Rome had different governments throughout the many years the empire existed. Sometimes they had a monarchy and were ruled by an emperor or one person. Other times they were a republic with a three part government. The Roman republic gave the power to the people of Rome. In fact, the word republic means a government where the people have the power. The United States used their idea of a three part government when writing the Constitution and making the plan for our country in 1776.
An important part of Rome's government were the laws people had to follow. These were written down and called The Twelve Tables. It was the first time the laws of Rome were written down and made clear for all citizens. The poor people demanded to have them written down. It included the idea that a person was innocent until proven guilty. The United States also wrote down laws for our country. We started with the Bill of Rights and the end product was our Constitution. Rome also had the idea of citizenship. All citizens voted, paid taxes, and served in a legion if needed. Each group had a special name.
~ The patricians - rich landowners, could vote, be a Senator or Consul.
~ The plebeians – poor workers, could vote but had less power.
Rome had a three part government that shared power.
It went through many changes over time.
1) Executive Branch - The executive branch in ancient Rome was made up of two consuls that were both rich (patricians). They only served one year so they could not abuse power. This limited them from doing too much damage if they were a bad leader. After many, many years, poor people (plebeians) were able to become consuls. The U.S. has a president & vice president who serve four years.
2) Legislative Branch - This part of the Roman government was the most important and powerful. It consisted of 300 senators that served for life. They had to be rich people (patricians). This group made laws, held debates, started building projects, and gave advice to the consuls. Eventually, the plebeians or poor people protested that the patricians had too much power. They were able to set up a group called an Assembly to be involved but they did not have as much power as the Senators. However, as a result of protesting, the plebeians were given a few more rights. The U.S. has Senators and Representatives from each state but they must be re-elected and do not serve for life.
3) Judicial Branch - At first the consuls acted as the judges in Rome. Over time judges were appointed to be in charge of trials. We also have judges & a court system in the U.S. Innocent until proven guilty is a very important idea we copied from them for our trials in the U.S.