CMS150 - Winter 2001

Trials of Conscience: Litigation

and the Rhetoric of Identity

 A. Who was Suetonius

1. bio:

• a. Gaius Suetoinius Tranquillus: b. 69 CE; d. after 121/2 (but probably significantly after)
• b. from an equestrian family
• c. mentioned in the letters of the younger Pliny as quiet, scholarly guy who settled down to a literary career after some early years as an advocatus. Pliny seems to have been a mentor to him and around 112 he gets a job [which does not mean job the way we think of it] in the imperial palace and ended up serving as secretary (more like our minister) for the emperor's libraries and records.
• d. Dismissed from imperial post in 121/2 by Hadrian.

2. writings:

• a. de Viris Illustribus (about famous men); bios of Roman literary types: teachers of rhetoric and grammar (survives); poets (some survive); historians (some survive)
• b. de Vita Caeasrum (on the lives of the Caesars); bios of Caesars from Julius Caesar to Domitian (almost completely in tact)
• c. Lost works (in Greek and Latin: on the history of Roman games and festivals; on famous courtesans; on public offices in Rome, on Cicero's Republic; on terms of abuse, on technical terms used in editing texts)

3. as a source

• a. had access to imperial records via ministerial posts
• b. he clearly has a historians mind, but is content not to use it most of the time. prefers to quote extensively from the sources available to him.
• c. interested in a wide range of things and tended to be attracted to the weird detail rather than one which set an issue/problem in its context
• d. wrote a truly lovely Latin

B. Who was Cassius Dio [or Dio Cassius]

1. bio:

• a. was a suffect consul in 205 and consul for a second time in 229 [probably born around 160 CE]
• b. father was the governor of Cilicia and Dalmatia

2. writings:

a. writer of biography (plus a book on dreams and portents of the emperor Septimus Severus); a history of Rome from the beginng to 229 (the years 68-10 BCE survive in full; other patches in summary

3. as a source:

• a. he researched for 10 years and wrote for 12
• b. used standard annalists (e.g. Livy, Tacitus) for republican and principate history; his own knowledge (which was vast) for his own day
• c. tends to impose his own understanding of imperial politics on his analysis of republican politics
• d. very focused on politics (more than culture, e.g.).
• e. write a nice Greek

C. Who was Livy

1. bio:

• a. Titus Livius. b. 59 bce; d. 17 ce; or b. 64 bce; d 12 ce
• b. from northern Italy (Padua), which is supposed to have made him more conservative socially than the culture of Rome (where he moved)
• c. wrote philosophical dialogues in historical settings. Augustus became a patron of his. He was a mentor for the young Claudius (who to everyone's surprise would become emperor one day).

2. writings:

• a. ab urbe condita libri: The History of Rome from its Foundation.
• b. 142 books: of which 35 books survive; 1-10; 26-45; fragments and summaries of many others
• c. truly lovely Latin; can be flowery, but also racy, vivid ('you are there' feel)

3. as a source:

• a. limitations in annalist style [you need to know how to use them]
• b. not a student of the military
•  
• c. his priority is literary style (which he achieves), sometimes at the expense of historical clarity and accuracy
• d. goal is to write a history that explains Rome's past in light of its new incarnation as a monarchy -> telological rhetoric

D. Who were the populares and optimates

• 1. Originally Rome was governed by a monarchy; then by an aristocracy of birth. Sharp caste divisions between plebian and patricians. Over time, through a series of internal political struggles, the plebians came to have same legal status as patricians. Then, effectively, Rome governed by aristocracy of wealth and office. During the 3rd century bce Rome expanded dramatically and by 136 bce was the dominant imperial power in the Mediterranean world.
• 2. Expansion of Rome's area of geographic control put enormous strains on its political system; a) need for more magistrates, oversees governors; military leaders; b) apparently ever increasing fields on which leaders could compete for prestige and power; c) struggle within ranks of elite for status/authority
• 3. Some members of elite led attack on Senatorial control of governmental decision making processes by appealing to ordinary citizens for support through initiatives designed to benefit the ordinary (e.g., grain dole, colonial land allotments for veterans). These folks came to be called populares. The politicians who argued that the Senatorial order ought to retain traditional control of affairs in Rome came to be called the optimates ("best men").
• 4. The Roman constitution in theory conceived of the Senate as an advisory body. I.e., senators advised magistrates on policy questions. Laws and decisions about whether or not to go to war had to be passed by the "people" meeting in assembly. However, the procedures involved in convening the assembly made using the assembly fairly cumbersome. As a consequence, the Senate had over the course of centuries acquired in practice effective control of Roman politics and foreign policy. Decrees of the Senate, theoretically advisory in nature, were extremely important.
• 5. The Roman constitution provided for the office of tribune of the plebs. The tribunes (there were 10) in theory protected the interests of the of the people against the desires of the patricians. It was illegal for anyone to touch the body of a tribune, for example. Only tribunes had the right to call assemblies to consider and pass legislation. Only tribunes had the right to convene assemblies of the people to act as a jury in certain kinds of criminal cases (e.g., perduellio). Tribunes could veto (forbid) actions of each other and other magistrates. In practice, the tribunes were members of the social and economic elite of Rome. By Cicero's time, both optimates and populares vied to capture the posts of tribunes of the plebs and use the position(s) either to promote legislation that would limit the authority of the Senate or veto such legislation to protect the interests of the Senate.

