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Republic
The Roman Republic was the second historical stage of ancient Rome, dating from the end of the Roman Kingdom in 509 BC to the creation of the Roman Empire in 27 BC. During this time, Rome was governed by a Senate of elites and comitia (committees) in which all other citizens could participate. Rousseau sees the Roman Republic as an important example of a state that successfully involved citizens in lawmaking, rather than choosing deputies to represent the people’s general will in the legislature (which Rousseau considers a disastrous strategy). In other words, Rousseau praises the Roman Republic because it was what contemporary English speakers would call a direct democracy, as opposed to a representative democracy (although it should be noted that Rousseau uses the word democracy in a very different way in The Social Contract).
Roman Republic Quotes in The Social Contract
The The Social Contract quotes below are all either spoken by Roman Republic or refer to Roman Republic. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 3, Chapter 11
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Such is the natural and inevitable tendency of the best constituted governments. If Sparta and Rome perished, what state can hope to last for ever? If we wish, then, to set up a lasting constitution, let us not dream of making it eternal. We can succeed only if we avoid attempting the impossible and flattering ourselves that we can give to the work of man a durability that does not belong to human things.
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Book 4, Chapter 7
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It is useless to separate the morals of a nation from the objects of its esteem; for both spring from the same principle and both necessarily merge together. Among all the peoples of the world, it is not nature but opinion which governs the choice of their pleasures. Reform the opinions of men, and their morals will be purified of themselves. Men always love what is good or what they think is good, but it is in their judgement that they err; hence it is their judgement that has to be regulated. To judge morals is to judge what is honoured; to judge what is honoured, is to look to opinion as law.
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Roman Republic Term Timeline in The Social Contract
The timeline below shows where the term Roman Republic appears in The Social Contract. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 3, Chapter 12: How the Sovereign Authority Maintains Itself
...in the past, even if it seems unfathomable today: Rousseau cites the example of the Roman Republic , which managed to assemble virtually weekly despite having hundreds of thousands of citizens. In...
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Book 4, Chapter 4: The Roman Comitia
...Rome was first established, but Rousseau believes the authoritative traditional narratives about it. The original Roman Republic was the Roman army, which was divided into “tribes” and other subgroups. The king Servius...
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...only the comitia made laws and elected magistrates, so all Romans could vote, and “ the Roman people was truly sovereign.” Convened under the legally permitted circumstances, these comitia essentially functioned as the...
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