How They DId It - Elections in Ancient Rome
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- We step back in time to join the Romans as they head to the polls! In this episode on ancient elections we look at the offices, the voters, and the process of the mid Republic.
Bibliography:
-- Yakobson, Alexander. “Secret Ballot and Its Effects in the Late Roman Republic.” Hermes, Vol. 123, No. 4 (1995) pp. 426-442.
-- “Traditional Political Culture and the People’s Role in the Roman Republic.” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 59, H. 3 (2010) pp. 282-302.
-- Elections and Electioneering in Rome: A Study in the Political System of the Late Republic. Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, 1999.
Lintott, Andrew. The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
-- Phillips, Daryll. “Voter Turnout in Consular Elections”, Ancient History Bulletin 18 (2004), 48-60.
-- Morstein-Marx, Robert. Mass Oratory and Political Power in the Late Roman Republic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
-- Taylor, Lily Ross. Jerszy Linderski, ed. The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic. University of Michigan Press, 2013.
-- Roman voting assemblies from the Hannibalic War to the dictatorship of Caesar. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990.
-- “The Centuriate Assembly Before and After the Reform.” The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 78, No. 4 (1957), pp. 337-354.
Hall, Ursula. “Voting Procedure in Roman Assemblies.” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 13, H3 (1964), pp. 267-306.
-- “’Species Libertatis’ Voting Procedure in the Late Roman Republic.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Supplement No. 71 (1998), pp. 15-30.
Research: James Conrad
Artwork: Anders Végh Blidlöv (www.behance.ne...)
Music:
"Strings and Drums Comedy" by 8th Mode Music
#RomanHistory
#HowTheyDidIt
Remember to vote! : )
Time Stamps:
0:40 - The Offices up for Election
3:24 - The Voters
4:32 - The Tribal Assembly
6:02 - The Centuriate Assembly
7:38 - The Voting Process
8:36 - The Voting of the Tribal Assembly
11:29 - The Voting of the Centuriate Assembly
Finn MacCool. Democrats and Republicans suck ass. Neither side follows The Constitution. Both want more federal power but in different ways. Both want to control different aspects of your life. Both are cancer within our country. So no don't vote republican or democrat. Vote third party. And if you think its a wasted vote remember this quote from one of our founding fathers. "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."-John Quincy Adams.
Switch to proportional representation, that would solve the problem. Make citizens vote for political parties instead of candidates, with an extra vote for a preferred member of that party. Give seats in the senate, or city council, based on the percentage of votes that a party got. Now hand out those seats to members of the party that earned them, ordering them by the number of preferred votes. Now suddenly there's a chance for third parties to win power, and your vote will not be lost.
Of course, don't wait for the Democrats or Republicans to do it for you, as the current system benefits them greatly.
Just a small thing, the "i" in "DId/Did" is capitalized in the title
Awesome upload. I will definitely be voting.
Heya, could you please enable the translation of subtitles by the community? Thanks a lot. :)
*This public service announcement is brought to you by th Capitoline Hill Guild of Millers. True Roman Bread for True Romans.*
And by Guido and Felix Public Advocates.
Have a pending case? Need an "amici?" We will speak for you, citizen.
That speaker guy was amazing along with the rest of the series
Herod, the Tetrarch of Galilee visits the city. During his stay mockery of Jews and their one god should be kept to an appropriate minimum!
*Trve
ROMA SPONSOR !
Finally giving our boy Historia Civilis some recognition!
ancient roman politicians be like: “mom said its my turn in the consulship”
i am already consul
"But the Senate..."
"I AM THE SENATE!"
?
Lol, not so unlike the US. See the Bush family.
Money said it’s my turn in the consulship
Too complicated. Much more interesting to choose chiefs by using scuffle and yelling.
lol
I second this.
Is that like a germanic Thing, or something? I don't know.
You sound like a German, go back to your side of the Rhine.
How dare you! Check your roman citizen privilege, oppressor!
Do they also get a Sticker if they voted?
