This page consists of mostly verbatim passages from the online translation of Cicero's de Re Publica which is assigned for this class. I will be lecturing directly from this text. You should take notes from my lectures.

BOOK II
Cato: our Roman constitution, on the contrary, did not spring from the genius of one individual, but from that of many; and it was established, not in the lifetime of one man, but in the course of several ages and centuries. For, added he, there never yet existed any genius so vast and comprehensive as to allow nothing at any time to escape its attention; and all the geniuses in the world united in a single mind could never, within the limits of a single life, exert a foresight sufficiently extensive to embrace and harmonize all, without the aid of experience and practice

Romulus
Rome was founded by Romulus, a son of the god Mars. After conquering Alba Longa, (Romulus) conceived the design (as they tell us) of founding a new city and establishing a new state
... he chose the most convenient possible position ... perceived that sites very near the sea are not the most favorable positions for cities which would attain a durable prosperity and dominion
...a maritime and naval enemy can fall upon a town on the sea-coast
IV... maritime cities are likewise naturally exposed 399to corrupt influences ...  Nor, indeed, was there any cause which more deeply undermined Corinth and Carthage
... pernicious incentives to luxury
... dispersion of their citizens
... agreeableness of their position nourishes many expensive and deceitful gratifications of the passions
as an aside: this is one evident reason of the calamities and revolutions of Greece, 400because she became infected with the vices which belong to maritime cities, which I just now briefly enumerated
Situated on a river (the Tiber), Rome receives from the sea all the productions necessary to the conveniences and elegances of life, but those also which are brought from the inland districts
...natural fortifications of Rome, ... bounded on all sides by steep and rugged hill s... our fortified citadel, it is so secured by a precipitous barrier and enclosure of rocks, that, even in that horrible attack and invasion of the Gauls, it remained impregnable and inviolable. Moreover, the site which he selected had also an abundance of fountains

Sabine females of honorable birth who had come to Rome, attracted by the public games and spectacles which Romulus then, for the first time, established as annual games in the circus, were suddenly carried off at the feast of Consus313 by his orders, and were given in marriage to the men of the noblest families in Rome. And when, on this account, the Sabines had declared war against Rome, the issue of the battle being doubtful and undecided, Romulus made an alliance with Tatius, King of the Sabines, at the intercession of the matrons themselves who had been carried off. By this compact he admitted the Sabines into the city, gave them a participation in the religious ceremonies, and divided his power with their king.

IX he approved and adopted the principle which Lycurgus but little before had applied to the government of Lacedæmon...thus supported, and, as it were, propped up by this council or senate, Romulus conducted many wars with the neighboring nations in a most successful manner

Rome was founded in the seventh Olympiad, the life of Romulus was contemporary with that period in which Greece already abounded in poets and musicians—an age when fables, except those concerning ancient matters, received little credit.

XI
Laelius offers commentary on Scipio's project (and Cicero's)
We now see, my Scipio, what you meant when you said that you would adopt a new method of discussing the science of government, different from any found in the writings of the Greeks. For that prime master of philosophy, whom none ever surpassed in eloquence, I mean Plato, chose an open plain on which to build an imaginary city after his own taste—a city admirably conceived, as none can deny, but remote enough from the real life and manners of men. Others, without proposing to themselves any model or type of government whatever, have argued on the constitutions and forms of states. You, on the contrary, appear to be about to unite these two methods; for, as far as you have gone, you seem to prefer attributing to others your discoveries, rather than start new theories under your own name and authority, as Socrates has done in the writings of Plato. Thus, in speaking of the site of Rome, you refer to a systematic policy, to the acts of Romulus, which were many of them the result of necessity or chance; and you do not allow your discourse to run riot over many states, but you fix and concentrate it on our own Commonwealth.

nobles then prudently resolved to establish an interregnum—a new political form, unknown to other nations
during the interval which elapsed before the definitive nomination of the new king, the State was not left without a ruler, nor subjected too long to the same governor, nor exposed to the fear lest some one, in consequence of the prolonged enjoyment of power, should become more unwilling 405to lay it aside
Romans, rude as they were, saw the importance of appointing a king, not for his family, but for his virtue and experience.

