Libertas and the practice of politics in the late Roman Republic
By: Valentina Arena
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge, [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 324
ISBN-13: 9781107028173
Subjects: Politics and government; History; Liberty; Political science; HISTORY / Ancient / General
Description: "This is a comprehensive analysis of the idea of libertas and its conflicting uses in the political struggles of the late Roman Republic. By reconstructing Roman political thinking about liberty against the background of Classical and Hellenistic thought, it excavates two distinct intellectual traditions on the means allowing for the preservation and the loss of libertas. Considering the interplay of these traditions in the political debates of the first century BC, Dr Arena offers a significant reinterpretation of the political struggles of the time as well as a radical reappraisal of the role played by the idea of liberty in the practice of politics. She argues that, as a result of its uses in rhetorical debates, libertas underwent a form of conceptual change at the end of the Republic and came to legitimize a new course of politics, which led progressively to the transformation of the whole political system"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1. Roman libertas; 2. The liberty of the citizens; 3. The liberty of the commonwealth; 4. Political debates; 5. Political response: a matter of dominatio; Epilogue.