Roman Republic and Roman Empire: Governance and Successes

The Roman Empire and the Roman Republic are two of the most significant periods in the history of the world, and their impact can still be felt today. The Roman Republic was established in 509 BCE and lasted for almost five centuries, until it was replaced by the Roman Empire in 27 BCE. The Roman Empire, which began with the reign of Augustus, lasted for more than 400 years and was characterized by its immense size and influence. Both periods were marked by their political, social, and cultural achievements, but they also faced their own unique challenges and shortcomings. In this essay, we will briefly compare and contrast the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, highlighting their similarities and differences.

The Roman Republic was successful cause of government, and tribunes, but viewed as a failure because of the death of Caesar. The successes of the Roman republic are, “the Romans set up a new government in which officials were chosen by male citizens. They called it res publica, or “that which belongs to the people.” This form of government, in which people choose their officials, is today called a republic. Another successes of the Roman was that the plebeians gained the right to elect their own officials called tribunes. Tribunes could block laws that they felt were harmful to plebeians. “As time went on, plebeians forced the senate to choose plebeians as consuls, appoint them to high offices, and finally to admit them to the senate. These changes made Rome’s government more representative”. The unsuccessful part of Caesar death is Caesars death plunged Rome into a new round of civil wars. Caesar’s enemies were worried that he planned to make himself king of Rome.

The Roman Empire was able to be successful from Hannibal, and government; however, it was unsuccessful because of choosing a ruler. The successes in the Roman Empire were the Romans outflanked Hannibal (ruler of the Carthaginian) by sending an army to attack Cartage. Hannibal returned to defend his homeland. The Carthaginians failed to defend their home and the Romans defeated him. Carthage had to give up all its land outside of Africa and pay a huge tribute to Rome. Another success was “between 48 B.C. and 44 B.C., Caesar pushed through a number of reforms intended to deal with Rome’s many problems. He launched a program of public works to employ the jobless and gave public land to the poor. He also reorganized the government of provinces and granted Roman citizenship to more people.” He also made the calendars which were first use in Western Europe for more than 1,600 years and that everyone uses even today. The unsuccessful things in Roman Empire is “the government that Augustus organized functioned well for 200 years. Still, a serious problem kept arising: Who would rule after an emperor died? Romans did not accept the idea of power passing automatically from father to son. As a result, the death of an emperor often led to intrigue and violence.”

To conclude, one change that both the republic and empire could have made that would have probably helped repair breaches in Roman society was the role of woman. During the early Roman Republic woman had little rights. Later on in life, woman gained more freedom and had a larger role in society than did Greek woman during that same time. Woman could now own their own property and woman from all classes ran a variety of businesses. They started from small shops to major shipyards. Woman if utilized more could have covered areas that the men were unable or unwilling to do or see as important.