No. But tell you what, citizen: make the right decision, and you'll walk away a slightly richer man. (whistle) Cassius! Some bread and wine for my new friend here. And don't forget to pay a little visit to the Venus and Lyre while you're here. Tell them Aurelius sent you and the first ride is free.
When in Rome, am I right?
@@garcalej O tempora, o mores! Some moral rectitude would not go amiss citizen! These elections are ordained by Jupiter himself!
@Anakin Skywalker Yes, yes, of course. Nothing amiss going on here, citizen. Just having a friendly chat with an out of towner. As innocent as a Vestal Virgin's footstep, I assure you. (Wink)
Of course.
Not stickers...
Maybe little pins though.
Hey invicta, could you please make a video on how the romans actually made their armour? Thanks
I think something on Roman industry could be cool. We could discuss the armor Fabrica and maybe mining operations
I would very much like to see that too.
please do that :D
YES PLEASE DO. Oh, and their trade and logistics too? How ancient industry (specifically romans) work?
@@InvictaHistory if you make one about mines please include a "no slaves died in the making of this video" disclaimer, Slave Lives Matter.
Hey mate. A Great overview about two of the three assemblies of the roman republic, but you kinda did not mention the Plebeian Council (lat. concilium plebis), which was quite important for passing laws (until Sulla's time), electing lower magistrates and try judicial cases. It was held on the Forum Romanum too and not on the Campus Martius (btw the Tribal Assembly was also held near the Forum Romanum and not on the Campus Martius). Furthermore, the Plebeian Council was special, because it did not allow any patricians to be present (although they tried to watch it from the Curia Hostilia). Thus it created some sort of a counter balance to the Centuriate Assembly. I'm aware that in the later republic things changed for the Plebeian Council and demagogues started to use it quite often, but since you said that you focus on the mid republic I felt that this information would not be out of place.
Cheers & keep going with your vids man. I'm enjoying them quite a bit lately.
We did in fact skip over it for some brevity, maybe I'll have time to make an addendum video to discuss it
Another vid always sounds good. =)
Really loving this series keep it up !
shut up
The tribal voting system feels uncomfortably familiar
its very similar to gerrymandering
Funny how the us system is loosely based on rome and we're having similar problems.
@@qwerty975311 here in Aus we use preferential votes which works pretty well. Our downside is that its mandatory which is awkward when you dont consider yourself knowledgable on the party policies.
It reminds me of the electoral college.
@@greenie2600 It isn't a democracy but a REPUBLIC, and do you really think California and New York taking up all the votes is very democratic?! What about the millions of people in the middle with very different needs
"I love democracy. I love the republic."
24 hours and one crossing of the Rubicon later....."UNLIMITED POWAAAA"
@menkrep1337 bot and Athens
*3 drinks later*
The Republic shall be reorganized into the FIRST GALACTIC EMPIRE!
I originally read the title as 'ELECTRONICS in Ancient Rome' and was very confused.
Looks like Juliter is about to strike someone down.
I could have sworn that Rome elected eight (8) Praetors by 80 BC, according to Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome by Lesley & Roy Adkins. Could you please source where the number of Praetors was doubled?
I accidentally used a number that wouldn't be reached until later in the imperial period. I just checked the book you cited (which I have next to me) and agree that it would have been more appropriate to list the number as 8 for the Republican period.
Invicta np, your videos are still awesome. 😎
you are a good man Stephen
I like your videos on Rome. I've been a fan of Historia Civilis for some time too, that's really cool ya gave em a shout-out! Keep up the great work!
This is something that can be hard to understand when reading about it, so I appreciate the visualization. 😊 Also, I love the artstyle and the effort puy into it on this channel overall.
It's rigged and still is.
Yeah like still today
Now i get where Censorship comes from
They also weren't very well liked back then as well, and the position didn't even last the length of the Roman empire..
You know what’s crazy? Electoral college
People in the middle ages :"Let's do monarchy"
It was modeled after the late roman empire, which had emperors.
Venice: "no"
Less convoluted, at least.
