Res Publica And The Roman Republic

Based on the author's doctoral dissertation, Durham University, 2013.

Libertas and Res Publica examines two key concepts of Western political thinking: freedom and republic. Contributors address important new questions on the principles of, and essential connection between res publica and libertas in Roman thought and Republican history.

The consulate was the focal point of Roman politics. Both the ruling class and the ordinary citizens fixed their gaze on the republic's highest office - to be sure, from different perspectives and with differing expectations. While the former aspired to the consulate as the defining magistracy of their social status, the latter perceived it as the embodiment of the Roman state. Holding high office was thus not merely a political exercise. The consulate prefigured all aspects of public life, with consuls taking care of almost every aspect of the administration of the Roman state. This multifaceted character of the consulate invites a holistic investigation. The scope of this book is therefore not limited to political or constitutional questions. Instead, it investigates the predominant role of the consulate in and its impact on, the political culture of the Roman republic.

Gathers together extracts from Cicero's works in which he discusses the Roman state (res publica). Grouped into eight thematic chapters, this title enables the student to examine the evidence and draw his or her own conclusions from the material presented.

A very readable introduction exploring much-contested issues and debates, and providing an original synthesis of this important topic.

A comprehensive discussion of the supreme magistrates in Rome, from the beginning of the Republic until the age of Augustus.

“A fast-paced narrative history of the dying years of the Republic, and one grounded in the characters, events, and voices of the period.” —Bryn Mawr Classical Review Rome: Republic into Empire looks at the political and social reasons why Rome repeatedly descended into civil war in the early 1st century BCE and why these conflicts continued for most of the century; it describes and examines the protagonists, their military skills, their political aims and the battles they fought and lost; it discusses the consequences of each battle and how the final conflict led to a seismic change in the Roman political system with the establishment of an autocratic empire. This is not just another arid chronological list of battles, their winners and their losers. Using a wide range of literary and archaeological evidence, Paul Chrystal offers a rare insight into the wars, battles and politics of this most turbulent and consequential of ancient world centuries; in so doing, it gives us an eloquent and exciting political, military and social history of ancient Rome during one of its most cataclysmic and crucial periods, explaining why and how the civil wars led to the establishment of one of the greatest empires the world has known. “More than a list of battles, their winners and losers. We are given a complete picture of Roman and Italian society from aristocrats to peasants and slaves.” —Army Rumour Service (ARRSE)

This book explores how public space in Republican Rome was an unstable category marked, experienced, and defined by multiple actors and audiences.