Although the founders of the United States rejected Athenian democracy as too direct and radical, they enshrined democratic equality as a basic principl

In 509 BC a group of nobles who were dissatisfied with autocratic rule overthrew the kings that controlled the area around Rome and founded the Roman Republic. The republican government divided power among various representatives rather than placing it in the hands of a king. In the five centuries that followed, Rome grew from a small city on the Tiber River into a great power that dominated the Mediterranean basin. The Republic was characterized by a struggle between the plebeians, or peasant workers, and the patricians, or landholding aristocrats. By the 1st century BC civil wars raged in Rome, and during this tumultuous period some of the most important strains of Roman political and social thought developed.

The Republic ended in 27 BC when Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, founded an autocratic regime known as the Principate. The establishment of the Principate marked the beginning of the Roman Empire, which survived until the 5th century AD and became one of the great empires in world history. The Principate replaced the shared rule of the Republic with the independent authority of a single emperor and ended the political participation of Rome’s citizens.

The political growth of the Greeks proved to be an important example which aided Rome in their own political evolution. The Romans assimilated the Greeks into their culture and thus the two great peoples drew from each other positive aspects that could serve to strengthen their own advancement. Although the Greeks had implemented many of the innovations that made the Romans revered as historical contributors, the Romans made significant advancements in their applications. The Greeks were great thinkers but the Romans were doers. Thus the advancements the Romans made to Athenian democracy secured their place in history as one of the greatest contributors to Western Civilization.

Monarchs governed the Minoans and Mycenaeans. Sometimes called “princes” to indicate that they ruled a limited local territory instead of a widespread kingdom, these rulers combined political and religious functions. In addition to controlling defense, economics, and law, they also oversaw the worship of the gods. The rulers surrounded themselves with many servants and officials in their palace complexes. The monarchs lived more luxurious lives than their subjects because they controlled the surpluses produced by farmers and craft workers. The monarchs instituted minutely detailed accounting systems to keep track of everything under their control. They even had scribes record the number of broken chariot wheels in their storerooms.

As an empire, Rome had shown the potential for rule by a central authority over vast territories. At the same time, Rome introduced the practice of federalism,

Some topics in this essay:
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