You forgot about 500 years of history there
cool! I just voted in my home country (Bavaria, Germany) today and this was very interesting to watch!
Lax comix it was pretty cool 👍
we're having a local election next month and i always find them depressing. my state is about a 50/50 split between Democrats and Republicans but since the majority of the people who work for the government are democrats (I'd guess around 90%) only Democrats get the major offices. I think my state has voted a republican for president once in the last 60 years and the same goes for governor. The corruption is pretty bad (by Western standards at least) and the last time we _tried_ voting a republican for governor they had a "recount" and "lost" a bunch of votes, said the democrat candidate had won, and said any further recounts or investigations would be "a waste of tax payers money". I still look forward to voting on some propositions/issues though.
@@arthas640 what State is it?
@@arthas640 Lol what's your actual evidence for electoral fraud?
A fellow bavarian
Certainly makes you appreciate modern gains in equality
Pft, yeah right. As if modern voting systems aren't completely rigged too...
@@RenegadeVile I can see why they'd allow the rural voters more power since they produced and also made up the spirit of the nation whereas the concentration of mi-grants which usually flock to cities and other people who had little to contribute weren't going to make Rome better. Sort of how millions of im-migrants in Western nations today have actually destroyed democracy for the locals and killed the culture and spirit of the land. The same way it killed the Roman empire.
@@timyumichuck9262 Don't repeat the BS right wing nationalists want to say that "immigration destroyed the Roman Empire." Romanization and assimilation of tribes and nations have always been a policy since the time of Augustus. and if the Romans actually followed their promises to the Goths and give them land, maybe Rome would not have been sacked. Also, immigration is just one of the myriad of reasons Rome fell such as (and not limited to): Economic mismanagement, debasement of the currency, constant civil wars, invasion of the huns, third century crisis, the adoption of Christianity and the end of Religious tolerance of the Empire, lack of infrastructure, constant use of slaves, plagues, the empire being overstretched, general lack of wealth the Western provinces had unlike the richer east, the division of the empire, etc.
And if any pundit or announcer clearly has an agenda over a topic, I recommend you simply broaden your information to know the many nuances and sides of matter.
@@timyumichuck9262 And what is this "spirit of the nation." If that is the case then the views of the many settled citizens in cities (which generally took up more percentage than the rural parts) are not part of the accepted political discourse? And what is to say that the immigrants can accept this so called "spirit of the nation" that predominantly belongs in the rural parts of a nation state? (not mentioning that many other societies are not held together by a common national identity, but by ethnicity, religion, language, etc).
"Two plebeian and two patrician Aediles"
Initially yes, but in later Rome Curule Aedile could be held by either patrician or plebeian. Marcus Tullius Cicero, for example, was an Eques, or rich plebeian, but he was elected Curule Aedile.
So sometimes a tribal vote could lead to a candidate winning without winning the popular vote, urban citizens had their voting power weakened and rich land owners greatly influenced elections... this system sounds familiar
Sounds like a system that works
It's a shock, as native Italian, and lover of ancient history, to see the total lack of italian YT channels related to ancient history and, more specifically, to Roman era. some scarce channels are just rip off or patchwork of videos stolen here and there, in low quality and with almost non-existent comment or criteria. For this I greatly appreciate channels like Invicta, that show a REAL love, and great skills, in creating documentaries like this. I just feel the need, now, to push all my friends in all social media, to subscribe to this channel, watch all the videos and put likes everywhere. Thanks again, Invicta. Keep doing this great work, ad maiora!
Man it must be wild seeing this comment 5 years later. Now you almost can't search for history on youtube for ANY period of time without having to scroll past a couple roman history documentaries lol
The reason the winner was called before counting all votes is because the rich (higher classes) voted first.
If the rich (which voted first) came to an agreement for a candidate, the election was closed. If however, the rich could not agree, then the poor (by which I mean the less rich rich. Since the actual poor had almost no voting power) were consulted to tilt the election one way or another.
the roman urban vs rural tribes makes me think of urban vs rural states in the us
Fascinating video. As a side note I think it's very interesting to delve into why the Romans structured their "democracy" in this way and also how these concepts are still in play today. Studying the past tells us a lot about the present. Rome being the cornerstone of our modern democracies can teach us a lot about how and why our current governments operate the way they do.
