In the 6th century BC, Servius Tullius (578 – 534 BC) was elected the sixth king of Ancient Rome after appropriate trials. There are two versions regarding its origin. According to the generally accepted tradition, he was the son of a noble woman from the Latin city of Corniculum, who was captured by the Romans (according to another version, refuted by Titus Livius, he was the son of a slave). The boy grew up in the house of Tarquin and enjoyed the greatest love and honor not only at court, but also among senators and the people. The king gave his daughter in marriage to him. When Tarquinius was killed by the sons of Ancus Marcius, Servius Tullius, taking advantage of his popularity and with the assistance of Tanaquil, the widow of the late king, seized power with the approval of the Senate. According to another less common version (from the speech of Emperor Claudius in the Senate), Servius Tullius is none other than Mastarna, an Etruscan adventurer who was expelled from Etruria and settled in Rome, where he changed his name and achieved royal power. Sometimes legend calls the Roman god of blacksmiths Vulcan the father of Servius Tullius.
Roman tradition associates the name of Servius Tullius with reforms that contributed to the establishment of the state system. The most important of them is the centuriate reform, according to which clan tribes were replaced by territorial ones, and plebeians were introduced into the Roman community. He divided the territory of the Roman state into 4 tribes - territorial districts. Without abolishing the comitia curiata, Servius Tullius introduced the comitia centuriata, that is, meetings of centuries - hundreds, the main military unit, and gave them the highest legislative, judicial and electoral power.
Next, Servius Tullius introduced a property qualification and divided all Roman citizens into classes according to property qualification (income):
- riders (equites);
- Romans with a qualification of 100,000 asses;
- Romans with a qualification of 75,000 asses;
- Romans with a qualification of 50,000 asses;
- Romans with a qualification of 25,000 asses;
- Romans with a qualification of 11,000 asses;
- proletarians.
Thus, an aristocracy of wealth was established to replace the aristocracy of kinship. Formally, the “super-rich,” that is, the horsemen, and the “super-poor,” that is, the proletarians, were not included in the classes. Horsemen (or equites) are one of the privileged classes in Ancient Rome. Horsemen had different meanings at different times in the history of Ancient Rome, which is why it is necessary to distinguish between several periods. Initially - in the tsarist era and in the early republican period - it was the patrician nobility who fought on horseback. Horsemen in the army of the Roman kings wore a tunic with a red stripe, an embroidered cloak and special red strap shoes. Over time, all this, with some amendments, became the distinctive signs of belonging to patricians, senators and magistrates. In the early era, there was no clear distinction between the classes of senators and equestrians. According to the reform of Servius Tullius in the 6th century BC, horsemen, allocated to the 18 centuries, formed part of the highest qualifying rank of Roman citizens. The first duty of each class was to field a certain number of centuries; only one century was required of the proletarians. The meeting began to take place on the Champ de Mars, where military reviews were held. Each century received one vote. For the meeting's decision to become law, 98 votes in favor were required. The Assembly passed laws, heard appeals, and elected officials. The division of the Roman army into triarii, principi and hastati was based on classes.
Servius Tullius waged successful wars with Veii and other Etruscan cities. He is also credited with carrying out religious reform and building the city wall, the remains of which survive among the structures of a later era. Under him, the city's borders were significantly expanded (all seven hills were included in the city). After the reforms, Servius Tullius was killed as a result of a conspiracy led by his father-in-law Lucius Tarquinius the Proud (son of Tarquinius Priscus), who became king after Servius Tullius. However, the attempt at one-man, authoritarian rule was stopped by a popular uprising in 509 BC. Lucius Tarquin the Proud fled and a republic was proclaimed.
The emergence of the state in Ancient Rome
The time of the founding of the city of Rome, which historical tradition associates with the names of the legendary Romulus and Remus and dates back to 753 BC, is characterized by the processes of decomposition of the primitive communal system among the tribes that settled near the Tiber River. The unification through wars of three tribes (similar to Athenian synoicism) of the ancient Latins, Sabines and Etruscans led to the formation of a community in Rome (civitas). Members of the oldest Roman families were called patricians.
The development of cattle breeding and agriculture entailed property differentiation and the emergence of private property. Patriarchal slavery also arises, the sources of which are mainly wars, and at the same time the beginnings of the class division of society.
With property differentiation, the social structure of a community becomes more complex. Individual wealthy aristocratic families stand out in the clans. The best plots of land, which are still considered the collective property of the community, are transferred to them. They also receive a large share of military spoils. At the same time, a separate social group of clients appears from impoverished community members, accepted into the clans of aliens, and, sometimes, freed slaves. Being personally free, but limited in rights, they were under the patronage of patrician patrons, for which, in turn, they had to provide them with property and personal services.
