omething real and tangible, whatever may be the name or theory of the constitution . To that end, the space (and significance) allo

and imperial responsibility. Not so among the financiers. The Roman constitution was a screen and a sham. Of the forces that lay b

family- connexions and clientela. Within the framework of the Roman constitution , beside the consulate, was another instrument of

up d’état. Elected consuls, Pompeius and Crassus abolished the Sullan constitution (70 B.C.). The knights received a share in the ju

etween tribunes and army commanders when they united to overthrow the constitution of Sulla. 4 The soldier L. Afranius commanded arm

dominatio ex fide, quia mutuo metu tenebantur. ’ PageBook=>036 constitution may fairly be designated as the end of the Free S

ige and power, but not to erect a despotic rule upon the ruins of the constitution , or to carry out a real revolution. The constitut

the ruins of the constitution, or to carry out a real revolution. The constitution served the purposes of generals or of demagogues

or Pompeius’ veterans only led to worse evils and a subverting of the constitution . After long strife against the domination of Pomp

nt and on the plea of legitimacy), a faction in the Senate worked the constitution against Caesar. The proconsul refused to yield.

ure. Caesar and his associates in power had thwarted or suspended the constitution for their own ends many times in the past. Except

mies of Caesar had succeeded in ensnaring Pompeius and in working the constitution against the craftiest politician of the day: he w

the lasting domination of one man instead of the rule of the law, the constitution and the Senate; it announced the triumph soon or

2. (Curio was a relative of his, Dio 40, 63, 5.) PageBook=>070 constitution did not matter they were older than the Roman Rep

could transform their internal economy. As at Rome under a Republican constitution , so in the municipia, the aristocracy retained in

March could make no difference to that. When the tyrant fell and the constitution was restored, would Antonius be strong enough to

nerate and Caesarian, respect for liberty, for tradition, and for the constitution might appear to survive in Italy. Not everywhere,

of tyranny may be defended by the wide discretionary powers which the constitution vested in the consulate in times of crisis and by

st edict. He affirmed the loyalty of the Liberators towards the Roman constitution , their reluctance to provide a cause of civil war

e causes had often been called a faction: its activity lay beyond the constitution and beyond the laws. When Caesar went to war wi

imself, not unnaturally, on the side of Pompeius, of the party of the constitution , and of the majority of the active consulars. The

t of any programme or policy in the present, but simply the ancestral constitution of Rome as it was or should have been a century e

e unquestioning loyalty of all good citizens? Rome had an unwritten constitution : that is to say, according to the canons of Greek

hat is to say, according to the canons of Greek political thought, no constitution at all. This meant that a revolution could be car

s was justified by the spirit, and fitted to the fabric, of the Roman constitution : no paradox, but the supreme and authentic revela

c. In theory, the People was ultimately sovran, but the spirit of the constitution was held to be aristocratic. In fact, oligarchy r

erved, it might be discovered that respect for law, tradition and the constitution possessed a singular unanimity of advocates; that

of Republican government. Exactly what corresponded to the Republican constitution was, however, a matter not of legal definition bu

legitimate government, was oppressing the Republic and exploiting the constitution in its own interests. Hence the appeal to liberty

intriguers such as Plancus or Lepidus, still less for liberty and the constitution , empty names. Roman discipline, inexorable in the

any process of violence and usurpation. But liberty, the laws and the constitution were NotesPage=>160 1 Res Gestae 2. 2 BM

ook=>161 not everything. A leader or a party might find that the constitution was being perversely invoked against them: what i

ready to hand. All the phrases, all the weapons were there: when the constitution had perished, the will of Army and People could b

ge of levying armed forces against the State. Now the champion of the constitution had become the ally of a Catilina, NotesPage=&g

