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185 results

Page 1 of 10

  • Chapter 11 - Aristocratic Roles and the Crisis of the Roman Republic

  • from Part II - Translations
  • Edited by Amy Russell, Brown University, Rhode Island, Hans Beck, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
  • Translated by Kathrin Lüddecke
  • Book:
    The Roman Republic and Political Culture
    Published online:
    30 January 2025
    Print publication:
    06 February 2025, pp 328-349

  • Summary

    The Roman senatorial elite laid claim to all roles of prominence in society. The very notion of nobilitas made prominence an all-inclusive virtue, in office-holding as much as in other public arenas. Indeed, scrutinizing an inherent tension between annual roles as embodied by the honores and more durable, sometimes life long, roles of prominence, Hans Beck argues that the aristocracy’s integrated claim to leadership wielded significant stabilizing impact upon Roman society. L. Quinctius Flamininus was expelled from the senate in 184 BCE but maintained his other social rules, his public standing, and his overall notability. In the century and a half that followed, Beck detects a gradual erosion of inclusive ideals of prominence. The crisis of the Republic is thus understood as a disintegration of social roles. In the era of the great extraordinary commands, the performance of prestige duties of the collective became less and less important. Augustus’ ostentatious unification of these under his watchful guard as princeps propelled a change in role behaviour that could easily be portrayed as a restitution of the Republican outlook.

The Roman Republic and Political Culture
  • German Scholarship in Translation
  • Edited by Amy Russell, Hans Beck
  • Translated by Kathrin Lüddecke
  • Published online:
    30 January 2025
    Print publication:
    06 February 2025
  • This volume makes available in English translation for the first time a series of hugely influential articles about Roman Republican politics which were all originally published in German. They represent a school of thought that has long been in dialogue with Anglophone research but has not always been accessible to all English-speakers, leaving many listening to only one side of a conversation. The contributions were part of a movement towards viewing Roman Republican politics more holistically, through the lens of political culture. They move beyond cataloguing institutions to treat art, literature, ritual, oratory, and public space as vital components of political life. Three new essays by Amy Russell, Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp, and Harriet Flower discuss the history of German scholarship on the Republic and its interactions with Anglophone research, and new introductions to each piece by Hans Beck allow readers to situate the work in its intellectual context.

  • Introduction

  • Edited by Hans Beck, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany, Griet Vankeerberghen, McGill University, Montréal
  • Book:
    Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China
    Published online:
    28 November 2024
    Print publication:
    05 December 2024, pp 1-16

  • Summary

    At some point in the first century BCE, Yang Yun, one of nine ministers at the Western Han court, fell from the emperor’s grace. His uprightness, incorruptibility, and administrative skills were appreciated far and wide, but Yang Yun’s tendency to brag about these abilities, combined with a personality that appeared somewhat aloof, was destined to create friction. In 56 BCE, a series of charges led to his denouncement and his being stripped of his official position and noble title. Yang Yun was spared the death penalty, at least for the time being, to live a commoner’s life beyond the imperial palace. In his own words, ‘I lead my wife and children, and they join my efforts in plowing fields and planting mulberries, in watering orchards and kitchen gardens, in managing money-making ventures from which we pay taxes to the state thereby’.

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