The Roman Empire. Or Republic. Or...Which Was It?: Crash Course World History #10

Hi, I’m John Green; this is Crash Course World History and today we’re going to learn

about the Roman Empire, which of course began when two totally nonfictional twins, Romulus

and Remus, who’d been raised by wolves, founded a city on seven hills.

Mr Green, Mr Green, what… what does SPQR stand for?

It means shut pie hole quickly, rapscallion. No, it means Senātus Populusque Rōmānus,

one of the mottos of the Roman Republic.

So today we’re going to do some old school Great Man History and focus on Julius Caesar

while trying to answer a question: When, if ever, is it OK to stab someone 23 times?

[Theme Music]

Shakespeare answers that question by saying that Roman senators killed Caesar because

he was going to destroy the Roman republic, but even if that’s true, we still have to answer whether:

a. The Roman Republic was worth preserving, and

b. whether Caesar actually destroyed it.

One of the things that made the Roman republic endure, both in reality and in imagination

was its balance. According to the Greek historian Polybius, "THE THREE kinds of government,

monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, were all found united in Rome. And… it was no easy

thing to determine with assurance, whether the entire state was an aristocracy, a democracy, or a monarchy.”

At the heart of this blended system was the Senate, a body of legislators chosen from

a group of elite families. (Rome was divided into two broad classes: the Patricians – the

small group of aristocratic families and the Plebeians, basically everybody else. The Senators

were drawn from the Patricians.) The Senate was a sort of a mixture of legislature and

giant advisory council. Their main job was to set the policy for the Consuls.

Each year the Senate would choose from among its ranks 2 co-Consuls to serve as sort of

the chief executives of Rome. There needed to be two so they could check each other’s

ambition, and also so that one could, you know, take care of Rome domestically, while

the other was off fighting wars, and conquering new territory.

There were two additional checks on power: First, the one-year term. I mean, how much

trouble could you really do in a year, right? Unless you’re the CEO of Netflix, I mean

he destroyed that company in like two weeks.

And secondly, once a senator had served as consul, he was forbidden to serve as consul

again for at least 10 years. Although that went a little bit like you say you’re only

going to eat one Chipotle burrito per week, and then there are a few exceptions, and then

all of a sudden you’re there every day, and YES, I know guacamole is more, JUST GIVE IT TO ME!

But right, we were talking about the Romans. The Romans also had a position of dictator,