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Cic. Ver. 15 [40]. v. ” Variations on the Theme: Cicero’s Virtuous Roman / 29 (the pax deorum – pax hominum)61 had become imbalanced due to irreligious, deviant behavior. A natural anomaly, a portent, was a sign of this imbalance. 62 Hence, often when we encounter a report of a political or societal problem that threatened Roman unity, the author’s explanation of a past event moves the narrative into a religious discourse. Religion was the ultimate sphere of rules and regulations, because it preserved traditional structures of authority and dependence.

Gilmore observed, “[v]ery frequently in the literature on Mediterranean societies, the concept of manliness is broached in discussion of honor. The latter figures as a catchall term used to 25 26 W. Miller, Humiliation: And other essays on honor, social discomfort, and violence (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), p. 116. Miller, Humiliation, pp. 116–17. ”27 Laudatory inscriptions placed in publicly accessible areas functioned as markers of honor and signs of achieved reputation. They conveyed the excellence of the honored; an excellence in being, that is, being virtuous, courageous, manly, and so on, and possessing the means to greatness.

27 28 Gilmore, Aggression and community, p. 126. Although the focus of Gilmore’s study is the “sex-linked” nature of honor, some of his insights are, in my opinion, applicable to the discourse of empire studied here. The numbers for each position changed over the course of Rome’s history; fewer in earlier times and the highest number during Caesar’s dictatorship. The numbers Augustus preserved or introduced were kept throughout the principate and are stated here. 16 / re publican rome’s rhetorical patte rn Cursus terms were only a year long, but their limited number made seeking office an intensely agonistic affair.