Republicanism, Rhetoric, and Roman Political Thought
Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus

Develops readings of Rome's historians Sallust, Livy and Tacitus in light of contemporary discussions of republicanism and rhetoric.

Daniel J. Kapust (Author)

9781107000575, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 March 2011

206 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.48 kg

'Kapust masterfully reads the trinity of Roman historians in the light of Cicero so as to explore the relationship between rhetoric and liberty in each, and in doing so, he identifies major themes across the Roman writers that are echoed in contemporary republican and rhetorical scholarship. The result is a resource for understanding the complexities of liberty, rhetoric, and conflict in political communities. We've needed a book like this for a long time.' Victoria Emma Pagán, University of Florida

Republicanism, Rhetoric, and Roman Political Thought develops readings of Rome's three most important Latin historians - Sallust, Livy and Tacitus - in light of contemporary discussions of republicanism and rhetoric. Drawing on recent scholarship as well as other classical writers and later political thinkers, this book develops interpretations of the three historians' writings centering on their treatments of liberty, rhetoric, and social and political conflict. Sallust is interpreted as an antagonistic republican, for whom elite conflict serves as an outlet and channel for the antagonisms of political life. Livy is interpreted as a consensualist republican, for whom character and its observation helps to maintain the body politic. Tacitus is interpreted as being centrally concerned with the development of prudence and as a subtle critic of imperial rule.

1. Introduction
2. An ambiguous republican: Sallust on fear, conflict, and community
3. Channeling conflict through antagonistic rhetoric in the War with Catiline
4. Exemplarity and goodwill in Livy's From the Founding of Rome
5. Tacitus on great men, bad rulers, and prudence
6. Tacitus' moral histories
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]