Rome and the Origins of the Western State

Rome is the model and the political and legal touchstone for most Western countries (Wagner 2011). If this is patent in the sphere of private law, it is no less evident in the area of public law.

3.1.1 The Flaw of the Polis Model

If the history of the state and of public law in the West undeniably traces its roots to Rome (Johnston 1997), it is because the Greek polis lacked the institutional capacity to organize and control an extensive territory because of the fact that its system of government and judicial structure were totally ineffective beyond the walls of the city. Thus, when the population swelled and economic resources were insufficient, the surplus of citizens abandoned their polis to found another in a new location so as to avert social conflict (Davies 1993, 24)4 Greece was a relatively poor territory, spurring many Greeks to emigrate to found colonies along the coasts of the Mediterranean which, once founded, did not maintain political ties with the Greek polis from which they had proceeded.^[55] Rather, they became independent for all intents and purposes and, as a result of the anarchic structure of interstate relations and the fact that international law among the polises was barely existent (Eckstein 2006, 37). Ancient Greece was never to become a great, unified state. This was to precipitate its decline at the close of the fourth century BC, in the wake of Alexander’s fleeting empire.^[56]

3.1.2 The Roman Civitas: An Expanding Polis

The Roman Empire constitutes a towering landmark in the history of public law in the West because it successfully adapted its model of political and judicial organi­zation to the circumstances of its expansion. Unlike the Greek polis, as the Romans conquered territories, they managed to incorporate them in a stable and structured manner (Briscoe 1986) into a powerful constitutional framework, centered around the Roman civitas, although this process of integration was gradual and fraught with difficulties.

It was progressive because it was successively based on provincial divisions and the development of an urban network that was the mark of a strong and self-assured imperial power reflecting the willingness of Western peoples to cooperate in the process of their own Romanization (Drinkwater 2002, 351), and which fast spread throughout the territories dominated by Rome, with newly founded colonies and native cities transformed into urbes organized according to Roman models (municipia)? The integration of the new territories, however, was difficult, because it carried with it a profound shift in the system of government and administration of the Roman state; the crisis which the Roman version of the polis, the Republic, would suffer in the first century bc was a direct consequence of the Romans’ spectacular territorial expansion.^{[57] [58]} This was the period of what have been called the “civil wars”, lasting for almost 60 years in the first century bc, between the dictatorship under Sulla (86 bc) culminating in Augustus’s victory over Mark Anthony at Actium (31 bc).

Augustus is a key figure in Western history for having laid down the foundations of a new form of political organization which continues to inspire and shape our Western societies. Having brought peace to a turbulent time, he is commemorated every summer in August, the month named for him. Despite wielding uncontested authority over Rome, Augustus was clever enough not to abolish the Roman Republic, seeking instead to protect it in his capacity as “first citizen” (princeps). However, Augustus would, in fact, end up paving the way for a monarchical regime as the era’s rulers would become emperors in the second century, and absolute lords during the age of the Dominate, following the reforms introduced by Diocletian (284-305 ad).

3.2