¹ Nicolet, C., The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome (Eng. trans., Berkeley and Los Angeles 1980) 320Google Scholar; cf. Brunt, P.A., The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays (Oxford 1988) chap. 6Google Scholar, and Gruen, E.S., ‘The Exercise of Power in the Roman Republic’, in City-States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy, ed. Molho, A., Raaflaub, K. and Emlen, J. (Stuttgart 1991) 257-8Google Scholar.

² On the connection between libertas and the leges tabellariae, see Wirszubski, C., Libertas as a Political Idea at Rome (Cambridge 1950) 20 and 50Google Scholar. As Brunt (n.1) 321 n.103 argues, it is an unwarranted assumption that, because the ballot was gradually introduced for different kinds of comitial business, there was not a general principle operative behind the steady demand for the use of the ballot. In general on the various ballot laws passed in this period, see Nicolet, C., Historia 19 (1970) 42–53Google Scholar.

³ Cic, . leg. 3.39Google Scholar; cf. leg. agr. 2.4Google Scholar (tabellam vindicem tacitae libertatis), and similar sentiments at Corn. I, fr. 51 P (= Ascon. 78.1-4 C); Sest. 103Google Scholar; >Plane. 16Plane.+16>Google Scholar. It has been pointed out to me privately by Professor Ernst Badian that these laws introduced written ballot (as opposed to the previous use of oral voting), and so they cannot be said to have specifically introduced secret ballot. However, throughout this paper the assumption will be that written ballot was legislated for to allow for a greater level of secrecy in the individual's delivery of his vote. That is implicit in Cicero's criticism of the various ballot laws.

⁴ See Wirszubski (n.2) 50 n.2; Wiseman, , New Men 4Google Scholar n.3; cf. Nicolet (n.1) 323.

⁵ For discussion of the possibility that the law also extended secret ballot to the one permanent court in existence at that time, see Nicolet, C., MEFRA 71 (1959) 202Google Scholar; Taylor, , RVA 37Google Scholar; Cody, J.M., Class. Phil. 68 (1973) 206 n.13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶ Cf. below, 69 ff.

⁷ References conveniently collected in Niccolini, , FTP 140Google Scholar.

⁸ Wiseman, , New Men 6Google Scholar. Taylor, L.R., The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic (Rome 1960) 141Google Scholar, believes that the introduction of secret ballot made the votes of freedmen among the plebs urbana more valuable to demagogues, since patrons would now have no means of controlling the votes of their freedmen clients; cf. Last, H., CAH 9 ¹.38, 203Google Scholar.

⁹ In Cic, . leg. 3.35Google Scholar he is described as ignotus et sordidus, and in Liv, . per. Oxyr. 54Google Scholar as verna[e nepos. On his Campanian origin, see Badian, E., Philologus 103 (1959) 87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taylor (n.8) 217; Wiseman, , New Men 4 n.2Google Scholar. We know nothing else about Gabinius' career, apart from the possibility of service under Q. Caecilius Metellus in Macedonia in 148 (Polyb. 38.12.1).

¹⁰ Wiseman, , New Men 4Google Scholar. Hall, U., Historia 13 (1964) 291-3Google Scholar, notes that the introduction of the ballot (a political reform) may have led to the use of simultaneous group voting (an administrative change) since otherwise the consecutive group voting process would take too long; cf. Fraccaro, P., Atti della R. Accademia delle Scienze di Torino 49 (1913–1914) 619-20Google Scholar (= Opusculo 2.252Google Scholar).

¹¹ References in Niccolini, , FTP 141Google Scholar.

¹² Astin, , Scipio 130-1Google Scholar, says that he was the true author of the bill.

¹³ Ibid. 182-5, and now Astin, CAH 92.189, 193; cf. Scullard, H.H., JRS 50 (1960) 71Google Scholar.

¹⁴ This is the view, for example, of Scullard, loc cit.; it is criticised by Gruen, , Courts 39Google Scholar. For a recent general discussion of the popular demand for appropriate conduct by the governing class and popular suspicion of private luxury and profiteering, as political themes running through this period, see now Millar, F., JRS 76 (1986) 1 ffGoogle Scholar. Cf. below, 69-70.

