How to Run for Office in Ancient Rome? DOCUMENTARY

in the modern era we are quite aware of political campaigns in the u.s especially elections take over our lives in the lead-up to a vote with endless posters ads and speeches flooding the public sphere but what would all of this have looked like in the distant past today let's take a look at the political campaigns of ancient rome this video was sponsored by magellan tv they're an awesome documentary streaming service run by filmmakers with the selection of over 2 000 videos to choose from amongst the categories of history science nature space and more when it comes to history documentaries magellan tv has the richest and most varied content anywhere ancient modern current war biography and even related genres like science and crime which are historical in nature if you like our content i can highly recommend you check out the documentary series ancient greece the greatest show on earth which covers the fascinating history of ancient greece through the lens of its theater performances magellan tv is compatible with roku amazon fire tv apple tv google play and ios which means you can watch it anytime anywhere on your television laptop or mobile device sign up today to get a one month free membership trial by visiting the link in the description below or going to try.magellantv.com invicta but before we talk about running for office it would help to give a refresher on the offices themselves we've covered these in more detail in a previous video which you can watch to learn more if you'd like in any case following the overthrow of the monarchy in 509 bc rome became a republic in which the people chose their leaders there were a host of different magistrates which might be elected in any given year the main progression of offices was that of questor edile prater and finally consul alongside these were a number of other positions like the tribune and sensor which stood alongside them all played important roles in the functioning of the roman republic each type had different requirements for eligibility number of positions and scope of responsibility which would have changed over the centuries feel free to pause the video here to have a look over these details okay so now that we've covered the main roman officials we can now look at what it took to become one for starters an eligible candidate had to be a male roman citizen second they were expected to have spent some time in preparation for the role in the modern world this usually involves people studying at university getting involved in public service or perhaps even working for the campaign of an older politician in the roman world these were all rolled into one activity military service all politicians were required to have at least 10 years of military experience under their belt this was generally achieved by serving as a military officer most of rome's ambitious young aristocrats in their early 20s competed to be appointed as one of these military tribunes six of whom served with each legion being a military tribune wasn't a position that would generally put them in any real danger they were often treated as clerks or secretaries to the legate to whom they were assigned they would generally act as apprentices but only one of the six the broad stripe tribune ever held any real military authority and even then only in the absence of the legate himself nonetheless the position still gave them an understanding of the workings of an army the importance of logistics and at least a rudimentary education in battlefield strategy these skills would be vital for one's future political career which often involved maintaining and even leading rome's legions checking the box on a decade's worth of military service was the entry ticket into the cursus honor room ancient rome's political career path which was laid out by a mix of norms and laws it specified how one could advance between the offices we previously covered with limits on things like one's minimum age and the time between holding offices exceptions to these requirements did occur if a person was popular or powerful enough to treat them more as guidelines this was especially true in the late republic when the traditions of roman politics were dissolving in the highly corrosive environment that eventually led to civil war after civil war generally speaking though the ambitious men of rome fought tooth and nail to have their turn passing through the small number of available offices each year getting the job at the exact age you were qualified to was known as being elected in your year and was considered a significant badge of honor let's now take a look at how one would attempt to achieve such a feat okay so you want to launch your political campaign what do you need as in modern times the first thing to do would be one to build up your political and financial capital and two to announce your candidacy the first step involved establishing a network of support and building up a campaign war chest doing so would be substantially easier for those with existing wealth and power they had vast numbers of pre-established supporters as a part of their clientele and often had large funds to draw from to illustrate this fact i would point out that in the roughly 260 year period from 298 to 32 bc just seven roman families were responsible for winning 30 of all consular elections yet even if the elite were the only ones with a real shot at winning there was significant competition between them thus candidates spent a good amount of their time negotiating with other powerful figures for political and financial support in the words of quintus cicero it was important to quote remind everyone in your debt that they should repay you with their support people like the famed pompey magnus might even make a habit of acting as a bank for candidates loaning the money in return for expected favors this could go on