Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T14:11:17.520Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Caesar’s Pro Bithynis and the Sack of Heraclea Pontica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2015

Federico Russo
Federico Russo*
Affiliation:
Universität [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Caesar’s speech Pro Bithynis is usually considered to be an expression of the positive relationships between Caesar and the Kingdom of Bithynia. The context in which the speech was delivered is, however, unclear.

By means of a lexical analysis of the two extant fragments of the Pro Bithynis, this paper aims at providing a new interpretation of the speech and its historical background. Caesar probably delivered the speech not immediately after King Nicomedes’s death – as commonly accepted – but after the Roman siege of Heraclea Pontica, when the proconsul M. Aurelius Cotta, Caesar’s propinquus, was accused of having sacked the city.

As had already happened in Macedonia (thanks to Dolabella’s prosecution) and in Greece (Caesar represented some Greeks in a process against C. Antonius around 79 BC), the Bithynian affair represented a further occasion for Caesar to win over friends and allies among foreign communities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 49 , November 2015 , pp. 94 - 109
Copyright
© The Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, M. (1990), Trials in the Late Roman Republic 149 BC to 50 BC. Toronto.Google Scholar
Badian, E. (1958), Foreign Clientelae (264–70 B.C.). Oxford.Google Scholar
Badian, E. (1972), Publicans and Sinners: Private Enterprise in the Service of the Roman Republic. Ithaca.Google Scholar
Bernardi Perini, G. (1992), Aulo Gellio. Notti attiche. Torino.Google Scholar
Brennan, T.C. (2000), The Praetorship in the Roman Republic II. Oxford.Google Scholar
Brunt, P.A. (1965), ‘Amicitia in the Late Roman Republic’, PCPS 11, 1‐20.Google Scholar
Canfora, L. (2006), Giulio Cesare. Il dittatore democratico. Roma/Bari.Google Scholar
Cary, E. (1914), Dio Cassius. Roman History, Volume III. Books 36-40. Cambridge MA.Google Scholar
Crawford, J.W. (1984), M. Tullius Cicero. The Lost and Unpublished Orations. Göttingen.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, J.W. (1994), M. Tullius Cicero: The Fragmentary Speeches. Atlanta.Google Scholar
Dahlmann, H. (1938), ‘Caesars Rede für die Bithynier’, Hermes 73, 341-346.Google Scholar
Desideri, P. (2007), ‘I Romani visti dall’Asia: riflessione sulla sezione romana della Storia di Eraclea di Memnone’, in G. Urso (ed.) Tra Oriente e Occidente: indigeni, Greci e Romani in Asia Minore, Atti del convegno internazionale, Cividale del Friuli 2006. Pisa, 45-59.Google Scholar
Eilers, C. (2002), Roman Patrons of Greek Cities, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernoux, H.L. (2004), Notables et élites des cités de Bithynie aux époques hellénistiques et romaine (3ème siècle av. J.-C. – 3ème siècle ap. J.-C.). Lyon.Google Scholar
Gelzer, M. (1960), Caesar. Der Politiker und Staatsmann. Wiesbaden1960.Google Scholar
Gruen, E.S. (1968), Roman Politics and Criminal Courts, 149-78 BC. Cambridge MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruen, E.S. (1971), ‘Pompey, Metellus Pius, and the Trials of 70-69 B.C.: The Perils of Schematism’, AJPh 92, 1-16.Google Scholar
Gruen, E.S. (1984), The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Günther, L.-M. (1999), ‘Caesar und die Seeräuber: eine Quellenanalyse’, Chiron 29, 321-339.Google Scholar
Halm, K.F. (1863), Rhetores Latini minores ex codicibus maximam partem primum adhibitis. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Henry, R. (1965), Photius. Bibliothèque. Tome IV. Paris.Google Scholar
Hollander, B. (2007), Money in the Late Republic. Leiden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosius, C. (1903), A. Gelli Noctium Atticarum libri XX, Vol. 1. Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Kallet-Marx, R. (1995), Hegemony to Empire. The Development of the Roman Imperium in the East from 148 to 62 B.C. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Lausberg, H. (1960), Handbuch der literarischen Rhetorik: eine Grundlegung der Literaturwissenschaft. München.Google Scholar
Magie, D. (1950), Roman Rule in Asia Minor to the End of the Third Century after Christ. Princeton.Google Scholar
Malcovati, E. (1953), Oratorum romanorum fragmenta liberae rei publicae. Torino.Google Scholar
Marache, R. (1978), Aule Gelle. Les nuits attiques Tome 2. Paris.Google Scholar
Mattingly, H.B. (1983), ‘Rome’s Earliest Relations with Byzantium, Heraclea Pontica and Callatis’, in A.G. Poulter (ed.) Ancient Bulgaria. Papers Presented to the International Symposium on the Ancient History and Archaeology of Bulgaria, University of Nottingham 1981. Nottingham, 241–3, 249-250.Google Scholar
Marshall, P.K. (1968), Auli Gellii Noctes Atticae, Vol. 1. Oxford.Google Scholar
Meyer, H. (1837), Oratorum romanorum fragmenta. Zurich.Google Scholar
Nipperdey, K. (1851), ‘Zu Cäsars Fragmenten’, Philologus 6, 377-378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osgood, J. (2008), ‘Caesar and Nicomedes’, CQ 58, 687-691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osgood, J. (2010), ‘Caesar and the Pirates: or how to make (and break) an ancient life’, G&R 57, 319-336.Google Scholar
Perelli, L. (1958), Il capitalismo nell’ultimo secolo della repubblica. Torino.Google Scholar
Peter, H. (1906), Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, Vol. 2. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Raccarelli, R. (1996), ‘Cara cognatio’: la tradizione di una festa tra propinqui’, QUCC 53, 27-57.Google Scholar
Rolfe, J.C. (1927), The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, Vol. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Rüpke, J. (2005), Fasti sacerdotum. Teil 2. Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Russo, F. (2014), ‘Rhetorical Strategy and Juridical Subterfuges in Cicero’s Pro Tullio’, AC 57, 132-141.Google Scholar
Ryan, F.X. (1994), ‘The Magistrates in Dio 36.40-41’, Classica et Mediaevalia 45, 185-192.Google Scholar
Santangelo, F. (2004), ‘Memnone di Eraclea e il dominio romano in Asia Minore’, Simblos 4, 247-261.Google Scholar
Saprykin, S.Y. (1997), Heracleia Pontica and Tauric Chersonesus Before Roman Domination. VI–I centuries BC. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Teuffel, W.S. (1890), Geschichte der römischen Literatur. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Taylor, L.R. (1941), ‘Caesar’s Early Career’, CPh 36, 113-132.Google Scholar
Taylor, L.R. (1942), ‘Caesar’s Colleagues in the Pontifical College’, AJPh 63, 385-412.Google Scholar
Taylor, L.R. (1942a), ‘Caesar and the Roman Nobility’, TAPhA 73, 1-24.Google Scholar
Vitucci, G. (1953), Il regno di Bitinia. Roma.Google Scholar
Ward, A.M. (1977), ‘Caesar and the Pirates II: The Elusive M. Iunius Iuncus and the Year 75/4’, AJAH 2, 26-36.Google Scholar