Favorable climatic conditions for cattle breeding and agriculture, a favorable geographical location from the point of view of exchange and trade, and wars attracted an ever-increasing newcomer population from neighboring tribes to Rome. They were not part of the Roman community. The limited land fund under these conditions jeopardized the very well-being of the community. A natural possibility that would at least temporarily resolve the contradiction that had arisen was the transformation of the community into a closed organization that did not allow new families or persons into its composition and protected the rights of only its members. The newcomer population who found themselves outside the Roman clan community was called the plebs. The plebs were also replenished by its former members who had gone bankrupt and lost contact with the community. The plebeians remained free, but were limited in property and personal rights. They could receive land plots only from the free part of the community land fund, did not have the right to marry members of the community and were deprived of the opportunity to participate in the management of its affairs. At the head of the Roman community was an elected leader - the river. Although by tradition he was called a king (hence the “period of kings”), his powers were limited. Like the Athenian basileus, they were reduced mainly to military, priestly and judicial. The governing body was the council of clan elders - the Senate. General issues were considered at the people's assembly. However, his decisions could be rejected by the Senate and the Rex. The latter could issue generally binding regulations.
In the organization of the Roman community, attention is drawn to its harmony. The community included 300 clans, united in 30 curiae, which, in turn, were included in 3 tribes. If the tribes arose as a result of the unification of three tribes, then the harmonious organization of the community bears a clear imprint of conscious activity caused by the need to “close” the community in the conditions of the limited land fund and the need to expand it by military means. The latter is confirmed by the fact that popular assemblies were convened in curiae (curiat comitia). Each curia in the assembly was represented only by soldiers (100 foot and 10 horse) and had one vote.
The militarized nature of the Roman clan organization allowed it to maintain its closed character for some time. But processes were developing in Rome that would inevitably hasten its collapse. The growth in the number of the plebs, the concentration in their hands of handicraft production and trade turned the plebeians into a unique, albeit ethnically variegated, but with a predominance of the Etruscan element, community. The social importance and strength of this community increased. Within it, as well as in the Roman community, property differentiation develops. Plebeians appear - rich artisans and traders who begin to play an increasing role in the economy of Rome. They acutely feel their lack of rights. At the same time, the number of poor plebeians is increasing, many of whom become unpaid debtors to the patricians and fall into debt bondage. The impoverished part of the plebs, in the face of an increasing number of slaves, becomes an even more dangerous force for the Roman community.
The situation was complicated by the fact that the Romans were forced to involve plebeians in military campaigns. The developing discrepancy between the large role that the plebs began to play in the life of Rome and its powerless position gave rise to the struggle of the plebeians for equal rights with members of the Roman clan community, weakened by internal contradictions, represented by its leading force - the patricians. The vicissitudes of this struggle are unknown, but its result is obvious - it ended in victory, destroying the closed Roman clan organization and thereby clearing the way for the formation of a state.
Thus, the emergence of the state in Ancient Rome was the result of general processes of decomposition of the primitive communal system, generated by the development of private property, property and class differentiation. But these processes were accelerated by the struggle of the plebeians for equal rights with members of the Roman community, which finally destroyed the foundations of the tribal system of Ancient Rome. The polis as a political community is being replaced by the state.
Historical tradition connects the consolidation of the victory of the plebeians and the emergence of the state in Ancient Rome with the reforms of Rex Servius Tullius, dating back to the 6th century. BC, although, obviously, these reforms were the result of rather long-term changes in the social life of Rome, lasting perhaps a century.
Servius reforms Tullius laid the property and territorial principles as the basis for the social organization of Rome.
The entire free population of Rome - both members of the Roman clans and plebeians - was divided into property categories. The division was based on the size of the land plot owned by a person (later, with the advent of money in the 4th century BC, a monetary valuation of property was introduced). Those who had a full allotment were included in the first category, those with three quarters of the allotment were included in the second, etc. In addition, from the first category a special group of citizens was separated - horsemen, and the landless - proletarians were separated into a separate, sixth category.
Each rank fielded a certain number of armed men, from whom they formed centuries- hundreds. Horsemen made up centuries of cavalry, 1st-3rd ranks - heavily armed infantry, 4th-5th ranks - lightly armed infantry. The proletarians fielded one unarmed century. The total number of centuries was 193. Of these, 18 centuries of horsemen and 80 centuries of the first class made up more than half of all centuries.
The most important thing in this part of the reforms was that the centuries became not only a military, but also a political unit. Since the time of the reforms, along with the curiat people's assemblies, people's assemblies began to be convened by centuries (centuriate comitia), where each century had one vote and voting, according to tradition, began with the centuries of horsemen and the first category, and with their unanimity, naturally, ended with this. The decision of the people's assembly in the centuries received the force of law, and this assembly relegated the people's assembly in the curia to a secondary role.