It's also interesting to study what didn't work well either, and how that did (or didn't) contribute to the collapse of the Republic into the Empire.
Roman way or the highway
You mean; "The Appian Way"?
You mean aquiduct.
but the roads head to Rome
"Check out this video by Historia Civilis"
*Glances at autoplay*
Well, this will be easy.
You answered every question my teacher couldn't, thanks mate!
2:02 jeez someone is ripped
He fapped a lot
*Glass Houses*
No, if this system seems bad, it's because it is. The fact that other systems are bad also has no bearing on that.
It does not matter who votes but who counts the votes .........
When you say it out loud its not that hard
My personal second favorite channel on youtube, name dropping my favorite channel on youtube. Warms my heart to see.
Would a Citizen be casting a vote in both Assemblies?
Yes I believe so
I'm glad I watched Historia Civilis' video about this beforehand. It made it easier to understand this. I wish I'd seen them in the opposite order lol You did a great job, I really appreciate your videos and historical perspective
youre actually a hero for referencing. thanks
nice artwork on the roman officials. where did it come from?
The whole video is on roman elections but you still skipped parts...... Why make the video if you didn't want to do it right?
Well done!
More please! Roman life was so interesting...
Polish local elections are coming up in a week, you couldn't have made this in a better time :D
How terrible! Could you imagine living in a society where all matters of public governance and democratic organization was dictated by only the wealthiest citizens? THANK GOD we don't have a society like that in (America/Britain/China/Russia/Germany/Italy/Brazil/France/Spain/etc. etc.) anymore. That would be unacceptable!
** Scott Witte ** Yeah! ...Oh, wait. :-|
In Rome it wasnt decided only by wealthiest one.
Wealthiest can be actually ignored. Like for example Caesar did with his first reform.
The one that make bill a law are Rome poorest.
In other words
Richer have most if power when it come to appointing most of public servants. And those appointed create bills.
But its the poorest in plebiean assembly that make turn bill into law. Akin to modern day referendums.
Ok this particular kinda comment (although true) is getting kinda stale.
Roman Republic gave a great power to the poor in the form of a veto. Veto power was left to the Pleabian Assembly so every bill had to be approved by the Plebs. Imagine if today we had a referendum for ever bill pass by Legislative branches.
In Brazil lower classes vote willingly for upper class candidates, its called coronelismo or caudilhismo
colonelism? As in the military rank?
Wow who would have knew the US system would be very similar today
The founding fathers actually set it up that way on purpose. Many parallels have been drawn between the United States and Rome due to their incredibly similar election bodies. This is not always good.
its pretty close, even an ancient version of gerrymandering
It's supposed to be. The US was the first actual representative republic since Roman times, so what better model was there to go off of?
its kind of based on the Roman system.
@@CaptainConformist Incredibly similar? What the hell do you think goes on in the U.S.?
Congratulations for being part of the homework for the Ancient History Course of The State University Groningen RUG
Probably had higher turn out rates than the U.S. :/
Just as unrepresentative and gerrymandered, however.
Romans didn't have liberals.
@@vivigesso3756 you should read mary beard's SPQR. Or really any book on roman history at all.
Aside from all it's liberals...
i know what you mean, my local state by population is a 50/50 split between both parties but the Democrats win virtually every major election. this is originally due to corruption, the democrats control most major offices and around 90% of government employees are all democrats. because they win all the important decisions and all the major offices most republicans just kind of gave up. If i were to hazard a guess I'd say republican turn out is probably a quarter that of democrats due to pessimism. I'm middle of the road politically but it's kind of depressing when your vote doesnt count on most issues.
Thank you for the embedded bibliography. I've been telling friends they should do history videos like that.
Who agrees with me that we should make a Roman state by everything in Latin
+Saguntum-Iberian-Greek Konstantinopoli
the us is pretty much an improved version of rome.
