The Constitutional Framework

During the period under examination the Romans tenaciously clung to the consti­tution and accompanying traditions they had established in the early republican age.

However, by the close of the second century bc the unavoidable fact emerged that the Roman constitution, devised in the days when Rome was a small agricul­tural community, could not achieve the centralized and cohesive control required to govern a world empire. It became impossible for the entire citizen body to assemble to debate and vote on the passing of laws and the election of magistrates. The senate had by this time lost much of its former vigour and, with its authority and prestige undermined by the corroding influences of wealth and luxury, increasingly failed to fulfil the role assigned to it. This failure aggravated political instability and enabled powerful and unscrupulous men to gain control of the state by manipulating the magisterial offices and the assemblies of the people. Thus, although the outward forms of the republican constitution were retained, the republican system of gov­ernment was inexorably undermined by forces alien to the traditional framework.

The erosion of the traditional constitutional structure was accompanied by an increasingly violent internal strife, both between rival factions and individuals within the ruling class, and between the aristocracy and various disadvantaged groups. During the revolutionary period of the first century bc, these circumstances degenerated into an almost permanent state of civil war, which prompted the disintegration and eventual collapse of the republican system of government.

1.4