Purpose Of Government: Provide Public Services

Purpose of Government: Provide Public Services Grade: A

Explanation of how it meet the common good
I give the Ancient Roman Tripartite Republic an A for providing public services. The Roman government had a postal system developed very early on as the American postal service wasn’t created until 1775. This postal service was very advanced for the time as no others existed. The Ancient Roman Tripartite Republic also had water fountains this was very advanced as there were supplied by aqueducts. The aqueducts were enormous lead pipes reinforced with brick that moved water around the Rome. The water from these aqueducts flowed into cisterns that were on high ground. These cisterns held the water for the city. This was one of very few civilizations
The Roman citizens were allowed citizenship and protected by most laws. To be Roman citizen on the other was not that easy. At first you had to be a partition (A wealthy man who had been in the system for generations) to become a citizen. Later on however that granted this right to plebians ( the lower class of regular people). However even though they granted citizenship to the patricians were citizens they could barely participate in the government. The only way they could be in the government was to be part of the Tribune which consisted of a very limited number of citizens. This created a way for the plebians to get more rights and better laws but, it was not always effective as this was the smallest part of the government. The patricians however did improve upon the way they treated the plebeians and at the end of Ancient Rome were treated close to the same as the patricians. They were also able to finally marry patricians a thing previously unheard of. The slaves had a very slim amount of rights and were treated the worst of all parts of the government. Only the most severe punishments were reserved for them. This also came with good things, a woman slave’s children were allowed citizenship when grown. Slaves could also buy their freedom from the small amount of money they were sometimes payed, (this was a incentive I will talk about
The Ancient Roman Tripartite Republic had twelve tables that were placed in the Forum, a very busy place where many office/government buildings were located. These twelve tables were requested by the plebeians after the plebeian revolt of 494 BCE. These twelve tables held all the laws needed for the comfort of having “fair” trials. The trials though weren’t always fair. Even though the plebeians and patricians were treated close to the same the still usually favored the patricians. The laws were mostly favored against the poor. Another example of the Ancient Roman Tripartite Republic’s rule of law was their severe punishments. These punishments weren’t very “fair” either. The Romans reserved the worst punishments for the slaves. One of these punishments for reserved for slaves was whipping, with ropes holding knotted bones or hooks. Another very unfair punishments is found in the 8th table this, “VIII. 1 ‘If any person has sung or composed against another person a SONG (carmen) such as was causing slander or insult.... he shall be clubbed to death.’” This is incredibly harsh! Slaying someone for singing about someone harmfully. In America if someone was to say something that isn’t nice about someone you are protected by law. This is because you have the freedom of speech, but not in the Ancient Roman Tripartite