplies to Sicily, Carthage sued for peace. Carthage had to pay 1,000 talents immediately and 2,200 over ten years and evacuate Sicily. The fine was so high that Carthage could not pay Hamilcar's mercenaries, who had been shipped back to Africa. They revolted during the Mercenary War , which Carthage suppressed with enormous difficulty. Meanwhile, Rome took advantage of

17061-411: Was a debate on the rogatio in which private citizens had to ask the presiding magistrate for permission to speak. This debate took place before the bill was vetoed or put to the vote. If the vote was for an election, the candidates used the contio for canvassing, and there were no speeches by private citizens. After the above, the voters were told to break up the contio and to arrange themselves by

17202-453: Was a generic term 'for any kind of public meetings of citizens, including both comitia and contio .' His conclusion is that the mentioned distinction is an artificial modern construction with no authority in ancient texts, that 'the ancients speak only of a Comitia Tributa' and that it is likely that in Republican times there was a single tribal assembly known as Comitia Tributa . According to Roman tradition, in 494 BC, fifteen years after

17343-431: Was abandoned after another similar catastrophe in 253 BC. These disasters prevented any significant campaign between 254 and 252 BC. Hostilities in Sicily resumed in 252 BC, with Rome's taking of Thermae. The next year, Carthage besieged Lucius Caecilius Metellus , who held Panormos (now Palermo). The consul had dug trenches to counter the elephants, which once hurt by missiles turned back on their own army, resulting in

17484-521: Was almost defenceless, and submitted when besieged. But the Romans demanded complete surrender and removal of the city into the desert hinterland, far from any coastal or harbour region; the Carthaginians refused. The city was besieged and completely destroyed . Rome acquired all of Carthage's North African and Iberian territories. The Romans rebuilt Carthage 100 years later as a Roman colony, by order of Julius Caesar. It flourished, becoming one of

17625-422: Was called praerogativa or principium and the result of its vote was announced immediately. The tribes which voted next were called jure vocatae . When a majority of tribes had voted the same way, voting ended. The results of votes of each tribe was announced in an order also determined by lot before the announcement of the final result. This announcement was called renuntiatio . The praerogativa or principium

17766-414: Was chaired by a magistrate, usually a consul or praetor . The presiding magistrate made all decisions on matters of procedure and legality. His power over the assembly could be nearly absolute. One check on his power came in the form of vetoes by other magistrates. Also, any decision made by a presiding magistrate could be vetoed by the plebeian tribunes . The Tribal Assembly elected the quaestors , and

17907-479: Was condemned to be a minor power, while Rome recovered from a desperate situation to dominate the western Mediterranean. Rome's preoccupation with its war with Carthage provided an opportunity for Philip V of Macedonia , in the north of the Greek peninsula , to attempt to extend his power westward. He sent ambassadors to Hannibal's camp in Italy, to negotiate an alliance as common enemies of Rome. But Rome discovered

18048-455: Was expelled from Rome in 509 BC because his son, Sextus Tarquinius , raped a noblewoman, Lucretia . The tradition asserted that the monarchy was abolished in a revolution led by the semi-mythical Lucius Junius Brutus and the king's powers were then transferred to two separate consuls elected to office for a term of one year; each was capable of checking his colleague by veto . Most modern scholarship describes these accounts as

18189-590: Was largely superficial. Second Samnite War Third Samnite War From 343 to 341 BC, Rome won two battles against its Samnite neighbours, but was unable to consolidate its gains, due to the outbreak of war with former Latin allies. In the Latin War (340–338 BC), Rome defeated a coalition of Latins at the battles of Vesuvius and the Trifanum . The Latins submitted to Roman rule. A Second Samnite War began in 327 BC. The war ended with Samnite defeat at

