Accusation of wanting to gain royal power, theatrical tearing of robes and shedding tears, and ultimately elaborate insults and invectives (also in verse!). How was political influence exerted in Ancient Rome?
When Publius Ventidius Bassus forced the retreat of Pakorus, son of the Parthian king Orodes II, he could surely expect that a consular career was open to him. Nothing was more popular in the Empire in politics than success on the battlefield and illustrious ancestry that Ventidius certainly did not lack. Although, by order of Mark Antony, he celebrated the Party's triumph in Rome, his soldiers willingly invented, immortalized a century later by Gellius, invectives about gaining political honor by the bald man the mule driver.
A satirical representation of Cicero's dispute with Catilina
As early as 384 BCE an ambitious politician, Marcus Manlius Capitoline, was to deliver a fiery speech against the patricians on the wave of the political consciousness of the plebeians, which had been awakening for at least a hundred years. Although he was a man of merit to the City, a hero of the Gallic invasion, removing him from the political scene turned out to be extremely easy. Step One:Accusation of Seeking Royal Power ( Adfectatio regni ). Step two:the "comedy of the process" - the Capitoline Trial, instead of in Rome, took place in the Petelinsky Grove, where most citizens could not reach, but only interested patricians. Step three:the sentence and death of the "tyrant" .
Theater votes
In the fall of the Republic, accusing a politician of tyranny is definitely not enough. Even in the 2nd century BCE political skirmishes often resembled a high-level theatrical performance. In 167 BC the senate was to award the Macedonian winner Emilius Paulus a triumph. The first against the emperor was Sulpicjusz Galba, who made a fiery speech to the soldiers that they should reject the senate's motion during the vote. The day after the suspended vote against Galba, the much older Servilius Puleks left, who was clearly fed up with the political animosity of Galba and Emilius Paulus. Instead of using rhetoric, revealed the toga and pointed to the scars, adding:
He [Sulpicjusz Galba] knows nothing but talk, and it is abusive and malicious. I have beaten my opponent twenty-three times (...) This body is torn with iron , I, an old soldier, showed young soldiers more than once. Let Galba show hers, manicured and intact.
With this short performance, Puleks apparently won the hearts of the voters, because on the same day Paulus was awarded the triumph he deserved.
Detail from the painting "The Triumph of Emiliusz Paulus". Emiliusz Paulus in the triumphal quadriga, which he might not have finally obtained had it not been for Servilius Puleks's play
This was not, however, an isolated instance of the extreme creativity of political pressure. Plutarch wrote that when Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BCE led a vigorous campaign in favor of the proposed agriculture law:
The great landowners, having changed their robes, went out to the Forum in mourning as a sign of regret for the state .
In the late republic
In the first century BC It was not enough, however, to point out a tyrant in an opponent, to hold his hands crying, or to tear a toga in front of a thousand audience. It was an age of corruption, crime, fraud and insults all of this de facto to the delight of the Roman people. The Romans valued creative insults, especially when they took forms in verse . Of course, Cicero was the leader among the creators of public accusations against politicians, highly appreciated even by his "victims" (with the possible exception of Caesar and Mark Antony). It was a matter of honor for the Roman to bear public criticism. After all, the measure of society's freedom was freedom of speech . Some political jokes were kept for posterity (such as the passage on Ventidius in the title), others were repeated at evening feasts.
And so Catilina became (thanks to Cicero) a murderer and a libertine . Pizon, apparently a model of virtue and honor, but about the orgies in his house by which "virgins of the good houses" committed suicide, it was quickly heard on the Tiber (thanks to Cicero). Mark Antony is, according to Cicero - a villain, a gladiator, a lecher, and above all an effeminate coward:
Was Dolabella supposed to fight for you in Spain while you screwed the hosts' tables in Narbonne?
This sad reality of the end of the free state was summed up by Sallust by saying that:
Citizens were called good or bad not for their merits towards the commonwealth, because all were equally corrupt, but the richest and those who became stronger by lawlessness because they defended the existing order were considered good.
Gaius Gracchus speaking to the Roman people
Over time, this "arsenal of phrases and political behavior" served as the basis for the enslavement of the word in Rome, which from the time of Augustus had been saturated with servility and flattery. Each of the successive political triumphs limited this freedom a little on the pretext of introducing peace in the country. Pax for the price of libertas Populi Romani ? Yes, if the same libertas we will give a new meaning to libertas derived from the new, legal authority. Maybe that's why Cicero in Philippines he wrote:
So why don't I want peace? Because he is disgraceful, because he is dangerous, because he is impossible.
Bibliography:
Sources:
- Cicero, Filipiki (Speeches against Mark Antony), trans. K. Ekes, Warsaw 2002.
- Gelliusz Aulus, Noctium atticarum, Bucaresti 19
- Liwiusz Tytus, The History of Rome from the Founding of the City, trans. M. Brożek, introduction provided by J. Wolski, M. Brożek, Wrocław 1957.
- Plutarch, Lives of Famous Men, trans. M. Brożek, Wrocław 2004, cop. 1977.
- Salustiusz, Historiae (Dzieje), translated by M. Nangajewicz “Meander” 12 (1957), pp. 198-201).
- Suetonius Gaius Tranquilius, Lives of the Caesars, trans. J. Niemirska Pliszczyńska, Wrocław 2004, cop. 1987
Studies:
- Flaig E., The Ritualized Politics, trans. L. Mrozewicz, A. Pawlicka, Poznań 2012.
- Kuryłowicz M., Law and customs in ancient Rome, Lubiln 1994
- C. Nicolet, Citizen politician, in:Man of Rome, ed. A. Giardina, A. Giardina, trans. P. Brawo, Warsaw 1997
- Polo F.P., Dziejopisarstwo, Mos Maiorum and Roman Identity, trans. L. Olszewski, Poznań 2003.
- Syme R., The Roman Revolution, trans. A. Baziór, Poznań 2009.