The Roman Republic
thenbeeasierthantoreadthewordingofSaturninus’lawintermscompa-
rabletothosewhichexpressedthesovereigntyoftheAthenianpeople,and
thestatusofelectedofficialsorcommandersasthedelegatesofthepeople.
Ifwethenreturnedtotheyear/inRomeandtotheextensivelawon
theeasternprovinces,knownintextsfromDelphiandCnidus,wewouldof
coursefindexactlythatpresupposition,togetherwithanassertionthatthe
revenuesofanewlygainedpartoftheempireshallbegatheredasthepeople
instructs.^8
AnotherparallelsuggestsitselfwiththecaseofclassicalAthens.A.H.M.
Jones demonstrated some decades ago how the ideology of democracy in
Athenshastobereconstructedfromtheattitudestakenup,andcriticisms
expressed,bywriterswhowerelargely,orwholly,unsympathetictoit.The
sameislargelytrueofthatperiodofacutecrisisintheRomanstatewhich
stretchesfromthemiddleofthesecondcenturytotheSocialWar.Wecan-
nothelptheplainfactthatahighproportionofourevidencederivesfrom
thewritings of Cicero. But we should read his judgements as reactions to
a political system and not as descriptions of it, still less as expressions of
thevalueswhichactuallyprevailedinit.Cicero’sconceptionoftheRoman
state—orratherhisaspirationsandhopesforaRomanstatedominatedby
the example set by ‘‘the respectable and the best’’ (boniandoptimates), and
controlledpoliticallybytheSenate—hashadfarmoresuccesswithposterity
thaniteverhadinhislifetime,exceptforasingledecade,orbeforeit.Cicero
wasofcoursenotaloneinhisviewthatitwastheessentialfunctionofthe
Senatetoguidepoliticaldecisionmaking;thesameviewisforinstancere-
flected, in the s, inAd Her., , /. But it is a mistake to elevate this
aspirationintoadescriptionofanactualstateofaffairs.Asaresult,modern
writingonthepoliticalhistoryoftheRepublicishauntedstillbytheutterly
misleading, unconscious presupposition that the Senatewas a sort of par-
liament,whichexercisedthepowersofgovernment.Sothequestionnow
becomes,How,withinthewallsoftheSenate,withinthecircleofthisgov-
erningbody,didyougainpower?Theanswerthenbecomes,Byhavingan
extensivesetofconnections,whichofcourseitisnaivetocalla‘‘party’’and
whichwenowknowthatwecannotcallafaction(factio)either.Noother
namewilldoinstead,however,because,ifwewanttolocatetheexerciseof
power,thisisthewrongquestion;wearelookinginthewrongdirection.
Firstly,withinthegoverningclass,thethingwhichabovealldistinguished
. M.Hassall,M.Crawford,andJ.Reynolds,‘‘RomeandtheEasternProvincesatthe
EndoftheSecondCenturyB.C.,’’JRS():;noteR.K.Sherk,Rome and the Greek
East to the Death of Augustus(),no.(translationandcommentary).