Constitution of the Roman Republic
and the Italian Confederation
Formal Structures and ExtraConstitutional Realities
“The Roman constitution was a screen and a sham.”
Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (15)
Roman Republican Magistrates
Roman Expansion and Roman Political Structures
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Conclusion of First Punic War (provinciae)
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Addition of Sicily and Sardinia-Corsica
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227 BCE: Two additional praetors (4)
Addition of Spain
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241 BCE: Additional praetor for foreigners (2)
198 BCE: Two additional praetors (6)
Prorogation (proconsul, propraetor)
Senatorial legati
Polybius on the Roman Constitution
A Greek Looks at Rome
Key Dates in Polybius’ Lifetime
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Ca. 200 BCE: Birth in Megalopolis
198 BCE: Achaean understanding with Rome and abandonment of
Macedonia
Lycortas, Polybius’ father, serves as strategos of the Achaean
Confederation several times in the 180s BCE
Polybius’ in funeral entourage of the great Achaean statesman
Philopoemen (182 BCE)
Polybius selected as Achaean envoy in 181/180 BCE to Alexandria in
Egypt
Polybius elected hipparchos, or cavalry commander, of the Achaean
Confederation for 170/169 BCE
Romans defeat Macedonia in 168 BCE; round up suspected proMacedonians and incarcerate them in Italy (Polybius among them)
Polybius as political hostage at Rome from 168-ca. 150 BCE; friendship
with P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus; composition of Histories
Achaean War: Romans destroy Corinth and dissolve Achaean
Confederation (146 BCE)
After 146 BCE: Polybius in Greece on Romans’ behalf; helps to institute
the new dispensation in Greece
Plaster cast of relief sculpture
found in Cleitor thought to
represent the Greek historian
Polybius
“Greece would not have fallen
had it obeyed Polybius in
everything, and when Greece
did meet disaster, its only help
came from him”
~ Inscription on the Temple of
Despoina near Arakesion
reported by Pausanias, 8.37.2
Book Six: Political Analysis of the Roman State
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“How and under what type of constitution were the
Romans able to subjugate most of the inhabited world
in half a century?” ~ Histories 1.1.5
Anacyclosis Theory--Biological Model of States
(genesis, acme, decline)
“Mixed” Constitution at Rome
 blend of monarchic, aristocratic, and democratic
elements
 harmony through “checks and balances”
Inconsistency? Roman Vulnerability or Durability?
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Reader-Response Theory (Greek and Roman audiences)--a
politics of indeterminacy?
Logismos, the quintessential Greek virtue, as the key
element in the Roman constitution
Polybius’ Roman
Republican Constitution (Book 6)
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Rome as Greek Polis
Greek Political Theory Applied to Rome
Hostility to Democratic Element
Polybius’ Offense: Demagogic Politics the Charge
of his Political Opposition within the Achaean
Confederation?
Polybius’ Omissions
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Roman Expansion and Roman Political
Structures
Nature of Roman Political Assemblies
Extra-Constitutional Force of Patronage
Economic and Social Forces in Roman
Elections
The Italian Allies
Polybius’ Omissions
Roman Elections and Political Assemblies
A Screen and a Sham?
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Aristocratic Auctoritas and Dignitas
Patronage
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Contiones
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Electoral Bribery (ambitus)
Open Balloting (until 139 BCE)
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Polybian Omissions
The Italian Allies
External Relations
Italy and the Provinces
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Italian Confederation and the Military
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Western Provinces
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Warfare necessary for the stability of the Confederation
(Momigliano)?
Spain
Gaul
Africa
Greece and the East