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Chapter 1 - The Divided Body Politic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2024

Julia Mebane
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington
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Summary

Chapter 1 begins with the Fable of the Belly, a foundational myth of civic organization that Roman thinkers dated to the Conflict of the Orders. Naturalizing the hierarchical distribution of power between the senate and people, the fable identified concord as the basis of civic health. Late Republican thinkers used this metaphor to explain the problem of discord, which seemed akin to the splitting or doubling of the res publica. While writers like Cicero, Sallust, and Varro crafted such imagery to lament the loss of civic unity, Catiline used it to justify the acquisition of personal power. Describing the senate and people as separate bodies with little in common, he proposed reworking the Republican constitution to better reflect their divide. He then laid claim to the role of the caput populi, which confirmed his aspirations to tyranny. His conspiracy would be put down in a matter of months, but the language he used to articulate his ambitions proved more difficult to extinguish.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • The Divided Body Politic
  • Julia Mebane, Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Book: The Body Politic in Roman Political Thought
  • Online publication: 01 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009389334.002
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  • The Divided Body Politic
  • Julia Mebane, Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Book: The Body Politic in Roman Political Thought
  • Online publication: 01 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009389334.002
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Divided Body Politic
  • Julia Mebane, Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Book: The Body Politic in Roman Political Thought
  • Online publication: 01 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009389334.002
Available formats
×