A Three-Layer Analysis (TLA) of Livy, History of Rome, Book 6
1. Question
Why was the opening of religion, auspices, and priestly offices linked with the distribution of public office?
This question is important for understanding the final stage of the Licinio Sextian reforms in Livy’s Book 6.
From a modern viewpoint, religious office and public office may look like separate issues.
Religious office seems to concern sacred rites and priesthood.
Public office seems to concern political institutions.
However, in the Roman Republic, religion and politics are not separate.
The highest offices are not merely administrative posts.
They are public powers connected with military command, assemblies, the Senate, legal execution, recruitment, diplomacy, and the confirmation of divine will through sacred rites and auspices.
Therefore, for plebeians to enter the consulship, political approval alone is not enough.
They also need to be recognized as people who can exercise public authority legitimately before the gods.
This is why the opening of religion, auspices, and priestly offices was linked with the distribution of public office.
In OSODT terms, religion, auspices, and priestly offices form the authentication and legitimacy layer of the Republican OS.
The distribution of public office belongs to the administrator authority layer.
If the authentication layer remains monopolized by patricians, the administrator authority layer can also be pulled back into patrician monopoly.
Therefore, the opening of religious office was a necessary condition for legitimizing the plebeian consul.
2. Abstract
This research case study reads why the opening of religion, auspices, and priestly offices was linked with the distribution of public office in Livy’s Book 6 through Three-Layer Analysis, or TLA, and OS Organizational Design Theory, or OSODT.
In Chapter 35 of Book 6, Licinius and Sextius present three bills concerning debt, land, and public office.
One of these bills demands that consular tribunes should not be elected, and that one of the two consuls should be chosen from the plebeians.
The issue here is whether plebeians can enter the highest office.
However, the highest office in Rome is not connected only with military and administrative power.
It is also connected with religious procedure.
For this reason, the issue of the plebeian consul naturally leads to the issue of religious qualification.
In Chapters 40 to 42, the reform by which half of the Ten Men for Sacred Rites are chosen from the plebeians becomes important.
This is not only a religious reform.
It is a reform that opens the legitimacy layer necessary for plebeians to hold the highest office.
The patricians could argue that plebeians were not qualified to handle sacred authority.
They could also argue that people who could not connect to auspices and sacred rites could not hold the highest office.
As long as this logic remained, the plebeian consul could be denied on the level of legitimacy even if it was accepted legally.
Therefore, the opening of religious office and the reform of public office distribution were inseparable.
The opening of religious office authenticated the plebeians as legitimate candidates for administrator authority in the Republican OS.
3. Research Method
This study uses TLA, or Three-Layer Analysis.
TLA reads a text through three layers.
Layer 1: Fact
Layer 1 organizes what happened in Livy’s Book 6.
It focuses on the demand for a plebeian consul, the opening of religious office, auspices, divine will, sacred rites, the Ten Men for Sacred Rites, and the creation of the praetorship.
Layer 2: Order
Layer 2 extracts the order behind the events.
It focuses on the authentication layer, the legitimacy layer, the administrator authority layer, and the double monopoly structure of patrician rule.
Layer 3: Insight
Layer 3 draws structural insight from Layer 1 and Layer 2.
It uses OSODT to explain why the opening of religious office and the reform of public office distribution were linked.
This article mainly uses the following OSODT concepts.
- Republican OS
- Plebeian OS
- Authentication layer
- Legitimacy layer
- Administrator authority layer
- Plebeian consul
- Ten Men for Sacred Rites
- Religious legitimacy
- Auspices
- Divine will
- Redistribution of authority
- Legitimacy error
4. Layer 1: Fact
In Livy’s Book 6, the road toward the plebeian consul is connected with the opening of religion, auspices, and priestly offices.
In Chapter 35, the demand for a plebeian consul becomes central to institutional reform.
Licinius and Sextius present three bills concerning debt, land, and public office.
In the public office bill, they demand that consular tribunes should not be elected, and that one of the two consuls should be chosen from the plebeians.
The issue here is whether plebeians can enter the highest office.
However, the highest office in Rome is connected not only with military and administrative power, but also with religious procedure.
Therefore, the issue of the plebeian consul naturally expands into the issue of religious qualification.
In Chapter 37, the plebeian consul is required as a guardian of liberty.
Licinius and Sextius argue that unless one consul is chosen from the plebeians, the fathers will not stop occupying land and will not stop ruining plebeians through excessive profit.
