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The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 9 The Last Age of the Roman Republic 146 43 BC
Marcos Gonçalves
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PhD Thesis: Military, political and social activity of Cn. Pompey the Great.pdf
Andrii Koval
Military and political career of Pompey is considered in the thesis. It is based on a wide range of the ancient written and archaeological evidence as well as the vast complex of research literature. Many problems of the history of the Late Republic are revised: the part of Pompey in Sulla’s Civil war; early military campaigns of Pompey; his first extraordinary magistracies; the first triumvirate; the sole consulship of Pompey the Great; the causes of Caesar’s Civil war etc. Pompey’s military career started in a time of civil wars under command of his own father Pompey Strabo, who was a skillful Roman general during the Social war. After Strabo’s death Pompey was forced to declare his loyalty to the new regime of Cinna. Pompey’s survival was a result of his ability to make alliances with different sides of conflict. Because of this he easily turned from collaboration with Cinnans to Sullan party. During several decades Pompey had been fighting against the remnants of Sulla’s enemies, conducting military campaigns on Sicily, in Northern Africa and Spain. But for him it was just a way to build his political career. He had never been true-hearted Sullan and his first consulship, which was achieved due to blackmail and insubordination, proved that. As consul, Pompey abolished some critical elements of the constitution of Sulla and restored the authority of the plebeian tribunes. After the 70 B.C. Pompey became an independent participant of Rome’s political life. His successful military campaigns against the pirates and Mithradates made him the most popular and hopeful Roman general of 60's B.C. Despite his military progress, Pompey wasn’t a skillful politician. His opponents – the senate and M. Licinius Crassus nearly destroyed his achievements. Political loses forced Pompey to seek for new alliance, which was organized with his recent rival Crassus and prospective politician C. Julius Caesar. The impact of the first triumvirate – ‘a threeheaded monster’ of Roman politics – was crucial for the republican political system, which gone in a deep crisis during 50s B.C. Also it must be emphasized, that Pompey’s political activity, in those decade (especially – his second consulship with Crassus) was the most destructive for the Roman republic. The sole consulship of Pompey the Great in 52 B.C. became a try of restoring a state health and stability. But his measures were unacceptable for Caesar, who faced with risk to lose his achievements that had been reached during his Gallic war. A clash of the private interests of two Roman aristocrats turned into a new civil war and brought death to Pompey the Great and his measures for rescuing the Republic died with him.
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Popular Leadership and Collective Behavior in the Late Roman Republic (ca. 80-50 B.C.)
Brendan Nagle
The American Historical Review, 1990
86 This paragraph is based on ALFöLDl, Oktavian, Ch. V. See also YAVETZ, Caesar, 171 and 173. 27 Or. 5.17.6: "Fremente pro tantis reipublicae malis senatu populoque Romano, Marius consul accommodato ad tempus ingenio consensui bonorum sese inmiscuit commotamque plebem leni oratione sedavit." Senatus populusque Romanus indicates Roman society as a whole, in this case subdivided into boni and plebs, and not, as BADIÁN, op.cit.n.21, 108, claims, only the consensus bonorum. 28 The arming of the plebs by Marius also in Cic. Rab.Perd. 18. Like BADIÁN, SCHNEIDER believes that Appian is wrong, because he seems to be contradicted by other traditions. SCHNEIDER, incidentally, does admit that the urban plebs did not protest when Satuminus was murdered:
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Holding Court in Republican Rome
David Potter
Given that in any Roman aristocratic household during the Republic elements of the future imperial court can be found, what were the key features that enabled the latter to emerge and grow? Drawing upon Elias’ analysis of court societies, this chapter maintains that the transition depends upon extraordinary religious charisma, access to renewable sources of immense wealth, and the development of integrative structures linking provincial and Roman supporters in a hierarchy dependent upon an individual rather than tenure of office.
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"Reading Rome's Evolving Civic Landscape in Context: Tribunes of the Plebs and the Praetor's Tribunal" Phoenix 63.3-4 (2009) 322-364.
