Western Civilization I / Unit 18 WC1 1710 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Sample Question Three: The Senate's Continuity
The idea
The third sample question asks for a political continuity between Rome under the kings and Rome under the Republic, offering the Senate's importance, plebeians holding all tribunates, two consuls with imperium, praetors as provincial governors, and the Twelve Tables as the chief code. The method is to ask of each: did it exist under the kings?
In practice
Consuls were the Republic's invention of five oh nine, replacing the king; no consul existed under the monarchy. Tribunes came from the plebeian secession of four ninety-four, and plebeians holding them is a Republican fact, not a continuity. Praetors and provinces belong to the third century and after. The Twelve Tables were posted in four fifty-one, Republican. Only the Senate, the council of powerful Romans advising the kings, carried across into the Republic, where it became the body that controlled finance and, in time, law. The answer is the Senate, and unit 06's entry 0502 states it from the anchor.
Where people slip
The distractors are all real Republican institutions, which is the trap: they test whether you know which was old and which was new. The Senate predates the Republic; everything else on the list was created to replace or check a king.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
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