Polities
The Roman Republic
Also Known As Republican Rome
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The Roman Republic was the system of government in Rome from the traditional overthrow of its last king in 509 BCE until Augustus's consolidation of power in 27 BCE, during which Rome expanded from a single city in central Italy to the dominant power of the Mediterranean world. It was governed by annually elected magistrates, chiefly two consuls, advised by the Senate, an assembly of the city's aristocracy, with additional popular assemblies giving ordinary citizens a limited voice, a balance of power the Romans themselves regarded as a safeguard against the return of monarchy. Over centuries of warfare, the Republic defeated Carthage in the Punic Wars, conquered Greece and much of the eastern Mediterranean, and extended its power across Gaul and Hispania, but the wealth and armies this expansion generated destabilized its own political system, producing the civil wars of the first century BCE that ended the Republic and gave rise to the Roman Empire under Augustus.
Facts
Government TypeRepublic, governed by elected magistrates and the Senate 1 Start Year509 BCE is the traditional date for the overthrow of Rome's last king, Tarquin the Proud, though the earliest history of the Republic rests partly on later Roman tradition rather than contemporary record. Disputed
End YearThe exact end of the Republic is debated. Some historians prefer 44 BCE, the assassination of Julius Caesar, or 31 BCE, Octavian's victory at Actium, over 27 BCE, when Octavian took the title Augustus and the Senate formally restored constitutional government under his controlling influence. Cross-Tradition Connections
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