Roman political culture

The paper focuses on Tacitus’ account of the speech made by Claudius in 48 CE in favour of the admission of the primores of ‘long-haired’ Gaul to the senate, examining arguments used by the historian to clarify the reactions to their request and the reasoning adopted by the emperor to convince the senators to accept it. Besides expressing awareness of the efficacy of the criteria used by Romans to create a supranational imperial order, the passage shows Tacitus’ ability to highlight the political meaningfulness of Claudius’ intervention, making it a model worthy of surviving and being mentioned many centuries later in modern culture. In this vein, the second part of the paper analyzes some 16th and early 17th century references to the emperor’s speech in authors such as Justus Lipsius, Scipione Ammirato, Jean Bodin, Traiano Boccalini, Hugo Grotius. Within their works, also dedicated to examining the birth, development and decline of States, we see that besides recalling an episode occurring many centuries before, some key-intellectuals made utilized the story into a valid exemplum to promote a model of efficacious government favouring integration as a means of consolidating modern states.

This is the text of a talk I gave for the SCS’s 2016 conference in San Francisco.  All translation are my own, as are all errors. The actions taken by the members of the Ordo Matronae to avoid a proposed tax on their members in 42BCE reflects a long established procedure by which influential Republican Matrons could influence political decisions.

The genealogy of the Postumii Albini from the second half of the second century BCE onwards is uncertain and debated. This article attempts a new discussion of the evidence. Its main contention is that A. Postumius Albinus, cos. 99, should be distinguished from the homonymous legate, brother of Sp. Postumius Albinus, cos. 110; that the two moneyers A. Postumii Albini were, in all likelihood, not directly related to each other and were probably sons of the last two consuls of the family; and, as a consequence, that at least two lines of descent between the second and the first century BCE can be discerned. On the basis of these results, a new stemma of the ancient patrician family of the Albini is put forward.

Daha önce Cicero’dan Devlet Üzerine çevirisini yayımladığımız C. Cengiz Çevik, bu çalışmada Roma’nın cumhuriyet döneminde (İÖ 509-İÖ 27) siyaset ve felsefe ilişkisinin şekillenişini inceliyor. Alanında Türkçede bir ilk olan ve birincil kaynaklara dayanan bu inceleme Pythagorasçı öğretinin Roma’daki etkilerine dair rivayetler ile felsefeye karşı siyasi nitelikli ilk olumsuz tepkilerden başlayıp, özellikle de Scipio Çevresi’nde felsefenin siyasî açıdan kabulüne ve Cicero bağlamında siyaset ile felsefenin uzlaştırılmasına dek uzanmaktadır. Bu çerçevede cumhuriyet döneminde ilkin yabancı ve tehlikeli bir unsur olarak görülen felsefenin zamanla Roma’nın siyasi şartlarıyla nasıl uyumlu hale geldiği, siyasî ideallerle birlikte nasıl dönüştüğü, siyasi figürleri nasıl dönüştürdüğü ve en azından bu tür dönüşümlerin nasıl yorumlandığı üzerinde durulmaktadır. Tarihin en güçlü ve en uzun ömürlü devlet yapılarından birinin felsefi gelenekle ilişkisini değerlendiren Roma’da Siyaset ve Felsefe’nin geniş bir okur kitlesine hitap edeceğini düşünüyoruz.

Dr. C. Cengiz Çevik (1983) İstanbul Üniversitesi, Eskiçağ Dilleri ve Kültürleri Bölümü, Latin Dili ve Edebiyatı Anabilim Dalı’ndan 2007 yılında mezun oldu. 2011 yılında aynı bölümden “Seneca’nın Naturales Quaestiones Adlı Eserinde Doğa ve Ahlak Anlayışı” başlıklı yüksek lisans tezini tamamlayarak mezun oldu. 2018 yılında “Roma’nın Cumhuriyet Döneminde Siyaset ve Felsefe İlişkisi” başlıklı teziyle doktora derecesi kazandı. Temel çalışma alanı Roma düşünce tarihidir. Aynı zamanda antik düşünce ve felsefe geleneğini temel alarak farklı çağlarda siyaset, felsefe ve ikisi arasındaki ilişkiler üzerine yazılan metinlerle ilgili çalışmalarını sürdürmektedir. Cicero’nun Devleti: De Re Publica Yazıları başlıklı kitabın yazarıdır (YKY, 2017) ve Latinceden Türkçeye çeviriler yapmaktadır.

