The Roman Republican Constitution and the Italian Confederation

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The Roman Republican Constitutionand the Italian
Confederation

• Formal Structures and Extra-Constitutional
  Realities

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The Roman constitution was a screen and a sham

• Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (15)

3
Polybius on the Roman Constitution

• A Greek Looks at Rome

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Key Dates in Polybius Lifetime

• Ca. 200 BC Birth in Megalopolis
• 198 BC Achaean understanding with Rome and
  abandonment of Macedonia
• Lycortas, Polybius father, serves as strategos
  of the Achaean Confederation several times in the
  180s BC
• Polybius in funeral entourage of the great
  Achaean statesman Philopoemen (182 BC)
• Polybius selected as Achaean envoy in 181/180 BC
  to Alexandria in Egypt
• Polybius elected hipparchos, or cavalry
  commander, of the Achaean Confederation for
  170/169 BC
• Romans defeat Macedonia in 168 BC round up
  suspected pro-Macedonians and incarcerate them in
  Italy (Polybius among them)
• Polybius as political hostage at Rome from
  168-ca. 150 BC friendship with P. Cornelius
  Scipio Aemilianus composition of Histories
• Achaean War Romans destroy Corinth and dissolve
  Achaean Confederation (146 BC)
• After 146 BC Polybius in Greece on Romans
  behalf helps to institute the new dispensation
  in Greece

5
Plaster cast of relief sculpture found in Cleitor
thought to represent the Greek historian Polybius
Greece would not have fallen had it obeyed
Polybius in everything, and when Greece did meet
disaster, its only help came from him
Inscription on the Temple of Despoina near
Arakesion reported by Pausanias, 8.37.2
6
Book Six Political Analysis of the Roman State

• How and under what type of constitution were the
  Romans able to subjugate most of the inhabited
  world in half a century? Histories 1.1.5
• Anacyclosis Theory--Biological Model of States
  (genesis, acme, decline)
• Mixed Constitution at Rome
• blend of monarchic, aristocratic, and democratic
  elements
• harmony through checks and balances
• Inconsistency? Roman Vulnerability or Durability?
• Reader-Response Theory (Greek and Roman
  audiences)--a politics of indeterminacy?
• Logismos, the quintessential Greek virtue, as the
  key element in the Roman constitution

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Polybius Roman Republican Constitution (Book 6)

• Rome as Greek Polis
• Greek Political Theory Applied to Rome
• Hostility to Democratic Element
• Polybius Offense Demagogic Politics the Charge
  of his Political Opposition within the Achaean
  Confederation?

8
Polybius Omissions

• Roman Expansion and Roman Political Structures
• Nature of Roman Political Assemblies
• Extra-Constitutional Force of Patronage
• Economic and Social Forces in Roman Elections
• The Italian Allies

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Roman Expansion and Roman Political Structures

• Conclusion of First Punic War (provinciae)
• 241 BC Additional praetor for foreigners (2)
• Addition of Sicily and Sardinia-Corsica
• 227 BC Two additional praetors (4)
• Addition of Spain
• 198 BC Two additional praetors (6)
• Prorogation (proconsul, propraetor)
• Senatorial legati

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Polybius Omissions

• Roman Elections and Political Assemblies

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Roman Republican Magistrates
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A Screen and a Sham?

• Aristocratic Auctoritas and Dignitas
• Patronage
• Contiones
• Electoral Bribery (ambitus)
• Open Balloting (until 139 BC)

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Polybian Omissions

• The Italian Allies

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External RelationsItaly and the Provinces

• Italian Confederation and the Military
• Warfare necessary for the stability of the
  Confederation (Momigliano)?
• Western Provinces
• Spain
• Gaul
• Africa
• Greece and the East

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