1. ROMAN REPUBLIC’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO DEMOCRACY
2015

2. BACKGROUND
Having defeated the Greeks and Etruscans, the early Romans controlled
the Italian peninsula. The Romans adopted much of Greece's culture,
including their philosophy and political thought.

3. Established the first republic 509 B.C.:
"thing of the people"
citizens elected leaders who would created laws and rule for them
voting rights limited to free-born males
IS THIS SIMILAR TO ATHENS? EXPLAIN

4. Much like Greece, much of early Roman history surrounded the struggle of the upper and lower classes for power. In Rome, the patricians were the upper class and the plebeians the merchants and farmers. In the end the plebeians gained power economically and then politically.

5. Republican government structure
two rulers who controlled the army and government: consuls-one year terms
legislative branch was composed of a Senate-foreign affairs and advisors to the consuls and two lower assemblies
dictatorship was provided for in times of crisis, limited to six months

8. Struggle of the Orders
From 494BC to 287BC the patricians and plebeians struggle for power. Eventually the plebeians earned the right to equal government in many ways.
Plebeians formed alternative gov. 494BC
Law of the Twelve Tables 450BC
Evolution of power
office of consuls
become senators
assembly laws binding
KEY: ALL OF THIS WAS DONE WITHOUT A CIVIL WAR

10. Eventually the Republic fell to over-expansion and corrupt leadership
31 B.C.: empire begins with Augustus becoming emperor-ends democracy in
all forms

11. ROMAN LAW MAIN IDEA
Although limited in scope the Roman legal system was the most progressive judicial system in the ancient world. The Romans devised a system that contained core democratic values such as equality before the law that would later form the basic structure of the U.S. judicial model.

12. http://www. tribunesandtriumphs

13. Roman Law
believed laws should be universally applied to citizens under its control
property and basic rights were codified
-equality before the law
-innocent until proven guilty-accuser has
burden of proof
-laws must be reasonable
-laws should be public and citizens have a rights
and responsibility to understand them

14. JUSTINIAN CODE
Under Justinian the laws of the Twelve Tables(451BC) and other laws were codified into the Code of Justinian A.D. 528
-government based on written well-
reasoned laws
-all citizens, including rulers were subject
to the laws-Rule of Law
-laws and courts followed precedents

15. FALL OF THE REPUBLIC MAIN IDEA
The collapse of the Roman Republic was a destructive process that took over a hundred years and involved the breakdown of civil and public institutions. In particular the leadership struggled for power and plunged the nation into civil and external wars that cost the nation its resources and unity.

16. REASONS FOR THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC
SELF-CENTERED LEADERSHIP
Continuous war including civil war
Cost of conquest
Unequal income
Internal weaknesses in the leadership and structure of government
High taxes
Corrupt agricultural policies

17. CONCLUSION
DUE TO THE POWER AND INFLUENCE OF THE GREEK AND ROMAN CIVILIZATIONS, THE DEMOCRATIC THEORIES THEY DEVELOPED SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE WESTERN WORLD.