The History of the Constitution of the Roman Empire is a study of the ancient Roman Empire that traces the progression of Roman political development from the founding of the Roman Empire in 27 BC until the abolishment of the Roman Principate around 300 AD. In the year 88 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla was elected Consul of the Roman Republic, and began a civil war. While it ended within a decade, it was the first in a series civil wars that wouldn't end until the year 30 BC. The general who won the last civil war of the Roman Republic, Gaius Octavian, became the master of the state. Octavian was the adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar. In the years after 30 BC, Octavian set out to reform the Roman constitution. The ultimate consequence of these reforms was the abolition of the republic, and the founding of the "Roman Empire". Octavian was given the name "Augustus" by the "Roman Senate", and became known to history as the first "Roman Emperor". While it is true that Octavian sought power for himself, it is also true that the old constitution had ceased to function properly. This simple fact had caused much of the turmoil of the prior century. Octavian's reforms did not, at the time, seem drastic, since they did nothing more than reorganize the constitution. The old offices and institutions were not altered in any other way. The reorganization was revolutionary, however, because the ultimate result was that Octavian ended up with control over the entire constitution. During the reigns of future emperors, the constitution that Octavian had left behind transitioned into outright monarchy.
Read more about History Of The Constitution Of The Roman Empire: Augustus' Constitutional Reforms, From Tiberius To Vitellius, The Flavian Emperors, From Nerva To The Abolition of The Principate
Famous quotes containing the words history of, roman empire, history, constitution, roman and/or empire:
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The Roman Empire stood appalled:
It dropped the reins of peace and war
When that fierce virgin and her Star
Out of the fabulous darkness called.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.”
—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
“Uprises there
A mother’s form upon my ken,
Guiding my infant steps, as when
We walked that ancient, thoroughfare,
The Roman Road.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“Ce corps qui s’appelait et qui s’appelle encore le saint empire romain n’était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire. This agglomeration which called itself and still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)