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Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

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undermined, however, by several factors: apart from the copious imaginative<br />

speeches, the text is laden with Livy's political prejudices towards Capua and<br />

Calavius. Several members <strong>of</strong> the gens Calavia, as will be discussed later, were noted<br />

<strong>for</strong> their anti-Roman behaviour. Whatever its historicity, this passage illustrates<br />

actions taken in a time <strong>of</strong> political crisis rather than general practice<br />

in Capua.<br />

Another passage suggests that membership <strong>of</strong> the senate depended on wealth and<br />

birth 419 It is plausible that it included the ex-meddices tutici and other ex-magistrates<br />

as well. For what it is worth, no other ancient source suggests that the membership <strong>of</strong><br />

this council was not <strong>for</strong> life.<br />

Ancient sources imply that Capua had a popular assembly. Two references in<br />

Livy suggest that the assembly was summoned by the meddix tuticus. 420 Cicero refers<br />

to the consilium commune, dissolved by the Romans after the Second Punic War,<br />

probably meaning the popular assembly rather than the senate. 21 Diodorus Siculus<br />

mentions that the decision to side with Hannibal was taken in the ExxAgQia<br />

KOIVTj 422<br />

It is possible that Hannibal's presence in Southern Italy triggered democratic<br />

movements in some cities. In 211 BC, Seppius Loesius, a citizen <strong>of</strong> humble birth and<br />

little <strong>for</strong>tune, obtained the <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> meddix tuticus, 423 Livy says that, in the city<br />

stricken by hunger and war, those who were eligible <strong>for</strong> <strong>of</strong>fice by birth refused to run<br />

<strong>for</strong> it. This also indicates that the <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> the meddix tuticus was chosen by popular<br />

election at least by the late third century BC.<br />

419<br />

Livy 23 3.11.<br />

420 Livy 23.3.1 (Pacuvius Calavius ex meddix tuticus) and 23.7.9 (Marius Blossius praetor<br />

Campanus).<br />

421 Cic. De leg. Agr. 1.19: `In Capua, our ancestors abolished the magistates, the senate, the popular<br />

assembly (consilium commune) and all the marks <strong>of</strong> the republic, leaving nothing else in the city<br />

except the empty name <strong>of</strong> Capua. '<br />

422 Diod. Sic. 26.10.<br />

423 Livy 26.6.13 loco obscuro tenuique<strong>for</strong>tuna ortus<br />

116

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