The idea of political authority gained shape and definition during the evolution of the Roman Republic. Although the meaning of political concepts are subject to historical variations, it is in Rome that many themes and problems associated with the modern understanding of authority – tradition, religion, morality, competing visions of the past – emerged with force. As one review of the history of this idea concluded:

Roman society was no less subject to the upheavals brought by change than the Greek city states. However, as Arendt notes, while Greek philosophy tended to take change for granted, the Romans expressly attempted to consolidate a powerful sense of tradition and continuity. The Romans continually wrote about their past and were self-consciously devoted to their ancestors, traditions and customs. This played an important role in the construction of a unique Roman sensibility towards authority.

But the social upheavals brought about through imperial expansion, competition and rivalry within the ruling elites and unrest from below meant that Romans could not take authority for granted. Questions to do with who had authority and how it should be exercised dominated public life during the final two centuries of the Republic. Such questions were posed with increasing urgency during a series of civil wars that threatened the very integrity of Roman political institutions.