lutionary changes in Roman politics were the work of families or of a few men. A small party, zealous for reform or rather,

uthority of the Senate. 1 But there were to be found in their ranks a few sincere reformers, enemies of misrule and corrupt

there was a poor showing of consulars to guide public policy: only a few venerable relics, or recent consuls with birth bu

s habes. ’ Cf. Ad Att. 1, 1, 4 (Ahenobarbus). PageBook=>025 to few at Rome to achieve distinction, save through the

peius conquered in battle, the Republic could hardly have survived. A few years, and Pompeius the Dictator would have been

he assassination of the Dictator none the less survived, joined for a few months with Republicans in a new and precarious f

or the rest, elderly survivors, nonentities, neutrals or renegades. A few names stand out, through merit or accident, from

principes: before long, most of the Pompeian consulars were dead, and few , indeed, of the Caesarians or neutrals deserve re

ul attraction. In the last decade of the Republic there can have been few intrigues conducted and compacts arranged without

nate and knights. 5 The episode also revealed what everybody knew and few have recorded bitter discontent all over Italy, b

ain older regions of the Roman State which hitherto had produced very few . Cautious or frugal, many knights shunned politic

elt in the course of the next eighteen months. Among the survivors, a few Caesarians, of little weight, and some discredite

om the other Caesarian military men or recent governors of provinces, few of whom possessed family influence or talent for

but his father (so Münzer, P-W xiv, 206). About the last three names few attempts at identification have been made, none s

s vindicated by his conduct, his sagacity by the course of events: to few , indeed, among his contemporaries was accorded th

He showed both judgement and impartiality. 1 It was too late. He had few illusions about Pompeius, little sympathy with hi

e finibus 2, 119). PageBook=>151 Shameless and wicked lie! 1 A few months pass and Dolabella, by changing his politi

he fall of Carthage, Rome’s last rival for world-empire. Since then a few ambitious individuals exploited the respectable

t from Italy, Trebonius, Lepidus and Vatinius. Fourteen remained, but few of note in word or deed, for good or evil, in the

. Decius, on whom cf. Phil. 11, 13; 13, 27). PageBook=>189 had few partisans of merit or distinction; which is not s

eclipse, for the heads of those families had mostly perished, leaving few sons; 2 there was not a single man of consular ra

it is true, for the best of the principes were already dead, and the few survivors of that order cowered ignominious and f

nius agreed to armed co-operation. When he set sail in advance with a few ships from a port in Epirus, the fleet of Ahenoba

and discomfort, left the company of Pompeius without reluctance; and few Republicans could preserve, if they had ever acqu

had the army and the plebs, reinforced in devotion, but had attached few senators of note, even when four years had elapse

he Sicilian triumph, and Octavianus pressed the advantage in the next few years with cheap and frequent honours for his pro

ther names. Hitherto he had promoted in the main his marshals, with a few patricians, his new allies from the families of t

only for the bare distinction, were granted in abundance, held for a few days or in absence. 6 The sovran assembly retaine

taste. 3 Of those great exemplars none had survived; and they left few enough to inherit or propagate their fame. Pomp a

commission to restore order in the countryside. 2 With some success a few years later charges of highway robbery outstandin

orrespondence with M. Antonius, from the ends of the earth (20, 4). A few years earlier the infant granddaughter of Atticus

the Mede in alliance, the Roman frontier seemed secure enough. Only a few months passed, however, and the crisis in his rel

e minor characters, such as the Pompeian admiral Q. Nasidius, and the few surviving assassins of Caesar, among them Turulli

and public manifestoes, of which there had been a dearth in the last few years. Lampoon and abuse had likewise been silent

ined the general and undistinctive appellation of ‘Italian’. Within a few years of Actium, a patriotic poet revolted at the

of controversy. There may have been little fighting and comparatively few casualties. A large part of the fleet of Antonius

de called the Bellum Alexandrinum. Cleopatra survived Antonius by a few days which at once passed into anecdote and legen

vinces in their charge, about which due foresight would be exercised— few legions for garrison, proconsuls of new families

ovandum in legibus ‘(ib. 3, 12). In fact, the changes he proposes are few and modest, little more than coercion of tribunes

tas. 1 The truth of the matter will never be known: it was known to few enough at the time, and they preferred not to pub

f authority over all the East in 23 B.C. can be urged the fact that a few years later, in 20 and 19 B.C., Agrippa is found,

amely M. Insteius, Q. Nasidius and M. Octavius. But, for that matter, few Triumviral consuls even are at all prominent unde

after that the middle period of the Principate of Augustus shows very few new names, save for a Passienus and a Caecina, un

Quirinius and Valgius) there are in all the years 15 B.C. A.D. 3 very few consuls who are not of consular families. The mer

f Caesar’s heir numbered hardly a single senator; in its first years, few of distinction. What more simple than to assign t

, a Scaurus and other nobles did not rise to the consulate. 4 With so few suffect consulates in the early years of the Prin

appointed praefectus urbi in 26 B.C. and resigning the office after a few days, because he did not understand its functions

καì Κυρηναϊκ ν παρχήαν καθ- ξοντ∈ςκτλ. 5 In 19 B.C., but only for a few years, after which Augustus established an imperi

bject of open and public debate: they were now decided in secret by a few men. 1 He is right. If Augustus wished his rule t

acknowledged the ties of family, of fides, of amicitia. Tiberius had few kinsmen. Yet the excellent L. Volusius Saturninus

when on his way to Spain succumbed to illness and died at Massilia a few days after Tiberius’ return, the Claudian was not

ate, only one of them, however, to military command. 3 This being so, few indeed of the nobiles, the rivals and equals of T

, the ever-widening claims of military security and the ambition of a few men. Cicero and his contemporaries might boast of

d. As the most important decisions were taken in private and known to few , speculation about high politics ran rife in the

ice. There were others: at this time there can have been in existence few direct descendants even of a Triumviral consul. 1

from Nemausus, descendants of native families long enfranchised. 1 A few years, and Seneca the Corduban and Sex. Afranius

s and was suppressed, came another nobilis, Ser. Sulpicius Galba. 1 A few years pass, however, and among the army commander

me when the power was to pass from Augustus to Tiberius, remarks that few men were still alive that remembered the Republic

ri, praesentia sequi’. 2 Even among the nobiles there can have been few genuine Republicans in the time of Augustus; and