'Without body or form' : Res Publica and the Roman Republic
This thesis explores the crisis of political legitimacy at the end of the Roman Republic from the angle of the increasing politicisation of a key concept in the Roman political vocabulary â that of the political sphere itself, the res publica. Exactly how the âconsensualâ political world of the classic Republic disintegrated is one of the key questions of Roman history. The politicisation of the political sphere is an important part of this crisis that has received relatively little attention to date, partly because of the difficulty involved in pinning down just what res publica meant. Since the concept of res publica is politically ubiquitous, often used emotively and in consequence very hard to define, the temptation to take it as a universally understood and relatively uncontroversial given is rarely resisted. Julius Caesarâs notorious opinion that âthe res publica is nothing, a mere name without body or formâ (Suet. Jul. 77), however, supplies only one indication that this was not the case. From P. Scipio Nasicaâs efforts to keep the res publica salva to L. Cornelius Sullaâs reconstitution of the res publica in 82â1 and Caesarâs sarcasm on the subject of its very existence, the perceived
Hodgson, Louise Lovelace
'Without body or form' : Res Publica and the Roman Republic. This thesis explores the crisis of political legitimacy at the end of the Roman Republic from the angle of the increasing politicisation of a key concept in the Roman political vocabulary â that of the political sphere itself, the res publica. Exactly how the âconsensualâ political world of the classic Republic disintegrated is one of the key questions of Roman history. The politicisation of the political sphere is an important part of this crisis that has received relatively little attention to date, partly because of the difficulty involved in pinning down just what res publica meant. Since the concept of res publica is politically ubiquitous, often used emotively and in consequence very hard to define, the temptation to take it as a universally understood and relatively uncontroversial given is rarely resisted. Julius Caesarâs notorious opinion that âthe res publica is nothing, a mere name without body or formâ (Suet. Jul. 77), however, supplies only one indication that this was not the case. From P. Scipio Nasicaâs efforts to keep the res publica salva to L. Cornelius Sullaâs reconstitution of the res publica in 82â1 and Caesarâs sarcasm on the subject of its very existence, the perceived
without body form res roman_republic explore crisis political legitimacy end roman_republic angle increase politicisation key_concept roman political vocabulary political_sphere res exactly consensual political world classic republic disintegrate one_key question roman_history politicisation political_sphere important_part crisis receive_relatively little_attention date partly difficulty_involve pin meant since concept politically ubiquitous often use consequence hard define temptation take universally understood relatively uncontroversial give rarely resist caesar notorious opinion nothing mere name without body form however supply indication case effort keep sulla reconstitution res caesar subject existence perceive