¹⁵ Cic, . Brut. 83Google Scholar; amic. 96Google Scholar.

¹⁶ References in Niccolini, , FTP 153Google Scholar.

¹⁷ For an analysis of this process, see Astin, , Scipio 173-4, 185Google Scholar; cf. Taylor, L.R., JRS 52 (1962) 19–27Google Scholar; Brunt, P.A., Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic (London 1971) 65-6Google Scholar; Finley, M.I., Politics in the Ancient World (Cambridge 1983) 91-2 and 112CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁸ For the details of the two trials, see Gruen, , Courts 35-8Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Ibid. 39; cf. Astin, , Scipio 175-9Google Scholar, and Scullard (n.13) 71, who both mention other recent and specific set-backs.

²⁰ He is credited with introducing the phrase cui bono? in cases of murder (Ascon. 45.25-6 C). Another member of the family from around the same time also gained a reputation for uprightness as praetor in 111: L. Cassius Longinus (cos. 107) (Sail, . lug. 32-3Google Scholar). Cf. the discussion below (66) of the family connection with the popular movement and of the activities of the tribune of 104, L. Cassius Longinus.

²¹ Cf. Cic, . Brut. 97Google Scholar.

²² There is debate whether he was tribune in 131 or 130: see MRR 1.503 n.1Google Scholar, and Gruen, , Courts 64 n.94Google Scholar.

²³ He and M. Fulvius Flaccus were appointed to replace Ap. Claudius Pulcher and P. Licinius Crassus Mucianus on their deaths.

²⁴ Scipio 232-3Google Scholar. References to the bill in Niccolini, , FTP 153Google Scholar.

²⁵ For the interrogation of Aemilianus by Carbo in the course of the debate, and for the implications of the former's response for his loss of popularity, see Astin, , Scipio 233-4Google Scholar, and Gruen, , Courts 65Google Scholar.

²⁶ Last, , CAH 9 ¹.38-9Google Scholar.

²⁷ Astin, , Scipio, 233Google Scholar; Stockton, D., The Gracchi (Oxford 1979) 92Google Scholar, says that there is no knowing whether they were linked to each other.

²⁸ For Carbo's change of sides, see Gruen, , Courts 98 ffGoogle Scholar.

²⁹ Details in Badian, , JRS 46 (1956) 92-4Google Scholar; Gruen, , Courts 96–105Google Scholar; Stockton (n.27) 195-200.

³⁰ For a full discussion of the legal and constitutional questions at issue, see Last, , CAH 9 ¹.83-9Google Scholar.

³¹ Stockton (n.27) 198.

³² Gruen, , Courts 104Google Scholar.

³³ Gruen, , Courts 108-9Google Scholar, suggests it was repetundae, since the trial was heard before iudices (Cic, . Brut. 103Google Scholar); others think it was maiestas.

³⁴ Cic, . Brut. 103Google Scholar; fam. 9.21.3 (naming the poison he took as cantharides).

³⁵ This conjunction of popular sentiment and equestrian support continued and led to further investigations, especially of senatorially appointed commanders responsible for military failures; see below, 66. On the coalition between plebs and equites, see Sherwin-White, A.N., JRS 46 (1956) 2–3Google Scholar.

³⁶ References in MRR 1.552Google Scholar.

³⁷ Taylor, , RVA 128 n.23Google Scholar, sees a connection between the law and the trial. Cf. Greenidge, A.H.J., The Legal Procedure of Cicero's Time (Oxford 1901) 349-50Google Scholar.

³⁸ Badian, , Studies 93Google Scholar; cf. Sherwin-White (n.35) 2.

³⁹ Perhaps Cicero did not want to draw too much attention to a ballot law brought in by a fellow-Arpinate. There had been a local dispute over a ballot law in Arpinum in 115 between Cicero's grandfather and a member of the Gratidian family (presumably involving the Marii, who were related to both of these other families in the local Italian aristocracy); for a discussion of the dispute, see Nicolet, C., REL 45 (1967) 276 ffGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁰ Despite his acquittal, it was not Opimius who pressed for the recall of Laenas (Cic, . Brut. 128Google Scholar). It is not clear whether Bestia's tribunate was in 121 or 120 (MRR 1.524Google Scholar with n.3). His membership of the agrarian commission, along with Carbo (MRR 1.522Google Scholar), suggests that it had been taken over by the optimates.

