THE MUNICIPAL ARISTOCRACY OF ETRURIA AND THEIR PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS AT ROME B.C. 91 - A.D. 14.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

HALL, JOHN FRANKLIN, III.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania.

Subjects (All):

History, Ancient.

0579.

Penn dissertations--Ancient History.

Ancient History--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Ancient History.

Ancient History--Penn dissertations.

0579.

Physical Description:

508 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 46-01A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

In the victory of Augustus and his partisans culminated the century long struggle of municipal Italy to acquire political influence and rise to prominence at Rome. Italian local gentry can be shown to have supplanted many of the old Roman aristocratic clans in the new governing class of Augustan Rome. While municipal aristocrats from all regions of the peninsula participated in the process, from the domi nobiles of Etruria originated many of Augustus' close advisors and most influential proponents.

The reasons for their eminence can best be understood through examining the participation of Etruria's municipal aristocracy in political activities at Rome during the last century B.C. Generalizations which attribute given political stances to the populace of the region as a whole, must be avoided. Only the study of individual Etruscan gentes and their particular political associations can provide sufficient acceptable evidence for determining both the nature and direction of their participation in politics.

Such a methodology necessitates not only the identification of individual Etruscan gentry, but also the examination of their respective political alliances and activities. Consequently a prosopographical approach is indicated. Much of this work is, accordingly, comprised of a lengthy and detailed prosopographical appendix wherein are identified 108 aristocratic gentes whose Etruscan origin can be established through onomastic, historical, and epigraphic evidence.

Information contained in the appendix regarding the careers of Etruscan notables is utilized in the analysis of the political activities of Etruria's municipal aristocracy, which constitutes the text proper of the work. Therein is traced the political involvement of the Etruscan gentry from before the Social War through the Augustan period. While some Etruscan families advanced politically under Marius or Cinna, and later under Caesar, it was as a result of the strong support of a small group of loyal Etruscan proponents and close personal friends of Octavian that large numbers of Etruscan municipal aristocrats entered the senate and attained praetorian or consular rank through the patronage of Imperator Caesar Augustus.

Notes:

Thesis (Ph.D. in Ancient History)--Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, 1984.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-01, Section: A, page: 0235.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.