for any number of years in the run-up to an election such was the amount of money that candidates borrowed during this period that they could go into ruinous financial debt however it was a gamble that many were willing to make given just how much money they could make back while in office which could amount to millions or even billions of dollars in modern times the second step of launching the campaign would be to announce your candidacy as the election drew closer political hopefuls would take a small break from fundraising to register with election officials this meant presenting yourself to the consul praetor or tribune who would be in charge of announcing the names of the candidates to the voters on election day in addition a candidate would don the toga candida this was a white toga which was further bleached with chalk as a symbolic representation of a politician's purity without any blemishes of taint or corruption for anyone who knew anything about roman politics such a suggestion was laughable at its face but either way the concept of the toga candida still had a lasting impact and would go on to serve as the root for the english word candidate okay so at this point you've launched your campaign now what now it's time to run the campaign as in any elected system this basically amounted to convincing the voters to choose you so what were the arguments and how were they made in the political era we're used to arguments being generally framed by the ideology of a candidate's political party with the candidate themselves campaigning on some more specific proposals in the roman era things were quite different there were no organized political parties and no campaign proposals in fact cicero's rather frank advice to his brother about how to run for election involved not taking a stance on anything so as to irritate as few people as possible it's a topic which is definitely worth elaborating on but one which will have to wait for another video okay so what exactly would convince a voter well generally speaking voters were often swayed by a candidate's dignitas dignitas was a concept in roman culture that encompasses ideas of prestige charisma and worthiness this dignitas was like an aura that a person accumulated over the course of their time in the public eye for instance winning a great battle and celebrating a triumph would be an enormous boost to your dignitas look how strong you were how your peers defer to you and how you please the gods on the opposite side would be someone who lost a battle dishonorably can you believe they ran away i heard he killed the sacred chickens the gods will surely punish us if we vote for him but not everything revolved around military action a man can make a name for himself in the public-facing court system by building public work projects or by hosting spectacular festivals and games however it wasn't enough just to do these things and hope word got out a candidate had to advertise himself this is where the ground game comes in in modern times we're used to candidates speaking in town halls holding rallies sending surrogates to spread the word and running ads all of these tactics were in play in ancient rome for example candidates might make the rounds of rome seeking out all opportunities for self-promotion such as speaking to the people at public gatherings and tribal meetings technically oratory was at one point prohibited in an effort to prevent candidates from being elected on charisma and popular appeal alone but that didn't stop them from finding ways to get the word out in these efforts candidates would be aided by a group of dedicated staff and supporters often these were members of one's clientella or others wooed by promises of cash successful politicians would arrange to have crowds of people greet them every time they set foot outside their home and follow them around the city singing their praises for onlookers the size of these crowds was a sign of the candidate's relative bank account i mean dignitas of course another important way for candidates to convince voters was through advertising these often took the form of political posters known as programmata which were painted on walls across the city when the candidate impressed a patron enough that they were willing to back him that patron would have an ad painted hiring a professional graffiti artist to do so each followed a specific format with a form of shorthand that was generally understood by the public often the only main words that were actually spelled out in full were the names that of the candidate and if included that of the person who sponsored the sign every so often the graffiti artist as well might include his own cheeky signature the most common surviving versions are those on the walls of pompeii but they could also be elsewhere such as custom sets of dishware or other media expanding this specific example into latin we get lukium stadium reicheptum di condu oro vos faciatis wikini dignum this translates to neighbors i ask that you make lucius tedius receptus a worthy man eduard for pronouncing justice amelia scalar his neighbor wrote this you jealous man who removes this may you be diseased here's another wall filled with posters stating the following vote for gaia's julius polybius a worthy man of the republic for duovir acelina endorses gaia secundus for duovir for pronouncing justice i ask that you make gaius lolius fuscom a man worthy of the republic edile looking at records of who sponsored these posters who find many local tradesmen such as fruit sellers porters goldsmiths bakers fullers and more these individuals were more than happy to promote their own trade and business within the programmata themselves but it's in analyzing this phenomena that we actually find a significant number of political posters being sponsored by women particularly wealthy and well-connected ones this speaks to their prominent role as