The Servian constitution was one of the earliest forms of military and political organization used during The Roman Republic. Most of the reforms extended voting rights to certain groups, in particular to Rome's citizen-commoners (collectively, the plebeians) who were minor landholders or otherwise landless citizens hitherto disqualified from voting by ancestry, status or ethnicity, as distinguished from the hereditary patricians. The reforms thus redefined the fiscal and military obligations of all Roman citizens. The constitution introduced two elements into the Roman system of government: a census of every male citizen, in order to establish his wealth, tax liabilities, military obligation, and the weight of his vote; and the comitia centuriata, an assembly with electoral, legislative and judicial powers. Both institutions were foundational for Roman republicanism.[1]
The Servian constitution is traditionally attributed to the sixth king of Rome, Servius Tullius (578–534 BC),[2] though scholars now believe that the wholesale attribution of these measures to Servius "cannot be taken at face value".[3] The constitution likely represents a long-drawn, complex and piecemeal process extending from Servius' predecessors, former kings Ancus Marcius and Tarquinius Priscus, to his successor Tarquinius Superbus, into the Middle and Late Republic.
Rome's military and territorial expansion and the consequent changes in its population made franchise regulation and reform an ongoing necessity. By entrusting the military defense of the state to all citizens, the Servian reform created interdependency among the social classes. In its organization of voting tribes, it inextricably allied political and military life and opened up a "political space" for republican participation.[4] To the Augustan historian Livy, the military service rendered by plebeians was thus a form of public service on a par with patrician duty in the Senate.[5] Even so, census rank depended on property value, and under the Servian constitution no citizen assessed at a worth of less than 11,000 asses (or 12,500, depending on the source) was admitted to the regular army.[6]
^Forsythe, "The Army and Centuriate Organization," p. 26.
^Gary Forsythe, "The Army and Centuriate Organization in Early Rome," in A Companion to the Roman Army (Blackwell, 2011), p. 24.
^Tim Cornell, The beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000 – 264 BC), Routledge, 1995, pp. 144 - 147, 173 -175, 183 for military character of reforms, especially in census.
^Michael S. Drake, Problematics of Military Power: Government, Discipline and the Subject of Violence (Frank Cass, 2002), pp. 22–23.
^Drake, Problematics of Military Power, p. 39.
^Léon Homo, Roman Political Institutions From City to State (Routledge, 2005, originally published 1929), p. 18.
and 25 Related for: Servian constitution information
The Servianconstitution was one of the earliest forms of military and political organization used during The Roman Republic. Most of the reforms extended...
Sabine women. Until the Servianconstitution, many weddings were illegitimate.[clarification needed] The Servianconstitution made all Romans citizens...
guidelines set forth by the legendary king Servius Tullius in the Servianconstitution. In 1690, many decades after Cotgrave's 1611 definition, Antoine...
such, the original design of the Centuriate Assembly was known as the "Servian organization". Under this organization, the assembly was supposedly designed...
to Johan Nicolai Madvig); identical with the capite censi of the Servianconstitution (Belot, Greenidge). One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates...
comitia centuriata, which was changed to a state similar to that of the Servian organisation of the assembly, with more centuries reserved for rich citizens...
Co., 2000), pp. 248–250. Leopold von Ranke. History of Servia and the Servian Revolution. Translated by Louisa Hay Ker. pp. 119–120 Ković, Miloš (2021)...
Narbonensis enrollment in the tribus Voltinia was preferred. Together, the Servian tribes constituted the concilium plebis, or plebeian council; as time passed...
civil, religious, and military matters.: ii. 7 Subsequently, each of the Servian tribes was also represented by a tribune.: ii. 14 Under the Roman Kingdom...
exile in Portugal. From 1 January 1948, with the entry into force of the Constitution of the Italian Republic, the male descendants of Umberto II of Savoy...
identify itself with the movement that had the backing of the king and the Servian-dominated government-in-exile. Gilley, Sheridan; Stanley, Brian (2006)...
selecting among authorities, and preserving (for example) details of the Servian Census.: 239 His first two books present a unified account of the supposed...
dispersed at that time throughout Italy, in one large camp situated beyond the Servian Wall, on the Esquiline Hill, the Castra Praetoria. For the 2nd century...
rampart wall an agger; at this date great height was not necessary. The Servian Wall around Rome was an ambitious project of the early 4th century BC....
by the Gauls after the Battle of the Allia 380 BC - The once destroyed Servian Wall is reconstructed. 312 BC - The Via Appia and Aqua Appia are constructed...
and also played host to the official signing of the proposed European Constitution in July 2004. Rome is the seat of the European Olympic Committee and...
importance. Under Roman domination the town expanded and the so-called Servian walls were modified at the beginning of the 3rd century BC.[citation needed]...
with the Patricians. It played a major role in the development of the Constitution of the Roman Republic. It began in 494 BC, when, while Rome was at war...
would effectively be the Roman Empire, in 27 BC. The Roman Republic's constitution was a constantly evolving, unwritten set of guidelines and principles...
undertook significant reforms of the Roman constitution, establishing the Comitia Centuriata and the Servian tribes. Marcus Tullius, a duumvir sacris faciundis...
Global Information