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The Belly and the Limbs: Reconsidering the Idea of a Plebeian “State Within the State” in the Early Roman Republic

Pellam, Gregory G., Jr
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1342926944

Abstract Details

2012, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
This dissertation offers a reevaluation of a long-standing model for the early history of the Roman Republic. Modern scholars have generally believed that the Roman plebs in the first two centuries of the Republic (roughly the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.) was essentially a revolutionary political organization, dedicated to increasing the rights and opportunities of plebeians and overthrowing the patrician monopoly over political, social, religious, and economic power. According to this model, a series of institutions which were dominated by patrician authority (the consulship, the senate, the centuriate assembly) represented the state, and the plebeian organization created its own institutions to mirror these (the tribunes and aediles of the plebs, and a plebeian tribal assembly). Further, the plebs established for itself an administrative center for its political activities on the Aventine hill. They even created their own cult center in the temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera, to mirror the “state” cult of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva on the Capitoline. This plebeian organization is often referred to in modern scholarship as a “state within the state”. It is shown, however, that the evidence for the plebeian “state within the state” does not stand careful scrutiny. The notion that the plebs was a self-conscious organization opposed to patrician power finds little support in the evidence. Instead, it is seen that during the early Republic it is likely that plebeian leaders had to compete with the patricians to gain the support and favor of the majority of citizens. Further, chapters on the cult of Ceres and on the Aventine hill show that these were not associated particularly with the plebs, but were rather integral to the civic identity and ideology of the community as a whole. Finally, it is shown that the tribunes, aediles, and tribal assembly, far from constituting an extra-constitutional “state within the state”, operated very much like the institutions usually considered to be the state. Instead, the political struggle between plebeian and patrician institutions was a struggle among aristocrats from each group over the extent of the power of the institutions. Far from being a struggle between patricians and plebeians per se, the political contests of this period represented a struggle between patricians and prominent plebeians over the support of the mass of plebeians.
Nathan Rosenstein, PhD (Advisor)
Greg Anderson, PhD (Committee Member)
Kristina Sessa, PhD (Committee Member)
228 p.
Rome; Early Republic; Plebs; Patres; patricians; plebeians; struggle of the orders; conflict of the orders

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Pellam, Jr, G. G. (2012). The Belly and the Limbs: Reconsidering the Idea of a Plebeian “State Within the State” in the Early Roman Republic [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1342926944

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Pellam, Jr, Gregory. The Belly and the Limbs: Reconsidering the Idea of a Plebeian “State Within the State” in the Early Roman Republic. 2012. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1342926944.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Pellam, Jr, Gregory. "The Belly and the Limbs: Reconsidering the Idea of a Plebeian “State Within the State” in the Early Roman Republic." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1342926944

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.