Numa Pompilius' reign
Thus in religious worship he added devotion and removed costliness. He was also the first to introduce markets, games, and the other usual methods of assembling and uniting men
Having thus reigned in the greatest peace and concord thirty-nine years—for in dates we mainly follow our Polybius, than whom no one ever gave more attention to the investigation of the history of the times—he departed this life, having corroborated the two grand principles of political stability, religion and clemency.

After examining the claim that Numa was a Pythagorean, it is rejected, and Manilius concludes happily that our Roman sciences were not imported from beyond the seas, but that they sprung from our own indigenous and domestic virtues ...
even those things which they borrowed from foreigners received a much higher improvement among us than they possessed in the countries from whence they were imported among us; and you will learn that the Roman people was aggrandized, not by chance or hazard, but rather by counsel and discipline, to which fortune indeed was by no means unfavorable

Tullus Hostilius' reign

wisely our kings at that time perceived that certain rights ought to be allowed to the people, of which we shall have a good deal to say hereafter. Tullus did not even assume the ensigns of royalty without the approbation of the people

Ancus Martius' reign
This king having conquered the Latins, admitted them to the rights of citizens of Rome. He added to the city the Aventine and Cælian hills; he distributed the lands he had taken in war; he bestowed on the public all the maritime forests he had acquired; and he built the city Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, and colonized it. When he had thus reigned twenty-three years, he died.

Lucius Tarquinius' (Tarquinius Priscus) reign
XIX
Rome appears to have become more learned by the study of foreign literature; ... This is generally attributed to Demaratus, a Corinthian, the first man of his country in reputation, honor, and wealth; who, ... like a free and bold-hearted man, renounced his country, and was admitted into the number of the citizens of Tarquinii, and fixed his residence in that city. [One of these sons] was easily admitted to 409the rights of citizenship at Rome; and on account of his accomplished manners and learning, he became a favorite of our king Ancus to such a degree that he was a partner in all his counsels, and was looked upon almost as his associate in the government.
 When, therefore, Ancus died, the people by their unanimous suffrages chose for their king this Lucius Tarquinius

doubling the original number of the senators
established the order of knights
instituted the grand games which are now called the Roman Games
build a temple to the all-good and all-powerful Jupiter in the Capitol

Servius Sulpicius' reign
Servius Sulpicius, who was the first who is reported to have reigned without an order from the people. He is supposed to have been the son of a female slave at Tarquinii...

created a great number of knights from the common mass of the people
he took care to make it a rule of ours, as it ought to be in every government, that the greatest number should not have the greatest weight
no one was excluded from his right of voting, yet the preponderance of votes was secured to those who had the deepest stake in the welfare of the State

there is a peculiar advantage in our Commonwealth, than which nothing can be more excellent, which I shall endeavor to describe as accurately as possible, because it is of such a character that nothing analogous can be discovered in ancient states; for these political elements which I have noticed were so united in the constitutions of Rome, of Sparta, and of Carthage, that they were not counterbalanced by any modifying power. For in a state in which one man is invested with a perpetual domination, especially of the monarchical character, although there be a senate in it, as there was in Rome under the kings, and in Sparta, by the laws of Lycurgus, or even where the people exercise a sort of jurisdiction, as they used in the days of our monarchy, the title of king must still be pre-eminent; nor can such a state avoid being, and being called, a kingdom. And this kind of government is especially subject to frequent revolutions, because the fault of a single individual is sufficient to precipitate it into the most pernicious disasters.
But many privileges must be wanting to communities that live under a king; and, in the first place, liberty, which does not consist in slavery to a just master, but in slavery to no master at all

Tarquinius Superbus' reign