does anyone know anything about Roman jurists, praetors, and republican assemblies, and their influence on Rom

Question

oops meant to say at the end..Roman Law.

Answer 1

It is really a question with a longer answer than can be given here. These will give you an overview; then you'll should look at some books on Rome.

Answer 2

The Roman Republic had many different classes of people who existed within the city-state. Each one of them had differing rights, responsibilities, and status under Roman law.

] Government

Roman Kingdom
753 BC – 510 BC
Roman Republic
510 BC – 27 BC
Roman Empire
27 BC – 476 AD

Principate
Western Empire
Dominate
Eastern Empire


Ordinary Magistrates
Consul
Praetor
Quaestor
Promagistrate
Aedile
Tribune
Censor
Governor


Extraordinary Magistrates
Dictator
Magister Equitum
Consular tribune
Rex
Triumviri
Decemviri


Titles and Honors
Emperor Legatus
Dux
Officium
Praefectus
Vicarius
Vigintisexviri
Lictor
Magister Militum
Imperator
Princeps senatus
Pontifex Maximus
Augustus
Caesar
Tetrarch


Politics and Law
Roman Senate
Cursus honorum
Roman assemblies
Collegiality
Roman law
Roman citizenship
Auctoritas
Imperium


Roman republican government was a complex system, which seems to have had several redundancies within it, and was based on custom and tradition, as much as it was on law. The Roman system of government was loosely based on three elements: monarchial, where they had the two consuls; the oligarchial, which was the senate; and the democratical, which was the plebs voting.


[edit] Assemblies and Magistrates
The basis of republican government, at least in theory, was the division of responsibilities between various assemblies, whose members (or blocks of members) would vote on issues placed before their assembly. These assemblies included the Curiate Assembly, the Centuriate Assembly, the Tribal Assembly, the Plebeian Assembly and the Roman Senate. Membership in such assemblies was limited by such factors as class, order, family, and income.

Several of these assemblies had specific and specialized functions, such as the Curiate Assembly which conferred Imperium on the Roman magistrates. However, two of these assemblies dominated the political life of the Republic: the Plebeian Assembly, and the Roman Senate.

Within the various assemblies, there were a number of magistratus — magistrates, who performed specialized functions.

The Romans observed two principles for their magistrates: annuality, the observation of a one-year term, and collegiality, the holding of the same office by at least two men at the same time. The supreme office of consul, for instance, was always held by two men together, each of whom exercised a power of mutual veto over any actions by the other consul. If the entire Roman Army took the field, it was always under the command of the two consuls who alternated days of command. Many offices were held by more than two men; in the late Republic there were 8 praetors a year and 20 quaestors.

The office of dictator was an exception to annuality and collegiality, and the offices of Censors to annuality. In times of military emergency a single dictator was chosen for a term of 6 months to have sole command of the Roman state. On a regular, but not annual basis two censors were elected: every five years for a term of 18 months.


[edit] Evolution of Republican government
During the early and middle Republic, the Roman Senate, highest in prestige and being composed of the aristocratic, rich, and politically influential (towards the end of the Republic, it was exclusively composed of ex-magistrates), was predominant in the state.

During the later years of the Republic, a division developed within the Senate with two factions arising: the Optimates and the Populares. The Optimates held to the traditional forms of Roman government, while the Populares were those who used the fact that the Plebeian Assembly was the only body capable of passing binding laws (plebiscites) on the Republic, to pursue political influence outside the Senate. Since the Senate controlled the finances of the state, this led to conflicts between the Senate and the Plebeian Assembly. Many ambitious politicians used these conflicts to further their political career, advancing themselves as champions either of "Roman tradition", or of "The People".


[edit] Military
Main article: Military history of ancient Rome
The Roman legion formed the backbone of Roman military power. Rome used its legions to expand its borders to eventually dominate most of Europe and the area around the Mediterranean Sea.

The Roman legion exhibited high levels of discipline, training and professionalism. It was a standardized, military machine, in which the heroics and bravery of individuals were secondary to the function of the army as a whole. Equipment, tactics, organization, and military law were uniformly implemented. Procedures for everything from training and marching to camp building were laid out specifically, tasks allocated, and each unit and man knew his role and responsibilities within the army as a whole.

The early republic had no standing army. Instead, legions would be conscripted as needed (the term Legion comes from the Latin term Legio — "muster" or "levy"), put into the field to fight the war for which they had been created, and would then disband back to their civilian lives, which for most meant farming. Troops would be levied from Rome and its surrounding colonies, each which would be responsible for providing a particular number of soldiers. Such conscripts were theoretically taken only from those men who were property/land holders wealthy enough to equip themselves, although in time of dire military need this requirement was overlooked. This made the Roman Legion less expensive to the state, and ensured that the Legions were fighting to preserve their own property and way of life as much as trying to protect their country.

