Republicanism, Rhetoric, and Roman Political Thought Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus

Republicanism, Rhetoric, and Roman Political Thought develops readings of Rome's three most important Latin historians - Sallust, Livy and Tacitus - in light of contemporary discussions of republicanism and rhetoric. Drawing on recent scholarship as well as other classical writers and later political thinkers, this book develops interpretations of the three historians' writings centering on their treatments of liberty, rhetoric, and social and political conflict. Sallust is interpreted as an antagonistic republican, for whom elite conflict serves as an outlet and channel for the antagonisms of political life. Livy is interpreted as a consensualist republican, for whom character and its observation helps to maintain the body politic. Tacitus is interpreted as being centrally concerned with the development of prudence and as a subtle critic of imperial rule.

1. Introduction; 2. An ambiguous republican: Sallust on fear, conflict, and community; 3. Channeling conflict through antagonistic rhetoric in the War with Catiline; 4. Exemplarity and goodwill in Livy's From the Founding of Rome; 5. Tacitus on great men, bad rulers, and prudence; 6. Tacitus' moral histories; Epilogue.

Daniel Kapust is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was previously an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia. His articles have appeared in Political Theory, the Journal of Politics, Political Studies, the European Journal of Political Theory, History of Political Thought, and the Journal of the History of Ideas.