The second part of the reforms - the division of the free population according to territorial principles - intensified the process of weakening consanguineous ties that underlay the primitive communal organization. In Rome, 4 urban and 17 rural territorial districts were formed, which retained the old name of the tribes - tribes. The tribe included both patricians and plebeians who lived in it and were subordinate to its elder. He also collected taxes from them. Somewhat later, the territorial tribes also began to convene their own meetings (tributary comitia), in which each tribe had one vote. Their role remained secondary for a long time, but the division of the population into tribes, in which patricians and plebeians bore the same responsibilities, testified to the emergence in the organization of public power in Rome of a territorial, rather than consanguineous, principle of its operation.
The reforms of Servius Tullius thus completed the process of breaking the foundations of the tribal system, replacing it with a new socio-political system based on territorial division and property differences. By including the plebeians in the “Roman people”, allowing them to participate in the centuriate and tribunate popular assemblies, they contributed to the consolidation of the free and ensured their dominance over the slaves. The emerging state became a form of such consolidation and domination. But at the same time, state power was directed against free proletarians.
The reforms attributed to Servius Tullius summed up the most important stage in the process of state formation, but did not complete it. This process developed both through the transformation of government bodies inherited from the clan organization and through the creation of new ones. It was based on the further consolidation of the free into the ruling class, which required the final elimination of the former differences between patricians and plebeians. The reforms of Servius Tullius allowed plebeians to participate in public assemblies, but did not completely eliminate their political and social restrictions. The next two centuries in the history of Rome are characterized by the continuation of the struggle of the plebeians for equal rights with the patricians.
Two main stages can be distinguished in this struggle. In the 5th century BC. The plebeians were successful in their attempt to limit the arbitrariness of officials, who, according to the surviving tradition, were pat-. rations. For these purposes, in 494 BC. The position of plebeian tribune was established. Plebeian tribunes, elected by plebeians up to 10 people, did not have administrative power, but had the right of veto - the right to prohibit the execution of the order of any official and even the resolution of the Senate. The second important achievement of the plebeians was the publication in 451-450. BC. Laws of the XII Tables, which limited the ability of patrician magistrates to arbitrarily interpret the rules of customary law. These laws testify to the almost complete equality of plebeians with patricians in civil rights - the word “plebeian” itself, judging by the exposition of the text of the Laws that has reached us, is mentioned in them only once in connection with the preservation of the ban on marriages between plebeians and patricians. However, this ban was soon imposed in 445 BC. was abolished by the Law of Canuleus.
The second stage dates back to the 4th century. BC, when the plebeians achieved the right to hold public office. In 367 BC. The law of Licinius and Sextius established that one of the two consuls (highest officials) had to be elected from the plebeians, and a number of laws of 364-337. BC. they were given the right to occupy other government positions. In the same century, laws were also issued that contributed to the consolidation of the plebeians and patricians. The said Law of Licinius and Sextius limited the amount of land that patricians could own from the public land fund, which increased the plebeians' access to this fund. Law of Petelius 326 BC. The debt bondage preserved by the Laws of the XII Tables, from which mainly the plebeians suffered, was abolished.
The end of the plebeian struggle for equality was the adoption in 287 BC. The Law of Hortensius, according to which the decisions of the plebeian assemblies of tribes began to apply not only to the plebeians and, therefore, received the same force of law as the decisions of the centuriate assemblies.
Reform of Servius Tullius
Introduction
1.The emergence of Roman statehood
2.Reform of Servius Tullius
Conclusion
Introduction
The topic of this work was not chosen by me by chance. This topic presents the researcher with a vast and extremely interesting field of activity. It is full of “blank spots”, open questions and bold hypotheses. However, not only the fascinating and problematic nature of the topic was the reason for writing this work, although the influence of these factors was undoubtedly great. The most important and decisive is the need to find in the darkness of centuries the origins, deep theories of the origin, formation and development of the state and with it the army, as an integral part of any state. In turn, all this has become the fundamental platform for the further development of forms of statehood, social structures of society and law. In addition, this work allows us to determine the place of Ancient Rome in the general historical process.
This work introduces the researcher not only to the reform of Servius Tullius itself, but also to the prerequisites that preceded the reform. The work introduces the social system of Ancient Rome before the reform of Servius Tullius and shows its changes in the process of reform, thereby revealing the mechanism of reform itself.
The reform of Servius Tullius was carried out as a military reform, but its social consequences went far beyond just military affairs, having a decisive role in the formation of ancient Roman statehood.
1. The emergence of Roman statehood.
Ancient Rome was originally a tribal community, which then turned into a slave-owning city-state (polis) that subjugated the entire Apennine Peninsula. Over time, Rome became a powerful power, which included a large part of Europe, the coast of North Africa, Egypt, Asia Minor and Syria. The Roman state is the last example of a slave-owner state. In the Roman slave-owning society, the contradictions of the slave-owning mode of production manifested themselves with particular force, which led to the emergence of feudal relations and the death of the once invincible Roman Empire.
