Remembering the Roman people
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (GB) |
| ISBN-13 | 9780199239764 |
| Open Library | OL839881W |
| Total publications | 7 |
| Coverage period | 2009 - 2009 |
| Language | EN |
"In the Roman republic, only the People could pass laws, only the People could elect politicians to office, and the very word republica meant 'the People's business'. So why is it always assumed that the republic was an oligarchy? The main reason is that most of what we know about it we know from Cicero, a great man and a great writer, but also an active right-wing politician who took it for granted that what was good for a small minority of self-styled 'best people' (optimates ) was good for the republic as a whole. T. P. Wiseman interprets the last century of the republic on the assumption that the People had a coherent political ideology of its own, and that the optimates , with their belief in justified murder, were responsible for the breakdown of the republic in civil war." --Book Jacket.
Marcopolis
The fragments of Varro's Menippean satires have been unjustly neglected by both literary scholars and historians. This chapter demonstrates that Roman satire had been from its inception a performance genre, and that Varro's satires were written for the stage; ‘Menippean’ satire evidently exploited the Cynic philosophers, who made a performance of their own life, and ‘Marcus’, the protagonist of many of the Varronian satires, is shown to have simi…
Cicero and Varro
Cicero's correspondence with Varro in 46 BC gives the impression that they were friends whose interests and opinions were as one; on the other hand, his letters to Atticus about Varro in 59 and 45 BC reveal how little they had in common. This chapter explores the differences between the two men, starting from Cicero's allusions to Homer and Euripides to describe Varro's temperament and political position. There is no reason to suppose that Varro'…
Romulus' Rome of Equals
According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Romulus divided up the territory of Rome equally among the citizens. He makes that point at the start of a lengthy digression on Romulus' constitutional arrangements, inserted into the narrative between the foundation and the rape of the Sabines. The digression clearly comes from a non-narrative source, and since Dionysius at one point refers to Varro's Antiquitates, this chapter compares the particular me…
The Fall and Rise of Gaius Geta
Roman History and the Ideological Vacuum
In the Roman republic, only the People could make laws and elect politicians to office; the word respublica means ‘The People's business’. So why is it always assumed that the republic was an oligarchy? The reading of late-republican politics as a non-ideological competition for office was created by Gelzer in 1912 in reaction against the ‘party-political’ model presupposed by Mommsen; reinforced by Münzer (1920) and Syme (1939), it was enshrined…
After the Ides of March
This chapter offers a close reading of the narratives in Nicolaus of Damascus and Appian of the events of 15-19 March 44 BC. It is clear that both were using a well-informed source dependent on eye-witness accounts, probably Asinius Pollio, and that Appian and the other later authors also used an influential narrative unknown to Nicolaus, probably Livy. It is suggested that the histrionic behaviour of Cornelius Cinna (culminating in the murder of…
Remembering the Roman people
"In the Roman republic, only the People could pass laws, only the People could elect politicians to office, and the very word republica meant 'the People's business'. So why is it always assumed that the republic was an oligarchy? The main reason is that most of what we know about it we know from Cicero, a great man and a great writer, but also an active right-wing politician who took it for granted that what was good for a small minority of self…
No prominent publications on this page.
Marcopolis
The fragments of Varro's Menippean satires have been unjustly neglected by both literary scholars and historians. This chapter demonstrates that Roman satire had been from its inception a performance genre, and that Varro's satires were written for the stage; ‘Menippean’ satire evidently exploited the Cynic philosophers, who made a performance of their own life, and ‘Marcus’, the protagonist of many of the Varronian satires, is shown to have simi…
Cicero and Varro
Cicero's correspondence with Varro in 46 BC gives the impression that they were friends whose interests and opinions were as one; on the other hand, his letters to Atticus about Varro in 59 and 45 BC reveal how little they had in common. This chapter explores the differences between the two men, starting from Cicero's allusions to Homer and Euripides to describe Varro's temperament and political position. There is no reason to suppose that Varro'…
Romulus' Rome of Equals
According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Romulus divided up the territory of Rome equally among the citizens. He makes that point at the start of a lengthy digression on Romulus' constitutional arrangements, inserted into the narrative between the foundation and the rape of the Sabines. The digression clearly comes from a non-narrative source, and since Dionysius at one point refers to Varro's Antiquitates, this chapter compares the particular me…
The Fall and Rise of Gaius Geta
Roman History and the Ideological Vacuum
In the Roman republic, only the People could make laws and elect politicians to office; the word respublica means ‘The People's business’. So why is it always assumed that the republic was an oligarchy? The reading of late-republican politics as a non-ideological competition for office was created by Gelzer in 1912 in reaction against the ‘party-political’ model presupposed by Mommsen; reinforced by Münzer (1920) and Syme (1939), it was enshrined…
After the Ides of March
This chapter offers a close reading of the narratives in Nicolaus of Damascus and Appian of the events of 15-19 March 44 BC. It is clear that both were using a well-informed source dependent on eye-witness accounts, probably Asinius Pollio, and that Appian and the other later authors also used an influential narrative unknown to Nicolaus, probably Livy. It is suggested that the histrionic behaviour of Cornelius Cinna (culminating in the murder of…
Remembering the Roman people
"In the Roman republic, only the People could pass laws, only the People could elect politicians to office, and the very word republica meant 'the People's business'. So why is it always assumed that the republic was an oligarchy? The main reason is that most of what we know about it we know from Cicero, a great man and a great writer, but also an active right-wing politician who took it for granted that what was good for a small minority of self…