Collapse of the Roman Republic Research Papers

The Roman Republic did not collapse overnight.  Rather, a slow, albeit steady, accumulation of changes--economic, social, military--over the period of a century so altered the Roman nation that its traditional form of government--republican oligarchy--could no longer satisfy the fundamental requirements of effective statecraft.  Its constitutional system, the mos maiorum or “way of the ancestors,” relied on ostensibly unbreakable traditions suitable to a small city-state in the presence of enemies, actual or potential.

Even at its height, Rome was properly defined as the city, itself.  (The city’s formal, or religiously-defined, border--the pomerium--pretty much followed the Servian walls.  Certain religious practices attesting to the relationship between the city and its tutelary gods had to be performed within these confines.)  Every outside place subject to Roman jurisdiction was Roman “territory” rather than Rome itself, a constitutional arrangement not all that different from the Greek city-states of the fifth century (e.g., Attica, in which Athens was the metropolis or “mother city”).

The legal status of the army reflected its city-state origins.  By tradition, the army was a militia in which physically and mentally qualified youths were enrolled in their seventeenth year.  However, enrollment in the army--effectively a rite of passage for the adult citizen--was restricted.  Only those young men whose families could provide the accoutrements of warfare (weapons, shield, armor, the sagum or red wool cloak) could be enlisted.  (Many of these were handed down from father to son.)  Most enlistees were farm boys.  They were not paid a regular salary since military service was a component of citizenship.  There was a regular campaigning season which began after the crops had been brought in.  Again, this was suitable to a city-state whose national enemies were only a short marching distance away.  This militia was led by leading citizens, members of the Roman senate, designated “legates,” meaning those assigned to military duty by law.  The troops subordinate to a legate were called a legion, although that term soon came to mean a military formation of six thousand men (4,800 infantry and 1,200 support personnel).

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