Rome’s Politics

The famous saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” means great things take a long time to build. Rome took a very long time to build, too.

Rome the Kingdom
Rome started as a small town in about 753 BC. A tribe of people made a home on the seven hills near the Tiber River. Early Roman people were ruled by a king. The king’s job was to care for his people fairly. The first king was the king Romulus. All kings said they were related to Romulus, which gave them the right to rule.

The last king in ancient Rome did not treat people fairly. They hated him. They chased him out of Rome out of town in 509 BC. They promised never to have a king again. They made a new government called a republic.

Rome the Republic
In the Roman Republic, two people from the Senate shared power and were in charge of the government. The Roman people elected them, or gave them power by voting for them, to be in charge for one year. They controlled the army.

The Senate was part of the government made of leaders from the noble and wealthy families of ancient Rome. They made the laws. Members of the Senate were not elected. They were chosen by the consuls. Once the consuls chose them, they had power for life.

The Assembly was part of the government made of all the common citizens of Rome. They had the right to vote. The Assembly had very little power. They could vote for or suggest laws, but the Senate could block their decisions. But voted each year on which members of the Senate would be Consuls.

Three big problems made the republic fail. First, Rome needed money to run the Republic. Second, Senators were using their power to get rich. And third, Rome did not have police. With these problems, it wasn’t long before Rome had very bad government. It was a mess.

The common people of Rome loved the Roman general Julius Caesar. He promised to fix Rome’s problems, and took over the government with his army in 49 BC. Caesar made himself dictator for life. The senators of Rome did not like this and assassinated him in 44 BC. Many civil wars came next and ended the Republic. Caesar’s nephew Augustus became the first emperor of Rome in 27 BC.

The government in the Roman Republic

Rome the Empire
When the republic failed, some things stayed the same. Rome became an empire, ruled by emperors. Everyone had to worship Roman gods. The rich lived in beautiful homes. The poor worked all the time.

Some things changed. The Senate had power, but the emperor now had the real power. The government gave free bread to men on their way to work in the morning. The Roman Empire also had a new police force. Crime went down a lot.

The government built many new public buildings. They used them to have exciting events. Chariot racing was very popular. Chariots are small carts with two wheels pulled by horses. Sometimes the wheels had spikes. Gladiator games were also very popular, and free for everyone. The government made slaves and prisoners fight lions, bears, and each other.

A gladiator battle in the Colosseum. Thumbs-up meant “kill him”; thumbs-down meant “let him live.”

Spartacus
Spartacus was a freeman who joined the army, but ran away. When he was caught, he was forced to be a gladiator. When gladiators were not fighting, they were locked in the gladiator school. One day, Spartacus escaped with 70 other gladiators. They found gladiator weapons and stole them.

Rome sent an army of 3,000 soldiers to capture the runaway slaves. Spartacus attacked them and won. Rome tried again with 6,000 men. Spartacus won that battle, too.

When Spartacus and his men won against the Roman army, many slaves ran away to join him. In a very short amount of time, Spartacus and his followers had 100,000 escaped slaves. The wealthy Roman citizens needed slaves to keep their nice lifestyles. Slave labor was free. About 1/3 of the people in the Roman Empire were slaves. Wealthy citizens could not let the slaves escape and be free.

Catching Spartacus was not easy. Spartacus and his followers prepared for battle. They made weapons. The gladiators taught others how to fight like a gladiator. Spartacus and his followers were hunted for two years. When Rome finally caught up with him, they killed Spartacus and everyone with him.

The End of Rome
From kingdom, to republic, to empire, Rome lasted for over 1200 years. During the empire, Rome had some wonderful emperors. Rome also suffered from a series of bad, corrupt and crazy emperors. There were many reasons why Rome fell.

The empire was too large to take care of with one government. Emperors started to win power by killing the emperor before them, so leaders were not very good. More free work from slaves meant that poor Romans did not have work. Rich Romans became lazy and didn’t care about solving Rome’s problems. Prices of things increased, and trade decreased.

The population got smaller because of starvation and disease. Outside tribes started attacking the empire.

The ancient Romans split the empire in half so they could run it better. Each side had an emperor.

The Western Roman Empire did not do well, and they became weaker. By 400 AD, outside tribes were all attacking various pieces of the Western Roman Empire. In 476 AD, Rome was sacked and Europe entered the Dark Ages.

The Eastern Roman Empire received a new name – the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire did fine. It lasted for another 1,000 years!

The new Western and Eastern (Byzantine) Roman Empires