Aristocratic Roles and the Crisis of the Roman Republic

Bibliographic Data

ID23453646
AuthorsHans Beck (0000-0002-0319-1186, University of Münster, corresponding author)
Year2025
Pages328-349
Publication date2025-01-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueRoman Republic and Political Culture (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/9781009515115.011
OpenAlexW4406924356
ISBN9781009515115
LanguageEN
References cited17

The Roman senatorial elite laid claim to all roles of prominence in society. The very notion of nobilitas made prominence an all-inclusive virtue, in office-holding as much as in other public arenas. Indeed, scrutinizing an inherent tension between annual roles as embodied by the honores and more durable, sometimes life long, roles of prominence, Hans Beck argues that the aristocracy’s integrated claim to leadership wielded significant stabilizing impact upon Roman society. L. Quinctius Flamininus was expelled from the senate in 184 BCE but maintained his other social rules, his public standing, and his overall notability. In the century and a half that followed, Beck detects a gradual erosion of inclusive ideals of prominence. The crisis of the Republic is thus understood as a disintegration of social roles. In the era of the great extraordinary commands, the performance of prestige duties of the collective became less and less important. Augustus’ ostentatious unification of these under his watchful guard as princeps propelled a change in role behaviour that could easily be portrayed as a restitution of the Republican outlook.

Ancient history · Political science · Classical Antiquity Studies · History

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