The government of Rome

The Roman government was a strange mix of a republic and democracy. An very interesting fact about the people of Rome is that they took many of their ideas of government from the Greeks. The Roman state was described as a republic with its consuls which continued to be appointed after the establishment of the one-man rule under the empire. The Roman government only lasted until the beginnings of the first century. Many Romans did not like how one man made all the rules. So they decided to balance the power of the government between three branches. They were the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch.

The Romans viewed their empire as the instrument that brought law and justice to the rest of the world. They started out with the most powerful and largest empire in the world. They were considerated a military state and because of this they ruled a vast amount of land in subject countries. The Romans devoted much of their brilliance to military strategy, administartion, technology, and law. Ancient Rome in the earlier years was ruled by kings, but that changed in a very short amount of time, because the Romans hated it. When Rome began to grow and become more powerful, a government position became more and more attractive in Rome's society. This meant that more men got involved in goverment. These men believed that their empire and city would be ruled by one man. They called the one man rulers emperors.

The one man rule was not working for the Roman government so this started the first triumvirate. The first triumvirate was a time when three men ruled instead of one. These three men were Crassus, Pompey, and Julius Caesar. Pompey was killed in a battle and Crassus and Caesar were left. The only problem was that when there was only two men in charge each wanted the power so they fought for it. Crassus then died and Caesar had an affair with Cleopatra, this Cleopatra was claimed to be the most famous. This then leads up to Caesar's murder, because Rome did not want a king. Then in the year 146 B.C. the Roman government began to fall. The only important power left that they had was the Mediterranean Sea. From this they controlled almost all of its coastline. The Romans then realized that they could no longer depend and lean on the Senate. (Barnett 14-16)

The Second Triumvirate was basically the same as the first but different people and a different time.The three men were Octavian, Caesar's nephew, Ledipus, and Mark Antony. The story starts out with how Ledipus was pushed out of his powerful position. This caused Octavian and Mark Antony to go to war against each other. Then later on both Mark Antony and his wife Cleopatra comitted suicide and Octavian took control of Egypt and Alexandria. (Bookrags)

There are many reasons to why Rome fell. One reason was because of economics. The Western Roman Empire was much weaker than the Eastern Roman Empire. This meant that one part of the empire was holding the structure of Rome up but the other was vulnerable for attacks. From this the Western Roman Empire was attacked by nomadic peoples which caused the empire to become more weakened. Eventually the Western Empire fell completely to the outsiders. The trade between different areas was cut of by the new rulers of Western Rome. This then lead to all of Rome falling in 476 B.C.

Barnett, Mary. "Gods and Myths of the Romans". The Archaeology and Mythology of Ancient Peoples. Smithmark Publishers Inc. New York. 1996.
Online book: "http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Second_Triumvirate"
(Mr Lockwood the spell check wasnt working so I did my best)