Council Of The Late Roman Republic And The Council Of Speech

The historical research on the roman republic last century was centered on the clientela and faction to explain how individual person obtains power through the resources of his personal associations. Therefore many characters of roman public politics has been ignored. By the means of exploring the roman contio and oration delivered on the contio in details, this paper attempts to set the action of roman orator and his interaction with the audience, the roman populus in the center of view and shed a new light in the politics of the late roman republic. I also hope to reevaluate the meaning of oration as a sort of public behavior in the context of political transaction in the late roman republic and the importance of popular participation. My discussion begins from the constitution and topographical research of contio and then focuses on the oration and historiography concerning extraordinary command of Pompey during the 60s. I conclude that the contio is not only a locus for the two major parts of roman republic to interact and communicate, but also a mechanism to enhance the rooted paternalistic ideology of the roman society.