Search Results: Patrician

The 4th century BCE Greek philosopher Aristotle once wrote in his essay Politics, “If liberty and equality…are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.” Regrettably...

The aedile was an official of the Roman Republic who maintained Roman roads, supervised the grain and water supply, and provided the city's citizens with games among other duties. Initially, they were plebeian and elected annually by the...

Tribune was a title of various offices in ancient Rome, the two most important of which were the tribuni plebis and tribuni militum. The military tribunes were responsible for many administrative and logistics duties, and could lead a section...

Roman laws covered all facets of daily life. They were concerned with crime and punishment, land and property ownership, commerce, the maritime and agricultural industries, citizenship, sexuality and prostitution, slavery and manumission...

In 509 BCE, with the exit of the last Etruscan king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the Roman people were presented with a unique opportunity, an opportunity that would eventually have an immense impact on the rest of Europe for centuries to...

The quaestor ("the one who asks questions") was the oldest and lowest office on the cursus honorum, or "path of honor" in ancient Rome. Considered a stepping stone to higher office in the Roman government, the duties of the quaestor ranged...

A censor was one of two senior magistrates in the city of ancient Rome who supervised public morals, maintained the list of citizens and their tax obligations known as the census, and gave out lucrative public contracts and tax collecting...

The Twelve Tables (aka Law of the Twelve Tables) was a set of laws inscribed on 12 bronze tablets created in ancient Rome in 451 and 450 BCE. They were the beginning of a new approach to laws which were now passed by government and written...

The Roman Senate functioned as an advisory body to Rome's magistrates and was composed of the city's most experienced public servants and society's elite. Its decisions carried great weight, even if these were not always converted into laws...

Rome began as a small city on the banks of the Tiber River in Italy. The Latin tribes (also known as the Latini or Latians) inhabited the region c. 1000 BCE but the founding of the city is dated to 753 BCE. The family was the center and foundation...