Winning the People

This project offers an analysis of various types of “generals’ inscriptions,”—i.e., those that commemorate the accomplishments of generals in the Roman Republic—and argues that this larger body can be divided into subgenres due to the stylistic and lexical characteristics of various groups of texts. Furthermore, the provenance of these inscriptions supports the categorization, as subgenres are most often confined to limited geographical ranges.

This paper offers one explanation for the apparent efficacy of claques (groups hired to applaud performers and politicians) in ancient Rome. Claques were a regular feature of crowds from at least the late Republic into the later empire. They were present in the theater and the arena (e.g. Cic. Pro Sest. 106; Dio Cass. 73.2; Lib. Or. 41.6), as well as in the courtroom (Pliny Ep. 2.14.4-5).

In 174/3 BCE, the censor Q. Fulvius Flaccus seized marble roof tiles from the Heraion at Cape Lacinium, the former pan-Italiote sanctuary administered by the city of Croton, for reuse on his Roman temple of Fortuna Equestris. The Senate decreed that the tiles be returned and the censor’s impious action be expiated (Livy 42.3.1–11, 28.10–12). The despoiling of foreign temples by Roman (pro-)magistrates occurred occasionally—e.g., the looting of the temple of Locrian Proserpina by Q. Pleminius in 205/4 (Livy 29.8–9.

When Sulla sacked Athens in 86 BC, he initiated a process of urban development that permanently redefined the local landscape—including many of the most famous objects and places that memorialized classical Athenian culture.