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Essay / A Summary of the Roman Republic and the Principate
This is probably because the Roman Senate had more power and because officials were elected. With the Principate, the power of the Senate was greatly reduced and the dictator would appoint officials instead of holding frequent open elections. However, it should be noted that the Roman middle class and urban poor had no less power in the Principate than in the Republic. This means that Livy slightly distorts the degree of democracy of the Republic. Regardless of how democratic the Republic was, scholars still wonder why Roman government changed from the Republic to the Principate. Two of these many reasons are changes in land reform and tax collection. Many leaders had to decide whether it would be beneficial to take land away from the rich and redistribute it to the poor. As mentioned earlier, fewer and fewer pro-poor land reform laws have been passed each year. The responsibility for collecting taxes also changed dramatically as Roman government began to evolve and change. At first, governors and publicans were held responsible for this work, but as cases of corruption began to increase, another actor replaced the corrupt. When Augustus was dictator, prosecutors were responsible for collecting