Consuls and Res Publica: Holding High Office in the Roman Republic

Description

The consulate was the focal point of Roman politics. Both the ruling class and the ordinary citizens fixed their gaze on the republic's highest office - to be sure, from different perspectives and with differing expectations. While the former aspired to the consulate as the defining magistracy of their social status, the latter perceived it as the embodiment of the Roman state. Holding high office was thus not merely a political exercise. The consulate prefigured all aspects of public life, with consuls taking care of almost every aspect of the administration of the Roman state. This multifaceted character of the consulate invites a holistic investigation. The scope of this book is therefore not limited to political or constitutional questions. Instead, it investigates the predominant role of the consulate in and its impact on, the political culture of the Roman republic.

Hans Beck is John MacNaughton Chair of Classics in the Department of History and Classical Studies at McGill University. His publications include Central Greece and the Politics of Power in the Fourth Century BC (2008) with John Buckler. Antonio Dupla is Associate Professor in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of the Basque Country in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where he teaches ancient history and classical reception. Martin Jehne is Professor of Ancient History and Director of the Department of History at the Technical University of Dresden. Francisco Pina Polo is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Zaragoza. His publications include The Consul at Rome: The Civil Functions of the Consuls in the Roman Republic (2011).

'This book is a goldmine of information about the consulship from the beginning to the end of the Roman republic. The contributions are uniformly excellent, well-written, and carefully researched, with appropriate attention given to earlier scholarly opinions ... a volume of helpful and readable essays on an important and timely topic of great interest to Roman historians and historiographers.' Bryn Mawr Classical Review 'This important collection of papers, arising from a conference at Zaragoza in 2007 and drawing upon the editors' research network on the consulship in the Roman Republic, is a welcome addition to a growing body of recent work on the republican constitution ... a volume which, in its coherence, quality, and standard of editing is a model of how the book of the conference should be.' Catherine Steel, University of Glasgow