The state-legal superstructure, reflecting and consolidating in the interests of the economically dominant class the main processes taking place in Roman slave society, underwent significant changes in its development. Therefore, when studying the Roman state and law, it is necessary to distinguish the following periods:
1. The disintegration of the clan system - military democracy - from the legendary date of the founding of Rome (753 BC) - until the expulsion of the last leader - Rex - Tarquin the Proud (509 BC). This period was characterized by a fierce class struggle between patricians and plebeians, the emergence of classes, the emergence of government bodies, which for a time coexisted with the old power of the patrician clan organization. It is to this period that the emergence of law dates back, the main source of which was the “Laws of the XII Tables”.
2.Roman Republic (III - I centuries BC).
During this period of the early Republic, there was a process of strengthening the Roman slave state and extending its dominance, first to the entire Apennine Peninsula, and then to many territories of the Mediterranean. As a result, during the late Republic, the old organs of state power were unable to keep the exploited masses of free citizens and slaves in obedience, as well as to administer the captured territories. The period from an agricultural community with a subsistence economy to the life of a maritime trading power with complex economic relations and sharp contrasts between wealth and poverty was accompanied by an unprecedented intensification of social contradictions and an intensification of class struggle. This led to the crisis and collapse of the Roman Empire.
Initially, Roman law applied only to Roman citizens. It had strong remnants of the primitive communal system; it was distinguished by its extreme formalism and the primitiveness of its institutions. Foreigners did not enjoy legal protection.
With the development of trade and commodity-money relations, the basic property rights of free foreigners (peregrines) who lived on Roman territory began to be recognized. At this time, the process of comprehensive legal substantiation of private property rights and detailed development of the basic relationships between ordinary commodity owners began.
3. The Roman Empire (1st century BC - 5th century AD) was a period of deep social upheaval and decomposition of Roman society. At the first stage, after the civil wars, the political system took the form of the Principate (27 BC - 284). There is some stabilization of the slave economy. Wars are being fought
only on the outskirts of the Empire. The trade and economic life of the provinces is developing rapidly. Roman private law reached its peak.
The aggravation of the class struggle, the further deepening of the crisis of the slave system led to the establishment of a military dictatorship, and at the second stage of the development of the Roman Empire, the state system became dominant (284 - 476).
Development of trade, new phenomena in economic relations
were reflected in a certain way in Roman private law. In turn, slave uprisings and civil wars required the establishment of harsh repressive measures to protect the class dominance of slave owners. The slave state takes into its own hands the prosecution for any encroachment on the foundations of the economic and political system, on the legal order established in the interests of the ruling class.
During the Empire, the first steps were taken, attempts to systematize legal norms.
The study of Roman law is possible by individual institutions or in chronological order, in close connection with the history of society. In this work, unlike the textbook, the presentation of Roman law is given inextricably with the military reforms of Servius Tullius.
The process of the emergence of the ancient Roman state was very long and very complex.
During the period of its emergence, Ancient Rome was a tribal community that settled on the banks of the Tiber on an area of about 3 sq. km.
The clan community was a related, economic and spiritual community of people. For a long time, such a community was also a cell of public self-government within the framework of the primitive communal system.
In the clan community there was no power separate from the clan itself.
At a meeting of all members of the clan, matters of common interest were considered and resolved, and the leader of the clan was elected. His power was based on personal authority and respect for all his relatives.
The development of productive forces led to the individualization of production and the emergence of private property of individual families. The growth of commodity production and exchange increased their property inequality. Public property was intensively inferior to the steadily developing private property. Rich families got the opportunity to exploit their relatives and fellow tribesmen.
The clan community is being replaced by a rural, neighboring community, which united people not on the basis of kinship, but on a territorial basis. Several clans made up a tribe. It had a common territory, had its own language, its own religious rituals. The organs of the clan system gradually began to break away from its roots in the nature of the people. This happened because property differences within the same clan turned the former community of interests into irreconcilable contradictions between members of the clan.
As F. Engils noted, the clan system has turned into its opposite: from an organization for the free regulation of its own affairs, it has become an organization for the robbery and oppression of its neighbors, and accordingly, its organs from instruments of the people's will are turning into independent organs of domination and oppression directed against their own people.
The organization of power within the framework of the primitive communal system of the era of its disintegration appears in the form of military democracy, because war and organization for war become regular functions of social life. The military commander is a necessary, permanent official. The clan nobility who has chosen her forms a council under the military commander. The people's assembly of this period is no longer able to ensure the equality of all members of the clan; it becomes an assembly of warriors. Women are excluded from participating in the discussion and resolution of public issues. Such were the authorities that developed under the new conditions of the tribal system of the Latin tribe.
