Public Opinion and Politics in the Late Roman Republic

This book investigates the working mechanisms of public opinion in the politics of Late Republican Rome.

Cristina Rosillo-López (Author)

9781107145078, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 June 2017

280 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.54 kg

This book investigates the working mechanisms of public opinion in Late Republican Rome as a part of informal politics. It explores the political interaction (and sometimes opposition) between the elite and the people through various means, such as rumours, gossip, political literature, popular verses and graffiti. It also proposes the existence of a public sphere in Late Republican Rome and analyses public opinion in that time as a system of control. By applying the spatial turn to politics, it becomes possible to study sociability and informal meetings where public opinion circulated. What emerges is a wider concept of the political participation of the people, not just restricted to voting or participating in the assemblies.

1. Public opinion in Rome: definition, models and constraints
2. Sociability and politics
3. Rumours, gossips and conversations in Roman political life
4. Political literature and public opinion (I): defining political literature
5. Political literature and public opinion (II): genres of political literature
6. Groups and agents of public opinion
7. Rhetoric and public opinion: theory and practice
8. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Public opinion & polls [JPVK], History of ideas [JFCX], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]