Politics of the late republic

Morello- Cicero’s letters

Cicero’s letters are really good at telling us what he believed.

Stower- Privacy of letters

Romans don’t distinguish between public and private language as they always have one eye on them being published

Everitt- Cicero’s aims

his basic aim was to restore traditional political values

Everitt- Cicero’s weakness

his weakness as a politician was that his principles rested upon mistaken analysis

Everitt- Cicero’s success

in a society where politicians were also expected to be good soldiers, he was preeminently a civilian. Making his success even more impressive

Everitt- Cicero and the triumvirate

the turning point in his career was his refusal to join Caesar, Pompey and Crassus in their political alliance in the 50s

Syme- Roman stoicism

stoicism was not an ideology adopted in its entirety, but cherry-picked to offer a moral ‘Roman’ ideal

Marin- Cato’s stubbornness

Cato’s stubbornness to stick to his principles, at times led to his failing

Gelzer- Cato and dictatorships

Cato’s rebuke of the Sullani was a result of his abhorrence of dictatorships

Bispham- Cato and his principles

Cato was seen to be stoic and moral when he left the floralia festival when a striptease started

Scullard- The senate

the business of the senate was largely in the hands of the nobiles

Scullard- Patronage

through patronage people were generally able to control elections and this in turn gave them control of the senate

Scullard- The difference between populares and optimates

the real difference lay in the methods they followed. Many populares politicians were ambitious for their own gain whilst the optimates tried to uphold the oligarchy they controlled

Logan- Elites within the republic

it would be more accurate to state that throughout the late republic, the ruling elites didn’t want certain changes which challenged their rule and they actively opposed these changes

Taylor- Cato

his courage and idealism made him a martyr

Scullard- Concordia ordinum

as he had no army to enforce his will and had no faction to back him due to his novus homo status, Cicero was unable to achieve Concordia Ordinum