XPDNC/Writing Caesar ("Bellum Ciuile")

1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Bellum Gallicum ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Many ◽  
Two Sides

Julius Caesar's "Bellum Ciuile" writes Caesar-articulates a particular construction of its subject: Caesar. The essay shows how writing in the civil war wins and loses the war, and how the writing of the Civil War exploits this throughout its course. The initial suppression of Caesar's letter to the senate in 49 BCE creates a lack which the rest of the text is to supply, and a structure of injustice inflicted on Caesar by villainous manipulation of communiqués. The narrative presents Caesar's withheld claims over and again, in an ever-lengthening set of dramatized formulations and vindications, both in the form of his own behaviour and in its contrast with his enemies'. The many and various roles of writing in the civil war are examined, from orders and despatches to the propagandist war of words, and it is shown how the conflict is moralized through polarity between the letters sent by the two sides. Caesar presents himself as the last proconsular conqueror of the republic, playing the patriotic general from Gaul to Alexandria, where the "Bellum Ciuile" gives out-in time for this the first writer and mythographer of the Roman Empire to hide his hero's overthrow of the political order. It is argued that Caesar runs Bellum Gallicum and "Bellum Ciuile" together to make a seamless continuum, as a vital strategy for occluding, denying, and displacing civil war from the triumphant procession across a welcoming Roman world he offers in the "Bellum Ciuile".

Pax and the Politics of Peace

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Cornwell
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Roman Imperialism ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Pax Romana ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Insight Into

This book examines the two generations that spanned the collapse of the Republic and the Augustan period to understand how the concept of pax Romana, as a central ideology of Roman imperialism, evolved. The author argues for the integral nature of pax in understanding the changing dynamics of the Roman state through civil war to the creation of a new political system and world-rule. The period of the late Republic to the early Principate involved changes in the notion of imperialism. This is the story of how peace acquired a central role within imperial discourse over the course of the collapse of the Republican framework to become deployed in the legitimization of the Augustan regime. It is an examination of the movement from the debates over the content of the concept, in the dying Republic, to the creation of an authorized version controlled by the princeps, through an examination of a series of conceptions about peace, culminating with the pax augusta as the first crystallization of an imperial concept of peace. Just as there existed not one but a series of ideas concerning Roman imperialism, so too were there numerous different meanings, applications, and contexts within which Romans talked about ‘peace’. Examining these different nuances allows us insight into the ways they understood power dynamics, and how these were contingent on the political structures of the day. Roman discourses on peace were part of the wider discussion on the way in which Rome conceptualized her Empire and ideas of imperialism.

Cicero and Milo

1974 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 62-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Lintott
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Position ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Political Realignment ◽  
Political Scene

The battle of Bovillae on 18th January, 52 B.C., which led to Clodius' death, was literally treated by Cicero in a letter to Atticus as the beginning of a new era—he dated the letter by it, although over a year had elapsed. It is difficult to exaggerate the relief it afforded him from fear and humiliation for a few precious years before civil war put him once more in jeopardy. At one stroke Cicero lost his chief inimicus and the Republic lost a hostis and pestis. Moreover, the turmoil led to a political realignment for which Cicero had been striving for the last ten years—a reconciliation between the boni and Pompey, as a result of which Pompey was commissioned to put the state to rights. Cicero's behaviour in this context, especially his return to the centre of the political scene, is, one would have thought, of capital importance to the biographer of Cicero. Yet two recent English biographies have but briefly touched on the topic. It is true that, in the background of Cicero's personal drama, Caesar and Pompey were taking up positions which, as events turned out, would lead to the collapse of the Republic. However, Cicero and Milo were not to know this, nor were their opponents; friendly cooperation between the two super-politicians apparently was continuing. Politicians on all sides were still aiming to secure power and honour through the traditional Republican magistracies, and in this pursuit were prepared to use the odd mixture of violence, bribery and insistence on the strict letter of the constitution, which was becoming a popular recipe. In retrospect their obsession with the customary organs of power has a certain irony. Yet it is a testimony to the political atmosphere then. Their manoeuvres are also important because both the instability caused by the violence of Clodius and Milo, and the eventual confidence in the rule of law established under Pompey's protection, helped to determine the political position of the boni associated with Pompey in 49 B.C. Cicero's relationship with Milo is at first sight one of the more puzzling aspects of his career. What had they in common, except that Milo, like most late Republican politicians, was at one time associated with Pompey? Properly interpreted, however, this relationship may not only illuminate Cicero's own attitudes but illustrate the character of the last years of Republican politics.

scholarly journals The Return of the Sacral King

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 51-65
Author(s):  
Paul R. DeHart ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
The World ◽  
Ancient Christianity ◽  
The City

In Pagans & Christians in the City, Steven D. Smith argues that in contrast to ancient Rome, ancient Christianity, following Judaism, located the sacred outside the world, desacralizing the cosmos and everything in it—including the political order. It thereby introduced a political dualism and potentially contending allegiances. Although Smith’s argument is right so far as it goes, it underplays the role of Christianity’s immanent dimension in subverting the Roman empire and the sacral pattern of antiquity. This division of authority not only undermined the Roman empire and antique sacral political order more generally—it also subverts the modern state, which, in the work of Hobbes and Rousseau, sought to remarry what Western Christianity divorced.