In the later republic, Gaius Marius instituted the Marian reforms (107 BC) which completely altered the form of the Legion. Marius restructured the standard legion and updated its equipment and tactical doctrines for modern warfare. He also recast the legions as a standing professional Roman army whose ranks were open to volunteers from any class. Marius did this to to address the new reality that Rome needed dedicated professional armies for extended campaigns lasting years (and not just a season), and to address the severe shortage of eligible middle class landholder recruits whose existence had been decimated by economic changes within Roman society, and the battlefield casualties inflicted by Rome's prolonged military campaigns. Now, instead of being a short term landholder recruit fighting to defend his own home and property, the typical Roman legionnaire was a lower-class "career soldier" who had enlisted for a period of 20 years, working towards a "pension" which was a land grant provided by the state by tradition (but not guaranteed by law) at the end of their service. The fact that such pensions were not guaranteed by law, but had to be proposed before the Senate by the Senator-General who was disbanding his legion(s) had the subtle, but important, effect of refocusing the loyalty of the legionary, who now fought as much for his General who could guarantee his "pension" as for the country.

Each time Rome conquered new lands, the territory would be sectioned off into one or more provinces, under the administration of a Roman governor, chosen annually by the Senate. He would be awarded a promagisterial rank, either proconsular or propraetorial, depending on the size and importance of the province (see Roman provinces for list of governor's ranks). In the later Republic, newly acquired land was often partly used to settle the discharged veterans of the military campaign who had earned their "land grant". This not only "paid off" the army, but had the added benefit of settling Roman people, with Roman customs, bringing Roman culture to newly conquered people: a form of "cultural imperialism" as well as a military one; see Cultural Romanization.

Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome. The development of Roman law covers more than one thousand years from the law of the twelve tables (from 449 BC) to the Corpus Juris Civilis of Emperor Justinian I (around 530). Roman law as preserved in Justinian's codes became the basis of legal practice in the Byzantine Empire and—later—in continental Europe.

According to Jenő Szmodis's research (2005) the ancient roots of the Roman Law derive directly from the Etruscan religion, which puts great emphasis on the rituality and is rather formality-centred concerning its nature. As evidence, Szmodis drafts the structure of the bi-rooted Roman culture (Etruscan and Italian origin), then it verifies its Etruscan descent through the description of certain phenomena and institutions. (J. Szmodis: The Reality of the Law - From the Etruscan Religion to the Postmodern Theories of Law; Ed. Kairosz, Budapest, 2005.; http://www.jogiforum.hu/publikaciok/231 )

Using the term Roman law in a broader sense, one may say that Roman law is not only the legal system of ancient Rome but the law that was applied throughout most of Europe until the end of the 18th century. In some countries like Germany the practical application of Roman law lasted even longer. For these reasons, many modern civil law systems in Europe and elsewhere are heavily influenced by Roman law. This is especially true in the field of private law. Even the English and North American Common law owes some debt to Roman law although Roman law exercised much less influence on the English legal system than on the legal systems of the continent The influence of Roman law is shown by the wealth of legal terminology, retained by all legal systems, like stare decisis, culpa in contrahendo[1] or pacta sunt servanda.

Gaius (floruit AD 130–180) was a celebrated Roman jurist. Scholars know very little of his personal life. It is impossible to discover even his full name, Gaius or Caius being merely his personal name (praenomen). As with his name it is difficult to ascertain the span of his life, but it is safe to assume he lived from A.D. 110 to at least A.D. 179, since he wrote on legislation passed within that time.

From internal evidence in his works it may be gathered that he flourished in the reigns of the emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. His works were thus composed between the years 130 and 180. Most academics hold the view that Gaius lived in some provincial town, and hence we find no contemporary notices of his life or works. It has also been theorised that he was a Roman who left for a career in the provinces, or that he was in fact the jurist Sextus Pomponius writing under another name. After his death, however, his writings were recognized as of great authority, and the emperor Valentinian II named him in the Law of Citations, along with Papinian, Ulpian, Modestinus and Paulus, as one of the five jurists whose opinions were to be followed by judicial officers in deciding cases. The works of these jurists accordingly became most important sources of Roman law.

Besides the Institutes, which are a complete exposition of the elements of Roman law, Gaius was the author of a treatise on the Edicts of the Magistrates, of Commentaries on the Twelve Tables, and on the important Lex Papia Poppaea, and several other works. His interest in the antiquities of Roman law is apparent, and for this reason his work is most valuable to the historian of early institutions. In the disputes between the two schools of Roman jurists he generally attached himself to that of the Sabinians, who were said to be followers of Ateius Capito, of whose life we have some account in the Annals of Tacitus, and to advocate a strict adherence as far as possible to ancient rules, and to resist innovation. Many quotations from the works of Gaius occur in the Digest of Justinian, and so acquired a permanent place in the system of Roman law; while a comparison of the Institutes of Justinian with those of Gaius shows that the whole method and arrangement of the later work were copied from that of the earlier, and very numerous passages are word for word the same. Probably, for the greater part of the period of three centuries which elapsed between Gaius and Justinian, whose Institutes had been the familiar textbook of all students of Roman law.

Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, either before it was mustered or more typically in the field, or an elected magistrate assigned duties that varied depending on the historical period. The magistracy was called the praetura (praetorship). Its functions were described by the adjective: the praetoria potestas or praetorium imperium (praetorian power and authority) and the praetoria ius, a body of legal precedents set down by the praetors. Praetorium as a substantive meant the location from which the praetor exercised his authority, either the headquarters of his castra, the courthouse (tribunal) of his judiciary, or the city hall of his provincial governorship