The Body Politic in Roman Political Thought

Employs the metaphor of the body politic in Ancient Rome to rethink the transition from the Republic to Principate.

Julia Mebane (Author)

9781009389297, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 February 2024

264 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

'Mebane's readers will leave this excellent study, the conclusion of which takes us through the Year of Four Emperors, with an appreciation of the crucial role that metaphor played in helping Roman thinkers come to terms with the momentous transformation of their res publica in the early first century and the place and authority of the princeps in it. I cannot recommend this book enough.' Brian Walters, H-Soz-Kult

How did Roman writers use the metaphor of the body politic to respond to the downfall of the Republic? In this book, Julia Mebane begins with the Catilinarian Conspiracy in 63 BCE, when Cicero and Catiline proposed two rival models of statesmanship on the senate floor: the civic healer and the head of state. Over the next century, these two paradigms of authority were used to confront the establishment of sole rule in the Roman world. Tracing their Imperial afterlives allows us to see how Romans came to terms with autocracy without ever naming it as such. In identifying metaphor as an important avenue of political thought, the book makes a significant contribution to the history of ideas. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Introduction
Chapter 1. The Divided Body Politic
Chapter 2. The Sick Body Politic
Chapter 3: The Augustan Transformation
Chapter 4: Julio-Claudian Consensus and Civil War
Chapter 5: Addressing Autocracy under Nero
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]