Talk:Constitution of the Roman Empire

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 11 January 2022 and 6 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): BsKulp (article contribs).

Update on the Roman constitution series

I just wanted to mention my plans for my series on the Roman constitution. There was simply too much information to put on my original page, Constitution of the Roman Republic. There is also a significant amount of information available on the constitutions of the Roman kingdom and empire. Therefore, I am going to give this series somewhat of a matrix structure. Roman Constitution will be the main page of the series. Underneath this page will be Constitution of the Roman Kingdom, Constitution of the Roman Republic and Constitution of the Roman Empire. It surprised me, but apparently there actually was a constitution during the time of the kingdom and then again during the time of the empire.

Underneath the constitution pages, I will have pages on the Senate of the Roman Kingdom, Senate of the Roman Republic, Senate of the Roman Empire, Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Kingdom, Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic, Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Empire, Executive Magistrates of the Roman Kingdom, Executive Magistrates of the Roman Republic, and Executive Magistrates of the Roman Empire.

When this is done, I will create a new page called Roman Executive Magistrates, and then populate this page, along with Roman senate and Roman assemblies. All three pages will be condensed versions of their respective sub-pages. Right now, Roman senate and Roman assemblies consist almost exclusively of facts about the republic. Neither page has many citations. They also use a discussion format, and my revisions to these pages will use more of a discussion and analysis format. I am going to be more cautious with my revisions of these pages, because I assume that people will want to restore the original versions for whatever reason.

My hope is to use a discussion and analysis format for the entire series. My overall goal will be to produce a series that doesn't just discuss the facts associated with these offices and institutions. I want the series to tie everything together, and illustrate how everything operated under the overall constitutional system. Right now, the entries on these individual topics (such as roman consul and praetor) simply list facts without providing any deeper analysis or context. It is difficult to truly understand these topics unless you know how they all worked together under the constitutional system.

Also, I am not surprised that there hasn't been more work done on Wikipedia on this topic. It seems as though there are very few books on this subject, and many of those books are quite old. This is unfortunate because this subject is actually quite relevant to modern politics. Many modern governments are designed around a similar constitutional superstructure as was the Roman government. RomanHistorian (talk) 07:24, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Roman Executive Magistrates

I'm very confused by this section. First, the capitalization already suggests that it is some accepted term or title, which it isn't. Then it starts off talking about election and immediately goes to the emperor, who of course was not elected in any meaningful way. - Eponymous-Archon (talk) 18:06, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

Reaching Community Consensus: monarchial to monarchical

I changed the word "monarchial" to "monarchical" because I thought it was an error, however, upon further investigation mainly with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary I discovered that I was indeed the one that was in error about this issue, but instead of simply undoing my edit, I thought my change will be beneficial to people which are more familiar with the common "monarchical" instead of the alternative and relatively unknown "monarchial"... But I want to hear your thoughts on this. Signed 190.219.53.184 (talk) 00:36, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Sources and rewrites

Some time in the future (perhaps years), I may rewrite based on the following chapters in CAH² 10:

• Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, "The imperial court",
• DW Rathbone, "The imperial finances",
• Richard JA Talbert, "The senate and senatorial and equestrian posts",
• Alan K Bowman, "Provincial administration and taxation", and
• H Galsterer, "The administration of justice".

Also relevant would be "The Principate: the historical, social, and constitutional background" in George Mousourakis, A legal history of Rome (2007). Similarly, for the senate, there are articles like PA Brunt's "The role of the senate in the Augustan regime" and chapters in later companions like Lavan, "The empire in the age of Nero", and Deszpa, "The Flavians and the senate". I think largely that the claim advanced by RomanHistorian about 14 years ago that It seems as though there are very few books on this subject and many of those books are quite old is and was false. The topic is well covered both in the scholarly literature and also in modern textbooks like Boatwright et al, The Romans, discussing the transformations of Augustus and the creation of the Principate's "restored republic" (see also on the memory of the republic, Gowing, Empire and memory).

For further reading, I think other relevant pieces of literature for general comparison might be the chapter by Duncan Cloud in CAH² 9, "The Roman constitution". I didn't do a very through search for literature; I'm sure that other people will find more. If you do, please be sure to add it below or something of that sort. I'll note also that the current main source, Abbott, is profoundly not up-to-date. If someone else were to do rewrites, I'll happily lend any aid. Ifly6 (talk) 01:06, 15 August 2022 (UTC)