Here, the plebeian consul is not a mere honor.
It is the highest office needed to monitor debt, land occupation, and excessive interest, and to protect the freedom of plebeians.
However, to hold this highest office, political authority alone is not enough.
Religious legitimacy is also necessary.
Therefore, the opening of public office is linked with the opening of religious authority.
In Chapters 40 to 41, plebeian entry into the Ten Men for Sacred Rites begins.
Rome moves toward choosing half of the Ten Men for Sacred Rites from the plebeians.
The patrician Appius shows strong concern about plebeians becoming involved in religious authority.
This scene shows that the opening of religious office is not a marginal issue.
The patricians are alarmed because religious office is connected with political authority.
If religious office is opened to plebeians, plebeians are recognized as people who can handle divine will, sacred rites, and legitimacy.
This weakens the argument against the plebeian consul.
In Chapter 42, the road toward the plebeian consul opens after the opening of religious office.
Licinius and Sextius are re elected for the tenth time.
The law by which half of the Ten Men for Sacred Rites are chosen from the plebeians is passed.
After that, the road toward the plebeian consul opens.
This order is important.
First, part of the religious legitimacy layer is opened.
Then, entry into the highest office becomes possible.
This shows that the opening of religious office functions as a condition for the reform of public office distribution.
In the same chapter, the road toward the plebeian consul opens while the praetorship is created for the patricians.
This shows that the final compromise is not merely the opening of one office.
It is a redistribution of authority including religion, politics, and judicial power.
The plebeians gain connection to the consulship.
The patricians keep part of judicial and urban administrative authority through the praetorship.
Before this final compromise, part of the religious office has already been opened.
In other words, the reform in Book 6 is a multi layer update that includes not only public office distribution, but also the legitimacy layer.
5. Layer 2: Order
The opening of religion, auspices, and priestly offices was linked with the distribution of public office because religious office belonged to the authentication layer of the Republican OS, while public office belonged to the administrator authority layer.
First, religion, auspices, and priestly offices are the authentication layer of the Republican OS.
In Rome, political authority is not formed only by human agreement.
Several questions support the legitimacy of office.
Is the public office holder approved by the gods?
Are auspices and sacred rites performed correctly?
Are calendar and sacred procedures respected?
Is the judgment of the state not against divine will?
These questions support the legitimacy of public office.
Therefore, religion, auspices, and priestly offices are the authentication layer of the Republican OS.
A magistrate does not need command power alone.
His command power must be authenticated as legitimate.
Second, the distribution of public office is the administrator authority layer.
The consulship is an upper administrator authority of the Republican OS.
It includes military command, connection with assemblies and the Senate, recruitment, taxation, legal execution, external response, state representation, and connection with religious procedure.
When a plebeian becomes consul, the plebeian connects to administrator authority in the Republican OS.
However, administrator authority is supported by the authentication layer.
If religious authentication remains closed, reform of public office distribution becomes unstable.
Third, patrician rule is a double monopoly of administrator authority and authentication authority.
The strength of patrician rule does not come only from public office.
The patricians hold two kinds of authority.
The first is administrator authority: the highest offices, military command, legal execution, and influence in the Senate.
The second is authentication authority: divine will, auspices, sacred rites, and religious legitimacy.
When these two authorities work together, patrician rule becomes strong.
Even if plebeians gain support in the assembly, their entry into the highest office can be blocked if they are judged religiously unfit.
Therefore, for plebeians to enter public office in a real sense, religious office must also be opened.
Fourth, the opening of religious office authenticates plebeians as legitimate administrator candidates.
Plebeian entry into the Ten Men for Sacred Rites shows that plebeians can handle sacred public duties.
This gives several forms of recognition.
Plebeians can perform sacred rites.
Plebeians can connect to divine will and state order.
Plebeians can handle public legitimacy.
Plebeians can operate an upper layer of the state.
Plebeians can become suitable candidates for the highest office.
Because of this authentication, the legitimacy of the plebeian consul is strengthened.
Fifth, opening public office without opening religious office would create a legitimacy error.
Suppose that the plebeian consul is accepted while religious office remains completely closed to the plebeians.
Several problems would remain.
Can a plebeian consul handle divine will?
How can the legitimacy of auspices be secured?
Are there problems in sacred procedure?
Can patricians obstruct the office by using religious reasons?
Are the commands of a plebeian consul sacredly legitimate?
In other words, if only public office is opened, an error may remain in the authentication layer.
This is why the opening of religious office was linked with the reform of public office distribution.
