The Roman Republic
JohnNorth,inanimportantreviewarticleonrecentworksonRomanreli-
gion,^4 hasidentifiedthreesignificantcharacteristicsof laterepublicanreli-
giosity:ascholarlyorantiquarianperceptionofreligiouschange,oftenseen
asdecline;theidentificationofreligionasthesubjectofaparticularformof
discourse;andashiftinfocuswithinthesphereofreligion,fromthecom-
munityas a whole to great men within it. All three come together, as we
willseebelow,inthepassageofNepos’biographyinwhichherecordshow,
sometimeinthes..,AtticussuggestedtoOctavianthatthenowroofless
templeofIuppiterFeretriusontheCapitolshouldberepaired.
ButfirstthemaincharacteristicsofNepos’representationofAtticusneed
tobeoutlined.Itshouldbestressedthatthesubjectofwhatfollowsisnot
the ‘‘real’’ Atticus, even supposing that any valid conception of that entity
wereattainable,butthe‘‘Atticus’’whomNeposdelineatesforus.Beforethat
it will be useful to recall who Cornelius Nepos was, what he wrote, and
why.^5 LikeCatullus,whosefirstpoemisaddressedtohim,andlikeVirgil,
he came from the PoValley, perhaps from Mediolanum. If this is correct,
hishometowngainedLatinrightsin..andthecitizenshipnotuntil
; and the area ceased to be a province only in .^6 Yet, like others from
that region, he not only seems to have spent his time in Rome, but wrote
as a Roman, composing short biographies which contrasted distinguished
foreignerswithdistinguishedRomans,invariouscategories:ofthesebiog-
raphies,thelivesofnon-Romangeneralssurvive,asdo,ofRomanhistorians,
theCatoandtheAtticus.Earlier,hehadwrittentheChronica,whichsetout
inchronologicalorderparalleleventsandpersonsintheRomanandGreek
past.NeposhadalreadywrittenthisworkinthreebookswhenCatullusad-
dressedpoemtohiminthes.^7 HewasalsoapersonalfriendofAtticus,
‘personaggio’diAttico,’’inA.GiardinaandA.Schiavone,Società romana e produzione schia-
vistica III: modelli etici, dirrito e trasformazioni soziali(RomeandBari,),.
. J.North,‘‘ReligionandPolitics,fromRepublictoPrincipate,’’JRS():.
. ThesparsebiographicaldataarecollectedinM.SchanzandC.Hosius,Geschichte der
römischen Literatur^4 I(Munich,),–.
. SeeU.Ewins,‘‘TheEnfranchisementofCisalpineGaul,’’Pap.Brit.Sch.Rome():
;C.Peyre,La Cisalpine Gauloise du IIIe au Ie siècle avant J-C(Paris,).Neposhimself
mightthereforehavegainedtheRomancitizenshipbyholdingamagistracy(per magistra-
tum) or, as any well-placed foreigner might, through a viritane grant. Hewould remain
nonethelessanexampleofthe‘‘outsiders’’fromthisregiontowhomweowesomuchof
ourconceptionofRome.
. FragmentsinP.K.Marshall,CorneliiNepotisVitaecumfragmentis(Teubner,),–
.Catullus,–:‘‘Whenyoutookcourage,longago,youaloneofItalians,tosetforththe