Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Wilson, Mark B.
Titre(s) : Dictator [Texte imprimé] : the evolution of the Roman dictatorship / Mark B. Wilson
Publication : Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, copyright 2021
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (vi, 470 pages) ; 24 cm
Note(s) : Includes bibliographical references p. 427-446 and indexes
Roman consuls were routinely trained by background and experience to handle the usual
problems of a twelve-month turn in office. But what if a crisis arose that wasn't
best met by whoever happened to be in office that year? The Romans had a mechanism
for that: the dictatorship, an alternative emergency executive post that granted total,
unanswerable power to that man who was best suited to resolve the crisis and then
stand down, restoring normality. This office was so useful and effective that it was
invoked at least 85 times across three centuries against every kind of serious problem,
from conspiracies and insurgencies to the repelling of invaders to propitiation of
the gods. In Dictator: The Evolution of the Roman Dictatorship, Mark B. Wilson makes
the first detailed and comprehensive examination of the role and evolution of the
dictatorship as an integral element of the Roman Republic. Each stage of a dictatorship--need,
call, choice, invocation, mandate, imperium, answerability, colleague, and renunciation--is
explored, with examples and case studies illustrating the dictators' rigorous adherence
to a set of core principles, or, in rare cases of deviation, showing how exceptions
tended to demonstrate the rule as vividly as instances. Wilson also charts the flexibility
of the dictatorship as it adapted to the needs of the Republic, reshaping its role
in relation to the consuls, the senate, and the people. The routine use of the dictatorship
is only part of the story. The abandonment and disuse of the dictatorship for 120
years, its revival under Sulla, and its appropriation and transformation under Caesar
are all examined in detail, with attention paid to what the dictatorship meant to
the Romans of the late Republic, alternative means of crisis resolution in contrast
with the dictatorship, and the groundwork laid in in those last two centuries for
that which was to come. Dictator provides a new basis for discussion and debate relating
to the Roman dictatorship, Roman crisis management, and the systems and institutions
of the Roman Republic
Sujet(s) : Despotisme -- Rome
Leadership politique -- Rome
Politique et gouvernement -- Rome -- 509-30 av. J.-C.
Rome -- 509-30 av. J.-C. (République)
Indice(s) Dewey :
937.02 (23e éd.) = Histoire antique - Péninsule italienne - Vers 0500-0031 av. J.-C.
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9780472132669. - ISBN 0472132660. - ISBN 9780472129201 (erroné)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb46882881v
Notice n° :
FRBNF46882881
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
Table des matières : Part I : haec imperiosa dictatura ; Introduction ; Narrative ; Origins ; Part
II : et homo et potestas ; Need ; Choice ; Invocation ; Mandate ; Imperium ;
Answerability ; Colleague ; Renunciation ; Principles ; Part III : aipetn tupavvic
; Desuetude ; Sulla ; Caesar ; Conclusions.