18330-401: Was lawful for any number of magistrates to hold a contio at the same time. Lintott suggests that this rule was intended to prevent rivalry among magistrates. In addition to the presiding magistrate of an assembly, several other magistrates acted as assistants, to help resolve procedural disputes, and to provide a mechanism for electors to appeal the decisions of the presiding magistrate. Since

18471-530: Was mobilized under the command of the great hero of the Second Punic War, Scipio Africanus , and set out for Greece, beginning the Roman–Seleucid War . After initial fighting that revealed serious Seleucid weaknesses, the Seleucids tried to turn the Roman strength against them at the Battle of Thermopylae , but were forced to evacuate Greece. The Romans pursued the Seleucids by crossing the Hellespont ,

18612-404: Was no assembly based on tribes other than the one where the plebeians met to vote and which was presided over by the plebeian tribunes, who submitted bills to its vote. References to laws which were submitted to the Comitia Tributa by the consuls in the ancient literature must have pertained to bills they presented to the Comitia Centuriata (the assembly of the soldiers, another voting assembly),

18753-531: Was primarily a cultural mix of Latin and Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Ancient Roman religion and its pantheon . Its political organization developed at around the same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece , with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by a senate . There were annual elections, but

18894-504: Was re-registered once every five years in each census, it became possible to crudely gerrymander the tribes. While land could never be taken away from a tribe, the censors had the power to allocate new lands to existing tribes as a part of the census. Thus, the censors had the power to apportion tribes in a manner that might be advantageous to them, or to their partisans. Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( Latin : Res publica Romana [ˈreːs ˈpuːblɪka roːˈmaːna] )

19035-571: Was the era of classical Roman civilization beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire following the War of Actium . During this period, Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world . Roman society at the time

19176-438: Was the first Roman to receive a naval triumph, which also included captive Carthaginians for the first time. Although Carthage was victorious on land at Thermae in Sicily, the corvus gave a strong advantage to Rome on the waters. The consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio (Asina's brother) captured Corsica in 259 BC; his successors won the naval battles of Sulci in 258, Tyndaris in 257 BC, and Cape Ecnomus in 256. To hasten

19317-409: Was the landing in Sicily of Hamilcar Barca in 247 BC, who harassed the Romans with a mercenary army from a citadel he built on Mt. Eryx . Unable to take the Punic fortresses in Sicily, Rome tried to decide the war at sea and built a new navy, thanks to a forced borrowing from the rich. In 242 BC, 200 quinqueremes under consul Gaius Lutatius Catulus blockaded Drepana. The rescue fleet from Carthage

19458-480: Was the turning point of the war. The campaign of attrition had worked well: Hannibal's troops were now depleted; he only had one elephant left ( Surus ) and retreated to Bruttium , on the defensive. In Greece, Rome contained Philip V without devoting too many forces by allying with the Aetolian League , Sparta , and Pergamon , which also prevented Philip from aiding Hannibal. The war with Macedon resulted in

19599-445: Was used both for the assemblies presided over by the consuls and the praetors and the assemblies presided over by the plebeian tribunes. Further, Livy mentions a Comitia Tributa that was convened by the consuls in 446 BC, during the early Republic. Forsythe presents a more recent account of the argument that the Comitia Tributa / Concilium Plebis distinction is a misplaced convention established by modern historians. He argues that it

19740-521: Was used to fabricate the tale of the first plebeian secession where the plebeians seceded from Rome but were then reconciled and returned to the city. The Ludi Ceriales (Games of Ceres) were held annually to celebrate the anniversary of the dedication of the temple of Ceres, which was dated by the tradition two years before the first secession. The convening of the assembly was announced three market-days ( nundinae ) in advance. The viatores (messengers) were sent "to inform those in country districts" about

19881-411: Was usually the most important tribe, because it often decided the matter through a bandwagon effect . It was believed that the order of the lot was chosen by the gods, and thus, that the position held by the tribes which voted earlier was the position of the gods. If the voting process was not complete by nightfall, the electors were dismissed, and the voting had to begin again the next day. Laws passed by

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