What?
as of writing the 'i' in did is capitalized, you may wanna fix that lmao
thanks for catching that! Fixed : )
@@InvictaHistory still haven't fixed it lmao
Its still there 😞
@@mikeyholterfield9019 it's also still there
Who cares
Two questions. 1.) How did they decide to what tribe to assign you? and 2). if most Romans of the lower classes were illiterate (and I suppose they were) how did they know how to write the initials of the person for whom they were voting if by "secret ballot"?
My guesses (4 years on)
1. Hereditary
2. I guess they couldn't vote then, more power to the elites
Good timing! Today was communal and provencal voting day in Belgium
All is fair in war. *Fight about it*
@I AM ALIVE !!!!! Kill the people trying to kill you, not the people peacefully trying to exist
👍 *My compliments on the well done presentation. Keep up the good work!* Cheers! 🍺 Roma Aeterna Victrix!
Could a citizen in the Centuriate Assembly also vote in the Tribal Assembly?
Hey Oakley. I hope you do a video on jugurtha and Marianas. The war was fascinating, filled with bribes and corruption in a time when Rome was being asswhooped by the Germanics.
It's really too bad K lost the election to a technicality. I thought he had some really good ideas to clean up the city.
there's been a typo in the title for over a year - don't tell him (;
Can you do a video about how Gladiators lived and were treated? Love your content
Hi I love the videos on your site. Can you have a video on the following two topics:
- religious ceremonies and omens Greek armies used to look out for
- punishment in the Greek armies
We know something about punishment in Roman armies ( eg decimation) but not about Greek armies
where is part 2 of evolution of the roman Legions?
03:35 - 03:50 the picture on this slide depicts what scene from what film or series?
Please, be sure not to vote unless you've studied history and have a robust political framework you can articulate succinctly.
3:33 you added a scene from japanese movie, live action from manga.😎😁
ree
Which manga
How did the empire deal with snow? Shovel the roads?
Nice timing since there are currently elections in Belgium.
Now we know where the Electoral College came from.
Urban votes diluted and rural votes amplified? SOUNDS AWFULLY FAMILIAR.
Dang, so they had electoral colleges and super delegates back then, too. Suffered the same fate we will suffer and for damn near the same reasons.
They didn't design it that way.
Rome was originally a city state, and barely had land around it, maybe a few dozen kilometres. The entire adult male population made up the army, and most people were agriculturalists. The most well armed and family farming people had the most vote in the election that was directly related to war where ordinary consuls would be active generals and commanders and in the midst of it like any soldier. The assembly of the centuries also ratified any declaration of war. Tribal assemblies were similar, and it was much easier to make the trip to Rome to cast your vote. It took until after the Punic Wars for the inequality to jump enough for this to be very unstable.
Governments back then also didn't do all that much by our standards. They had soldiers, but then the soldiers themselves basically elected their own commanders. The law would have been most related to trials and court disputes and crimes, where most people had juries or directly appealed to the broad population without much regard for wealth and everyone advocated for their own case or at least launched the proceedings. The laws would be ratified by the plebians and could even be passed by plebians alone in later times by tribunes, so the laws themselves were mostly the kind that any typical Roman adult man would support. Municipal government like the aqueducts and temples, and those magistrates responsible called Aediles, were also half elected by the tribes and half elected by the tribunes themselves.
It also took until the Gracchi reform attempts and related events like the need to appoint governors loyal to Rome but far away, the grain dole, the massive increase in urban architecture, the rise in corruption and tax revenue from war, the plantation owners corruptly forcing out previously stable farmers into being the urban poor, and multi year wars for basically imperialism and not for defense, that the Roman political system broke down so hard. It wasn't free or fair before, but it was far less of a problem and didn't lead into a civil war.
No jokes about that Quaestor's right arm? Seriously? What's wrong with the internet today?
I like to know in detail how Rome existed or operate on day to day basis e.g tailors (obviously because of their fashion) who and where are the blacksmiths and the tinsmiths, responsible for the Roman army armor, cups and crockerys. Street cleaners, house cleaners and laundry dudes.
