<Articles>Polybius and the Roman Republic : The Histories and the Politics of Mid-Republican Rome

FUJII Takashi

doi:10.14989/shirin_86_765

From the end of the Second Punic War to the Gracchi, the influence of the Roman Republic extended over an increasingly wide range of the Mediterranean Sea area. However, when we study the internal politics and society of the Republic, we find that the traditional interpretation that the Nobiles, by making use of the patron-client relationship between themselves and the ordinary citizens and then monopolizing the posts of the magistrates, had ruled the politics of the Republic exclusively is rendered suspect. This is a result of the fact that a new interpretation, originally proposed by F. Millar, has become influential. This view posits that the ordinary citizens of Rome played an important role in the system of the Republic, participating in the voting for the selection of magistrates and legislation. In order to consider this problem of the nature of politics in the Republic, especially in Mid-Republican Rome, the author has analyzed one fundamental primary source, Polybius' Histories. Polybius, who was born at Megalopolis in the Peloponnesus and lived throughout almost the entire second century B.C., wrote the Histories in forty volumes. His main theme was an examination of the causes of the rise of Rome, the most important factors for which were the constitution and politics of the Roman Republic. His description of these factors is found primarily in the sixth book as the theory of the mixed constitution. Some of the scholars who insist on the political significance of the ordinary citizens recognize and even praise Polybius because his view of the mixed constitution of the Republic seems to describe the citizens' political rights accurately. However, when we look at the section of the Histories on the mixed constitution, where the relationship between the aristocratic elements and the democratic elements are described. we find that the higher-ranking citizens, including the Equites, are described as the chief actors of the democratic elements. The author concludes that Polybius considered the higher-ranking citizens as the holders of democratic power in his mixed constitution of the Republic. As regards the political significance of the ordinary citizens, it is necessary to examine Polybius' description of the decline of the Roman Republic. There he refers to the political pressure of the ordinary citizens on the Nobiles. It appears that he thought that the decline of the Republic began from 160's B.C., and he notes specific incidents that demonstrate the political pressure of the ordinary citizens in the volumes dedicated to the years 168 B.C. to 145 B.C. It is important to recognize that Polybius perceived the emergence of the significance of citizens' political power after the 160's B.C. not in terms of constitutional rights but as practical pressure on the Nobiles. Finally, the author has addressed important aspects of the politics of Mid-Republican Rome by comparing the descriptions of Polybius with records of the same incidents in other sources from the viewpoint of the political significance of the ordinary citizens.

<Articles>Polybius and the Roman Republic : The Histories and the Politics of Mid-Republican Rome

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