Chapter 1 - Lost in Translation

Summary

‘Boni’ is one of the most common terms in the political vocabulary of the Roman republic during the last century BCE. While this is also the period from which most of our surviving sources derive, Cicero – and his correspondents – employ ‘boni’ to describe this group, usually in political contexts, no fewer than 470 times – occasionally in variations such as boni viri or, more rarely, boni cives (see Appendix 1). This figure may be compared to the occurrence of the much–debated ‘optimates’, whom Cicero mentions just seventy-five times.¹ In contrast to ‘optimates’ – and despite their prominence in the political discourse – ‘boni’ hardly feature in modern discussions of Roman society and politics. There has been little scholarly interest in the term itself or in the people it describes; no comprehensive study of this group is currently available.² The scant attention paid to the boni may be explained by several factors, although two stand out as particularly significant. Chief among them is their common integration into the traditional ‘party model’ of Roman politics, which has provided the default framework for interpreting the boni.