The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c12.s2.14

c12.s2.14

Rome also had originally been a city-state like Athens, Sparta and Thebes. Subsequently, she became mistress of Italy. The Roman Senate was a republican aristocracy during the period of conquests — "an assembly of kings" as it appeared to the emissaries of King Pyrrhus of Epirus. But Rome did not merge herself in an "Italian" republic. Roman Italy was essentially the empire of a republican city-state over other cities. The "Roman franchise" was granted to the subject cities very sparingly. Further, with extra-Italian expansion the republic was converted into a formal empire.