What were the key institutions of the Roman Republic?
AALONG WITH CITIZENSHIP, the republican government was another important institution of Roman political life. Roman institutions were not static; they changed over time to allow broader access to power and address new problems.
Coin Showing a VoterThis coin from 63 B.C.E. shows a citizen wearing a toga dropping a voting tablet into a voting urn, the Roman equivalent of today’s ballot box. The tablet has a V on it, meaning a yes vote, and the coin has an inscription giving the name of the moneyer, the official who controlled the production of coins and decided what would be shown on them. Here the moneyer, Lucius Cassius Longinus, depicted a vote held fifty years earlier regarding whether an ancestor of his should be named prosecutor in a trial charging three vestal virgins with unchastity. As was common among moneyers, Longinus chose this image as a means to advance his political career, in this case by suggesting his family’s long history of public office. (Snark/Art Resource, NY)