Roman Historiography

Republican

SEMINAR II: Sallust BC 1-5

Party Politics ch1

Sallvst

Thucydidean Influence

• View of human nature• View of historiography

– Concentration– Selection– Omission– Emphasis on politics

•Analyses of human behavior

Thucydidean Influence

• Style-Thucydides– poetic language– variety of grammatical usage

– inconcinnity– rapidity

• Style- Sallust – Poetic/archaic vocab– unusual grammatical turns

– inconcinnity– rapidity

• of thought & expression

• compression & omission

– variatio

Sallvstian Style

• Archaism• Asyndeton• Parataxis• Hyperbaton• Inconcinnitas• Brevitas

– antithesis

Party Politics Personalities & Programs

outline• Sources• Classes• Constitution

– Magistracies– Assemblies– elections

• Factiones/Partes• Roman Revolution

– Gracchi– Marius v. Sulla– Pompey, Crassus, Caesar

• Participants/scene

Party PoliticsPersonalities & Programs

• amazing primary sources– Caesar’s commentarii– Sallust’s BC, BJ, Historiae, Epistulae ad Caesarem?

– Cicero’s speeches, essays, letters

• Taylor’s quellenforschungen– In text– In footnotes 2 & 3

• great example of modern scholarly evolution– Compare Ramsey p.6

Party Politics Personalities & Programs

• Roman Republican gov’t– Checks & balances– Aristocratic control– Ti. Gracchus

• sword carried into assembly– Liberty v. equality

• Class division based on landed property

Ordines

• Patricians: (patricii) – from patres

•title applied to members of Senate•patrician clans claimed descent from earliest Senators

– highly privileged aristocratic class

– hereditary membership•only by birth (until end of Republic)

Ordines

• Plebeians: (plebeii) – from plebs– all Roman citizens not patrician

Struggle of the Ordersplebeian milestones

• 494 BC: First Secession of the Plebs– established their own assembly (the Concilium Plebis) – elected their own magistrates, the Tribunes and the Plebeian

Aediles.

• 450 BC: Law of the Twelve Tables, first codification of Roman law

• 445 BC: patricians and plebeians permitted to intermarry• 367 BC: plebeians became eligible for the consulship• 342 BC: one of the two Consuls must be a plebeian• 339 BC: one of the two Censors must be a plebeian• 300 BC: half of the priesthoods (also state offices) must

be plebeian• 287 BC: Third Secession of the Plebs

– won concession that all plebiscites (measures passed in Concilium Plebis) had the force of law for entire Roman state

Struggle of the Orders

• non-violent methods

• Reshaped Aristocracy

– Aristocracy of birth replaced with aristocracy based on political office and wealth, particularly land-based wealth.

• Society remained hierarchical, class-based

– Large gap between top and bottom citizen classes

Roman Citizen Classes

• Patrician• Senatorial (Plebeian)

• Equites (Plebeian)• Property Owners (Plebeian)

• Capite Censi (Plebeian)

Money Property Requirements

• ≈ 16 asses = 4 ƒ = 1 denarius • ƒ1,000,000 for Senatorial• ƒ400,000 for Equites• ƒ3,000 for 4th class

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Party Politics

Cursus honorum jpg

Party PoliticsPersonalities & Programs

• Nobiles– Military service requirements class determined• Cavalry/officer class

– Centuriate Assembly • Vote for consuls praetors• Vote in order by class

– Senate• Ex-magistrates life-time membership • Subdivisions based on rank (highest office held)

– Asked to speak in order of rank– Election to office influenced by family & hereditity» novus homo

Party PoliticsPersonalities & Programs

• Equites– Cavalry/officer class

Party PoliticsPersonalities & Programs

• Pedites Foot Soldier Classes– Class based on property rating

•ƒ50,000•4 classes for small farmers •No landed property