Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics)

by Cicero

  new man a novus homo, the first man of a family to reach the senate. Cicero was therefore a new man, but Lucius Licinius Murena, being descended from praetors, was not. The senate contained many new men, but few rose high (in the first half of the first century BC, only four besides Cicero reached the consulship).

  noble a direct descendant of a consul through the male line. Plebeians as well as patricians might be noble. Cicero was not a noble; his son was.

  optimate an aristocrat of conservative opinions, at the opposite end of the political spectrum from ‘popular’ politicians. Sulla was an optimate, but Marius and Caesar were popular politicians. In the 50s, Cicero wished to broaden the term ‘optimate’ to include all citizens who were concerned for the welfare of their country.

  patricians members of a select group of Roman clans (gentes). The distinction dated back to the regal period: it was believed that the patricians were descended from the 100 fathers (patres) chosen by Romulus to form the original senate. In early Rome, the patricians monopolized the priesthoods and the political offices, but by the late republic the offices had long been opened up to the plebeians (i.e. non-patricians) and, from a practical point of view, patrician birth brought more disadvantages than advantages (patricians were ineligible for the offices of tribune of the plebs and plebeian aedile: Clodius had to be adopted into a plebeian family to become tribune). At the end of the republic, only fourteen patrician clans were still in existence. Cicero was not a patrician.

  plebeian assembly the concilium plebis (council of the plebs), an assembly consisting of plebeians only and organized on tribal lines (see tribal assembly). It elected tribunes of the plebs and plebeian aediles, and passed plebiscites (which had the force of law from 287 BC).

  plebeians, see patricians.

  pontifex a member of the College of Pontiffs in charge of Rome’s religious affairs. There were fifteen members, holding office for life, and their head was called the pontifex maximus (‘chief pontiff’). Caesar was pontifex maximus from 63 BC until his death. The office of pontifex maximus still exists: it is held by the Pope.

  popular politician a politican who set out to win the favour of the people in ways that more conservative politicans (optimates) would consider controversial or objectionable, for example by proposing land redistribution or cheaper grain. The tribunate, with its powers to initiate and veto legislation, was a natural ambition for aspiring popular politicians (e.g. Tiberius Gracchus in 133, Gaius Gracchus in 123 and 122, Saturninus in 103 and 100, and Clodius in 58). The civil conflict which resulted from the growth of popular politics was a major cause of the fall of the republic. Before he reached the consulship Cicero sometimes backed popular causes, for example the appointment of Pompey to the Mithridatic command in 66, but he was always opposed to the more extreme manifestations of popular politics.

  praetor the second most senior of the annual magistrates. In the late republic there were eight praetors each year. The city praetor (praetor urbanus) handled civil suits between citizens and the foreign praetor (praetor peregrinus) civil suits between citizens and non-citizens; the remaining six praetors presided over the permanent criminal courts (not all the criminal courts were presided over by a praetor). Cicero was praetor in 66 BC, and presided over the extortion court. After their year of office, praetors regularly went out to govern a province as propraetors (consuls did the same as proconsuls).

  prefecture a district of Italy governed by a magistrate sent out annually from Rome.

  private citizen a Roman citizen not holding a civil or military public office.

  proconsul a magistrate who was not a consul but was given a consul’s authority in order to command an army or govern a province. Similarly, a propraetor was a magistrate who was not a praetor but was given a praetor’s authority, for the same reasons. A proquaestor was an acting quaestor, appointed by a provincial governor to fill a vacancy in the quaestorship.

  propraetor, see proconsul.

  proquaestor, see proconsul.

  quaestor the most junior of the annual magistrates and the first stage in the ‘sequence of offices’ (cursus honorum); ex-quaestors automatically became members of the senate. Twenty quaestors were elected annually (their year of office began on 5 December, not 1 January); the two city quaestors were in charge of the treasury, while the rest were officials, mainly dealing with financial matters, in Italy and the provinces. Cicero was quaestor in 75 BC, in western Sicily.

  rostra the speaker’s platform in front of the senate-house in the forum. It was named after the rostra, the bronze prows which adorned it, taken from warships of Antium (in Latium) captured in 338 BC.

  SCU, see senate.

  senate the supreme council of the Roman state, consisting of all exmagistrates (except those expelled as unworthy by the censors). The senate passed decrees, advised the magistrates, assigned provinces, negotiated with foreign embassies, and voted funds, but could not legislate. Its most famous (and controversial) decree was the emergency decree (senatus consultum ultimum, ‘ultimate decree of the senate’ or ‘SCU’), passed at moments of civil crisis. The 600 or so senators enjoyed a very high social status (and were forbidden to engage in trade), but only a minority were influential in politics: a small number of families predominated. The senate-house was at the north-east corner of the forum, but the senate sometimes met elsewhere.

  sesterce a silver coin, the equivalent of four asses.

  tax-farmers publicani, private businessmen of equestrian rank whose companies leased from the state the right to collect taxes in the provinces. The system varied from province to province. For the most lucrative one, Asia, the state auctioned the right to collect taxes for a period of five years. The company which submitted the highest bid would be awarded the contract: it would pay the agreed amount up-front, and then set about recouping its outlay, plus an element of profit, from the province; the companies had no power, however, to alter the rates of tax, which were set by the state. If a company overestimated the likely revenue and bid too high, as happened towards the end of the Third Mithridatic War (perhaps in 65 BC), its members could end up heavily out of pocket; in that particular case, the company was, exceptionally, refunded one-third of what it had paid, in 59.

  tribal assembly the comitia tributa, an assembly consisting of all Roman citizens divided into thirty five largely territorial ‘tribes’ (four urban and thirty-one rural); it elected the curule aediles, quaestors, and military tribunes, and passed some legislation.

  tribe, see tribal assembly.

  tribune (of the plebs) one of ten annual officers (their year of office began on 10 December, not 1 January) elected to protect the interests of plebeians (the office was closed to patricians). A tribune could initiate legislation, exercise some jurisdiction, and veto any law, senatorial decree, election, or other act of a magistrate—powers which gave the office great political importance. In 81 Sulla removed or curtailed all these powers, and in addition disqualified tribunes from further public office; but the disqualification was removed in 75, and the other powers restored in 70. Tribunes of the plebs are not to be confused with military tribunes or with tribuni aerarii.

  tribuni aerarii ‘treasury tribunes’, originally treasury officials, but from 70 to 46 BC one of the three classes of jurors, after senators and equites. They may be considered as equites; there may have been a lower property qualification.