Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- Map
- 1 MURDEROUS GAMES
- 2 POLITICAL SUCCESSION IN THE LATE REPUBLIC (249–50 BC)
- 3 AMBITION AND WITHDRAWAL: THE SENATORIAL ARISTOCRACY UNDER THE EMPERORS
- 4 DEATH IN ROME
- Bibliography
- Index of subjects
- Index of proper names
- SOME OTHER TITLES FROM THE CAMBRIDGE PAPERBACK LIBRARY
2 - POLITICAL SUCCESSION IN THE LATE REPUBLIC (249–50 BC)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- Map
- 1 MURDEROUS GAMES
- 2 POLITICAL SUCCESSION IN THE LATE REPUBLIC (249–50 BC)
- 3 AMBITION AND WITHDRAWAL: THE SENATORIAL ARISTOCRACY UNDER THE EMPERORS
- 4 DEATH IN ROME
- Bibliography
- Index of subjects
- Index of proper names
- SOME OTHER TITLES FROM THE CAMBRIDGE PAPERBACK LIBRARY
Summary
INTRODUCTION
When Julius Caeser was thinking of setting himself up as king of Rome, or so rumour had it, Brutus was repeatedly reminded by graffiti scrawled on his tribunal: ‘Brutus are you asleep?’ and ‘You are no true Brutus.’ These slogans recalled the deeds of his distant ancestor, who over four hundred years previously had killed the last king of Rome. In ad 22, Brutus' sister Junia, the widow of Cassius (the other leading assassin of Caesar), finally died; the busts of twenty leading families, to whom she was related by blood or marriage, were paraded in her funeral procession, though out of political tact to the emperor Tiberius Caesar the busts of both Cassius and Brutus were omitted (Tacitus, Annals 3.76). The public display of noble ancestry was ‘a matter of pride among the ancients, and was considered a mark of status and success’. Noble descent enhanced a man's status and political prospects. Cicero, for example, once taunted an opponent, Piso:
You crept into office by mistake, on the recommendation of your smoke-blackened family busts, with which you have nothing in common except colour… When you were made aedile, it was a Piso who was elected by the Roman people, not you. The praetorship too was bestowed on your ancestors; they were famous, though dead; you were alive, but as yet no one knew of you. (Speech against Piso 1–2)
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Death and RenewalSociological Studies in Roman History, pp. 31 - 119Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983
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