6. Layer 3: Insight
From a modern viewpoint, religious office and public office distribution may look like separate issues.
But in the Roman Republic, they are not separate.
Roman politics cannot be separated from divine approval.
Political authority is supported by the belief that it does not oppose divine will, that sacred rites are correctly performed, and that auspices are in order.
Therefore, the question of who controls religious authority is directly connected to the question of who controls political authority.
If the patricians monopolize religion, auspices, and priestly offices, they can always use a religious veto against plebeian entry into public office.
They can say that plebeians cannot handle sacred procedure.
They can say that plebeians cannot connect to divine will.
They can say that plebeians are not suitable for the highest office.
To break this logic, religious office itself must be opened.
That is why the opening of religion, auspices, and priestly offices was linked with the distribution of public office.
The important point is that the opening of religious office was not a marginal concession.
It was the authentication update needed for public office reform.
Through religious office, plebeians are recognized as legitimate administrator candidates in the Republican OS.
If plebeians can perform sacred rites, the legitimacy of the plebeian consul becomes stronger.
If plebeians can connect to divine will and state order, the patricians cannot easily refuse plebeian entry into office only on religious grounds.
Therefore, the opening of religious office supports the opening of public office.
7. Implications for the Present
This analysis also gives an important lesson for modern organizations.
In modern organizations, entry into upper positions is not established only by the formal distribution of titles.
There is often an internal authentication layer.
A person may have ability, but still be treated as unfit for upper positions.
For example, the person may be said not to speak the language of management.
The person may be said not to understand the company culture.
The person may not have experience in the mainstream department.
The person may not have direct connection with important customers.
The person may not yet be trusted by executives.
The person may not know the official decision making process.
In such cases, the problem is not only job ability.
The problem is lack of connection to the organization’s authentication layer.
Therefore, simply giving a title may not be enough.
If the person is not recognized as a legitimate manager, work will be obstructed.
Information will not reach that person.
Cooperation will not be given.
Judgments will be ignored.
The person may have formal authority, but not practical power.
This is similar to accepting a plebeian consul while keeping religious office closed.
What modern organizations need is the simultaneous design of role opening and authentication opening.
Participation in important meetings can open the authentication layer.
Regular reporting to executives can open the authentication layer.
Formal connection with customers or external institutions can open the authentication layer.
Participation in trust areas such as quality, safety, and audit can open the authentication layer.
Appointment to system design projects can open the authentication layer.
Connection to official evaluation and approval processes can open the authentication layer.
Opening an upper position alone is not enough.
The organization must also authenticate that the person can legitimately hold that upper position.
The opening of religious office in Livy’s Book 6 is a classical example of this principle.
8. Conclusion
The opening of religion, auspices, and priestly offices was linked with the distribution of public office because, in the Roman Republic, the authority of the highest office was supported by legitimacy authenticated through divine will, sacred rites, and auspices.
For plebeians to enter the consulship, political approval alone was not enough.
They had to be recognized as people who could exercise public authority legitimately before the gods.
The patricians could use their monopoly over religious legitimacy to oppose plebeian entry into the highest office.
They could argue that plebeians could not handle sacred procedure.
They could argue that plebeians could not connect to divine will.
They could argue that plebeians were not suitable for the highest office.
As long as this logic remained, the plebeian consul could be legally accepted but religiously denied.
Therefore, the opening of religious office was linked with the reform of public office distribution.
Plebeian entry into the Ten Men for Sacred Rites meant that plebeians were recognized as people who could handle the sacred order of the state.
Through this recognition, the road toward the plebeian consul opened.
The reform in Book 6 is not merely a change in public office distribution.
It is a multi layer redistribution of authority in the Republican OS, including religion, politics, and judicial power.
The conclusion of this research case study is therefore as follows.
The opening of religion, auspices, and priestly offices was linked with the distribution of public office because, in the Roman Republic, the power of the highest office was supported by legitimacy authenticated through divine will, sacred rites, and auspices.
If patricians continued to monopolize religious authentication, the legitimacy of the plebeian consul could always be denied.
Therefore, the opening of religious office was a necessary condition for authenticating plebeians as legitimate administrator candidates in the Republican OS.
9. Sources
Titus Livius, History of Rome from its Foundation, Book 6.
Japanese edition: Titus Livius, History of Rome from its Foundation 3, translated by Mori Masashi, Kyoto University Press, 2008.
OS Organizational Design Theory_R1.36.05.00.