⁴¹ Earl, D.C., The Moral and Political Tradition of Rome (London 1967) 28Google Scholar; Brunt (n . 17) 66; Finley (n.17) 112.

⁴² Cic, . leg. 3.38-9Google Scholar. It is in the context of these subsequent laws (quae postea latae sunt) that Cicero refers to the lex Maria.

⁴³ Staveley 161-2. Taylor, , RVA 39 and 76Google Scholar, reverses the roles of the figure on the left of the pons and the figure below it on the coin; this seems to be a misunderstanding (Nicolet, C., REA 72 [1970] 127 n.4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wiseman, , New Men 5 n. 1Google Scholar; Crawford, , RRC 1.307Google Scholar).

⁴⁴ Taylor, , RVA 39 and 76Google Scholar. Rogatores could still sometimes be used in ballot voting (Cic, . Pis. 36Google Scholar; red. in sen. 28).

⁴⁵ Taylor, , RVA 39 and 76Google Scholar; cf. Wiseman, , New Men 5Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Presumably the tactics which Plutarch's comment implies were used in trials prior to this law would have been used in electoral and legislative voting also.

⁴⁷ References in Niccolini, , FTP 175Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ Cf. Gruen, , Courts 150Google Scholar, on the setting of a climate for influential ‘new men’ to emerge in the next two or three decades.

⁴⁹ Badian, (n.29) 93-4, summarised in Historia 11 (1962) 214-15Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ Badian, , JRS 46 (1956) 93Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Gruen, , Courts 109-10Google Scholar.

⁵² Gruen's summary (Courts 109) of Badian's view.

⁵³ Badian, , Historia 11 (1962) 215Google Scholar: cf. JRS 46 (1956) 94Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ It may be significant to note his association with Ahenobarbus who, as a ‘popular’ tribune in 104, transferred membership of the priestly colleges from co-option to election by the people (cf. below, n.79).

⁵⁵ There is some doubt whether the consul of 96 was the son of the consul of 127 or of the consul of 124: see the stemma in Drumann-Groebe 2.93, and the stemma and discussion in Sumner, G.V., The Orators in Cicero's Brutus: Prosopography and Chronology (Toronto 1973) 48–51Google Scholar.

⁵⁶ Crawford's date is based on an analysis of coin hoards, which seem to indicate two contemporary sequences of coins issued in the period 133-25, with this coin of Cassius coming towards the end of one sequence (see RRCH Table X, and cf. RRC 1.62-5Google Scholar).

⁵⁷ Cf. Taylor, , RVA 37Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Nicolet (n.1) 320 ff. The theme was promoted on the coins of the family of the Porcii (e.g. Crawford, , RRC 1.301/1Google Scholar). On the leges Porciae, see McDonald, A.H., JRS 34 (1944) 19–20Google Scholar; Lintott, A.W., ANRW 1.2 (1972) 250-2Google Scholar; Brunt (n.1) 332-4. Lintott suggests that the Porcian laws may have dealt with both execution and flogging at the hands of magistrates, both at home and in the field, and that the mitigation of forms of flogging may have had some connection with the difficulty of recruitment in the latter half of the second century. On these difficulties with the levy, and the actions of tribunes against consuls to protect conscripts, see below at n.96.

⁵⁹ Alföldi, A., in Essays in Roman Coinage Presented to Harold Mattingly (Oxford 1956) 92Google Scholar (suggesting that the object is a cista with a cover, used for comitial voting); cf. Taylor, , RVA 126-7 n.13Google Scholar (making it a hydria used for jurors' votes).

⁶⁰ See the stemma in Drumann-Groebe 2.93.

⁶¹ So Grueber (c. 52); Sydenham (52-50); cf. Taylor, , RVA 136 n.11Google Scholar.

⁶² The evidence of the coin hoards suggests to Crawford a date around the middle of the decade 69-58 B.C. (RRCH Table XIII), but even he admits that it is not secure and is based primarily on stylistic grounds (cf. RRC 1.88Google Scholar). There does not seem to be any political context for the issue of such a coin which would favour either date over the other.