Can you do one for HRE?
Like holy crap that is confusing!
better system tbh, let the army control war making. US soldiers vote for non intervention by large margin.
It's Better than the US postal vote at last.
Considering it was over a millineum ago, I would say they were pretty progressive for their time.
I love this so much. Keep doing this series!
It was all fine, until the Russ interfered with the election and made Julius Cesar emperor.
Vote for Brutus in 20 BC!
Were you sleepy while making this? Sounds like you're talking through yawns every now and then.
I'm actually sick and recorded this just before I lost my voice : (
Luckily for us you did manage to finish it. Great video! :)
Love these videos
Thanks! I've been getting a lot of positive feedback on this series but do want to get back to Moments episodes
Wow! Extremely informative. I couldn't help but notice the "Americanized" Latin terms, though. Why?
You say Americanized but mean Anglicized. And they're Anglicized because the video is in English.
it's a shame that us italians we dont have such beautiful documentary in italian!!!! thank you very much
One of my favorite channels on RUclips. Another stellar video. A+!
According to the graph about midway through you video you need a lot of "asses" to be considered heavy infantry. I know it is kind of immature, but that really made me laugh.
"Dude, you don't know how many asses I had to buy to be considered a first rate citizen".
You could say they were really putting their asses on the line.
hahaha, yeah, and some were off their asses afterwards.
I like your Warhammer 2 videos but I really like your history videos.
Hey can you do more videos with the artstyle of your older videos (A Roman soldier prepares dinner, 9 lives of Alexander, etc.) That one feel really smooth. Good video anyways?
Remember republics are different than democracies. While both allow citizens to vote, the value of the vote is different as the video explained. Oh an the US is a republic!
My tribe/clan share the same father and number about 2.5mil to 3mil that makes me a member of one of the powerful and noble clans in horn of africa viva my isaac clan
Is it true that the Romans didn't have any soap? Is that why they had to keep soaking in their baths for hours?
what was the senate function under the empire?
But candidate K is not a candidate. It only means that the particular tribe couldn't vote for, say, candidate J or candidate I. Otherwise, there would've been 11 candidates not 10 in that particular example. Also, why would some tribes be able to elect 2 candidates at once (speaking of tribes 10-18)?
Great video, you put elections in in anceint rome
Is there any record of using flags to signify victory or margin of victory in Roman elections. Appian uses the term " elected with flying colors" vis a vis Gaius Gracchus. The term is usually associated with the Age of discovery / Conquest but I thought maybe the Romans used electoral flags the same way as gladitorial flags . The first thing I though of was the Papal Smoke to signify the College of cardinals' decisio - yea or nay?
This is a great series and I watch it as soon as it is uploaded. Thanks for sharing these very interesting topics.
The Tribal Assembly got to pick Preators. Oh the carnage this would cause when the Preators got their own personal guard....
the origins of the praetorian guard date back to groups of elite soldiers that protected generals during the Roman Republic. As early as the second century B.C., special units were selected to shadow famed Roman leaders such as Marc Antony, Scipio Africanus and Lucius Cornelius Sulla whenever they ventured into the field. Julius Caesar later enlisted his tenth legion as personal security, but the Praetorian Guard as we know it didn’t appear until shortly after Augustus became Rome’s first emperor in 27 B.C.
Ancient Roman politics were shady. Back then, "Donaldius Tangerium Trumpius
could have claimed ''this election was as pre-determined as a gladitorial duel' and not necessarily have been wrong.
The founding fathers of the U.S. of A had read too many books about Ancient Roman elections.
This comes at a perfect time for the local elections in my province!
Roman system sounds too much like an Electoral College with Superdelegates.......
Does anyone know what time of year elections happened? I'm particularly curious about the time between a consul winning an election and the start of a military campaign season.
Great video! I wonder how it changed as the empire expanded and more and more people were citizens.
Roman citizenship was restricted to italy and colonies until 212ad and by that time the senate was mostly irrelevant