The Struggle for Democracy

The communicative turn and the shaking of the certainty that an all-embracing system of clientage made Rome into an oligarchy of patrons gathered in the Senate whose innermost circle, the nobility, largely dominated politics, gave considerable impetus for the radically new position taken by Fergus Millar. In a series of articles and books published since 1984 Millar has fought against underestimating the role of the People and the popular assemblies, and has increasingly attributed democratic features to the political system.61 According to Millar, past research had greatly exaggerated the role of the Senate; the Senate was after all not a parliamentary body with legislative powers; in his view, the idea that the Senate played a governing role in the Republic was a fiction, and the nobility had never formed a dominant group. Millar emphasized the basic facts that the Roman popular assemblies chose the magistrates and above all legislated, which was the accepted manner of validating the fundamental modifications and decisions of the community, at least from the second century. If then the assembled People were not bound by clientage to the members of the ruling class in such a way that they mechanically voted as their patrons commanded, other criteria must have predominated. Millar regarded the great scope of public communication, especially the countless speeches before the assembled People, as proof that the People and their opinions were important, and indeed that orators had to devote a great deal of effort to persuading this People, if they wished to make their mark as politicians and to pursue a successful career despite heavy competition (see also Chapter 20).

Fergus Millar’s view that the Roman Republic possessed conspicuously democratic features (and perhaps should even be classified as a democracy) met with a mixed reception, but it is indisputable that Millar’s model has, since the mid-1980s, provided the strongest stimulus to the debate about the political system of the Roman Republic.63 Discussion revolves principally around three points: about the influence of senators and the Senate, the relative openness or exclusiveness of the political elite, and its collective character; about the importance of the popular assemblies and their votes in the political system; and more generally, about the significance of publicity in Roman politics.