Questioning reputations: essays on nine roman republican politicians

ISBN: 1 86888 198 9 

Quis ex illis deis vestris gravior et sapientior Catone, iustior et militarior Scipione? Quis sublimior Pompeio, felicior Sulla, copiosior Crasso, eloquentior Tullio? Tertullian (Apol. 11.16)

Who among those gods of yours is more revered, more wise than Cato, more just and more of a military genius than Scipio, grander than Pompey, more fortunate than Sulla, more wealthy than Crassus, more eloquent than Cicero?

The reputations of a great many figures in history have been established by chance and opportunity: a single victory on the battlefield, a political triumph in domestic affairs. This statement is equally applicable for that century between 146 and 31 BC, which today is usually designated the Late Roman Republic. On the basis of often rather meagre facts, reputations have been constructed and, as a result, whole careers became mythologised by later writers even in antiquity. The main aim of this volume is to question certain reputations in order to place into a more realistic historical context the subjects under discussion.