⁶³ So, e.g., Grueber 1.494 n.2.

⁶⁴ Taylor, , RVA 126 n.11Google Scholar; Crawford, , RRC 1.440Google Scholar; cf. Nicolet (n.5) 206-7. For the details of the trial and the political implications behind it, see Marshall, B.A., A Historical Commentary on Asconius (Columbia 1985) 196-7Google Scholar; cf. Millar (n.14) 7, emphasising the sovereignty of the people in voting to set up the tribunal. See also the penetrating analysis of the part religion played in the political life of Rome from about 135 by Elizabeth Rawson (‘Religion and Politics in the Late Second Century B.C. at Rome’, Phoenix 28 [1974], esp. 193-4 and 207-8Google Scholar = Roman Culture and Society: Collected Papers [Oxford 1991] 149-50 and 163-4Google Scholar). Her view of the trial of the Vestals, and indeed the whole period, is that it reveals an attempt by popularis politicians to break the optimate stranglehold over the traditional religion, and that view accords with the general theme of this paper—that this period sees a movement under way, agitating for a freer expression of popular will in opposition to oligarchic control. One should not go as far as Bauman, R.A., Women and Politics in Ancient Rome (London 1992) 52-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar and say that the actions of the Vestals represented some sort of protest, almost a feminist ‘movement’, though he is right to agree with Rawson that it was linked with the popular challenge to the optimate control of religion.

⁶⁵ Grueber (c. 58); Sydenham (c. 57); Crawford (55).

⁶⁶ On the conical roof of the temple, see Plin, . N.H. 34.13Google Scholar; Nash, E., Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome (rev. edn. 1968) 2.505-10Google Scholar; cf. Platner, S.B., A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (rev. T. Ashby, Oxford 1929) 557-9Google Scholar. On the Cassian coins depicting it, see Dressel, H., Zeitschrift für Numismatik 22 (1900) 20–31Google Scholar. Alföldi (n.59) 85 identifies the temple differently; contra, Cody, , AJA 77 (1973) 43-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁷ The chair is usually taken to represent the seat of a judge.

⁶⁸ The view of Mommsen, StR. 3.402Google Scholar (cf. Römische Münzwesen [1860] 636 n.497Google Scholar), is that there are two mutually exclusive pairs of initials, L D being used in judicial assemblies, and A C in quaestiones. This is accepted by, e.g., Taylor, , RVA 77 with n.43Google Scholar, Nicolet (n.43) 125, and Staveley 160, but disputed by Cody (n.5) 205-7. For further discussion, see Nicolet (n.5) 197 and 207. For an example of the initials L D on a tablet depicted on a coin, see the issue of C. Coelius Caldus at 67 below.

⁶⁹ On the use of the sitella at assemblies, see Taylor, , RVA 72-5Google Scholar. The theft of the sitella was one way in which an assembly could be stopped (Plut. 77. Gracch. 11.1Google Scholar).

⁷⁰ Cody (n.5) 206 ff.

⁷¹ References in Crawford, , RRC 1.452Google Scholar.

⁷² Plut, . Mar. 36.5Google Scholar.

⁷³ These two objects are symbols of the augurate, as well as being connected with the taking of auspices and imperium.

⁷⁴ Crawford, , RRC 1.452Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ References in Niccolini, , FTP 189-90Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ See the stemma in Drumann-Groebe 2.93 and in Sumner (n.55) 48-51.

⁷⁷ Ascon. 78.12-13 C.

⁷⁸ Details in Marshall (n.64) 270-1.

⁷⁹ Ahenobarbus passed a law changing the method of appointment to membership of the priestly colleges from co-option to popular election, and initiated prosecutions before the people of M. Iunius Silanus (for failure against the Cimbri) and of M. Aemilius Scaurus (for improper conduct of religious ceremonies); Philippus proposed an agrarian law (details in Marshall [n.64] 270). For a list of the military failures and consequent prosecutions as an expression of popular dissatisfaction, see ibid. 270-1 ; cf. Millar (n.14) 6. Ahenobarbus eventually shared a consulship with Longinus (see above, n.55).

