Roman Civilization

CMS 206 /History 206

• Assigned primary readings from this week:
  • ARC - p. 123-141
  • RCiv v.1, #140, 144-145, 155, 162
  • RCiv, v2, #64-67
  • Horace on Public Life
  • Pliny on Public Life
• Things for discussion group leaders to think about:
  • Rome's political elite managed not merely an empire, but also a city [a modern comparison might be the administration of Washington, D.C.]. How did the job of managing Rome get done? How was the distribution of political power related to the provision of basic municipal services? Who had access to this distribution of power?
  • Modern Americans tend to think about the administration of municipal services as a public function (as opposed to private services; e.g. plowing the streets vs. plowing your driveway). Did Romans draw this public/private distinction? Did they do it differently than we? What does the way Romans thought about this distinction with respect to municipal services tell us about Romanitas.
  • Rome administered its empire through a system of provinces under the governance of a Roman empowered by the Senate with imperium.
    • Why would a Roman senator want to be a provincial governor?
    • What did a Roman governor do?
    • What were the routine problems of provincial administration?
    • How are Pliny's problems in his province alike and different from those described by Cicero?
    • You might want to look at Chris Mackay's essay on
      • early Roman provincial administration;
      • problems in Rome's conquest and administration of Spain; and
      • provincial misadministration in the Middle Republic
    • What weaknesses or limitations in the Roman constitution do patterns of provinical maladministration point to?
    • What threat to Roman hegemony in the Mediterranean Basin did patterns of provinical maladministration poise?
    • How do you think the Romans could have addressed these problesm?
  • Horace seems to offer a wry assessment of public life. Pliny, similarly, seems to document problems that could plague a public political figure under the Empire. Why would a Roman enter political life? What kind of Roman would or could?
  • What about Horace's biography might account for the stance he adopts in his epode? Pliny has an entirely different biography. Do you think that affected his attitude towards public life?
  • RCiv, v.1, #155, (the Commentariolum - or "little book of advice") purports to be a letter from Quintus to Marcus Cicero, advising him on how to manage his election campaign.
    • How does the fact that the document may be a forgery of the first century of the common era effect your analysis of its value as a source for helping us define Romanitas?
    • What does the Commentariolum tell us about the things that mattered to Roman voters? [How is that different than today? - Think about the New Hampshire primary.]
    • What particular challenges did Marcus Cicero face as a candidate?
    • How did Quintus advice him to meet and overcome those challenges.
    • How does the Commentariolum suggest that political power was distributed in Rome?
    • What does this system of power distribution tell us about Romanitas?
• Remember:
  • These are suggested questions. Group leaders and members can consider other questions they find more interesting.
  • DG Secretaries - please email me your reports or leave them on a disk in my mailbox.