2014/11/20 by Christopher Mallan · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Classical Antiquity Studies #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Crime, Deviance, and Social Control
paper · doi:10.1017/s0009838814000251
openalex publication_date 2014/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
We are told that when news of Caracalla's death reached Rome a group of senators denounced their former emperor, likening him to all the tyrants of the past who had ruled over them. The senator who recorded these actions, the historian Cassius Dio, does not say which tyrants were listed, but it is likely that such a comprehensive list included the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and his son Sextus. The senators' actions were doubtless more an act of group catharsis than a private show of loyalty to their new emperor, Marcus Opellius Macrinus. Yet what the scene reveals perhaps most clearly is the Roman exempla tradition in practice.