Politics, Persuasion, and the People phiesontheTabernaeNovaeinfrontoftheBasilicaAemilia.IuliusStrabo
couldputthemtodemonstrativeuse,sayingtoHelviusManciainanalter-
cationbeforeacrowd‘‘Iwillshowwhatyouarelike,’’andpointingtothe
grotesqueheadofaGaulpaintedononeoftheshields(De or.,).Be-
fore that, the first arch ever to appear in the Forum, the Fornix Fabianus,
hadbeenerectedbyQ.FabiusMaximusAllobrogicus,tocommemoratehis
triumph in . It gave Licinius Crassus the opportunity to say in a public
meeting,aboutthetribuneMemmius,‘‘Memmiusthinkshimselfsobigthat
onhiswaydowntotheForumhebendshisheadashegoesundertheFornix
Fabianus’’(De or.,).
Aswewillsee,oratorsoftheoffice-holdingclassplayedontheprejudices
and suspicions of the crowd to deploy much more significant and loaded
mutualcriticismsthanthat,bothwhenspeakingaboutlegislation,beforethe
popularcourtsconstitutedbythetribalassembly(comitia tributa),andbefore
thenewjurycourts.ThesetooofcoursemetintheForum,beforeacrowd
ofspectators.Thejurorsbothrepresentedthepeopleatlargeandfunctioned
underitsgaze.Themodeoforatory,theformsofpersuasion,andthebases
ofargumentandjustificationusedheremightnotalwaysbeverydifferent
from those before a public meeting or before the assembly functioning as
acourt.
Yetitispreciselyherethatwecanseetheremarkabledistortionimposed
on ourconceptions of republican public life by the most influential of all
twentieth-centuryapproaches to it; I mean of course Gelzer’sDie römische
Nobilität,publishedin—‘‘thekeythatunlockedthedoorfromtheth
tothethcenturyinhistoricalresearchontheRomanRepublic,’’asBadian
describedit.^2 TheattemptwhichGelzermade,tolookbehindtheconstitu-
tionalfaçadetothesocialreality,wasinitselfwhollyjustified.Andnoone
willeverhavereadthisslimvolumeforthefirsttime—orindeedmanymore
times—without a constant sense of illumination.Yet it is clear that it has
actuallybeentoosuccessful.Onsomepoints,suchasthedefinitionofnobili-
tas,itismisleading,asBrunthasshown.^3 Onothers,suchastheimportanceof
relationsofpersonalobligationanddependenceinRomanpolitics,itscon-
clusionsgofarbeyondtheevidencewhichititselfcites:‘‘TheentireRoman
people,boththerulingcircleandthemassofvoterswhomtheyruled,was,
as a society, permeated by multifarious relationships based onfidesand on
. E.Badian,JRS():,quotedbyR.Seager,intheintroductiontohistrans-
lation,The Roman Nobility(),xi.
. P.A.Brunt,‘‘NobilitasandNovitas,’’JRS():.