1 That was not the only irregularity practised by the party of the constitution when it ‘established the Republic upon a firm bas

at last declared public enemies. For the victorious champions of the constitution , the living and the dead, new and extraordinary h

he had sought backing from senior statesmen and from the party of the constitution . Now he was consul, his only danger the rival arm

revenge, of the ignoble vices of cupidity and treachery. The laws and constitution of Rome had been subverted. With them perished ho

um. Of government according to the spirit and profession of the Roman constitution there could be no rational hope any more. There w

had no reason to spare Antonius. PageBook=>271 consuls and the constitution on his side. 1 It was therefore necessary to demo

Book=>278 steps to have his position legalized. He respected the constitution and dispensed with it. When the time came, he wen

nate and People, appealing to a higher sanction, so far had the Roman constitution declined. Octavianus retired from the city. The

powers, as he had two years before. 4 Furthermore, if the law and the constitution still mattered, Antonius had a valid plea both

show of legality were on the side of Antonius. An absurdity the Roman constitution was manifestly inadequate if it was the instrumen

gher legality’. Against the degenerate organs of a narrow and outworn constitution he appealed to the voice and sentiments of the tr

r lands at the bidding of enemies of Caesar or of Antonius? The Roman constitution might be endangered: that was a name and a decept

aesar and of the Triumvirs bore the title and pretext of settling the constitution on a stable basis (rei publicae constituendae). C

egated its sovranty, passing beyond the forms and names of an outworn constitution . The reference is probably wider, not merely to t

y faded from use. Yet he might have kept it, whatever the form of the constitution and legal definition of his powers. The term ‘dux

ed on the periphery of the Empire—no threat, it might seem, to a free constitution , but merely guardians of the frontiers. Nor need

ry to the ‘mos maiorum’. 3 He did not need to. As it stood, the Roman constitution would serve his purpose well enough. It is, there

oad and political compacts at home, devised to subvert or suspend the constitution , down to his third consulate and the power he hel

nce existed, the Rome of the Scipiones, with the balanced and ordered constitution that excited the admiration of Polybius:2 even if

e legislating for the state depicted in the Republic. The traditional constitution of Rome barely requires modification—‘quae res cu

ote (Der Glaube der Hellenen 11, 428 n.). 3 Scipio held the ancient constitution to be far the best (De re publica 1, 34); and he

ion of the governing class. To that end, he modified the forms of the constitution to fit his policy, his policy to harmonize with R

es the influence that belonged, not by law but by custom of the Roman constitution , to the whole Senate as a body and to the individ

ot only employed Republican language but intended that the Republican constitution should operate unhampered—and that it did, at lea

struments of ‘legitimate’ supremacy. No need to violate the laws: the constitution was subservient. This time the new enactments wer

d to reveal the crisis in the inner councils of the government. The constitution is a façade as under the Republic. Not only that.

ey would not suffice. It would be necessary, behind the façade of the constitution , behind the Princeps and his family, to build up

mething more than a coalition of profiteers, invoking the law and the constitution to protect their fortunes. So far indeed from the

able to thwart the exercise of popular sovranty through a republican constitution which permitted any free-born citizen to stand fo

the less potently, representative of Rome and of Italy. In form, the constitution was less Republican and less ‘democratic’, for el

e revolutionary period seems to have crystallized into the law of the constitution . Sulla the Dictator had probably fixed thirty as

and younger consuls Pollio at thirty-six, Agrippa at twenty-six. The constitution never recovered from its enemies or from its frie

d among themselves for office and for glory: behind the façade of the constitution the political dynasts dealt out offices and comma

a dynastic and personal following whatever the character of the Roman constitution : his influence, checked no doubt for a long time

monstrations in the Forum or at the theatre, rallying in defence of a constitution that meant nothing to them, and leaping with avid

also spoke with respect of Brutus and Cassius they had fought for the constitution ; and even with praise of Cato Cato stood for the

d is security of life and property: it could not be guaranteed by the constitution of Republican Rome. Worn and broken by civil war

ervate, protegite hunc statum, hanc pacem, hunc principem’. 2 The old constitution had been corrupt, unrepresentative and ruinous. C

Augustus, 298, 333 f., 414, 426 f., 432, 444, 478; in general, 479. Constitution , the Roman, character of, 11 f., 152 f., 370; use