• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Roman Government

At first Rome was governed by kings for the space of 244 years. The ordinary magistrates after that, till the end of the republic, were:

• 1. Consuls, or chief magistrates, of whom thero were two.
• 2. Praetors, or judges, also two in number, next in dignity to the consuls
• 3. Censors, who took charge of the census, and had a general supervision of the morals of the people.
• 4. Tribunes of the people, the special guardians of the people against the encroachments of the patricians, and who, by the word "Veto," [forbid], could prevent the passage of any law.
• 5. Aediles, who took care of the city and had the inspection and regulation of its public buildings, temples, theatres, baths, Ac
• 6. Quaestors, or Treasurers, who collected the public revenues.

Under the emperors there were added,

• 1. Praefectui Urbi, or Urbis, Governor of the city.
• 2. Praefectus Praetori, Commander of the body guards.
• 3. Praefectus Amdruii. whose duty it was to procure and distribute grain in times of scarcity.
• 4. Praefectus militaris cerarii, who had charge of the military fund.
• 5. Praefectus Classis, Admiral of the fleet
• 6. Praefectus Vigilum, or captain of the watch.

Octavius made no change in the established forms of government. In 27 B.C the senate conferred on him for life the government of all those provinces whose defense called for the employment of the military forces of the empire, together with the supreme command of the army and the title of Augustus. Successively Augustus united in himself the great offices of the state, the consulate, the tribunate, the headship of the sacred colleges. The senate was left with the splendid shadow of power, in reality the mere instrument of the emperor's will. Augustus brought the real power into his own hands, he retained the old offices and machinery of government, and kept the republican iorms. The consuls, praetors, and tribunes were still elected as in the past, but Augustus adopted the practice of recommending certain candidates to the citizens, and his recommendation insured an election. The popular assemblies met as before, but the bills submitted to them were drawn up by the emperor, and the candidates bore his approval, so that popular action amounted to nothing more than a formal ratification of the will of Augustus. By these methods Augustus attained the same result which Julius Caesar had reached, the centralization of power in his own hands, but the means which he employed violated the old traditions less, and so did not excite popular opposition. From the Accession of Diocletian to the Death of Theodosius (AD 284-395), the work of fortifying the empire alike against internal sedition and foreign invasion, begun by Aurelian and Diocletian Probus, was completed by Diocletian and Constantine the Great, whose system of government, novel as it appears at first sight, was in reality the natural and inevitable outcome of the history of the previous century. Its object was twofold, to give increased stability to the imperial authority itself, and to organize an efficient administrative machinery throughout the empire. In the new system the imperial authority was finally emancipated from all constitutional limitation and control and tne last traces of its republican origin disappeared. The emperors from Diocletian onwards were autocrats in theory as well as in practice. This avowed imperial despotism, following in the steps of Aurelian, authority, had all the pomp and majesty of Oriental monarchy.