WEBVTT

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- [Instructor] Talk a little bit about

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the social and political
structures of ancient Rome.

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It's important to keep
in mind that ancient Rome

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wasn't just this static
thing that never changed.

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It existed for over 1,000 years,

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from its period from its
founding as a kingdom,

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if you believe the founding myth,

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founded by Romulus in 753 BCE.

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Most historians don't
accept that founding myth.

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But then it became they
overthrew their last king

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in 509 BCE, Tarquin the Proud,

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and then they established
the Roman republic,

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which was eventually then turned into

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an empire by Julius Caesar and Augustus.

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And so, whenever you have
something this long lasting,

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you could imagine the social and

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the political structures
evolved over time.

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But let's begin with the
period when it was a kingdom,

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because even then there were some things

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that were noteworthy and some social

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and political structures that continued

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into the republic period and
even when it was an empire.

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So one interesting thing is that

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when we typically think of kings,

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we think of it as being
dynastic, that if I am king,

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then my oldest son, or
maybe in certain cultures,

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my oldest daughter might
become king or queen.

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But turns out, that many of the,

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especially the early kings
of the Roman kingdom,

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were actually elected.

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They had a lot of power, all
the power resided in them,

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they were the executive, the legislative,

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they were the judicial, they
even had religious power.

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But it's interesting to think
of the idea of elected kings.

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Now all of them weren't elected.

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Several of them were dynastic
but it is an interesting idea.

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Now another idea that emerged during

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the Roman kingdom is
this idea of citizenship.

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Now it's important to realize today,

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in a lot of countries, we think of

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oh, everyone who's a formal
resident of that country,

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you can view them as a citizen,

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or most of the people, you
could think of citizens,

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especially maybe people born in a country.

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But that was not the case in Rome.

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And when we go into this Roman kingdom,

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I'll remind, and I do this in many videos,

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we're not thinking about
this sprawling Roman empire

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that we'll see several
hundred years later.

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At that time, Rome was really
just in control of Rome

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and over time, especially
during the republic period,

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it starts to expand and
eventually have hegemony

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or dominant power over the Mediterranean

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or parts of the Middle East, I should say,

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and in southern Europe.

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But let's go back to this kingdom period.

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And what I'm about to
draw actually stays true

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through most of Roman civilization.

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If this white circle are the people

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who lived under Roman rule,
only a subset were citizens.

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So this were the citizens.

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These were male landowners,
citizens right over here.

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And within the citizens,
they were further divided

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between patricians,

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and you can think of them as the nobility,

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these were people and
they became patrician

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based on what family they were born into.

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And it's based on this idea and the word

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literally comes from this
idea that you are descended

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from the founding fathers of Rome.

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And then all the other
citizens were the plebians.

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So all of the other
ones were the plebians,

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right over here.

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And, as we'll see, over the patricians

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held most of the power
and most of the wealth

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for a significant amount of time.

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But as we go through the republic period,

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the plebians start to gain
more and more and more power

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and many plebians also
start to accrue wealth

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and some patrician
families do end up poor.

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But, for the most part, the patricians,

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they're the nobility,

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they're associated with the
aristocracy, but the plebians,

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some of them become wealthy
and powerful as well.

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Now you're probably saying what about

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all of these other people?

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Well, you could imagine
non-landholding males,

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you could imagine women,
you could imagine slaves.

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And even though we aggrandize Rome

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and there were many very
interesting things about Rome,

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one of the legacies that
Rome had, which maybe

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as the historians reflect a
little bit more negatively on,

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is that Roman society was
built on the idea of slaves.

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And most of the slaves were
people that they subjugated

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people that they conquered in other lands.

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They might have been people who at least

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the authorities thought they
committed a crime of some kind.

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But the society was built on slavery.

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So you had a large
segment of the population

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that had no rights, that
were considered slaves.

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Later on, they start to
gain some very, very basic,

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rudimentary rights, but you
can imagine, as a slave,

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close to no rights whatsoever.

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Now, other institutions that developed

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during the time of the Roman kingdom were

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an institution that developed at the time

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of the Roman kingdom was the
Senate, was the Roman Senate.

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And under the king, the
king had most of the power,

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but once the Roman
republic gets established,

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it's actually the Senate where
most of the power resides.

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Now, this right over here, is a depiction,

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that came much later, of the Roman Senate.

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And it's important to realize that

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the Senate was not the only institution

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or the only position
within the Roman republic.

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The consuls were there

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and you could view the
consuls as the executives,

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or if you think of a system
like the United States,

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the executive power
resides in the President,

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so it's analogous to the President.

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They are running the government.

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They are also commander
in chief of the military.

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Now, consuls, even
though it was considered

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a very high title, their
power was very limited.

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There was two of them at any given time,

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so I just drew the two consuls.

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They could veto each
other at any given time

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to keep any one consul
from getting too powerful

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and they only had a one year term.

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And during that one year,
they would alternate

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on a monthly basis on who
was the more senior consul.

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So you could imagine the consuls

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were limited in many, many, many ways.

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And even though the Senate officially

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was supposed to advise the consuls,

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in practice, what the Senate told

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the consuls to do, the
consuls actually did.

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So another question is,
well, who gets to be a consul

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and who gets to be a Senate?

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Well, in the early days, the Senate

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was mainly or it was
patrician, and over time,

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as plebians start to
exert more and more power,

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especially as we go into
the mid and later republic,

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Roman republic, you start to have

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more wealthy plebians in the Senate.

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But in general, the Senate is
composed of the aristocracy.

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So wealthy and influential
men of Rome are in the Senate.

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How are they selected for the Senate?

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Well, in the early days,
it was actually the consuls

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who selected the Senators.

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Later on, or shortly thereafter,

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and for most of the
republic period of Rome,

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it was a position called the censor

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that decided who got to
actually serve in the Senate.

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Now another question you might say

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is well, who's deciding
who gets to be a consul,

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who gets to be a censor,

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and there's many other of
these executive positions

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that are generally called magistrates,

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and that came from one
of the assemblies of

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the Roman republic, in particular,
the Centuriate assembly.

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Centuriate assembly,

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which elected consuls,
the senior executives,

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the senior magistrates,

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is one way that you could think
about it, they elected them.

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And who was in the Centuriate assembly

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and why did they call it
the Centuriate assembly?

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Well, it started off as citizen soldiers

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being grouped into groups of
100 and on a particular issue,

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including who should be elected consul,

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this group of 100 would vote,

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whatever the majority would
be, then their representative

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to the assembly would vote that way.

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So they wouldn't just
select a representative

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and that representative
could do anything they want.

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They would tell that
representative how to vote,

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but that's why it was called
a Centuriate assembly,

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because you had these groups of 100.

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And a lot of their power was
in electing these consuls

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and these other senior magistrates.

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But that wasn't the only assembly.

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You also had the tribunal assembly.

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This is breaking up the Roman population,

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the Roman citizenry, by tribe.

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And this had both plebians
and patricians in it.

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So this is the tribunal assembly.

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You also have the Plebian
Council, this was only plebians.

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You also have the Plebian Council.

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And even though, all of these,
and they evolved over time.

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Over time, the plebians started
to get more and more power,

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the general idea, especially
during the Roman republic,

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is that the Senate is
where the important debates

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on foreign policy happened,
the important debates

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on what Rome should become as a society,

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as a republic, and
eventually as an empire.