Did ancient rome have political parties?

Answer 1

Sure they did. However, they were more like personality cults than the political parties we have today. That's why they seldom survived the deaths of their founders.

Answer 2

About 509 BC Rome started to be populistic republic. These times emerged the two major political powers patricians, and plebeians that fought with each other sometimes using very “dirty” methods. Generally during these times Rome was ruled by patricians or some dictators. Since then Rome was democracy with two strong political parties: plebeians, and patricians which have very balanced power. Political system was a little complicated but guaranteed good control over state officials. An effect of democracy was very stable expansion of Rome.

Political evolution of Ancient Rome - http://www.geocities.com/historymech/rome.html

Answer 3

Ancient Roman Parties

Answer 4

Not in the sense that we know political parties. About 100 BCE, there were the followers of Marius and Sulla. They had different ideas about who should be a citizen or serve in the army. Julius Caesar was a young man who followed Marius. It was only because he was so young and scarce that Sulla did not kill him.

Before that, there were the plebes and the patricians. The patricians were the noble-born who were entitled to sit in the senate. They even kept the law secret to themselves in order to get the benefit of it. The upshot was that the plebes won the right to have the law inscribed on 10 tables of bronze and exhibited publicly. They also got two new magistrates called tribunes to represent the plebeians in the senate.

So the political history of ancient Rome is all about parties of classes of people and parties of adherents to political leaders. There were no "liberals," "conservatives," "whigs."

Answer 5

Yes, populares and optimates.
http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/government/images/optimates.htm