⁸⁰ The evidence of the coin hoards would favour Crawford's date at the end of the 50s (RRCH Table XIII; cf. RRC 1.88Google Scholar). The style of the head on the obverse is similar to that on issues by moneyers holding office most likely in 51.

⁸¹ The reverse, together with symbols on other coins issued by this moneyer, celebrates the achievements, especially military, of his grandfather.

⁸² Cf. above, nn.68 and 70.

⁸³ The first letter of the moneyer's name on the reverse is sometimes carelessly executed, being taken for an A (so Alföldi [n.59] 92), but the praenominal initial is clearly a P (Friedländer, J., Zeitschrift für Numismatik 2 (1875) 86Google Scholar; Mommsen, , StR. 3.400 n.4Google Scholar).

⁸⁴ For an interpretation of the procedure depicted on this coin, see above, 61 with n.43.

⁸⁵ For the various explanations of what the P in the bar stands for, see Mommsen, , StR. 3.400 n.4Google Scholar; Taylor, , RVA 128 n.23Google Scholar; Nicolet, , REL 45 (1967) 104Google Scholar (who points out that on the ten or so examples of the coin he has personally viewed in both Paris and Rome he has never been able to distinguish the letter P). Cf. below, n.87.

⁸⁶ On the year of the praetorship, see MRR 1.559Google Scholar with n.3. Against the identification, Münzer, F., RE 13 (1927) col. 454, s.v. ‘Licinius’ no. 136Google Scholar.

⁸⁷ Accepted as a possible conjecture for its meaning by Nicolet (n.85) 104.

⁸⁸ Accepted by Taylor, , RVA 39Google Scholar.

⁸⁹ Carney, T.F., Num. Chron. 19 (1959) 87Google Scholar.

⁹⁰ The issue by P. Nerva shows a similar style and fabric to issues by L. Philippus, T. D(e)idius and L. Torquatus; a clear triumvirate of moneyers can be established for the first two of these with Nerva, according to Crawford, RRC 1.68Google Scholar. The evidence of the coin hoard from Cordoba (after 1945) is decisive for placing this triumvirate immediately after the issues of Man. Aemilius Lepidus in 114 or 113 (RRCH Table XI). Crawford's date would bring Nerva's issue closer in time to the passage of Marius' law, helping to support the already attractive argument that it was designed to commemorate that law.

⁹¹ Carney (n.89) 87; cf. Taylor, , RVA 39Google Scholar; Staveley 162. The idiosyncratic view of Bicknell, P.J., Latomus 28 (1969) esp. 337-8Google Scholar, that the lex Maria tabellaría was a measure in the interest of Marius' Metellan patrons, designed to get the maximum electoral and legislative value out of their recent alliance with the équités, has not found much favour (see, for example, Gruen [n.l] 261 n.54). For a detailed discussion of the date of the issue and the associations conveyed by the images depicted on the coin, see Nicolet (n.5) 192-205 (with the conclusion that it should be dated somewhere between 124 and 114, and that it refers above all to a voting reform put forward by C. Gracchus in 123).

⁹² For a discussion of the tribunate of Palicanus, see Marshall, B.A. and Beness, J.L., Athenaeum 65 (1987) 374-7Google Scholar.

⁹³ For this interpretation of the coin reverse, see Ruggiero, E. De, Il Foro Romano (Rome 1913) 352Google Scholar, followed by Taylor, , RVA 36Google Scholar.

⁹⁴ So Grueber and Sydenham; Taylor, , RVA 37Google Scholar; Alföldi (n.59) 92.

⁹⁵ So Nicolet (n.85) 105; cf. Crawford, , RRC 1.483Google Scholar. Nicolet, , ‘Tessères frumentaires et tessères de vote’, in Mélanges offerts à J. Heurgon (Rome 1976) 707-8Google Scholar, now holds that it is a tessera frumentaria.