This article takes its cue from the assumption that responsibility for ruling Rome fell jointly on the public authorities, physically represented by magistrates and senators, as well on the gods that the Republic regarded as its "guardian" deities. In this inquiry, I have tried to justify such assumption by documenting and exploring the grounds and principles underlying such cooperation between gods and men, as well as the institutional, political and social implications of having gods involved in the government's responsibilities. The limits of this inquiry strictly lie in the understanding of the scope of the relationship between gods and men, which is the ultimate purpose of this paper, and any extensive discussion and digression is contingent on such main goal.

https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190901400.001.0001/oso-9780190901400-chapter-20

The Senate under Augustus was a strikingly different institution from the one we know from Cicero. It became one of the pillars of the regime, allowing Augustus to lay claim to a rhetoric of continuity and legitimacy he could not have achieved in any other way. But there was a fundamental change in the way senators themselves saw their role, and the relationship Rome's political, economic, and social elite had to senatorhood more broadly. The Senate itself became largely cooperative rather than competitive, and developed a new corporate personality. This shift fed into many of Augustus' own goals, but it also represented a rational response by the senators to their new reality.

This article examines three sections of the proem to Lucretius' De rerum natura: the so-called hymn to Venus (Lucr. 1.1-43), the praise of Epicurus (1.62-79), and the Iphigenia passage (1.80-101). The article's goal is to show that distinct, interconnected political echoes are perceptible in these three sections of Lucretius' proem, and that Lucretius intertwines his philosophical teaching with Roman political culture in such a way as to make his Epicurean message more acceptable to Roman audiences. The article demonstrates Lucretius' interaction with the use of myth in political language in Rome in the 60s and 50s bce. It analyzes the relevance of the Mithridatic wars to Roman discussions of imperialism and Lucretius' exploitation of this conflict's iconic status. This article suggests that Memmius' political action in the 60s may have made him a particularly suitable addressee for Lucretius' poem. It also explores the implications of this new reading of the proem for the date of Lucretius' De rerum natura.

Estudio epigráfico de las inscripciones honoríficas y religiosas promovidas en la Tarraconense por los magistrados senatoriales, especialmente por el gobernador. Se puede comprobar cómo la administración romana trató de modo desigual a los habitantes de la costa mediterránea que a los del norte y noroeste peninsular.

Augustus’ success in implementing monarchical rule at Rome is often attributed to innovations in the symbolic language of power, from the star marking Julius Caesar’s deification to buildings like the Palatine complex and Forum Augustum to rituals like triumphs and funerals. This book illumines Roman subjects’ vital role in creating and critiquing these images, in keeping with the Augustan poets’ sustained exploration of audiences’ role in constructing verbal and visual meaning. From Vergil to Ovid, these poets publicly interpret, debate, and disrupt Rome’s evolving political iconography, reclaiming it as the common property of an imagined republic of readers. In showing how these poets used reading as a metaphor for the mutual constitution of Augustan authority and a means of exercising interpretive libertas under the principate, this book offers a holistic new vision of Roman imperial power and its representation that will stimulate scholars and students alike. (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, spring 2018)

The paper poses the question of what the appropriate historiographic response to the violence -- and literature -- of the triumviral period.  It commences from the observations that the Romans regarded the triumvirate as an institution of public law, and endorsed it as a solution to the civil wars.  At the same time, it amounted to a deformation of politics.  The paper concludes by aligning the triumvirate with other mechanisms of imperial domination, which the Romans developed for ruling over others but came to deploying in ruling over themselves.

The originality of Foucault’s work lies in part in how he reverses the question of power, asking not how power is held and imposed, but how it is produced. In both his discussion of sovereignty and governmentality, though, Foucault skips over the res publica; a form of political organization that fits neither Foucault’s characterization of sovereignty nor the care of the self. I extend Foucault’s discussion to identify a ratio of government around the discipline of ownership by which the res publica was made intelligible, its relations understood, and its logic organized. I end by suggesting some implications for neo-Roman interpretations of liberty as non-domination.