The legend about the founding of Rome and the first military leaders (rex) - the Romans - is ethnological. Its purpose was to explain the emergence of the Roman community and its establishment, to connect the beginning of Rome with Ancient Greece, with one of the popular Greek legends about the Trojan War. According to this legend, a descendant of Aeneas, one of the participants in the Trojan War, Romulus founded in 753 BC .e city and gave it its name.
Regarding this legend, K. Marx wrote that the name of Romulus, as well as the name of its successors, denotes not specific persons, but eras. Indeed, a certain era in the life of Roman society is associated with the name of the Roman rex, marking the gradual destruction of the tribal system. Romulus, for example, is credited with organizing the Roman community: the people were divided into 3 tribes
(tribe). Each tribe included 10 curiae, each curia consisted of 10 genera, each genus had 10 families. Such a harmonious organization: 3 tribes, 30 curiae, 300 clans, 3000 families, as F. Engils noted, bears the stamp of artificial formation.
Each curia met in a meeting and, by majority vote, decided on such issues as the declaration of war, the election of a rex and investing him with supreme power, the consideration of complaints of persons sentenced to death, the approval of adoptions and wills. The decision of the Roman people was considered the decision for which the majority of curiae spoke, with each curia having one vote.
According to tradition, it was believed that Romulus created a senate consisting of 100 senators from among the representatives of the clans. The Senate began to approve the election of the rex, issues submitted to the People's Assembly were preliminary discussed, and directly carried out the administration of the Delimiric community.
The successor of Romulus, Numa Pompilius, who was a Sabine, is credited with the religious structure of Ancient Rome. Priestly colleges of pontiffins, augurs and fetials were established. The pontiffs exercised supreme supervision over the cult, were the guardians and interpreters of ancient customs, thus being the predecessors of the ancient jurists.
K. Marx and F. Engils Works, vol. 21, pp. 164-165
K. Marx and F. Engils Soch., vol. 21, p. 108
"Archive of Marx and Engils" vol.9 M.1941, p.159
K. Marx and F. Engils Works, vol. 21, pp. 126-127
During this period, the Roman community consisted of two main social groups: patricians and plebeians.
Patricians (from the Latin Pater - father) were members of the Roman clan community, who made up the indigenous population of Ancient Rome, which was actually considered the Roman people. They owned the land together and gathered in curiae to resolve important issues of their community. Family relations of the patrians were built on the basis of paternal law, in which the father of the family had absolute power over family members: inheritance of name and property went through the male line and family ties were recognized only through the father.
Plebeians (from Latin Plebs - common people) are the population of Ancient Rome, formed from the conquered inhabitants of other Latin communities, as well as from foreigners who voluntarily migrated to Rome. Therefore, they stood outside the clan organization of the Roman patrician community and could not participate in curiat meetings, were not represented in the Senate, did not have access to communal land, however, possessing small plots of private property.
In the family relations of the plebeians, remnants of maternal law remained for a long time, in which the mother was considered the head of the family and economic property. Apparently, that’s why until 445 BC. marriages between patricians and plebeians were not recognized as legal.
In the 7th century BC. clients appeared in Rome (from the Latin Clitnis - obedient). This social stratum was apparently formed from foreigners, freedmen and illegitimate children. Clients were personally dependent on the patricians, who in this case were called patrons. The client received land and livestock from the patron and entered the patron's family as a junior member, participating in the family cult and in meetings of the curiae, supporting his patron. The client was obliged to follow the patron to war and provide him with all material support.
Slavery during this period had a patriarchal form. It had not yet developed into a special mode of production, but was allocated to satisfy the needs of the patriarchal family. Therefore, slaves did not represent an independent social force, and the clan system was crushed as a result of the struggle between patricians and plebeians.
Considering the forms in which the state rises from the ruins of the clan organization, F. Engils noted that in Ancient Rome the clan society turns into a closed patricial community among the numerous plebeians who stand outside it, have no rights, but do not have all the responsibilities. The victory of the plebeians blew up the old clan system and on its ruins a state was erected in which both patricians and plebeians completely and clearly disappeared.
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S.I.Kovalev History of Rome.L.Publishing house of Leningrad State University, 1948, p. 51-56
K. Marx and F. Engils Soch., vol. 21, p. 169
2. Reforms of Servius Tulia
A powerful blow to the clan organization of the patricians was dealt in the middle of the 6th century BC. reform of Servius Tullius, the sixth rex in Roman historical tradition. It was carried out as a military reform, but its social consequences went far beyond just military affairs, having a decisive role in the formation of the ancient Roman state.
Initially, the Roman army was predominantly patrician. Plebeians who were outside the patrician community were also not included in the military organization. As a result, various discrepancies arose between the shepherding of Rome and the number of soldiers it fielded. And the policy of aggression required an increase in troops and expenses for waging wars.
The need to attract plebeians to military service became obvious. Therefore, the entire free population of Rome - patricians and plebeians - was divided on the basis of property (qualification) into 5 categories, each of which was obliged to field a certain number of military units - centuries.
