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Voting for most offices was open to all full Roman citizens, a group that excluded women, slaves and originally those living outside of Rome. In the early Republic, the electorate would have been small, but as Rome grew it expanded. The Lex Julia of 90 BC extending voting rights to citizens across Italy greatly expanded the franchise. By the ...
The legislative assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic.According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people (and thus the assemblies) who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of Roman laws, the carrying out of capital punishment, the declaration of war and peace, and the creation (or ...
The ballot laws of the Roman Republic (Latin: leges tabellariae) were four laws which introduced the secret ballot to all popular assemblies in the Republic. [1] They were all introduced by tribunes, and consisted of the lex Gabinia tabellaria (or lex Gabinia) of 139 BC, applying to the election of magistrates; the lex Cassia tabellaria of 137 BC, applying to juries except in cases of treason ...
[11] [12] During a vote, the Centuries voted, one at a time, by order of seniority. The president of the Centuriate Assembly was usually a Roman Consul (the chief magistrate of the republic). [13] Only the Centuriate Assembly could elect Consuls, Praetors and Censors, declare war, [14] and ratify the results of a census. [15]
The two of them together made a majority of the 193 centuries. Because voting ended when a majority was reached, if the richest Romans agreed, the poorer classes were never called to vote. [55] Sources differ as to where the engineers and musicians voted. Livy has the engineers and musicians vote with the first and fifth classes, respectively.
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While plebeians (commoners) could participate in this assembly, only the patricians (the Roman aristocrats) could vote. Since the Romans used a form of direct democracy, citizens, and not elected representatives, voted before each assembly. As such, the citizen-electors had no power, other than the power to cast a vote.
At first, only 2 to 5 Tribunes were elected until the College of 10 was introduced in 457 BC. [23] They served as spokespeople for the plebeians of Rome, with a purpose of protecting the interests of the plebeians against patrician supremacy. [24] The Tribunes could call meetings of the council over which they presided. [25]