Remembering the Roman People: Essays on Late-Republican Politics and LiteratureIn the Roman republic, only the People could pass laws, only the People could elect politicians to office, and the very word republica meant 'the People's business'. So why is it always assumed that the republic was an oligarchy? The main reason is that most of what we know about it we know from Cicero, a great man and a great writer, but also an active right-wing politician who took it for granted that what was good for a small minority of self-styled 'best people' (optimates) was good for the republic as a whole. T. P. Wiseman interprets the last century of the republic on the assumption that the People had a coherent political ideology of its own, and that the optimates, with their belief in justified murder, were responsible for the breakdown of the republic in civil war. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 5 | |
2 The Fall and Rise of Gaius Geta | 33 |
3 Licinius Macer Juno Moneta and Veiovis | 59 |
4 Romulus Rome of Equals | 81 |
5 Macaulay on Cicero | 99 |
6 Cicero and Varro | 107 |
7 Marcopolis | 131 |
9 The Ethics of Murder | 177 |
10 After the Ides of March | 211 |
Epilogue | 235 |
Bibliography | 239 |
| 255 | |
| 258 | |
| 264 | |
8 The Political Stage | 153 |
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Remembering the Roman People: Essays on Late-Republican Politics and Literature T. P. Wiseman No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
Antony Appian Civil Wars aristocratic Asconius atque Aulus Gellius Capitol Cassius Dio Catulus censors Cicero Ad Atticum Cicero Ad familiares Cicero De republica Cicero Philippics citizens Clodius Coarelli consul consulship Crassus Curius Dio Cassius Dionysius of Halicarnassus elected enim etiam evidence Festus FGrH 90 F Florus Forum Gaius Gracchus Gelzer Hist historian Ibid iugera Jugurthine War lege Lepidus Licinius Macer Lintott Livy ludi Macaulay Manlius Marcus Millar modo Mommsen Moneta Münzer Nasica Nicolaus Nonius ŒÆd officiis optimates Ovid Fasti People’s plebeians plebs Pliny Nat Plutarch Pompey popular populi Romani Pro Milone quae quam quod rei publicae Roman politics Roman Republic Rome rostra Sallust Sallust Histories Sallust Jugurthine satire Senate Shackleton Bailey speech Suetonius Suetonius Diuus Iulius sunt Syme T. P. Wiseman temple theatre Tiberius Gracchus trans tribunes uiris uita Valerius Maximus Varro Veiovis Velleius Paterculus δὲ ἐν καὶ τε τὴν τῆς τὸ τοῦ τῶν