Daily Blog Day 2 – Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Question: What elements of the Roman Republican political and legal system appear present in the systems of modern democracies?
The Roman government is very similar to most of the ways of the governments in today’s western world. The way the current United Stated government is set up is in many ways similar to the Roman republic. In fact, both our government in the United States and Rome’s are republics. Of course, the Roman’s republic government took place back in ancient times so their system may not be what we feel to be a traditional republic government as we see today. Today in England and the United States, the Roman common law is used in similar ways. In Rome, all laws are listed by crimes and are listed in books. The punishment then is based on rulings that past judges and juries have made. In modern United States, Latin influence can be found in the language of the courts. This is most basically described as how they speech and hold the court ceremonies. Also, the Roman government like the modern government was a balance of power between the Emperor and nobles, which is like our modern day President, and his officials, and the plebeians, the average peasant people like the average person today. A revolt in 450 BC by the plebs was lead as they believed that they should have the power to know and interpret the code of laws. This then led to the formation of the Twelve Tables. This was to be a “ten-man commission with extraordinary powers, decemviri legibus scibundis” that would “set forth the basis of law for all Roman citizens.” This would be known as a complete ius civile. Each table stood for an area of the law and its procedure that would be followed to make the law more open to all citizens; although the wealthy usually escaped punishment. These laws eventually faded in history but were never taken away. This is like today how some of the more ridiculous laws are not in effect today. These are only a very few similarities. Roman influence can be sen all around us in modern day
governments.
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