Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 1 - The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution

 

Politics, Persuasion, and the People

before the Social War (–..)

*

ThepurposeofthischapteristopresentaparticularmodelofhowRoman
politics worked, and of what Roman politics before the Social War was
‘‘about.’’InessenceIwanttoplaceinthecentreofourconceptionthepicture
ofanoratoraddressingacrowdintheForum;apictureofsomeoneusing
theartsofrhetorictopersuadeananonymouscrowdaboutsomething.^1 The

*FirstpublishedinJRS():–.Thischapterrepresentsthetextofalecturegiven
attheRomanSocietyonMarch.Asisobvious,itcontinuesthethemesandpre-
occupationsofmyarticle‘‘ThePoliticalCharacteroftheClassicalRomanRepublic,–
B.C.,’’JRS():(chapterinthisvolume).Aswillbeequallyobvious,itpretends
tobenomorethananessay,orsketch,recommendingonewayofseeingthepoliticsofthis
period;itdoesnotattempttogiveafullorbalancedaccount.Hencethetextremainsessen-
tiallyintheforminwhichitwasgivenasalecture,andnoattempthasbeenmadetogive
fullreferencestomodernworks,ormorethantheminimumessentialancientevidence.I
amgratefulforcommentstotheEditorialCommitteeoftheJRSandalsotoJean-Louis
Ferrary.

. Iusetheword‘‘particular’’toemphasizethatthischapter,likeitspredecessor(chap-
ter),canbeseenasonereflectionofageneralreconsiderationofthenatureof Roman
politics,asareactiontointerpretationswhichemphasiseprosopographyortheinfluence
ofclientela.Inretrospectmanyofthemostimportantconsiderationscanbeseentobeex-
pressedalreadyinP.A.Brunt,Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic(),closelyfollowed
in many respects by M. I. Finley,Politics in the Ancient World(),whowent some dis-
tance,thoughinmyviewnotfarenough,inrecognizingtherealityofpoliticalissuesin
second-century Rome.The fluidityand competitiveness which marked political life and
theholdingofofficearewellemphasizedbyK.HopkinsandG.BurtoninDeath and Re-
newal(),chap.,esp.ff.Thesamecompetitivenessandindividualismisalsorightly
stressed byT. P.Wiseman,Roman Political Life,  B.C.–A.D. (), chap. . Similarly,
noteW.M.BeardandM.Crawford,Rome in the Late Republic().Myapproachhasde-

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