D. What is an SCU

• 1. senatus consultus ultimum &endash; last decree of the Senate
• 2. decree passed by Senate directing that the consuls take steps necessary to ensure that the state should suffer no harm. Modern scholars equate to a decree of martial law.
• 3. note, under the Republic, senatorial decrees, in theory, had no binding force (only laws passed by the people in assembly).
• 4. It was first used during the time of Gaius Gracchus, who agitated for limitations on the scope of Senatorial authority and constitutional reforms that would benefit and empower ordinary citizens. The consul Opimius ordered a Roman general to attack Gracchus' supporters and they died in a slaughter. Gracchus then committed suicide. The next year adherents of Gracchus sued Opimius, who relied on the SCU in his defense and was acquitted. The next time the SCU was used was the year 100, against Saturninus.
• 5. Populares politicians always contested its validity. It seemed to them to be a license for the Senate to kill them without a trial. It was axiomatic in Roman law (since the days of Horace, see Livy) that you couldn't kill a Roman citizen without the right of appeal to the people.

E. What happened at the death of Saturninus

• 1. Lucius Appuleius; from a family who had achieved praetorian rank
• 2. was a tribune for Marius in 103 and helped get land for M's veterans of the African wars
• 3. established courts to hear cases of maiestas (diminution of Rome's majesty)
• 4. in 100 [note, keeps getting elected tribune] a grain dole which the optimates hated
• 5. authored increasingly anti-Senate, pro people measures (i.e., laws designed to benefit ordinary citizens &endash; and more importantly the politicians who claimed to represent them; and to limit the authority of the Senate).
• 6. worked with the politician Glaucia and was suspected of arranging for death of Glaucia's competitor for consulship of 99.
• 7. At this point [late summer of 100] Senate passes SCU and Marius not merely drops Saturninus, he leads armed citizens in his arrest. Saturninus agrees to give up peacefully on condition that he get a trial. Marius jails him and his followers in the Curia (the Senate House). A band of young optimates kills them in the Curia before there can be a trial.

F. Who was Cicero

1. bio

• a. Marcus Tullius Cicero; b. 106 bce; d. 43 bce
• b. from a well connected municipal family that had not pursued Roman politics b4
• c. acquired a reputation as a great orator by prosecuting Verres, the governor of Sicily on corruption charges
• d. enters politics in a period of great upheaval; generally looking to Pompey for protection and when possible supproting the interests of the Senate. As consul (new man) in 63, he obtained an SCU against Catiline and ordered the execution of 5 of Catiline's supporters w/o trial. Within 5 years his enemy, the populares politician had him driven from the city. He was eventually recalled but sided with Pompey in the civil war. After Caesar's death, he opposed Antony with such vitriol that when Antony and Octavian made peace, Antony insisted on Cicero's head (and hands) and Octavian conceded.

2. writing

• a. letters &endash; about 900
• b. many speeches both political and legal
• c. philosophical writings

3. as a source

• a. usually he's advocating in terms of a political agenda or on behalf of a client or persuading folks towards his own political/philosophical view of Rome
• b. extraordinarily beautiful Latin (if sometimes unbelievably complicated)

G. What was perduellio

• 1. treason &endash; a "civis" who plotted against the state
• 2. Livy's account of Horace purports to describe the first perduellio trial in Rome.
• 3. Procedure is duumviral

  a. Law re duumviral procedure

  Let two men judge perduellio. If the condemned man appeals from their judgment let him be tried by an appellate trial. If the prosecutors win the trial, let the magistrate cover his head; let him hang the condemned man from a rope on a barren tree; let the condmened man be scouraged, wither within the pomerium or beyond it. [From Livy's description of the trial of Horace]

  b. analysis of procedure

  • 1. 2 men assigned to pronounce sentence
  • 2. nb &endash; no factual/evidentiary inquiry into charge [was there any dispute that Horace had killed his sister?]

    i. what kinds of crime will it be used for?

    ii. Horace when he kills his sister:

    Go from this place with your childish love; go to your fiance, not caring about your dead brothers, not caring about your country. May any Roman woman who grieves a foe thus depart us.

  • 3. after sentence, defendant could appeal to the people
  • 4. bizarre death penalty procedure if he lost on appeal

  c. historical evidence for perduellio trials

  1. only a few cases of duumviral procedure

  2. under republic, procedure becomes trial before people in comitia centuriata [3 contiones and a final day of speeches then vote]

  3. Saturninus passed a law of maiestas [anything which diminished the authority of the Roman people; i.e. treason and standing courts in which to hear the trial]

  4. Maiestas procedure supercedes in use but does not repeal perduellio procedure