What is the political, economical and social structure of Ancient Rome?

Answer 1

Well… that depend on how ancient you want to get. Rome had many different governments and different social organizations. I will answer your question for the Roman Republic, since that is probably the era you are thinking about. Republican Rome lasted from 509 BC to 27 BC. It is also called the classical Roman era, and many popularized movies (Sparticus) and materials based in Roman times come from this time. As well as many of our ideas about Rome was like, how the dressed (The togas with the purple stripes and the legionary costume we are all so familiar with.), talked, and the people we are familiar with (Cicero to orator, Scipio Africanas, yes after whom the continent of Africa is named, and of course Julius Caesar.).

The Roman Republic has two, and later three, social stratas for Romans. There were the Patricians, and the Plebs. The Patricians were the elite and the wealthy. The Plebs were the common class of Romans. Eventually a third class, a middle class, called the Equestrian Order was formed.

The government was formed like this. There were three commonly elected lower houses. Each house was responsible for administering a various aspect of Rome itself, and later much outside of Rome. They handled things like judicial, legislative, and appointment and administration of the city. These house were comprised primarily of Plebs.

Then there was the famous Roman Senate. The Roman Senate despite popular ideas, was not responsible for Rome the city, but for Rome the state. Meaning they dealt with all external affairs to Rome. This included trade, diplomacy, treaties and of course war. The senate was elected by the lower houses at times, and at other times from the people themselves. Then form within the Senate they elected other people. These people acted in different roles. One was a treasurer, another was a President like position, a chief Justice like position, and someone to be in charge of the military. These appointments lasted 2 to 6 years. There was another position, less common. It was that of dictator. It was a position to hand over power of the government to one person in a time or war and emergency. This would ultimately lead to the downfall of the Republic, since it wasn’t a condition that person ever give it back! The Senate was initially for Patricians only, but eventually Plebs held even the highest office of the Roman Senate and administered the Republic.

Now for slaves. Yes Roman had slaves. But their form of slavery was very different from the kind we had. Rome had three classes of slaves. One was a foreign slave, captured in war. These people were usually soldiers. They were also usually worked to death. Better to die on the battle field. The second class were criminals or debtors. These were people forced into slavery as a social service. However, they were also Romans, and as Romans they could not be abused or maltreated. In fact, not only were there laws against it, it was totally inconceivable in Roman society that one Roman should abuse another, and therefore Rome itself. So even the criminal slaves were well off by most standards. The third class were hardly slaves at all. They were certainly protected from harshness. They were basically indentured servants. People who had volunteered, or been volunteered by their family, to sell themselves into slavery. Mostly for money. You could chose to default on a debt for instance and be that persons slave for X number of years.

The other popular reason was to be a gladiator. Gladiators had to be ‘slaves’. But they were almost never foreign slaves and were almost all Romans. Even many patricians became ‘slaves’ for a few years to be a gladiator and get fame. And, despite popular belief, more gladiatorial combat was non lethal. Although, when it was, you often didn’t have a choice about it. Now, this isn’t to say that the Romans didn’t kill a lot of people in arenas, they did. But they weren’t generally Romans, especially non-criminal variety.

The biggest difference between the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire is of course the Emperor. Everything was the same under the emperor, except they had the final word. Nor all emperors cared about governing and left that to the Senate. Some did, other did just what they wanted.

The covers the political and social situation to a small degree, and I hope a satisfactory degree.

Answer 2

Political Structure Of Ancient Rome

Answer 3

I'd have to echo p37ry's answer, however this does sound like an undergraduate type question and therefore there should be some form of word count involved (which you wont reach with 'for crying out load, monarchy, republic then empire').

Therefore i would look into the introduction of power shifting, the most famous obviously being Pompey, Crassuss and Ceaser. This would help to explain the structure and influences of Tribune, Senator, Emperor/Dictator etc...

If this isn't an academic question, then you could do worse than look at authors such as Conn Iggulden and his Ceaser series which provides a light reading view on Roman infrastructure.

Answer 4

Oh for crying out loud!

It started as a monarchy, then evoloved into a republic, then eventually an empire.

Rome featured an hierarchical social structure (complete with slaves), and a free trade economy based largely on agriculture.

Answer 5

As the same of the current USA. Rough, crazy and democracy demonstrating!

Answer 6

basically built on labor of slaves...