Numerous problems connected with Crassus’ activity in the 70s B.C.E. — his political contacts with plebeian tribunes, his cursus honorum and his official position in the war against Spartacus, his electoral alliance and subsequent conflict with Pompey, the reform of plebeian tribunate, the process of Vestals — are analyzed and solved within the context of the struggle around the restoration of tribunician powers, a key theme of the Roman politics of the period. Such an approach allows to reconcile disjointed and incomplete evidence and to understand the politics and career of Crassus in the 70s not as a collection of episodes loosely connected to each  other  but as a consistent political strategy. Crassus didn’t place his stake on the Sullan constitution and Sullan political elite but he decided to gain a political capital from the restoration of tribunician powers. To achieve this aim he had to overcome the resistance of the conservatives in the Senate and to outplay a powerful rival aiming to the same prize. Crassus effectively coped with the first task, but failed with the second one, because he  wrongly considered Pompey to be his ally, not rival. So Crassus’ gain turned to be considerably less than he had planned, but  nevertheless the law on the restoration of tribunician powers received the name Lex Pompeia-Licinia.

During plebeian tribunat of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus 133 BC, main ideological and political adviser
was Caius Blossius. He came from Cumae, campanian town and community. Caius Blossius was adherent
of radical version of stoicism, which included democratic and social ideas. After death of his friend and leader
Tiberius Gracchus, Caius Blossius left Italy for Asia Minor where he joined to movement of Aristonicus and Heliopolis.
He committed a suicide after defeat of Aristonicus movement.

This article seeks to verify the profound influence that the Consolationes  exercised  in  the  drafting  of  Tacitus' Agricola.  Throughout  his  monograph, and especially in the epilogue,  the writer clearly intends to depict his father-in-law as a modern example  for his contemporaries. AgricolaÕs behaviour  is based especially on "modus", which regulates behaviour, both in the public and private sectors (including on the occasion of the death of his young son, when Agricola  tries  to  overcome  his  grief  with  the  engagement  in  the  bellum against the Britons). However, Tacitus, who well knows the rules of the consolatory  genre,  uses  the main topoi  (which  he  borrows mainly  from Cicero and Seneca) to build a new form of lay consolation, in which the survival of the memoria comes from the immortality of the soul, but which is dependent on the constant and individual exercise of the contemplatio virtutum.

Introduction; 1. Sources and Approaches; 2. Types of portents and Priesthoods; 3. Cicero; 4. Divination as Science; 5. Public Portents and Ager Romanus Versus Ager Peregrinus; 6. Public Portents, Religio-Politics, and the Construction of Roman Identity; Conclusion; Danish Summary; Reference List; Illustrations and Maps; Maps.

Ce lexique, destiné prioritairement aux étudiants en histoire et en lettres classiques, entend livrer un ensemble de définitions précises, contextualisées et accessibles sur le vocabulaire latin relatif à l’histoire de l’Antiquité romaine. De nombreuses définitions sont reprises du dictionnaire Gaffiot et du Guide romain antique de Georges Hacquard, tandis que d’autres, mobilisant des réalités plus larges ou plus complexes, ont été développées de manière synthétique avec l’aide d’autres références et ressources didactiques. Par souci de commodité, plusieurs entrées ont été regroupées par thèmes, pour limiter la dispersion inhérente à l’ordre purement alphabétique. Par ailleurs, les entrées relatives aux noms propres autres que ceux des pays ont été réduites au minimum, de telle sorte que ce glossaire se concentre sur les notions et les termes techniques de l’univers romain, laissant dès lors quelque peu de côté la prosopographie et la biographie des personnages, la géographie historique, l’histoire des villes et des monuments. En dépit de leur pertinence à l’égard de la place de l’hellénisme dans le monde dominé par Rome, les concepts grecs n’ont pas été intégrés dans les définitions, ou bien marginalement, de même que les mots originaires d’autres cultures coexistant au sein ou aux côtés du monde romain, là encore par souci de ne pas faire doublon avec d’autres projets de lexiques dédiés à ces champs spécifiques de l’histoire ancienne. Mis à jour le 14 juillet 2023.

