The Principate is ... The main features of the Principate and Dominate

The legacy of one of the most powerful states in the world - the Roman Empire - we still use today. The system of European values, legal rights can not be comprehended without knowledge of the foundations and principles of public administration of Ancient Rome. That is why the political legacy of the empire is still being studied at law faculties. One of the important concepts that came to us from the Roman past, is the principate.

Meaning of the word

The emergence of the ancient Roman state is attributed to the genius of Octavian Augustus. It was he who built new political relations on the basis of archaic interactions of power and society. It was thanks to Augustus that the principate appeared. This definition can be explained as the "power of the principle". Who were the princes of ancient Rome? Let's consider this question.

In fact, the principat is something between the leader and the monarch. The ancient rights and freedoms of tribes still had someone to protect - polis structures based on the principles of archaic democracy, still existed. Octavian at the dawn of his rule had to reckon with the legacy of the policy, although the time of the republican traditions was almost gone by the beginning of a new era. By the middle of the 1st century AD. E. Has already shifted the political emphasis from elected power to imperial absolutism - the Roman state became more bureaucratic in nature and less "Roman" in spirit.

The Power of Principles

As a political system, the principate is the minimum number of officials and relatively strong centralization. In the legacy from the time of the Republic of Rome, a paradoxical, at the modern sight, bureaucratic system consisting of slave officials has been inherited. Each slave belonged to one or another Roman, who held public office. The richer the master, the more slaves he could allocate for the performance of his own state obligations. Paradoxically, the principat is the era where slaves could reach the very heights of real power in ancient Rome and rule the empire along with their masters. At local levels, the administration was carried out by the council of decurions, for which this authority was an honorary in itself, and who did not receive any funds from Rome for the service. In fact, the empire was managed quite efficiently, while spending minimal resources to finance the system.

The emergence of the dominate

Later rulers successfully ruled the system Octavian, strengthening the monarchical principle, but not abolishing the traditions of the polis to the end. The epoch of the principality ended in the third century, when the empire was headed by Septimius Severus. During his reign, the principle of full domination of the monarch was developed and began to be introduced into political life. This system of government was called dominant.

Characteristic features of the Principate and Dominate

What are the differences between these two types of political system, separated by one century? With the principality, the appearance of the republican form of government remains : there are elective authorities, the Senate is going to. But in fact the principate is almost a monarchy. All elective appointments are factually supervised by the principle. The supreme ruler simultaneously performs the functions of a priest, supreme judge, commander-in-chief, tribune.

The powers of the people's assemblies were substantially limited. They were rarely collected, and their decisions could be annulled by the principle at any time. But nevertheless, the senate, people's congresses, and magistrates still existed, although their role was practically decorative. The rule of management "that solved the principle - becomes a law" receives universal confirmation.

The reign of Septimus Severus put everything in its place. It was in the 3rd century AD. E. The differences between the principate and the dominant were particularly clear. People's congresses dissolve and forever leave the political life of the empire. The powers of the local government significantly reduced. The state administration is engaged in several departments, which are managed by dignitaries. The role of slaves is diminishing, and aristocrats are seriously engaged in bureaucratic work. Officials are directly funded from the treasury, and now they have the right to a pension.

The Importance of Dominates for European History

Dominate system proved to be so effective that it retained its importance even after the division of the empire into its western and eastern parts. Initially, this division was positioned as a purely administrative procedure, helping to lead both parts of the state equally effectively - both from Rome and Constantinople. But after the border became more serious, and a huge state broke up into two parts, increasingly separating from each other in both methods of political management, and in religious and secular life.

Dominata as a political form of government found its continuation in the period of the formation of monarchical states in Western Europe. Its foundations formed the basis for building absolute monarchies of the European pattern.