Damien Russell
BHR Ch5
1
A Brief History of the Romans
Study Guide: Chapter 5—Italy and Empire
Items and questions on this guide are likely to appear on your next quiz, during which you may use the notes
you have taken on the following. The use of another student’s notes will be treated as academic dishonesty.
Senators, Officials, and Citizen Assemblies
Senates consultum- Senators registered their opinion in the form of an advisory decree or senates
consultum; the role of the Senate was to advise.
Princeps, principles- leading senators or principles (singular, princeps) members who generally held the
highest offices, belonged to the leading families, and had acquired the greatest fame and glory.
400,000 adult male citizens in mid-2nd c. BC- There were around 400,000 adult male citizens, but the
Campus Martius- the place where elections of consuls and praetors were usually held- could
accommodate only about 70,000 at most.
Cursus honorum- hierarchy of senatorial officers.
Quaestiones- When ordinary citizens were the suspects- Roman officeholders personally conducted
investigations (quastiones) commissioned by the senate or by a law passed in a citizen assembly.
Prosecutions of former office holders- presectuions of former officials in fact became a common
feature of the Roman political order.
Quaestiones perpetuae- From 149 a series of laws began to create permanent courts- so-called
quaestiones perpetuae- to try certainspecific offenses by magistrates and senators.
Italy and the Consequences of Empire
Confiscations of land- after the end of the war, many communities in southern Italy suffered massive
confiscations of land, which badly hurt their citizens and their economies.
Large-scale settlement projects after Second Punic War-Roman officials conducted large-scale
settlement projects after the Second Punic War, in particular settling veterans of campaigns in Spain,
Sicily, and North Africa on some of the land confiscated from allies who had rebelled or were
considered untrustworthy.
Rooting out of disloyalty and threats to public order- During the war with Hannibal and for two
decades after the senate regularly instructed magistrates and promagistrates to search out signs of
disloyalty in some allied cities and to punish those suspected of it. Attempts to search out perceived
threats were not limited to charges of assisting Rome’s enemies. Three times between 184 and 179 the
senate assigned to praetors the task of investigating the many poisonings.
Suppression of Bacchanalia beginning in 186 BC-Roman officials and senators became disturbed by
the practices and wide diffusion of the cult of the god Bacchus, the Greek Dionysus. The cult involved
groups with no official sanction, outside of a city’s normal religious and political framework. Spurius
Postumius Albinus, one consul of 186, began the investigation after receiving reports that worshippers
included ritual murders and poisonings in their nocturnal rites.
Imposition of burdens on Italian cities- The Romans shifted more of the burdens and fewer of the
benefits of waging war to the Latins and other Italian allies. They were carrying more of the burdens for
a smaller share of the profits.
Suspension of tributum from citizens in 167 BC- The senate suspended the collection of tributum from
citizens, because the treasury was full with profits of expansion.
Adoption and imitation of Roman institutions by Italian cities-Latin colonies, founded by Roman
officials, were organized in a Roman manner. Now, more communities began to use Latin in official
inscriptions, and there are signs of an increased use of Roman law and of Roman titles for offices.
Influx of wealth from plunder, mass enslavement, and confiscation-The vast influx of wealth into
Italy changed the appearance of many cities and the ways of life of their leading families. Wealthy
