On 10/20/05, Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The Roman Republic did in fact have a constitution. When they overthrew the > Etruscan kings and established the Republic the laws were kept secret and > not revealed to the plebeians - the ordinary free people. The laws worked > very much in favour of the patricians. However, there were periodic > uprisings and desertions by the plebians and, of course, Rome relied on them > for the military. So a set of laws called the Twelve Tables were written > down and made public, and Roman citizens had full recourse to them. Slaves > did not. Of course, it wasn't a democracy in the way that we would > understand the term, but our own understanding has developed over centuries, > as did that of the Romans. > > The American political system was strongly influenced by the Roman Republic, > as I'm sure you know.
you're making all that stuff up, aren't you? <g> -frank the pleb -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
