Roman Sports essays

Roman Sports essays Throughout history entertainment has varied. The ancient Romans set a prime example as a people who loved sports and games. Similarities between the Romans and the modern sports fan can be seen with their love for races and violence. Vespasin, who is considered to be one of the greatest builders of roman time, built the Colloseum in A.D. 80 (Scarre 70). To honor the occasion he held one hundred days of continuous competition. Over five thousand gladiators were believed to have taken part in the one hundred days of games, but no accurate record of the match outcomes exist to this day (Cowell 173). Known as the Flavian Amphitheatre in its time, the Colloseum held fifty-five thousand spectators (Scarre 70). It stood a height of one hundred fifty nine feet and is one of the greatest architectural achievements of mankind (71). The crowds of the gladiatorial games were spiteful and excited by the amount of blood that was shed in the arena (Rowell 160). Criminals were forced to fight to their death, and the loser of each match was often executed by his opponent upon condemnation of the crowd (161). After the bloodletting of the gladiatorial combat, men dressed as demonic figures removed the disemboweled corpses from the arena (Arnott 40). These warriors of all shapes and sizes entrenched themselves in combat. One category of gladiator was the Samnite. They wore cumbersome armor along with a visor helmet accented by a crest and plume. In one hand they carried a large oblong shield, and in the other a sword or a lance with a sleeve on the arm. The remainder of the gladiators fell under the category of Thracian. These combatants attire featured bands of leather around the leg or thigh. For their weapon they brandished a curved scimitar and used a small round shield opposed to the Samnites large oblong defense. These different types of gladiators often fought against each other and the contrast in the way they dresses he...

How the Romans Voted in the Roman Republic

How the Romans Voted in the Roman Republic The vote was almost a side issue. When Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, reformed the tribal system of Rome, giving the vote to men who had not been members of the three original tribes, he increased the number of tribes and assigned people to them on the basis of geographic location rather than kinship ties. There were at least two main reasons for the extension of the suffrage, to increase the tax body and to add to the rolls of young men suitable for the military. Over the next couple of centuries, more tribes were added until there were 35 tribes in 241 B.C. The number of tribes remained stable and so new citizens were assigned to one of the 35 no matter where they lived. So much is pretty clear. Details are not so sure. For instance, we dont know whether Servius Tullius established any of the rural tribes or just the four urban ones. The importance of the tribes was lost when citizenship was extended to all free people in A.D. 212 by the terms of Constitutio Antoniniana. Posting Issues Roman assemblies were called to vote after notice of issues had been publicized. A magistrate published an edict in front of a contio (a public gathering) and then the issue was posted on a tablet in white paint, according to the University of Georgias Edward E. Best. Did Majority Rule? Romans voted in a couple of different groupings: by a tribe and by centuria (century). Each group, tribe or centuria had one vote. This vote was decided by majority vote of the constituents of said group (tribe or tribe or centuria), so within the group, each members vote counted as much as anyone elses, but not all groups were equally important. Candidates, who were voted on together even when there were multiple positions to fill, were counted as elected if they received the vote of one-half of the voting groups plus one, so if there were 35 tribes, the candidate won when he had received the support of 18 tribes. Polling Place Saepta (or ovile) is the word for the voting space. In the late Republic, it was an open wooden pen with probably 35 roped-off sections. It had been on the Campus Martius. The number of divisions is thought to have corresponded with the number of tribes. It was in the general area that both tribal groups and comitia centuriata held elections. At the end of the Republic, a marble structure replaced the wooden one. The Saepta would have held about 70,000 citizens, according to Edward E. Best. The Campus Martius was the field dedicated to the war god, and lay outside the sacred border or Pomoerium of Rome, as Classicist Jyri Vaahtera points out, which is significant because, in early years, Romans may have attended the assembly in arms, which didnt belong in the city. Voting was also held in the forum. Centuriate Voting Assembly The centuriae may also have been started by the 6th king or he might have inherited and augmented them. The Servian centuriae included about 170 centuriae of foot soldiers (infantry or pedites), 12 or 18 of equestrians, and a couple of others. How much wealth a family had determined which census class and therefore centuria its men fit in. The wealthiest infantry class had close to a majority of the centuriae and were also allowed to vote early, just after the cavalry whose first position in the metaphorical voting line (may have) earned them the label praerogativae. (It is from this use that we get the English word prerogative.) (Hall says that later after the system was reformed, the first [selected by lot] centuria to vote had the title of centuria praerogativa.) Should the vote of the wealthiest (infantry) first class and that of the cavalry be unanimous, there was no reason to go to the second class for their vote. The vote was by centuria in one of the assemblies, the comitia centuriata. Lily Ross Taylor thinks the members of a given centuria were from a variety of tribes. This process changed over time but is thought to have been the way the vote worked when the Servian Reforms were instituted. Tribal Voting Assembly In tribal elections, the voting order was decided by sortition, but there was an order of the tribes. We dont know exactly how it worked. Only one tribe might have been chosen by lot. There might have been a regular order for the tribes that the winner of the lottery was allowed to jump over. However it worked, the first tribe was known as principium. When a majority had been reached, the voting probably stopped, so if 18 tribes were unanimous, there was no reason for the remaining 17 to vote, and they didnt. The tribes voted per tabellam by ballot by 139 B.C., according to Ursula Hall. Voting in the Senate In the Senate, voting was visible and peer-pressure-driven: people voted by clustering around the speaker they supported. Roman Government in the Roman Republic The assemblies provided the democratic component of the mixed form of Roman government. There were also monarchic and aristocratic/oligarchic components. During the period of kings and the Imperial period, the monarchic element was dominant and visible in the personage of the king or emperor, but during the Republic, the monarchic element was elected annually and split in two. This split monarchy was the consulship whose power was deliberately curtailed. The Senate provided the aristocratic element. References The Centuriate Assembly before and after the Reform, by Lily Ross Taylor; The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 78, No. 4 (1957), pp. 337-354.Literacy and Roman Voting, by Edward E. Best; Historia 1974, pp. 428-438.The Origin of Latin suffrÄ gium, by Jyri Vaahtera; Glotta71. Bd., 1./2. H. (1993), pp. 66-80.Voting Procedure in Roman Assemblies, by Ursula Hall; Historia (Jul. 1964), pp. 267-306