Overview

Rome's annual elections were central to the relationship between its citizenry and political leadership, and canvassing for office played no small part in their outcomes. The Brief Handbook on Canvassing for Office (Commentariolum Petitionis), composed by Quintus Cicero for his elder brother, the famous orator and statesman Marcus, is our fullest account of campaigning for office in republican Rome, incorporating candid advice on how best to mobilize political support from voters of every social class alongside searing political vituperation. This volume offers both the Latin text and a fresh translation of the Brief Handbook, as well as the first scholarly commentary on the text in the English language. Its purpose is to aid readers in their appreciation of the Brief Handbook in its multiple guises: as a literary text, an ideological document, a likely specimen of electoral propaganda, and a resource for recovering various aspects of late republican political and cultural history, such as group identities, Roman friendship, and civic rituals. While the comprehensive commentary clarifies the cultural, historical, and literary problems of the text, an incisive introduction supplies the reader with an account of the nature and practice of elections and canvassing for office in the late republic, as well as a detailed rehearsal of particular aspects of Cicero's career that provides the necessary context for understanding his campaign for the consulship in 64. The introduction also examines the literary dimensions of the work, and particularly the question of its authorship: considerations that are crucial to its proper interpretation as a historical source.

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9780198153078

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T.'s treatment succeeds admirably both in introducing the text to those approaching it for the first time, and also in arguing for a more nuanced appreciation of the text's literary qualities and historical specificity. It will be of interest to all those concerned with late republican politics and culture, as well as indispensable for those studying the Handbook itself. * Edwin Shaw, University of Bristol, Classics Ireland *

Author Information

W. Jeffrey Tatum received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. He then joined the Florida State University, where he was Olivia Nelson Dorman Professor of Classics, before moving to become a member of the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney. Since 2010 he has been Professor of Classics at Victoria University of Wellington, and has also held the positions of De Carle Distinguished Lecturer in the Humanities at the University of Otago, Visiting Professor of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, and Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at Edinburgh and the Institute for Classical Studies at the University of London.

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