A version of this discussion was first published in 2003 in the volume Questioning Reputations: Essays on Nine Roman Republican Politicians (University of South Africa Press). Caesar's reputation is invariably linked to 'popular' politics in the Late Roman Republic and a perceived alliance with various tribunes of the plebs. But just how strong was Caesar's connection with the tribunes, and if such a relationship existed was it driven mostly by his personal ambitions for sole power and hence was hardly 'popular' at all?

At the end of the Republic, the Romans regarded Triumph as the most magnificent ceremony and the status of the triumphant general as the highest attainable. This rite, officially awarded by the Senate, permitted the general to make a processional entry into the city of Rome and glorify his prestigious victory in front of his fellowcitizens. However, the critical analysis of sources reveals that the data related to Triumphs are unreliable. The first Triumph of Romulus was reconstructed by Augustus for ideological reasons : to emphasize the paralell between himself and the founder of the Urbs. Moreover, during the third century BC, families made up fake Triumps which were then integrated into annal and epigraphs. Such inventions mostly concern the period 322 BC -291BC  -because it was at this point in time that Triumphs became highly political as the Romans adopted the Theology of victory current in the hellenistic world. Military victory was what the nobilitas, the emerging Roman aristocraty, valued most and its celebration, the Triumph, became the occasion for asserting the hereditary dimension of victory and power. In the third century BC, the desire for Triumph intensified, which led the Senate to impose stricter rules and conditions. The resulting conflicts between the senate and the generals explains the emergence of new ceremonies such as the Ovatio and the Triumph on Mount Alban. Triumphant generals had a variety of ways of commemorating their victories and reminding the Romans of them, especially at election time. But the most efficient way was the building of temples financed by spoils of war. The adoption of new cults enabled them to celebrate divine protection, under which they fell, but also to integrate the memory of their victories in both the history and architecture of Rome. Indeed, close historical examination often reveals an interesting ‘coincidence’ between the dates of the consecration of temples and those of the Triumphs.

This thesis is concerned with the foundations of Livia’s position in the Roman state. They are delineated by an investigation of important events of her life, the diverse privileges given to her, and the patterns that were established to enable subjects to express their loyalty to her and the imperial power. The study is based on a multifarious collection of material including literary texts, inscriptions, statues, coins, and gems. The material is organized, both theoretically and methodologically, according to the three principal roles Livia performed, viz. mater/uxor, patrona, and diva. The focus is on analysing how the content and enactment of these roles were transformed as a consequence of the development of the principate and Livia’s increasing status within it. The thesis has, therefore, a chronological structure and spans a hundred years, from Livia’s birth in 58 BCE up until her deification in 42 CE.
    The three roles provide the structure of this study and are discussed in one chapter each. In the concluding chapter they are placed side by side and a comprehensive view is taken of their chronological progression so as to present a thorough analysis of the stages in the formation of Livia’s position. A picture emerges of how female imperiality became a constituent part of the early principate, and how Livia was established as its princeps femina.

This examination of C. Duilius (consul in 260 BCE) and his achievements consists of a series of linked hypotheses, each suggested by direct evidence for Duilius' activities and contextualized by near-contemporary precedents (wherever possible) or relevant analogues from slightly later periods. Taken together, these hypotheses suggest that the elogium on Duilius’ rostral column may be read not only as an account of a capable commander who destroyed the myth of Carthaginian supremacy at sea, but also as an encomium on a generous benefactor to Rome’s citizenry. The inscription’s redactor successfully asserted Duilius’ preeminence among his peers, symbolized by the imagery and position of the rostral column commemorating his naval victory that was erected by order of the Senate and Roman people near the Comitium and Rostra. The cumulative evidence also suggests that the inscription’s reference to Duilius’ distribution of ‘naval booty’ to the Roman people involved the conversion of massive amounts of captured bronze, including the rostra removed from Punic ships, into “coinage,” i.e., the brick-sized aes signatum coins dated to c. 260 which bear naval imagery. Thus, by turning a mundane medium of exchange into a vehicle of propaganda through which his exploits and generosity could be ‘broadcast’, Duilius was able to reemphasize his new status as the first Roman celebrate a naval triumph. He could do this because the coins constituted a special triumphal/manubial issue under his authority, and he was therefore not subject to the constraints, real or implied, that kept Rome’s annual moneyers from issuing coins with personally significant types for another 125 years. His sudden emergence as a leading figure in Rome was rewarded with other honors, including a prestigious censorship in 258 and a perpetual personal honor, also bestowed by the SPQR, that allowed him to “triumph” to the end of his long life.