Token Constitutionalism and Islamic Opposition in Tajikistan

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muriel Atkin
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Muslim Country ◽  
Soviet Rule ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Religious Establishment

Abstract Tajikistan is a predominantly Muslim country where the concept of having a constitution is not controversial, but the content of that constitution is. Roughly seventy years of Soviet rule over the territory that became independent Tajikistan at the end of 1991 introduced constitutions as a norm, although the rights the constitutions appeared to accord did not jibe with political reality. The years of Soviet rule also created an environment hostile to Islam, as a result of which some of Tajikistan’s inhabitants ceased to be believers, while many who continued to practice their faith knew little about it other than the rituals of everyday life. In the last years of the Soviet era and the two decades after the breakup of the USSR, Islam was caught up in the political as well as religious controversies that developed in Tajikistan during this upheaval. There was an upsurge of attention to Islam, in a religious sense for some, a cultural and nationalist sense for others, and as a bogeyman for yet others. The Islamic Rebirth Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), the only legal Islamic political party in post-Soviet Central Asia, along with the head of the religious establishment in the republic, the qadi, joined with secular groups advocating reforms that would promote political and economic change. The power struggle between neo-Soviet ruling elites and the opposition led to a civil war (1992-97) in which the neo-Soviets prevailed. Tajikistan’s post-Soviet constitution reflects the emphatic secularism of the neo-Soviets, despite the objections of the IRPT. The post-civil-war government has also enacted legislation reestablishing Soviet-style constraints on Islamic institutions and personnel and has used its power to thwart genuinely pluralistic politics. The IRPT as well as secular opposition parties have felt the effects of the rigged elections and harassment by the regime.

scholarly journals A CONTROVERSA RELAÇÃO DE J.-J. ROUSSEAU COM A REPÚBLICA DE GENEBRA

Sapere Aude ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 157-171
Author(s):  
Vital Francisco Celestino Alves
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Central Axis ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Republic

Na filosofia de Jean-Jacques Rousseau encontramos diversos elogios a modelos políticos oriundos da Antiguidade (Esparta e Roma), assim como outros elogios à República de Genebra. A esse último modelo, o pensador dedica a obra Discurso sobre a origem e os fundamentos da desigualdade entre os homens. Entretanto, até que ponto se pode afirmar que a ordenação política genebrina influenciou e contribuiu para a formação do pensamento político de Rousseau? Tendo essa questão como eixo central e objetivando produzir uma reflexão sobre a Genebra de Rousseau, o presente artigo pretende: primeiro, descrever como era a ordem política genebrina; segundo, tratar da relação entre Rousseau e Genebra; e, por último, correlacionar a posição que ocupa a cidade natal do autor com os seus escritos políticos apresentados na Dedicatória e no Contrato social e examinar a consistência das três principais linhas interpretativas que relacionam Genebra à filosofia política de Rousseau.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Rousseau. República de Genebra. Relação.ABSTRACTIn the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau we find several compliments to political models coming from Antiquity (Sparta and Rome), as well as other compliments to the Republic of Geneva. To this last model, the thinker dedicates the work Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men. However, to what extent can one affirm that the political order of Geneva influenced and contributed to the formation of Rousseau's political thought? With this question as the central axis and aiming to produce a reflection on Rousseau's Geneva, the present article aims to: first, describe the Genevan political, second, deal with Rousseau's relationship with Geneva, and, finally, correlate the position the author's hometown occupies with his political writings presented in the Dedication and the Social Contract and examine the consistency of the three main interpretive lines relating Geneva to Rousseau's political philosophy.KEYWORDS: Rousseau. Republic of Geneva. Relationship.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippa Adrych ◽  
Robert Bracey ◽  
Dominic Dalglish ◽  
Stefanie Lenk ◽  
Rachel Wood
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Ancient Religion ◽  
The Many ◽  
Material Record

