The Roman Republic was similar in function to the hierarchy of the Prohibition gangsters of the 1920's in the United States. It didn't have a real system of electing Senators, only a system of favors and debts. This left one or two families in control of Legislation at times. There was a system of Checks and Balances, making it possible for the executive (Consul) to be elected only once, and granting the Plebians (middle and lower class gentry) the right to assemble their own House of Legislation (The Assembly).
The big downfall of this Republican system was that the relegation of powers to a select few "populares" was overlooked as democracy at work. These individuals formed Patrician Families, marrying or adopting into already influential houses. Ultimately these houses would constitute an entirely different system of Patritianism. The Patrician families eventually merged into three main groups: The House of Julii, and the Houses of Pompei and Crassus. Pompei, Crassus and Julius Caesar would form the First Triumvirate and this uneasy truce would lead to all of them warmongering after each others lands. Caesar would be the ultimate victor, but as you probably know he would be executed before taking the office of Dictator. His adopted son and sole heir Augustus formed another Triumvirate to keep the Empire from another civil war, but like his late father he too was chomping at the bit to attack his two rivals, Mark Anthony in Greece (with Cleopatra in Aegyptus), and Lepidus in Africa. Antony and Octavian (Augustus) set out and destroyed the loyalist armies of Brutus and Cassius in Greece and divided the Empire into three. Augustus was principly concerned with Antony and obtaining Egypt after the Loyalists were defeated, and he eventually beat them back to Egypt where they both committed suicide, Lepidus ceded Africa after a boffed coup making Augustus the first Imperitor (Emperor).
The Empire's culture is the modern cornerstone of the West. It reflected thousands of cultures in a mixed bag. Everyone was welcome from early on in the Empire's history, and there were systems in place to grant people citizenship. There were benefits to the state for the economic growth of the imperial gentry, namely the acquisition of taxes is what fueled the edicts to allow different peoples to nationalize as "Romans".They were adoptive of Gods, which is a normal attribute of any classical civilization. All Gods existed to them, if a nation or city was conquered than the God of that nation must have been slew by the God of the conquerers. This is one of the mentalities that led to antisemitism and later the Christian martyrdoms, as these people would neither give up their God or admit that the Roman Pantheon was a religious reality.
The lifeblood of the Empire was roads, they connected all places in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia Minor to the eternal city. The vast network of roads is probably the main force behind the Christian explosion in the First through Fourth centuries. It was also the system whereby ideas could travel easily from one place to another, and the way that conquered peoples would quickly indoctrinate themselves.
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The Roman Republic was similar in function to the hierarchy of the Prohibition gangsters of the 1920's in the United States. It didn't have a real system of electing Senators, only a system of favors and debts. This left one or two families in control of Legislation at times. There was a system of Checks and Balances, making it possible for the executive (Consul) to be elected only once, and granting the Plebians (middle and lower class gentry) the right to assemble their own House of Legislation (The Assembly).
The big downfall of this Republican system was that the relegation of powers to a select few "populares" was overlooked as democracy at work. These individuals formed Patrician Families, marrying or adopting into already influential houses. Ultimately these houses would constitute an entirely different system of Patritianism. The Patrician families eventually merged into three main groups: The House of Julii, and the Houses of Pompei and Crassus. Pompei, Crassus and Julius Caesar would form the First Triumvirate and this uneasy truce would lead to all of them warmongering after each others lands. Caesar would be the ultimate victor, but as you probably know he would be executed before taking the office of Dictator. His adopted son and sole heir Augustus formed another Triumvirate to keep the Empire from another civil war, but like his late father he too was chomping at the bit to attack his two rivals, Mark Anthony in Greece (with Cleopatra in Aegyptus), and Lepidus in Africa. Antony and Octavian (Augustus) set out and destroyed the loyalist armies of Brutus and Cassius in Greece and divided the Empire into three. Augustus was principly concerned with Antony and obtaining Egypt after the Loyalists were defeated, and he eventually beat them back to Egypt where they both committed suicide, Lepidus ceded Africa after a boffed coup making Augustus the first Imperitor (Emperor).
The Empire's culture is the modern cornerstone of the West. It reflected thousands of cultures in a mixed bag. Everyone was welcome from early on in the Empire's history, and there were systems in place to grant people citizenship. There were benefits to the state for the economic growth of the imperial gentry, namely the acquisition of taxes is what fueled the edicts to allow different peoples to nationalize as "Romans".They were adoptive of Gods, which is a normal attribute of any classical civilization. All Gods existed to them, if a nation or city was conquered than the God of that nation must have been slew by the God of the conquerers. This is one of the mentalities that led to antisemitism and later the Christian martyrdoms, as these people would neither give up their God or admit that the Roman Pantheon was a religious reality.
The lifeblood of the Empire was roads, they connected all places in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia Minor to the eternal city. The vast network of roads is probably the main force behind the Christian explosion in the First through Fourth centuries. It was also the system whereby ideas could travel easily from one place to another, and the way that conquered peoples would quickly indoctrinate themselves.