Mass Oratory and Political Power in the Late Roman Republic
Cambridge University Press, 2/5/2004
EAN 9780521823272, ISBN10: 0521823277
Hardcover, 328 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This book highlights the role played by public, political discourse in shaping the distribution of power between Senate and People in the Late Roman Republic. Against the background of the debate between 'oligarchical' and 'democratic' interpretations of Republican politics, Robert Morstein-Marx emphasizes the perpetual negotiation and reproduction of political power through mass communication. The book analyses the ideology of Republican mass oratory and situates its rhetoric fully within the institutional and historical context of the public meetings (contiones) in which these speeches were heard. Examples of contional orations, drawn chiefly from Cicero and Sallust, are subjected to an analysis that is influenced by contemporary political theory and empirical studies of public opinion and the media, rooted in a detailed examination of key events and institutional structures, and illuminated by a vivid sense of the urban space in which the contio was set.
List of figures and maps
Acknowledgements
Note on translations
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Setting the stage
3. Civic knowledge
4. The voice of the people
5. Debate
6. Contional ideology
the invisible 'optimate'
7. Contional ideology
the political drama
8. Conclusion
References
Index.
Review of the hardback: 'This study makes a serious contribution to the continuing debate on the nature of Roman politics ... This is a book for scholars and teachers ... there is much valuable information and insight in the book ... CUP exhibits its customary impeccable standard of production.' The Journal of Classics Teaching