Consuls and Res Publica

Hans Beck is John MacNaughton Chair of Classics in the Department of History and Classical Studies at McGill University. His publications include Central Greece and the Politics of Power in the Fourth Century BC (2008) with John Buckler. Antonio Duplá is Associate Professor in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of the Basque Country in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where he teaches ancient history and classical reception. Martin Jehne is Professor of Ancient History and Director of the Department of History at the Technical University of Dresden. Francisco Pina Polo is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Zaragoza. His publications include The Consul at Rome: The Civil Functions of the Consuls in the Roman Republic (2011).

• Introduction Hans Beck, Antonio Duplá, Martin Jehne and Francisco Pina Polo; Part I. The Creation of the Consulship: 1. The magistrates of the early Roman Republic Christopher Smith; 2. The origin of the consulship in Cassius Dio's Roman History Gianpaolo Urso; 3. The development of the praetorship in the third century BC Alexander Bergk; Part II. Powers and Functions of the Consulship: 4. Consular power and the Roman constitution: the case of imperium reconsidered Hans Beck; 5. Consuls as curatores pacis deorum Francisco Pina Polo; 6. The feriae latinae as religious legitimation of the consuls' imperium Francisco Marco Simón; 7. War, wealth and consuls Nathan Rosenstein; Part III. Symbols, Models, Self-Representation: 8. The Roman Republic as theatre of power: the consuls as leading actors Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp; 9. The consul(ar) as exemplum: fabius cunctator's paradoxical glory Matthew Roller; 10. The rise of the consular as a social type in the third and second centuries BC Martin Jehne; 11. Privata hospitia, beneficia publica? Consul(ar)s, local elite, and Roman rule in Italy Michael Fronda; Part IV. Ideology, Confrontation and the End of the Republican Consulship: 12. Consular appeals to the army in 88 and 87: the locus of legitimacy in late Republican Rome Robert Morstein-Marx; 13. Consules populares Antonio Duplá; 14. The consulship of 78 BC: Catulus versus Lepidus: an optimates versus populares affair Valentina Arena; 15. Consulship and consuls under Augustus Frédéric Hurlet.

'This book is a goldmine of information about the consulship from the beginning to the end of the Roman republic. The contributions are uniformly excellent, well-written, and carefully researched, with appropriate attention given to earlier scholarly opinions … a volume of helpful and readable essays on an important and timely topic of great interest to Roman historians and historiographers.' Bryn Mawr Classical Review