Categories Number of exhibited Property qualification
Centuries in Yugera in Assy
1 80 from 20 100.000
2 20 20 - 15 75.000
3 20 15 - 20 50.000
4 20 15 - 5 25.000
5 30 less than 5 11.000
This is what the central organization looked like depending on the property qualification.
In addition to these centuries, there were another 18 centuries of horsemen from the richest Romans, and the qualifications were over 100,000 aces (of which six were exclusively patrician); as well as five unarmed centuries: two of artisans, two of musicians and one of the poor, who were called proletarians. Thus, there were 193 centuries in total.
The centuries of each of the five categories were divided into two parts: one of them, the old one, which included Romans from 45 to 60 years old, was intended for garrison service; the other - wars from 17 to 45 years old - the youngest, was intended for military campaigns.
To assess the property of citizens, the entire territory of Rome was divided into tribes, which, however, had nothing in common, except for the name, with the previous three tribal tribes. At first, apparently 21 new territorial tribes were created: four urban and seventeen rural. The tribes recruited troops and levied a tax for military needs - Tributum.
Over time, the army consisting of centuries began to take part in resolving issues related not only to war and military affairs. Gradually, the decisions of affairs that had previously been handled by the assembly of Roman patricians in curias passed to the centuriate assemblies. According to tradition, the centuries gathered outside the city limits, on the Campus Martius, and curiat meetings were held in the city.
A new type of popular assembly arose there, in which both patricians and plebeians were represented - centuriate assemblies.
Each of the 193 centuries had one vote when voting. The richest Romans, mainly patricians - equestrians and centuriates of the 1st category, had 98 votes, which provided them with an advantage in resolving any issues. However, the patricians prevailed in the centuriate assemblies not as such, due to their family privileges, but as the wealthiest landowners. Therefore, the plebeians could and have already ended up in these centuries. Consequently, the plebeians emerged from their isolated position in relation to the Roman community.
Thus, the important social significance of the reform of Servius Tullius was that it laid the foundations for a new organization of Roman society not only along tribal lines, but also along property and territorial lines.
However, the clan system was not yet completely crushed. The organization of power based on the clan system continued to exist next to the organization based on territorial and property characteristics, and only gradually, over the course of 200 years, it replaced the clan organization. This happened in the fierce struggle between the plebeians and the patricians, which became especially aggravated after the overthrow of the last rex. Military democracy as a form of organization of power during the period of disintegration of the clan system became irrevocably obsolete.
In the entire process of formation of the Roman state, wars, the military organization of the population and the armed forces occupied a significant place. The Roman state itself, its entire simple initial mechanism, was born in wars.
The creation of a new militia by Servius Tullius, which replaced the clan squads, served to destroy the ancient patriarchal system and formalize new orders of a political nature. By eliminating the tribal division of the population and dividing the entire society, including the plebeians, into property categories, Servius Tullius thereby deprived the clan nobility and clan organization of almost all significance. At the same time, his reform served as the basis for the creation of the Roman army in the form of a slave-owning militia. The army now consisted only of propertied citizens, whose weapons and the nature of their military service depended on the size of their property.
Thus, the army of the emerging slave state, as a body embodying the main force of power, the ruling class, was flesh of the flesh of this class.
It is important to keep in mind that the centuriate organization was also intended for political purposes, since the comitia centuriata acquired the right to resolve the most important political issues. Centuria meetings gradually replaced the old comitia curiata from political life.
The comitia centuriata were meetings of the army, in which 98 centuries of the first rank already constituted a majority against 95 centuries of all other ranks combined. The purpose of such a political organization is quite obvious. It was defined by Cicero: voting in the new comitia was to be in the power of the rich, and not the mass of the people.
Thus, in the VI-V centuries. BC. property differentiation in Rome was reflected in its military organization in the commission system. The participation of a particular citizen in the protection of community property and in the joint disposal of it depended on the size of the land plot belonging to him as private property. A class-differentiated society needs special public power, the center of which is the comitia centuriata, owned by wealthy citizens.
At this stage, public power was concentrated in the hands of citizens liable for military service and merged with the military organization; it was “directed not only against slaves, but also against the so-called proletarians, excluded from military service and deprived of weapons.”
For the formation and establishment of the state in Rome, the division of the population according to the reform of Servius Tullius into territorial districts - tribes - was of great importance. A qualification was held for territorial tribes, according to which citizens were enrolled in one or another Servian category depending on their property status. In addition, recruitment into the army was carried out by tribe and a tax was collected from citizens for military needs. The basis and main meaning of the new division of the population was to satisfy, first of all, the military needs of the state and the organization of state unity, therefore the territorial design of the state and the organization of state unity were essentially nothing more than a military-administrative division that meets the class interests of the propertied citizens.