Eric Kondratieff
Phoenix (A journal of the Classical Association of Canada), 2009
In 75 B.C.E., two events affecting the tribuni plebis occurred: their right to stand for further office, previously interdicted by Sulla, was restored; and the praetor’s tribunal was moved away from the Comitium and the Rostra, a main area of tribunician activity. This essay attempts to locate, link, and interpret these events within a broad social and historical context.
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What were the key issues in Rome in the 50s BC, and who had the power to decide them?
Olivia Thompson
This essay attempts to look beyond the prominent individuals in Rome in the 50s BC to provide a cohesive picture of the city's major recurring problems - land allocation, use and abuse of power, access to resources, and organised violence - and argues that they were all facets of an overarching question: to whom Rome's expanding empire belonged. Written for Final Honour Schools 'Republic in Crisis'. October 2014 (fourth year undergraduate).
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Rhetoric and Money: The Lex Aurelia Iudicaria of 70 B.C.
Brahm Kleinman
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State of Affairs before the Fall: Roman Agrarian Legislation in the Republic of Cicero
Zahra Stavis
This is a very integral paper to human history. It is not only a history detailing the reason for the fall of the Republic (and thus the Empire), it is a complete history of Rome itself. Moreover, it represents Cicero's view of the evolution of consciousness, of which the history of Rome is an integral part, and has it's place in the historiography set out by Ken Wilbur and many more. Look for a follow-up paper on these topics, which I am currently working on, "Simulacrum and Singularity."
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Consules populares
Antonio Duplá-Ansuategui
CONSULS and Res Publica. Holding High Office in the Roman Republic, 2011
In the Late Roman Republic politicians labelled as populares were traditionally tribunes of the plebs. In our sources we found references to the great populares leaders Tiberius and Caius Sempronius Gracchus, Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, Servius Sulpicius Rufus and Publius Clodius. There are also other minor figures. They are all tribuni plebis. They all proposed different measures against the interests of the senatorial oligarchy and gave a central role to the popular assembly. Along with this, we found also a few consuls populares, as Caesar in 59 BC. In fact, Plutarchus writes that Iulius Caesar, although he was a consul, acted like a tribune (Caes. 14.2). In this paper we collect and analyze all our sources about consules populares, in order to understand the different historical circunstances and the possible meanings of the word popularis as related to the consuls, depending on how it is used by the ancient authors. The paper deals with a series of consuls, which goes from the so-called consules populares in 449 BC through some consuls in the middle of the second century BC until the later outstanding figures like Caius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Cinna, Lucius Aemilius Lepidus, Q. Pompeius Magnus or C. Iulius Caesar. Marcus Tullius Cicero deserves a special consideration, as he presented himself as a truly consul popularis in his speechs de lege agraria, delivered against the rogatio Servilia agraria at the beginning of his consulate in 63 BC. In our opinion, these consuls populares also allow a new insight in the failure of the social and political consensus of the last republican century in Rome and, particularly, in the crisis of the inner aristocratic solidarity. At a time of “fragmentation of legitimacy”, as R. Morstein-Marx and Nathan Rosenstein have pointed out recently, they underline the process of loss of political hegemony by the Senate. On the other hand, their different proposals, together with the strong refusal of Cicero to an agrarian law, offer an illustrative picture of the social and economic problems of that century. At the same time, they contribute to build the notion of a popularis libertas, significantly opposed to the libertas of the optimates.
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UG Dissertation Paper - What was the impact of the Hellenistic East on the Political Programme of Gnaeus Pompeius
Daniel Lowes
Pompey, was a character very much in the heart of the Roman World towards from the early first century to his murder at the hands of the Hellenistic Pharaoh of Egypt, Ptolemy XIII. An ironic and rather lacklustre death for a man who had been a major part of Roman Politics for over a quarter of a century and in the Roman Military for even longer. Pompey is perhaps most famous for his defeat to Caesar in their civil war, this conflict however will not be touched on too heavily below as it draws away the focus from Rome and quickly becomes a history of ‘great men’. Pompey may be famous for his defeat, but as a military commander he was of one Rome’s greatest and the Greek East was one of the primary theatres for Pompey’s military actions. This dissertation paper looks at the role that the Greek East had on Pompey, and covers some, albeit not all of the issues that are raised in modern and classical sources.
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