From the article's conclusion:
"Gaius Duilius has long been acknowledged as the first Roman to win a sea-battle, the first to celebrate a naval triumph, the first to be honored with a rostral column, and the first to present a gift derived from naval booty to the Roman people. Indeed, he came to be seen primarily as the man who set Rome on the road to maritime expansion and, ultimately, domination of the Mediterranean world. He was remembered also as the first (if not only) man to have a flute-player and wax-torch bearer accompany him home from feasts, as if he were perpetually triumphing. Now, we may add to Duilius’ list of firsts: he was the first politician to utilize Roman coinage to broadcast a new ideology of Rome’s (hoped for) naval greatness and dominance of the Mediterranean; he was also, it seems, the first Roman politician to use coinage as a medium for self-promotion, a century and a quarter before anyone would do it again."


Key words:

Gaius Duilius
Rostral Column
Naval Triumph
Naval Warfare
Battle of Mylae
Aes Signatum
Roman Navy
Roman Republic
Roman numismatics
Roman Topography
Punic Wars
First Punic War
Roman Epigraphy
Latin Epigraphy
Trireme
Quinquireme
Roman ships
Fasti Triumphales
Summi Viri
Octavian
Augustus
Forum Augustum / Augusti

https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/9416/1/Lange_Dissertation_KUPS.pdf

Hierbei handelt es sich um eine sprachlich überarbeitete Fassung der Schrift, die als Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität zu Köln im Fach Alte Geschichte eingereicht wurde.

Bereits zum Ende der Republik hatte Rom ein Weltreich erobert. Im Kern war es dennoch ein Stadtstaat geblieben, in dem sich gerade die Angehörigen der Elite täglich in verschiedenen Rollen und in verschiedenen Räumen begegneten. Die Präsenz im Alltag war für die Pflege von sozialen Nahverhältnissen und für die politische Laufbahn konstitutiv. Ein prominenter Politiker musste für seine Mitbürger sichtbar, zugänglich und ansprechbar sein. Abwesende Wettbewerber konnten nur um Ehren mitkonkurrieren, wenn sie einen eindrucksvollen Feldzug siegreich beenden und sich im Stadtgespräch halten konnten. Die Anerkennung dieser Erfolge durch den Senat war hart umkämpft. Selbst im Dienst der Res publica konnte Abwesenheit die Karriere bedrohen. In der Kaiserzeit verlagerten sich die Verhältnisse physischer und sozialer Nähe auf die Person des Kaisers, sodass sich das Problem der Abwesenheit von Rom umkehrte. Der abwesende Kaiser löste sich durch seine Entfernung vom Hintergrund des republikanischen Roms. Die autokratische Herrschaft über Rom und das Imperium entwickelte sich dadurch weiter. Anwesenheit definierte die politische Kultur der Republik, während Abwesenheit den Principat entscheidend schärfte.

Die Untersuchung konzentriert sich auf den Zeitraum von der Mittleren Republik bis zum Ende der Herrschaft Tiberius‘ im Jahre 37 n. Chr.

