In the service of honor. The attendants of Roman magistrates.
Beautiful Letters| N° d'inventaire | 21585 |
| Format | 15 x 21.5 |
| Détails | 361 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2019 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
In Rome, under the Republic and at the beginning of the Empire, a magistrate could not exercise his responsibilities without his attendants. They were his voice (heralds or praecones), his bailiffs (viatores), his bodyguards (lictors), his hands and his memory (scribes). They surrounded the magistrate and carried out the multiple tasks required by the exercise of power. They were free men and citizens, in the service of the city, which paid them and placed them at the disposal of the magistrates for the duration of their functions. Most of them were thus enrolled in official frameworks, decuriae, from which the necessary personnel were chosen each year. They earned recognition for their competence and a certain independence, a dignitas that earned them the right to be constituted into orders. However, the members of the senatorial aristocracy, who had to be able to count on their loyalty and devotion, took care to recruit their dependents, often their freedmen. Thus, the position they occupied had something strange about it: at the service of both the public service of the city and the private service of its rulers. The study of these men then proves decisive for understanding the evolution of the Roman civic organization which, through a process of privatization of public authorities, led to the Empire.
In Rome, under the Republic and at the beginning of the Empire, a magistrate could not exercise his responsibilities without his attendants. They were his voice (heralds or praecones), his bailiffs (viatores), his bodyguards (lictors), his hands and his memory (scribes). They surrounded the magistrate and carried out the multiple tasks required by the exercise of power. They were free men and citizens, in the service of the city, which paid them and placed them at the disposal of the magistrates for the duration of their functions. Most of them were thus enrolled in official frameworks, decuriae, from which the necessary personnel were chosen each year. They earned recognition for their competence and a certain independence, a dignitas that earned them the right to be constituted into orders. However, the members of the senatorial aristocracy, who had to be able to count on their loyalty and devotion, took care to recruit their dependents, often their freedmen. Thus, the position they occupied had something strange about it: at the service of both the public service of the city and the private service of its rulers. The study of these men then proves decisive for understanding the evolution of the Roman civic organization which, through a process of privatization of public authorities, led to the Empire.