So at the turn of the 6th-5th centuries. BC. a slave-owning Roman state was created, which was characterized by class and territorial division of the population, special public power and taxes necessary for its maintenance. It existed in the form of a slave-owning republic. This political form corresponded to early non-slave relations. Rome of this period was a city-state in which free citizens jointly owned the state land fund and had private lands. At the same time, they were an association of warriors protecting and pacifying the lands. This same military organization embodies the main power of the ruling class and plays a leading role within the state.
The early republican state apparatus therefore consisted essentially of the armed forces. Its elements were
Marx K., Engels F. Soch., vol. 21, p. 129
comitia centuriata and tributa, as well as a few elected magistrates, where the legislative, executive and judicial powers are concentrated. Special public power and the army almost merged during the early republic. Since the army was the main thing, the main trend in the development of the state apparatus was its militarization, which intensified with further social differentiation. The maintenance, pardoning of troops, and their leadership were the subject of special concern of the ruling class in the early republican period.
The armed forces, therefore, not only served as an apparatus
“higher” and “internal” violence, but also, being organized in comitia, constituted the main element of the still primitive, imperfect state mechanism in the early republican period. The army here acts as an authority of power and coercion at the same time.
The supreme command in the army is exercised by the body of the patrician nobility - the Senate. The Senate played a huge role in the declaration of war and all matters related to the conduct of wars, distributed command among magistrates, awarded commanders, determined the necessary military contingent, allocated funds for the conduct of war, etc.
The masters received the supreme command from the comitia centuriata (praetors, consuls) or from the Senate (dictators). They embodied the institution of high command.
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Ignatsiko A.V. "The political role of the army in Rome during the period of the Republic." Sverdlovsk 1973, p.13
All the main Roman masters, according to the reform of Servius Tullius, were associated with the military department: the quaestors were in charge of military expenditures; censors, conducting qualifications, determined military and tax service for citizens.
Officers were divided into higher and lower. The lower officers were, at the direction of Servius Tullius, commanders of the centuries. They were nominated for this position from ordinary legionnaires and, as a rule, did not reach higher positions. The highest officers were military tribunes, legates, quaestors and cavalry commanders. Military tribunes belonged to the senate or equestrian class and usually began their political careers with this service. Each legion had six tribunes. Legates, direct assistants to the commander-in-chief, were appointed by the Senate and were themselves senators. They commanded legions or their formations.
Citizens between the ages of 17 and 60 who met the property qualification requirements were considered liable for military service. Infantrymen who served for at least 16-20 years (participants - 16-20 campaigns) and horsemen who served for at least 10 years were exempt from military service.
Warriors were taken into account and recruited according to territorial tribes, and lists were compiled indicating the property status of free citizens. Persons who owned land, but were unfit for military service, paid money for the maintenance of equestrian horses instead of military service. By a special edict, the consul appointed a day for the appearance of those subject to conscription at the Capitol, where the required number of soldiers were equally recruited from each tribe, which were distributed among the legions. Recruitment was carried out for each military campaign.
During the period of the reform of Servius Tullius, in the conditions of a primitive state apparatus, the army “took” upon itself the performance of a number of important functions, internal and external, economic: supplying the economy with slaves and material assets. In addition, the army actively influenced the process of designing the republican apparatus. The growth of magistracy occurred as a result of the expansion of the territory of the state through conquest, the complication of the social structure and cash differentiation caused by the influx of wealth into Rome in the form of military booty. Thus, the complication of the state apparatus was largely due to the military factor and was carried out in strict connection with the development of the military organization.
Conclusion.
Thus, the important social significance of the reform of Servius Tullius was that it laid the foundations for a new organization of Roman society not according to clan, but along property and territorial lines. The result of the class struggle of the plebeians with the patricians was that the clan system was exploded by the division into classes and replaced by a state organization.
However, the clan system was not yet completely crushed. The organization of power based on the clan system continued to exist next to the organization based on territorial and property characteristics, and only gradually, over the course of 200 years, it replaced the clan organization.
The reform of Servius Tullius made it possible to create a powerful, trained army of Ancient Rome, which allowed it to pursue an aggressive policy.
List of used literature.