ÖZET: Kuzey Afrika'da teşekkül etmiş Numidia Krallığı’nda, M.Ö. 118 yılında Kral Micipsa’nın ölümünün ardından Iugurtha ve iki üvey kardeşi olan Hiempsal ve Adherbal arasında yaşanan taht kavgası sonunda beliren iç savaşa Roma Cumhuriyetinin hakemlik yapması sürecinde, Cirta şehrinde yapılan katliam ve bu katliamda tâcir olan tüm İtalyanları toplu olarak katledilmesi üzerine Roma Cumhuriyeti Numidia Krallığı’na karşı savaş açmıştır. “Bellum Iugurthinum” olarak anılan ve (M.Ö. 111–104 yılları arasında) yedi yıl süren bu savaş, Numidia’nın mağlubiyetiyle sonuçlanmıştır. Bu çalışmada, savaşın kökenleri ve gelişimi ele alındığı gibi, savaş toplumsal bir olgu olarak ele alınmış, sonuçları hem Numidia Krallığı, hem de Roma Cumhuriyeti açısından incelenmiştir. Numidia bu savaş neticesinde ikiye bölünmüştür. Savaş sonunda elde edilen ganimet ile uzun süren savaşta Roma’nın yaptığı masrafları karşılayıp karşılamadığı tartışmalı bir husus olup, çalışmada savaşın maliyeti açısından yapılmış çeşitli analizlere yer verilmiş, Roma açısından toplumsal muhalefetin belirginleşmesi, ordunun profesyonelleşmesi ve siyâsallaşması gibi neticeleri değerlendirilmiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Iugurta, Gaius Marius, Sulla, Numidia Krallığı, Geç Roma Cumhuriyeti, Antik Afrika Tarihi, Roma Ordusu Çalışmaları, Tarihsel Sosyoloji.

ABSTRACT: After the death of King Micipsa in 118 B.C. in the Kingdom of Numidia, which was formed in North Africa, the Republic of Rome declared war against the Kingdom of Numidia after the massacre in the city of Cirta and the massacre of all Italians who were traders in this massacre, during the process of the Roman Republic arbitrating the civil war that emerged as a result of the fight for the throne between Jugurtha and his two half-brothers Hiempsal and Adherbal. This war, which was known as "Bellum Iugurthinum" and lasted for seven years (between 111-104 BC), resulted in the defeat of Numidia. In this study, the origins and development of the war are discussed, as well as the war as a social phenomenon, and its consequences are analysed both in terms of the Kingdom of Numidia and the Roman Republic. Numidia was divided into two as a result of this war. It is a controversial issue whether the spoils obtained at the end of the war covered the expenses incurred by Rome in the long war. In this study, various analyses made in terms of the cost of the war are included, and the results such as the prominence of social opposition, professionalisation and politicisation of the army are evaluated for Rome.

Keywords: Jugurta, Gaius Marius, Sulla, Kingdom of Numidia, Late Roman Republic, Ancient African History, Roman Army Studies, Historical Sociology.

ABSZTRAKT: Az Észak-Afrikában kialakult Numídiai Királyságban Micipsa király i. e. 118-ban bekövetkezett halála után a Római Köztársaság hadat üzent a Numídiai Királyságnak a Cirta városában történt mészárlás és az ebben a mészárlásban részt vevő összes itáliai kereskedő lemészárlása után, a Római Köztársaságnak a Jugurtha és két féltestvére, Hiempsal és Adherbal között a trónért folytatott harc eredményeként kialakult polgárháború döntőbíráskodásának folyamata során. Ez a háború, amely "Jugurthiai háború" néven vált ismertté, és hét évig tartott (i. e. 111-104 között), Numídia vereségét eredményezte. Ebben a tanulmányban a háború eredetét és alakulását, valamint a háborút mint társadalmi jelenséget tárgyaljuk, és elemezzük következményeit mind a Numídiai Királyság, mind a Római Köztársaság szempontjából. Numídia e háború következtében kettészakadt. Vitatott kérdés, hogy a háború végén szerzett zsákmány fedezte-e a Róma által a hosszú háború során viselt kiadásokat. Ebben a tanulmányban a háború költségei tekintetében készült különböző elemzések szerepelnek, és az eredmények, mint például a társadalmi ellenzék előtérbe kerülése, a hadsereg professzionalizálódása és politizálódása, Róma esetében kerülnek értékelésre.

Kulcsszavak: Jugurta, Gaius Marius, Sulla, Numídiai Királyság, késő római köztársaság, ókori afrikai történelem, római hadseregtudomány, történeti szociológia.

