After the end of the Monarchy in Rome, around the year 507 a. a., the patricians settled definitively in the power, gaining the Senate the function of main political institution of the Republic.
Let's get to know the main features of the Roman Republic?
Republic (sixth century BC Ç. – 27 a. Ç.)
The word Republic is derived from the Latin expression res public and it means “public thing”, linked to the people. There was, in this way, an opposition to the Monarchy, since in the Republic the power did not belong to the king, but to the people. However, not to all the people. Who held power in the Roman Republic were the patricians.
O Senate, formed by 300 patricians, elected a consul to govern the Republic for a determined period of time. Below the Senate there were the magistracy, through which magistrates exercised various public functions. It is pertinent to highlight the Praetors, Censors, Quaestors and Edis. In times of threat to the political order of the Republic, a dictator was appointed to rule the Romans.
Finally, there were the assemblies or rallies, which were three in number: the Curiata, the Tribucinia and the Centuriata. The last one was the most important for aggregating soldiers, being a political power of the military.
Over time, the struggles between patricians and commoners would intensify and change the political structure of the Republic. The pressure of the commoners for political rights took to the constitution, in 493 a. C., of the Tribunes of the commoner, magistrates responsible for defending the interests of the plebs. In 450 BC a., the plebeians obtained that the Roman laws became written, making difficult the interpretation of the laws in favor of the patricians.
It was during the Republic that the Roman territorial expansion became stronger. After conquering the Italian Peninsula, the Romans began to fight the Carthaginians for the island of Sicily, to the south of the peninsula. The conflicts against Carthage, the republic of Carthaginians located in the north of the African continent, became known as Punic Wars.
The Punic Wars were three that occurred between 264 a. Ç. up to 146 a. Ç. Through them the Romans conquered Sicily, South Gaul, the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. Between the three wars the Romans conquered Greece, Macedonia and Egypt. With that, they came to dominate the entire Mediterranean Sea, which they called Mare Nostrum, Latin expression that means “our sea”.
Besides continuing to have several disputes between commoners and patricians, the slave revolts also gained strength, with the revolt being led by Spartacus in 73 BC. Ç. the most known.
However, the army and its generals gained immense political power with the Roman expansion. Several disputes between the generals took place over the seizure of power. In 60 BC C., was formed the First Triumvirate, formed by generals Pompey, Crassus and Julio Cesar. Each of them dominated a region of the Roman territories. But the disputes did not cease. After the death of Crassus, Julius Caesar intended to increase his power and came into conflict with Pompey, who, on the run in Egypt, was killed in 49 BC. Ç.
After that, Julius Caesar was named perpetual dictator, ruling all of Rome. But part of the Senate did not agree with the concentration of power and organized the assassination of Caesar in 44 a. Ç.
One Second Triumvirate was constituted, formed by Otávio, Marco Antônio and Lépido. However, power struggles continued until Octavius became the sole Roman ruler after the suicide of Mark Antony. With this fact, the Republic ended, beginning the period of the Empire.
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