⁹⁶ Taylor, L.R., JRS 52 (1962) 19–27Google Scholar. For an analysis of the links in this period between a declining number of men eligible for military service, difficulties with the levy, and opposition, especially from tribunes, to the levy, see Brunt, P.A., Italian Manpower 225 B.C.-A.D. 14 (Oxford 1971) 396-8Google Scholar. For a discussion of popular suspicion of aristocratic selfishness, see Millar (n.14) 1 and 6-7.

⁹⁷ See particularly Astin's sections on tensions, trends and attitudes (Scipio 172-4 and 184-8Google Scholar); his views on the connection between tribunes, popular dissatisfaction with the levy, and defiance of the will of the Senate are now summarised in CAH 9 ².193-5Google Scholar; cf. Brunt (n.17) 65-6.

⁹⁸ Larsen, J.A.O., Class. Phil. 49 (1954) 10Google Scholar. On the potential for manipulation, especially through the system of group voting, see Larsen, , Class. Phil. 44 (1949) 178-81Google Scholar; Marsh, F.B., A History of the Roman World 146-30 B.C.3 (rev. Scullard, H.H., London 1963) 370-7Google Scholar. Cf. the arguments against this view of the nobility's control of voting in Gruen (n.l) 259-61.

⁹⁹ Larsen, , Class. Phil. 44 (1949) 181Google Scholar; Taylor (n.96) 26; Brunt (n.1) 340. For a proper emphasis on the sovereignty of the people as an issue in this popular movement, see now Millar (n.14) 1-9.

¹⁰⁰ The three laws Cicero mentions were the lex Cassia, Ti. Gracchus' agrarian law, and C. Gracchus' corn law, which were opposed respectively by what he calls the principes, the optimates, and the boni. Cf., however, Cic, . Corn. I, fr. 51Google Scholar P (= Ascon. 78.1-4 C), where the lex Cassia is grouped with two other laws which promoted iustissima libertas. Cicero was not critical of secret ballot when it produced his own election as a ‘new man’ suo anno (leg. agr. 2.4Google Scholar)!

¹⁰¹ Cf. Cic, . Plane. 15–16Google Scholar.

¹⁰² For the latter sentiment, cf. ibid. 16.

¹⁰³ For Cicero's identification with an aristocratic concept of libertas, see Brunt (n.1) 323-7. For the suggestion that Cicero's views may have been influenced by certain passages in Plato's Laws, see Nicolet (n.2) 53 ff. Gruen's analysis of the effect of the ballot laws ([n.1] 257-61) argues that the nobility did not lose from their introduction; political leaders could gain credit for reform proposals, by giving the electorate a sense of libertas, while voting patterns underwent no noticeable change (which the nobiles probably anticipated—hence there was little resistance to the introduction of written ballot) and the nobility was able to retain its ascendancy; cf. Brunt (n.17) 66. Part of Gruen's argument is based on the observation that in elections, at least, after the introduction of secret ballot the assembly continued to vote for candidates from the ruling classes; despite the conclusions of K. Hopkins and G. Burton that the Roman Senate was highly permeable to outsiders (in Death and Renewal [Cambridge 1983] chap. 2, esp. 107 ffGoogle Scholar, supported by Beard, M. and Crawford, M., Rome in the Late Republic [London 1985] 45-6Google Scholar), even they admit that the political élite consisting of a small inner core had high rates of political succession.

¹⁰⁴ Probably in January A.D. 103 or 104 (Sherwin-White, A.N., The Letters of Pliny [Oxford 1966] ad loc.Google Scholar). On the basis of [Sail.] ep. ad Caes. 11.5Google Scholar, which proposed that secret ballot be extended to the Senate itself and which he takes to be full of formulas reminiscent of the Gracchi, Nicolet (n.85) 103-4, and in a private communication, suggests that both Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus had a concern for changing voting procedures.

¹⁰⁵ Larsen, , Class. Phil. 49 (1954) 10Google Scholar; cf. Scullard (n.13) 70. Nicolet (n.5) 145-91 (cf. Nicolet [n.85] 103 with n.1) thinks that the Gracchi did have a concern for the security of the vote, and on the basis of [Sall.] ep. ad Caes, argues that C. Gracchus actually introduced an electoral reform in 123 (which was subsequently annulled along with his other legislation). This view is strongly criticised by Badián, Historia 11 (1962) 244-5Google Scholar.