АБСТРАКТ: После смерти царя Миципса в 118 году до н. э. в Нумидийском царстве, образовавшемся в Северной Африке, Римская республика объявила войну Нумидийскому царству после резни в городе Цирта и истребления всех италиков, которые были торговцами в этой резне, в процессе арбитража Римской республикой гражданской войны, возникшей в результате борьбы за трон между Югуртой и его двумя сводными братьями Гиемпсалом и Адербалом. Эта война, известная как "Югуртинская война" и длившаяся семь лет (между 111-104 гг. до н. э.), привела к поражению Нумидии. В данном исследовании рассматриваются истоки и развитие войны, война как социальное явление, а также анализируются ее последствия как для Нумидийского царства, так и для Римской республики. В результате этой войны Нумидия была разделена на две части. Спорным является вопрос о том, покрыли ли трофеи, полученные в конце войны, расходы, понесенные Римом в ходе длительной войны. В данном исследовании приводятся различные анализы стоимости войны, а также оцениваются такие результаты для Рима, как заметная роль социальной оппозиции, профессионализация и политизация армии.

Ключевые слова: Югурта, Гай Марий, Сулла, Нумидийское царство, Поздняя Римская республика, история Древней Африки, изучение римской армии, историческая социология.

This project aims to examine how Augustus used the patron-client relationship in stabilizing his position as princeps of the Roman state. The relevant ancient sources for Octavian/Augustus’ actions and the nature of patronage in Rome along with some modern scholarly views on Augustan patronage will provide a basis for a close examination of the workings of and the reasoning behind Augustus’ use of this traditional republican institution. I will discuss Augustus’ patronage of both the Roman elites (senators and equestrians) and the Roman plebs. From these examinations it will become evident that Augustus used his patronage to acquire a type of auctoritas different than the militaristic and political type he already held. This focus on a more social auctoritas will add to the scholarly discussion of Augustus’ self-promotion as well as acknowledge that Augustan patronage was not confined to one specific sphere of society.

This work will examine the concept of authority, taking Hannah Arendt‘s political thinking as a cue. My aim is to rethink and vindicate the importance of this political category, which has been insufficiently examined by the tradition of political thought. In my opinion, its specific dimension needs to be further studied so that we can better understand the current political crisis. In order to fulfil this new approach, we need to dissociate or disentangle the notion of authority from those of power and authoritarianism, concepts with which it has usually been confused. In this regard, this work highlights the fact that authority is incompatible with a conception of power that is embodied in the notion of sovereignty. Contrary to this conception, authority implies a form of obedience which does not stand on imposition, coercion or violence, but on other factors, such as recognition, and consequently it is inevitably defined by its fragile character. Implicitly, authority reveals the incompleteness of power and thus discloses that power needs an exterior instance as a source of legitimacy.
In order to complete this task, this research rests upon a deep and exhaustive examination of the works of Hannah Arendt from the perspective of authority and argues that this concept does not play a secondary or isolated role in her thinking. Authority is linked with one of the central problems for this thinker, that of the question of the world. Furthermore, authority is located at the very heart of other major issues, such as the concepts of power, violence, sovereignty, law, foundation, memory, revolution, judgment, common sense or, above all, the world. At the same time the concept of authority plays an important role in the understanding of Arendt‘s position in regard to the council system and it is useful to delve more deeply into other phenomena such as totalitarianism, civil disobedience, forgiveness, promise or both the activities of work and action.
In Arendt, authority is defined by characteristics such as its relational dimension and its dynamic character. In addition, authority is seen as a kind of resource which can counterbalance the unpredictable character inherent to action that at the same time does not negate its freedom or its spontaneity. On the other hand, authority provides a horizon of permanence that is not present in the Arendtian category of power and is crucial for the possibility or viability of the political foundation. As a result of this consideration, in the following pages I develop what I call a ―power of reception‖ and I will reconsider the concept of the author on the basis of Arendt‘s reflections. Finally, this work aims to tackle what the thinker considered as one of the major challenges for the current political thinking: the reconciliation of not freedom and equality but of equality and authority.

""Book abstract: Despite the crucial role played by both law and architecture in Roman culture, the Romans never developed a type of building that was specifically and exclusively reserved for the administration of justice: courthouses did not exist in Roman antiquity. The present volume addresses this paradox by investigating the spatial settings of Roman judicial practices from a variety of perspectives. Scholars of law, topography, architecture, political history, and literature concur in putting Roman judicature back into its concrete physical context, exploring how the exercise of law interacted with the environment in which it took place, and how the spaces that arose from this interaction were perceived by the ancients themselves. The result is a fresh view on a key aspect of Roman culture.

