Roman social and political structures | World History | Khan Academy

Let's talk a little bit about the social and political structures of ancient Rome. And it's important to keep in mind that ancient Rome wasn't just a static thing that never changed. It existed for over a thousand years from its period from its founding as a kingdom, if you believe the founding myth the founding

myth founded by Romulus in 753 BCE. Most historians don't accept that founding myth. But then it became they overthrew their last king in 509 BCE, Tarquin the Proud, and then they established the Roman Republic, which was eventually then turned into an empire by Julius Caesar and Augustus. And so, whenever you have something this

long-lasting, you can imagine the social and the political structures evolved over time. But let's begin with the period when it was a kingdom. Because even then, there were some things that were noteworthy and some social and political structures that continued on into the Republic period and even when it was an empire. So, one

interesting thing is that when we typically think of kings, we think of it as being dynastic. That if I am king, then my oldest son, or maybe in certain cultures my oldest daughter might become king or queen. But turns out that many of the, especially the early kings of the Roman kingdom, were actually

elected. They had a lot of power. All the power resided in them. They were the executive, the legislative, they were the judicial, uh they even had religious power. But it's interesting to think of the idea of elected kings. Now, all of them weren't elected. Uh several of them were dynastic, but it is an

interesting idea. Now, another idea that emerged during the the Roman kingdom is this idea of citizenship. Now, it's important to realize today in a lot of countries, we think of, "Oh, everyone who's who's a formal resident of that country, you can view them as a citizen." Or most of the people, you can think of