Roman social and political structures | World History | Khan Academy

- [Instructor] Talk a little bit about

the social and political
structures of ancient Rome.

It's important to keep
in mind that ancient Rome

wasn't just this static
thing that never changed.

It existed for over 1,000 years,

from its period from its
founding as a kingdom,

if you believe the founding myth,

founded by Romulus in 753 BCE.

Most historians don't
accept that founding myth.

But then it became they
overthrew their last king

in 509 BCE, Tarquin the Proud,

and then they established
the Roman republic,

which was eventually then turned into

an empire by Julius Caesar and Augustus.

And so, whenever you have
something this long lasting,

you could imagine the social and

the political structures
evolved over time.

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

because even then there were some things

that were noteworthy and some social

and political structures that continued

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

So one interesting thing is that

when we typically think of kings,

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

then my oldest son, or
maybe in certain cultures,

my oldest daughter might
become king or queen.

But turns out, that many of the,

especially the early kings
of the Roman kingdom,

were actually elected.

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

they were the executive, the legislative,

they were the judicial, they
even had religious power.

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

Now all of them weren't elected.

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

Now another idea that emerged during

the Roman kingdom is
this idea of citizenship.

Now it's important to realize today,

in a lot of countries, we think of

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

you can view them as a citizen,

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

especially maybe people born in a country.

But that was not the case in Rome.

And when we go into this Roman kingdom,

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

we're not thinking about
this sprawling Roman empire

that we'll see several
hundred years later.

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

and over time, especially
during the republic period,

it starts to expand and
eventually have hegemony

or dominant power over the Mediterranean

or parts of the Middle East, I should say,

and in southern Europe.

But let's go back to this kingdom period.

And what I'm about to
draw actually stays true

through most of Roman civilization.

If this white circle are the people

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

So this were the citizens.

These were male landowners,
citizens right over here.

And within the citizens,
they were further divided

between patricians,

and you can think of them as the nobility,

these were people and
they became patrician

based on what family they were born into.

And it's based on this idea and the word

literally comes from this
idea that you are descended

from the founding fathers of Rome.

And then all the other
citizens were the plebians.

So all of the other
ones were the plebians,

right over here.

And, as we'll see, over the patricians

held most of the power
and most of the wealth

for a significant amount of time.

But as we go through the republic period,

the plebians start to gain
more and more and more power

and many plebians also
start to accrue wealth

and some patrician
families do end up poor.

But, for the most part, the patricians,

they're the nobility,

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

some of them become wealthy
and powerful as well.

Now you're probably saying what about

all of these other people?

Well, you could imagine
non-landholding males,

you could imagine women,
you could imagine slaves.

And even though we aggrandize Rome

and there were many very
interesting things about Rome,

one of the legacies that
Rome had, which maybe

as the historians reflect a
little bit more negatively on,

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

And most of the slaves were
people that they subjugated

people that they conquered in other lands.

They might have been people who at least

the authorities thought they
committed a crime of some kind.

But the society was built on slavery.

So you had a large
segment of the population

that had no rights, that
were considered slaves.

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

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

close to no rights whatsoever.

Now, other institutions that developed

during the time of the Roman kingdom were

an institution that developed at the time

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

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

but once the Roman
republic gets established,

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

Now, this right over here, is a depiction,

that came much later, of the Roman Senate.

And it's important to realize that

the Senate was not the only institution

or the only position
within the Roman republic.

The consuls were there

and you could view the
consuls as the executives,

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

the executive power
resides in the President,

so it's analogous to the President.

They are running the government.

They are also commander
in chief of the military.

Now, consuls, even
though it was considered

a very high title, their
power was very limited.

There was two of them at any given time,

so I just drew the two consuls.

They could veto each
other at any given time

to keep any one consul
from getting too powerful

and they only had a one year term.

And during that one year,
they would alternate

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

So you could imagine the consuls

were limited in many, many, many ways.

And even though the Senate officially

was supposed to advise the consuls,

in practice, what the Senate told

the consuls to do, the
consuls actually did.

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

and who gets to be a Senate?

Well, in the early days, the Senate

was mainly or it was
patrician, and over time,

as plebians start to
exert more and more power,

especially as we go into
the mid and later republic,

Roman republic, you start to have

more wealthy plebians in the Senate.

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

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

How are they selected for the Senate?

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

who selected the Senators.

Later on, or shortly thereafter,

and for most of the
republic period of Rome,

it was a position called the censor

that decided who got to
actually serve in the Senate.

Now another question you might say

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

who gets to be a censor,

and there's many other of
these executive positions

that are generally called magistrates,

and that came from one
of the assemblies of

the Roman republic, in particular,
the Centuriate assembly.

Centuriate assembly,

which elected consuls,
the senior executives,

the senior magistrates,

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

And who was in the Centuriate assembly

and why did they call it
the Centuriate assembly?

Well, it started off as citizen soldiers

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

including who should be elected consul,

this group of 100 would vote,

whatever the majority would
be, then their representative

to the assembly would vote that way.

So they wouldn't just
select a representative

and that representative
could do anything they want.

They would tell that
representative how to vote,

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

because you had these groups of 100.

And a lot of their power was
in electing these consuls

and these other senior magistrates.

But that wasn't the only assembly.

You also had the tribunal assembly.

This is breaking up the Roman population,

the Roman citizenry, by tribe.

And this had both plebians
and patricians in it.

So this is the tribunal assembly.

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

You also have the Plebian Council.

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

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

the general idea, especially
during the Roman republic,

is that the Senate is
where the important debates

on foreign policy happened,
the important debates

on what Rome should become as a society,

as a republic, and
eventually as an empire.