Chapter 2 - Political Communication in the Late Roman Republic

Summary

This chapter discusses whether the opposing forces in the late Roman Republic settled substantial political battles with a programmatic dimension: did they hold deeply varying evaluations on the causes and remedies of the political crisis, that is, were there semantic battles between them? Are the terms optimates and populares appropriate for designating these forces? The discussion takes into consideration the fact that Rome’s premodern society precluded any modern party labels and that the basic values of the mos maiorum remained common for all citizens during the Roman Republic. Therefore, my approach comprises several steps: first, I show why the specific manner of Roman political communication ran less successfully during the late Republic. Second, I analyse the political divergences and the recognizable difference in the political languages and styles used by both optimates and populares. Finally, I offer a short reflection on the terms optimates and populares and argue that these terms were understood differently in the broader public, pending on who used them. All the evidence collected suggests that the battle between opposing political forces in this era was not only settled in words but through words.