The Deaths of the Republic: Imagery of the Body Politic in Ciceronian RomeThat the Roman republic died is a commonplace often repeated. In extant literature, the notion is first given form in the works of the orator Cicero (106-43 BCE) and his contemporaries, though the scattered fragments of orators and historians from the earlier republic suggest that the idea was hardly new. In speeches, letters, philosophical tracts, poems, and histories, Cicero and his peers obsessed over the illnesses, disfigurements, and deaths that were imagined to have beset their body politic, portraying rivals as horrific diseases or accusing opponents of butchering and even murdering the state. Body-political imagery had long enjoyed popularity among Greek authors, but these earlier images appear muted in comparison and it is only in the republic that the body first becomes fully articulated as a means for imagining the political community. In the works of republican authors is found a state endowed with nervi, blood, breath, limbs, and organs; a body beaten, wounded, disfigured, and infected; one with scars, hopes, desires, and fears; that can die, be killed, or kill in turn. Such images have often been discussed in isolation, yet this is the first book to offer a sustained examination of republican imagery of the body politic, with particular emphasis on the use of bodily-political images as tools of persuasion and the impact they exerted on the politics of Rome in the first century BCE. |
Contents
The Deaths of the Republic | 1 |
The Republican Body Politic | 7 |
Healing the State with Violence | 27 |
Butchering the Body Politic | 53 |
Outliving the Republic | 77 |
Murdering the Fatherland | 101 |
Bibliography | 121 |
139 | |
152 | |
Other editions - View all
The Deaths of the Republic: Imagery of the Body Politic in Ciceronian Rome Brian Walters Limited preview - 2020 |
The Deaths of the Republic: Imagery of the Body Politic in Ciceronian Rome Brian Walters Limited preview - 2020 |
Common terms and phrases
abuse accusations actions additional affliction Antony arguments assertions atque attacks bodily body politic body politic's Brutus Caesar called Cato century chapter charges Cicero citizens claims clear Clodius common concern connections consul contexts death demise described discussion disease earlier early elite enemies equally especially examined exile fable fact father fatherland FRHist funeral Greek hands healing imagery images imagined invective killing late later laws letter limbs meaning medicine Menenius mention murder nature notes offers opponents Orat organs parens parricide passage patriae period persuasive Phil places plebs Plut political body portrayed possible present provides quae quam references rei publicae remarks republic republic's republican reveals rhetoric role Roman Rome Rome's Sall salus seems senate Sest Sestius sources specific speech state's status struggles suffered suggests tradition tribune viewed violence wellbeing wounds