1. Biryukov Yu.M. "State and Law of Ancient Rome". M.: publishing house
WPA, 1969 , p.105
2. Orlov G.V. "History of the State and Law of Foreign Countries",
part 1, M.: from VKIMO
3. Biryukov Yu.M. "Legal Monuments of the Ancient World", M.: publishing house
WPA, 1969 , p.88
4. "Famous Romans." Moscow, 1968, p.55
5. Kuznitsin A.A. "History of Ancient Rome", M.: Nauka Publishing House
1980, p.205
6. Peretersky I.S. "General History of State and Law",
M.: publishing house Nauka, 1981, p.195
7. Struve V.V. "Christomathy on the history of the Ancient World",
volume 1, Moscow, 1950
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In the middle of the 6th century. An important change occurred in the position of the plebeians. It is associated with the name of the king Servia Tullia, who was considered the sixth from the founding of Rome and thus the penultimate in the line of Roman kings. His reform had similarity with Solon's legislation, because it was based on division of the population into property classes regardless of origin, distribution of responsibilities among them according to wealth And granting greater rights to the wealthier. The whole nation was divided into five classes(with plots of land valued at 100 tons, 75 tons, 50 tons, 25 tons and 12.5 tons. ass.(An ass cost about 500 15 kopecks in Russian pre-revolutionary money; one hundred thousand asses are equal to 15 thousand rubles.) Every five years there was to be a qualification, those. distribution of citizens by class. The more prosperous the citizens were, the they should have been better armed(at his own expense) for the war and pay more taxes. Both patricians and plebeians together, each in his own class, had to participate in new people's assemblies, so-called comitia centuriata(comitia centuriata). This name comes from the fact that all the people were still divided into 193 centuries(hundreds), of which 98, i.e. more than half (18 on horseback, 80 on foot) were in the first class, 20 each in the second, third and fourth, 30 in the fifth, 4 in artisans and one in all the poor (proletarians), completely exempt from service and taxes. Everyone cast their vote, positive or negative, to the questions of the king and the Senate in their century, and the majority of votes in each century was counted as its total vote. Thus all votes in the comitia centuriata were 193, and the majority was always secured by the first class, who had 98 votes. Thus plebeians were included in the citizenry and gained access to the national assembly. Rich plebeians could belong to the first class, impoverished patricians could descend to one of the lower. In addition, Servius Tullius is credited with dividing both the city itself and its then region into areas called tribes; there were four of them in the city, 17 outside the city (later 31). New local tribes replaced the old family ones, as was the case in Athens with the phylae under the legislation of Cleisthenes.
234. Certain rights of Roman citizens
Having created a new organization, Servius Tullius, however, did not destroy the old one and did not equalize the rights of the plebeians with the patricians. The patrician comitia of the curiae continued to exist and retained their former religious significance. And for a long time after the reform, only the patricians had right to occupy higher positions in the state (jus honorum) and marry each other(jus conubii), so that children who came from unequal marriages could not belong to patrician families. Finally, only these families still belonged the right to dispose of state lands.
Last modified: September 22, 2018
While still a boy, Servius ended up in the house of the ancient Roman king Tarquinius Priscus as a slave turned servant. His father died in one of the battles with the Romans, and his mother was captured by the Romans. Legends say that she may have been of noble birth, so Queen Tanaquil brought the woman closer to her. The family loved the boy, gave him a good education and treated him as a younger relative, and not as a servant. The matured Servius later even became the son-in-law of Tarquin the Ancient, marrying his daughter.
Servius Tullius
At first, the tragic death of the ancient Roman ruler at the hands of assassins was hidden from the people. His wife Tanaquil ordered the house to be tightly closed, and from the window she addressed the gathered crowd with a speech. She said that the king would definitely recover, since the wound was not deep, but for now orders on his behalf would be transmitted through Servius Tullius. Within a few days, the future ancient Roman king, the sixth in a row, was able to strengthen his position in selected circles, after which it was decided to announce the death of Tarquin. Servius was not popularly elected. Tanaquil, who loved the young man like a mother, helped him take the royal chair.
Servius Tullius tried to avoid the hatred of the grown-up royal sons and the fate of his predecessor by marrying his two daughters to the young man. But he never managed to get rid of enmity, betrayal and envy. Subsequently, Tullia Jr. will play a fatal role in the fate of her father, conceiving and taking direct part in serious intrigues behind his back. Ultimately, Servius Tullius will be publicly killed by the conspirators led by his son-in-law, and his daughter, Tullia the Younger, will ride over her father’s body in a chariot!
Tullia the Younger directs her chariot at her father's body
The sixth ancient Roman king reigned from 578 to 535. BC. Servius devoted more time to government and construction than to wars. As a result, Tullius' reforms contributed to the strengthening of the state system. He created:
- Servian legislation;
- centuriate reform, which divided the population of Rome into urban and rural tribes - clan associations were replaced by territorial districts.
Among other things, property classes and electoral groups emerged. The aristocracy began to be defined not by kinship, but by wealth. The poor constituted a separate class, whose representatives could not take part in voting and did not perform military service. But they were allowed to be redeemed from slavery, freeing them from dependence, which affected the people’s respect for the king, who personally participated in the process.
Servian Wall
According to legend, during the reign of Tullius it was erected, surrounding the seven hills of Rome. But studies of the surviving sections of the building indicate the construction of the wall in the 4th century. BC, although these ruins could have survived after its reconstruction. Ruins of the fortress wall are found today in several historical areas of Rome.