electoral influencers in the absence of having the actual right to vote or run for office themselves thus in the months leading up to an election you can imagine all sorts of activities taking place in rome and across the republic all of these would have required significant amounts of cash to maintain candidates therefore would have quickly started to burn through their campaign's war chest in a close race fundraising efforts would thus have to be redoubled tactics would also change perhaps it was more effective to run negative ads against your opponent to bribe voters or to threaten political violence against rivals all of these form the dark side of rome's politics which grew more prominent in the late republic and which we shall cover in another episode for now let's take a look at an example of what a particularly famous roman election campaign looked like we will be looking at the activities of gaias marius born in 157 bc in a small community in southern latium he was considered an outsider to rome's politics and referred to as a novus omo or new man yet he wasn't starting from nowhere gaius marius came from a fairly wealthy family with marriage ties to the local nobility and connections to prominent figures in the capital all of this helped marius get a leg up in his first 10 years of military service by becoming an officer in the legions in his 20s he was stationed with the armies in spain and apparently started to make a name for himself catching the attention of the famed commander scipio emilianus these early deeds apparently proved sufficient to see him elected to the position of military tribune from here he would spend the next few decades working his way up the cursus honor room it wasn't all smooth sailing however marius actually lost a few elections and spent some years in relative obscurity nonetheless he was successful in slowly building up his personal wealth and dignitas at the age of 48 he would finally seek to cash in on these in an attempt to win the ultimate prize of consulship in anticipation for this move marius had pulled some strings to get appointed as a legate in the ongoing jagerthin war in north africa the position was one step below the console in the chain of command and offered many opportunities for fame the crafty marius promptly used it to engage in underhanded cutthroat politics meant to undermine the competition for example when all but one scout survived an ambush he convinced the consul quintus mittellas to execute the lone survivor for cowardice yet when this judgment was announced marius loudly decried the consul for abusing his authority abandoning his morality and humanity to rule as a tyrant this sort of thing continued for some time with their rivalry growing ever more tense when marius asked his superior for permission to return to rome to run for consul mattelus refused stating that he should wait to run alongside mantels own son some 20 years later marius was furious at the snub and prepared to run an entire campaign in absentia something that had never happened before in the roman world he began by talking to local roman merchants especially those working with the supply lines who served as the primary couriers of news between the front and roam itself marius made sure that they knew exactly how bad of a job mattelus was doing despite all of the valiant effort that the noble gaius marius was heroically engaged in he was clearly the man who ought to be in charge next marius contacted all of his friends among the wealthy locals and had them send letters to their contacts in rome seeking to undermine the work of mentalis and to promote marius as the preferred alternative they also specifically sent messages to the tribunes who in turn riled up voters in the tribal assemblies stoking a fire of anti-establishment outrage the ruling class didn't care about the people they were corrupt incompetent and traitors from the safety of africa he had agents flood rome with powerful messaging and copies of speeches he had supposedly given denouncing the status quo the voters wanted change and marius's appeal to populism was incredibly effective whether or not the propaganda was true was irrelevant the people believed it thus in 107 bc marius was successfully elected as one of the two consuls for the year he proved so popular that he would go on to win the next five elections as well despite the traditional prohibition against holding the consulship more than once every 10 years in response new laws would be passed to try and curb such excesses unfortunately the breaking of such long-standing traditions gave other opportunistic politicians a chance to cease power repeatedly marius's shattering of precedent will be just one factor that led up to a series of major civil wars eventually resulting in rome's transformation from republic to empire but we'll cover that chapter of history in another video i hope you've appreciated this look at what it was like to run an election in ancient rome a huge thanks to our patrons for supporting the channel and to our researchers writers and artists who made this video possible be sure to check out our other videos on roman elections and the rest of our how they did it series thanks for watching you

Channel: Invicta

Views: 122,685

Rating: 4.9568129 out of 5

Keywords: election, roman elections, roman politics, roman campaign, gaius marius, running for office, election campaign, cursus honorum, roman documentary, roman history documentary, ancient rome, documentary, rome, invicta, how they did it, 2020 election, 2020 election prediction, ancient rome documentary, history documentary, roman army, consul, roman election, roman republic, campaign ad, dark money, roman citizen, roman citizenship, how to run for office

Id: D_lyfyba4TQ

Length: 17min 38sec (1058 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 10 2020

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