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Leading Romans in the late republic were more concerned about the problems of their empire than is generally recognized. This book challenges the traditional picture by exploring the attempts made at legal and ethical reform in the period 70-50 BC, while also shedding new light on collaboration between Pompey and Cato, two key arbiters of change.
List of contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Note on the Texts
- 0: Introduction
- 1: Pompey and the Reforms of 70
- 2: Pompey in the East
- 3: Cato, Stoicism, and the Provinces
- 4: The Last lex repetundarum
- 5: The equites and the Extortion Law
- 6: Metus Parthicus
- 7: The lex Pompeia de provinciis
- 8: Cato s Policy
- 9: Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Kit Morrell completed her doctorate at the University of Sydney and is currently an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Her other publications include The Alternative Augustan Age, co-edited with Josiah Osgood and Kathryn Welch.
Summary
Leading Romans in the late republic were more concerned about the problems of their empire than is generally recognized. This book challenges the traditional picture by exploring the attempts made at legal and ethical reform in the period 70-50 BC, while also shedding new light on collaboration between Pompey and Cato, two key arbiters of change.
Additional text
Morrell takes a refreshing look at Caesar's opponents Pompey and Cato and through them strives to re-evaluate several questions of the late republic . . . Morrell certainly challenges some interpretations long accepted by Roman historians . . . The strength of Morrell's book in many ways is the ability to see relationships and to connect events that hitherto have been considered to have little or no association . . . The primary achievement of Morrell's book is the re-interpretation of Cato, who for so long has either been surrounded with the aura of holiness or attacked for a philosophical stubbornness detached from reality . . . Morrell does an excellent job of evaluating Cato on his own merits, at least as much as possible given the sources, which are both encomiastic and hostile.
