第24页 Chapter 2 Imperial Rule in Rome and China

Sustaining and expanding control depended not just on violence but on the ongoing linkage of human and economic resources to central power.
Roman's political and cultural innovations drew old and new elites into government and army.
The source of the magistrates' authority was election by Rome's soldier-citizens. By creating a body of citizens whose decisions were the source of law, Romans took sovereignty out of royal or celestial hands and located it in themselves.This radical move from kingship to republic was accompanied by measures designed to prevent a return to one-man rule.
Throughout the republic in practice adn in principle during later Roman history, the source of law was the Roman people....the approval of assemblies of citizens was essential to making a magistrate's proposal into a law. The assemblies could also conduct criminal trial. The Roman commitment to legal authority and procedures was compatible with the hierarchies of status, wealth and military rank....Only certain categories of people could vote, and not all citizens could be chosen as magistrates and consuls. Republic Rome did not break the powers of the richest families but contained and exploited their competition through institutionalized procedures. The magistrates were elected by assemblies, based on units of the army, and richer taxpayers had more electoral clout than others.