Popular Politics at Rome History.Thesewerenothowevertobethelastwordsaddressedtothepeople
beforethecivilwarbrokeout.Amongthetentribunestakingupofficeon
December ..,were Marcus Antonius and Q. Cassius Longinus. By
December, Cicero and Pompey, then at Formiae, more than kilo-
metresaway,hadintheirhandsthetextofacontio,aspeechbeforethepeople,
delivered by Antonius on December: ‘‘containing,’’ as Cicero reported
toAtticus,‘‘adenunciationof Pompeysincehecameofage[a toga pura],a
protestonbehalfofthepersonscondemned,andthreatsofarmedforce.’’^2
Afterthenewconsuls,C.ClaudiusMarcellusandL.CorneliusLentulus,had
enteredofficeonJanuary,Antoniusheldanotherpublicmeeting(con-
tio), at which he read out the text of a letter from Caesar; in it Caesar put
proposalswhich,asPlutarchreports,were‘‘persuasivetothepeople’’:thathe
andPompeyshouldbothgiveuptheirprovinces,dismisstheirforces,submit
tothejudgementofthepeople,andrenderanaccountoftheiractions.^3 But
theSenateonJanuarypassedwhatCaesarcallsthat‘‘extremeandultimate
decree...that the consuls, praetors, tribunes of the plebs, and whichever
proconsulswereintheneighbourhoodofthecity,shouldseetoitthattheres
publicasufferednoloss,’’therebymisleadingmodernscholarsintothinking
that therewas a legal entitycalled thesenatus consultum ultimum.^4 Immedi-
atelyafter this vote, Antonius and Cassius also left to join Caesar, and the
civilwarbegan.
Howhadsuchacrisisarisen?Whatwasthenatureofthepoliticalsystem
whichgaverisetothecivilwarand,asaresultofit,toamonarchicalregime
whichwastolast,inRomeandinConstantinople,foramillenniumanda
half?WhatwastheplacewithinitoftheSenateontheonehand,andthe
Romanpeopleontheother?
It is still common to say that the Senate represented the ‘‘government’’
oftheRomanRepublic.AtypicalformulationisthatofferedevenbyP.A.
Brunt,whoseworkhasdonemorethanthatofanyoneelsetoridusofstereo-
typeswhichareinfactquiterecent,buthavebecomehardenedintodogma:
‘‘The true governing organ of the Roman Republic was the senate which
actedthroughannualmagistrateselectedbythepeoplebutdrawnfromits
ownranks.Thesenateitselfwasdominatedbyafewnoblefamilieswhose
powerreposedontheirwealthandonthenumberoftheirdependentsand
. Cic.,Att.,,(Shackleton-Bailey,no.).
. Plut.,Pomp..
. Caesar,Bell. Civ.,,,onwhichseethetext,translation,andcommentarybyJ.C.
Carter,Julius Caesar, The Civil Wars Book I and II()(taking,however,amoredefinite
viewthanIdoofthesenatus cunsultum ultimumasaninstitution).