Elections and Electioneering in Rome: A Study in the Political System of the Late Republic

Copertina anteriore
Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999 - 251 pagine
The books analyses the Roman electoral system under the late Republic and its impact on the Republican political system as a whole. The political system of the Republic is often described as narrowly oligarchic; all forms of popular participation had little real impact on how the Republic was run. Though this view has been challenged in recent years, the Republican electoral system is still widely regarded as controlled and manipulated by the narrow circle of Roman nobility (among other things, through patronage). This book offers a very different picture: a wide popular electorate, free to choose between upper-class candidates who fiercely competed for the votes of the populace and had to make great efforts in order to win popularity with the common people. Competitive popular elections influenced the whole balance of power between the common people and the elite. The books refers, by way of comparison, to modern electoral systems and their impact on the relations between the people and the social and political elite
 

Sommario

Acknowledgements
7
The election of Marius to his first consulship
13
Popular participation in the centuriate assembly
20
Largitiones and elections
26
The first propertyclass
43
The Servian assembly
54
The social dimension of elections personal ties and public
65
Patronage and elections floating attendants
71
Freeing the electoral market the impact of the ballot
124
The voting units and the effective secrecy of the voting
133
The ballot and its repercussions
137
Roman elections and politics
148
The unusual election in 50 B C
155
Politicization of elections social norms aristocratic ethos and political
177
Nobility popularity and electoral success
184
Deference
195

The nature of the personal ties definitions and problems
78
Personal ties and public support the testimony of Commentariolum
84
The testimony of Pro Murena
91
The testimony of Pro Plancio
97
Additional testimonies
103
Candidates and voters
109
Notables and apparatchicks
117
Generosity popularity and power
201
The menace of aristocratic radicalism
207
The end of the Republic
225
Bibliography
235
Index
247
Copyright

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