Abstract

The problem set for republicans by groups is: which group or aggregation of citizens should count in pursuit of the common good? The relevant collective for the first republic, in Rome, was all Roman citizens, each of whom enjoyed "liberty" ("libertas") by which the Romans meant equal freedom from arbitrary interference or coercion by others, including officers of the state.i Republican legal theory depends on aggregating citizens into a group (the "people" or "populus") who act together to construct a sense of justice and the common good amongst themselves.ii Rome began as a small village with few inhabitants and extensive rights for all citizens. As the Roman empire grew, the rights of Roman citizens diminished, until nearly everyone in the Mediterranean world enjoyed Roman "citizenship" under an arbitrary central government in Rome. The common good gave way to the emperor's whim, leading many to conclude that size had ruined liberty in Rome, and that only small republics can survive.