2016/01/01 by John T. Ramsey · 4 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Classical Antiquity Studies #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Classical Studies and Legal History #History #Ancient history
paper · doi:10.25162/historia-2016-0017
openalex publication_date 2016/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Part one of this paper demonstrates that Pompey was made consul in 52 BC in the normal fashion, by a vote taken in the comitia centuriata, not anomalously by a senatorial decree tout court, the version of many ancient and modern accounts. Part two discusses why the optimates authorized a sole consulship for Pompey. The aim was not, as commonly supposed, to forestall Pompey from being named dictator or taking Caesar as his consular colleague. Instead, it was to resolve an impasse caused by political forces blocking the elections in order to prevent Milo from becoming consul and thereby immune to prosecution for Clodius’ murder.