This chapter focuses on two marble tauroctony statue groups that are now in the British Museum’s collection. Both are thought to be originally from Rome and date roughly to between the end of the first and the second century AD. In this opening chapter, we look at several of the many interpretations that have been offered for the tauroctony and discuss the image’s development in the Roman world. At the heart of all such interpretations lies the problem of how to reconstruct an ancient reality based on scant remains. These carefully constructed compositions, painstakingly restored in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, simultaneously present us with the characteristic representation of Mithras in the Roman Empire, yet also show the difficulties in reconstructing ancient religion from a fragmented material record.

scholarly journals The Political and Economic Origins of the Roman Revolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-245
Author(s):  
Roman Lapyrenok
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Public Land ◽  
First Episode ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Agrarian Question ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Republic

The paper considers some economic and legal aspects of the struggle for the public land in Late Republican Rome. This period is one of the most controversial in ancient history; it brought many significant changes to the socio-economic and political life of Rome and contributed much to its transformation from Republic to Principate. Nevertheless, there is no special paper examining the competition between the Romans and Italians for the ager publicus populi Romani which started with the agrarian reform of Tiberius Gracchus in modern historiography. The first episode ended after the enactment in 111 B.C. of the lex agraria, when a large amount of public land was brought into private hands by its Roman possessors. A further part of the ager publicus populi Romani was still public and remained in hands of the socii. The logic of historical process, the economic changes of the second century B.C. which led Rome from Republic to Principate, demanded the formation of a new class of landowners. The latter would be the basis of the political system of the Roman Empire instead of the nobilitas; its political power would be based on private ownership of land. This was impossible without the full privatization of public land, and it is logical that the struggle for the ager publicus populi Romani was not ended in 111 B.C. Only after privatization of that land, which was possessed by the allies, the agrarian question in Rome could be fully resolved. The latter problem is of crucial importance for the further history of Rome, because it not only caused the Social War but also radically changed both the social structure and the political balance within Roman society during the last decades of the Republic.

scholarly journals THE DISCLOSURE OF POLITICAL PARTY FINANCIAL TOWARD THE PRACTICE OF MONEY LAUNDERING FROM THE RESULT OF THE CRIMINAL ACT OF CORRUPTION

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Denny Arinanda Kurnia
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Money Laundering ◽  
Political Party ◽  
General Election ◽  
The Political ◽  
Unitary State ◽  
The People ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Many

General Election is a means of implementing the sovereignty of the people in direct, general, free, confidential, honest, and fair manner within the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia based on Pancasila and the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia Year 1945. The election has many dynamics, expensive politics, lavish campaign funds for image politics, costly consulting and surveys of winning money, as well as money politics. The disclosure of political parties is highly important in the implementation of the elections due to the many streams of corruption used in the election. As a result, people do not believe in political parties, or some Indonesians are no longer sympathetic to political parties. The idea of a political party's financial transparency regulation should be carefully examined in the Indonesians’ election codification scheme. In the future, Indonesia must have a transparent and accountable campaign or political funding arrangement, along with strong sanctions and binding on the parties involved. Therefore, the people will restore their trust to the political parties, and assure the political parties to channel their aspirations in the granting of rights in the elections.Keywords: Finance; Political parties; Corruption

The Fasti for A.D. 70–96

1981 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 186-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Gallivan
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Complete List ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Annual Number ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Regular Practice

The political and administrative requirements of the Roman state during the early years of the Principate demanded an increase in the annual number of consulars. When Augustus finally acted to remedy this situation in 5 b.c., he introduced a system of suffect consuls and thereby increased the number of consuls from the two per annum of the Republic to four. A regular practice became established whereby one or both of the ordinary consuls retired at the end of June to be replaced in office for theremainder of the year by a suffect consul. For the reigns of Gaius and Claudius additional suffects were included in many years and a new pattern can be seen to have emerged. It was usual now for each ordinarius to hold office for the first six months of the year except in some special cases where the ordinarii resigned at the end of two months and their place was taken by a pair of suffects who remained in office for the next four months to serve out the more regular tenure of the ordinary consuls. Under Nero, the innovation of this two-month ordinary consulship was not perpetuated and ordinarii usually remained in office for the full six months. Suffect consulships throughout the period a.d. 38–68 were held for periods of either two, four or six months.The Civil War of a.d. 68/69 and the consequent changes of emperor broke the above pattern. For 69, there are no fewer than sixteen consuls known to have held office during the year. Such confusion, however, would not be unexpected given the startling events of this year. Of considerable importance to students of the early Empire, therefore, is the question of what happened to the system of allocating consulships during a particular year when the state had once again settled itself down to running in routine under the victorious Flavian emperors. The answer to this question will be of particular importance for prosopographers of the early Empire for whom chronology is the backbone of their investigations, since the fasti for the reigns of Vespasian and Titus are notable for the number of years in which the complete list of consuls is lacking.

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