Symbols and Showmanship in Roman Public Life: The Fasces

Abstract

STUDIES OF ROMAN POLITICAL HISTORY which employ the approved techniques of prosopography and analysis of factiones have furthered our knowledge of the workings of aristocracy but have also tended to rob the colour from our picture of Roman public life. A striking feature of that life which is not illuminated by such techniques is a highly developed sense of pageantry, even showmanship, amply documented and expressed over a wide range of solemn occasions in ceremonial and magisterial regalia. This high sense of the dramatic in public life found expression in rituals and displays of dynamic state-emblems which were demonstrably charged with emotion. Yet most studies have set them in a context of abstract constitutional law. Traditional modes of analysis tend to employ static terms, so that the rituals and symbols of the Roman state are usually interpreted as neutral clues in an investigation of constitutional theory which has as its aim precision of technicalities and recovery of the archaic origins of stateceremonial rather than its significance in the life of the developed Republic and Principate. It is as if a social scientist were to equate the significance of a national flag in present-day public life simply with the history of the adoption of its design. Our sources await inquiry focused on their significance for the developed society contemporary with them. We may begin by emphasizing that the Romans clearly expected a high level of dignity in the bearing and external decorum of their magistrates. If all magisterial insignia were laid aside in the city for the February Parentalia, their regular assumption was no empty form. Outside the city, magistrates were so jealous of their images and so concerned with