Beyond 'Populares' and 'Optimates': Political Language in the Late Republic (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9783515096430)

Modern interpretations of the late Roman Republic have been dominated by the twin concepts of 'populares' and 'optimates', commonly assumed to refer to two antithetical political categories. However, the definition of these groups is much debated: some historians see them as ideological movements or traditions, others as differences of political style and method. This book asks whether this debate may in fact be chasing a mirage. Through a detailed analysis of the usage of the two terms in Cicero and his close contemporaries, it is argued that they carried no clear political meaning. What emerges instead is a political language focused on the elite's fundamental concerns about internal divisions and the maintenance of aristocratic consensus.

Author: M. a. Robb
ISBN-10: 3515096434
ISBN-13: 9783515096430
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH
Language: English
Published: 07/21/2010
Pages: 225
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.14lbs
Size: 9.66h x 7.13w x 0.76d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 04/01/2011 pg. 34