Political Communication in the Roman World PDF
Preview Political Communication in the Roman World
Political Communication in the Roman World Impact of Empire Roman Empire, c. 200 B.C.–A.D. 476 Edited by Olivier Hekster (Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands) Editorial Board Angelos Chaniotis Ségolène Demougin Lien Foubert Anne Kolb Luuk de Ligt Elio Lo Cascio Bernhard Palme Michael Peachin Christian Witschel Greg Woolf VOLUME 27 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/imem Political Communication in the Roman World Edited by Cristina Rosillo-López LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Fragment of the Plutei Traiani Source: wikicommons. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rosillo López, Cristina, editor. Title: Political communication in the Roman world / edited by Cristina Rosillo-Lopez. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2017. | Series: Impact of empire : Roman Empire, c. 200 B.C.–A.D. 476, ISSN 1572-0500 ; volume 27 | Papers from a conference held in Seville in 2015. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017026214 (print) | LCCN 2017030204 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004350847 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004350830 (hardback : acid-free paper) Subjects: LCSH: Rome—Politics and government—265–30 B.C.—Congresses. | Rome—Politics and government—30 B.C–476 A.D.—Congresses. | Communication in politics—Rome—History—Congresses. | Communication—Political aspects—Rome—History—Congresses. | Political culture—Rome—History—Congresses. | Political participation—Rome—History—Congresses. | Rome—Social conditions—Congresses. Classification: LCC DG211 (ebook) | LCC DG211 .P65 2017 (print) | DDC 320.93701/4—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017026214 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1572-0500 isbn 978-90-04-35083-0 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-35084-7 (e-book) Copyright 2017 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. Contents List of Contributors vii Introduction 1 Cristina Rosillo-López Part 1 Speech and Mechanisms of Political Communication 1 Defining Public Speech in the Roman Republic: Occasion, Audience and Purpose 17 Catherine Steel 2 Informal Conversations between Senators in the Late Roman Republic 34 Cristina Rosillo-López Part 2 Political Communication at a Distance 3 Intermediaries in Political Communication: Adlegatio and its Uses 55 W. Jeffrey Tatum 4 Circulation of Information in Cicero’s Correspondence of the Years 59–58 BC 81 Francisco Pina Polo 5 Governing by Dispatching Letters: The Hadrianic Chancellery 107 Juan Manuel Cortés-Copete Part 3 Political Communication, a Bottom-up Approach 6 The Roman Plebs and Rumour: Social Interactions and Political Communication in the Early Principate 139 Cyril Courrier vi CONTENTS 7 The Emperor is Dead! Rumours, Protests, and Political Opportunities in Late Antiquity 165 Julio Cesar Magalhães de Oliveira Part 4 Failure of Political Communication 8 Incitement to Violence in Late Republican Political Oratory 181 Antonio Duplá Ansuategui 9 Why the Anti-Caesarians Failed: Political Communication on the Eve of Civil War (51 to 49 BC) 201 Martin Jehne Part 5 Representations of Political Communication 10 The Reception of Republican Political Communication: Tacitus’ Choice of Exemplary Republican Orators in Context 231 Henriette van der Blom 11 Retouching a Self-portrait (Or How to Adapt One’s Image in Times of Political Change): The Case of Martial in the Light of Pliny the Younger 253 Rosario Moreno Soldevila Name Index 279 Subject Index 283 List of Contributors Henriette van der Blom University of Birmingham Juan Manuel Cortés-Copete Universidad Pablo de Olavide Cyril Courrier Université de Aix-en Provence-Marseille Antonio Duplá Ansuategui Universidad del País Vasco—Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea Martin Jehne Technische Universität Dresden Julio Cesar Magalhães de Oliveira Universidade de São Paulo Rosario Moreno Soldevila Universidad Pablo de Olavide Francisco Pina Polo Universidad de Zaragoza Cristina Rosillo-López Universidad Pablo de Olavide Catherine Steel University of Glasgow W. Jeffrey Tatum The Victoria University of Wellington Introduction Cristina Rosillo-López Political communication has been considered a redundant expression, taking into account the description “politics is communication”.1 Amongst the ruling elite and in their interactions with citizens, political messages are exchanged and transmitted in political institutions and on specific occasions. Due per- haps to this ubiquity and the extremely close relationship between the con- cepts, there is no widely accepted definition of political communication.2 The term is deceptively simple, but the multifaceted meaning of its com- ponents actually makes it hard to define.3 A definition should include, for instance, not only verbal and written rhetoric, but also symbolic acts of com- munication. Political communication is also related to the concept of the pub- lic sphere, where actors must make known to their fellow citizens their views, opinions, policies, and goals. Definitions usually emphasise the source of political communication, its contents or its purposes. Cato’s definition of an orator as a vir bonus dicendi peritus, that is, a man skilled in speaking and therefore in communicating, is a clear example of focus on the source.4 Sanders has described the concept as “informational communication about politics”, accentuating the importance of the content.5 Other scholars have highlighted its purposes: Eulau consid- ered the broad definition of political communication as one of the process- es, together with political leadership and groups, through which influence is transmitted.6 Most modern definitions blend many of these facets, such as concept and purpose: Graber considers that the most defining element of 1 Philip Seib, “Editor’s introduction.” In Political Communication. Volumen 1, ed. Philip Seib (London: SAGE, 2008), xxiii. 2 E.g. some debated definitions in Winfried Schulz, Politische Kommunikation: theoretische Ansätze und Ergebnisse empirischer Forschung. 2nd edition (Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2008), 16–17. In general, cf. Schulz, Politische Kommunikation on the close (almost inseparable) relationship between politics and communication. 3 Cf. Brian McNair, An Introduction to Political Communication (London: Routledge, 2007), 3. 4 Quint. Inst. 10.1.1. 5 Karen Sanders, Communicating politics in the twenty-first century (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 9–10. 6 Heinz Eulau, Political Behavior. A Reader in Theory and Research (Illinois: Free Press, 1956). © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004350847_00�
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