My chapter discusses the location(s) and functions of the Praetor's tribunal from the 4th c. BCE down to the Augustan era, and how each location affected or influenced the 'identity' of teh urban praetor.""

Tutti i diritti riservati. È vietata la riproduzione di testi e illustrazioni senza il permesso scritto dell'Editore Il volume è stato sottoposto a procedura di Peer-Review POPULARITAS-Pursuit of consensus and populism in ancient Rome This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement N o 792476 Gianpaolo Urso (a cura di) Popularitas. Ricerca del consenso e "populismo" in Roma antica-Roma: «L'ERMA» di BRETSCHNEIDER, 2021-312 p.-24 cm.

This chapter charts the structures and practices of female interventions in politics in the libera res publica (509–27 BCE). Previous scholarship has emphasized the efflorescence of female political activity in the first century BCE. Yet Greek and Roman authors retrojected such activity into their histories of early Rome: mytho-historical paradigms are the intercession of the Sabine women and of Veturia with Coriolanus. Furthermore, female benefactions saved Rome from financial and military crises in the fourth and third centuries BCE. For such interventions, women received enduring privileges and status symbols. Moving beyond previous scholarship, I argue that the interventions of senatorial women like Servilia, Iulia, Terentia, Hortensia, and Octavia were not novel, but a manifestation of a long tradition of women seizing political initiative. This chapter outlines and evaluates some of the structures of female interventions – the ordo matronarum, matronal meetings, and religious roles – and their practices – intercession, benefactions, and participation in family consilia. Through numerous formal and informal initiatives, inside and outside of the domus, women proactively engaged in the res publica.

One of the most studied and discussed aspects of the Magna Mater cult is the ceremonial sacrifice known as taurobolium. Despite the considerable evidence of this ritual, doubts still remain among scholars and many interpretations have been given through the decades. For example, not only its public or private nature is a matter of debate, but also its formal features. In this article, I tackle some of the arguments carried out so far, through a closer analysis of the archaeological remains, in order to better understand the historical development, social value, and religious function of the taurobolium. I mostly focus on the Gallic Provinces, from the second half of the 2nd century until the last decade of the 3rd century, as this region is a valuable archive of monumental and epigraphical evidence about the ritual. I describe how the taurobolium was celebrated, by whom, and for what purpose, eventually demonstrating how it was an efficient means of political and religious contact between the central power and the provincial periphery.

This essay seeks to demonstrate that the different generic parts of Cicero's corpus are but different sides of the mind of the same man, and, thus, that all parts of the corpus-including the forensic speeches, once they have been corroborated by other passages in his corpus-should be regarded as valuable evidence for understanding Ciceronian political thought.

Mid-Republican censors were bound by few formal restrictions in their lectiones of the Senate. So holds the scholarly communis opinio, at any rate, based primarily on Carolus Sigonius’ emendation of Livy 23.23.6. This article shows Sigonius’ emendation to be fatally flawed, however, and popular election to be a legal requirement for senatorial enrollment – and not just a social desideratum. This prerequisite is shown to originate in the fourth-century lex Ovinia, with ramifications for models of aristocratic rule at Rome, mid-Republican political developments, and the curia itself.

This article offers a thorough study of Virgil's interaction with the myth of Eteocles and Polynices' war for the throne of Thebes, as represented especially in Athenian tragedy. It demonstrates that allusions to the Theban myth are crucial to the Aeneid's construction of a set of tensions and oppositions that play an important role in Virgil's reflection on the historical experience of Rome, especially in connection with the transition from Republic to Empire. In particular, interaction with Theban stories allows Virgil to explore: (1) the dichotomy between similarity and foreignness in the depiction of Rome's enemies; (2) the tension in differing attitudes towards the state as reflected in antithetical character types ––namely, the selfless youth who sacrifices himself for the community and the would-be tyrant prepared to go to any lengths to achieve sole power; and, finally, (3) the dichotomy between opposing notions of time defined by teleology, on the one hand, and circularity and repetition on the other, the two representing the differing temporalities of epic and tragedy, respectively.