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| Saturday, 27 March 2004 |
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Roman politicians never said 'no' by Malika Jayasinghe Roman politicians like politicians the world over never said 'no'. 'If you say 'no' you alienate people right away' they were told. Consular hopefuls behaved as politicians always have and always will. They made themselves as visible as possible, were charming to all, promised everything to everyone and flirted unashamedly with potential voters. They begged, bamboozled and bought voters in ways all too familiar today. In the politics of this age no holds were barred. Take care to have followers at your heels everyday - followers of every class, kind and age. From their numbers people can figure out how much power and support you are going to have at the pools.' The rules of the game were spelt out in a how-to-campaign document drawn up for Cicero's use by his brother in 64 B.C. It must have worked, for Cicero, a small-town boy with no important connections gained entr,e in to the highest political circles and even got himself elected consul. Cicero frere was firm on several points. You particularly need to use flattery. No matter how vicious or vile it is on other days of a man's life, when he runs for office it is indispensable. And if you make a promise, the matter is not fixed, it is for a future day.' Politics was no more for the poor in ancient Rome than it is in our own country. From the beginning it was written into the law. The senate consisting of hundreds of members who severed for life were all required to have a sizeable fortune. And so they traditionally came from famous old families. For centuries the Establishment consisted of a small group of wealthy aristocrat. Elections only determined which one would fill the highest office and whose son got the lowest. Dress unlike now, counted. Candidates would go around in togas, the equivalent of the conservative three-piece suit and tie. They made sure they were freshly laundered to a shiny whiteness. Thus immaculately dressed they would head to the forum, Rome's main square with a cultch of hangers-on at their heels. They were an essential component of visibility. Another key member of the entourage was the name-caller. It was his job to whisper the candidate's name, so that they would have the pleasure of a personal greeting from the great man! Since there were no printing presses or radio or TV, campaigning was done by personal contact. A candidate would gravitate to any place where men tended to gather, especially the forum, then move around in an effort to get elected, sometimes button-holing potential voters (how does one button-hole a man in a toga!) and lecturing them on the benefits of voting for him as against his opponent. There were no posters in ancient Rome. Writing material was far too expensive. One only saw notices painted on the walls facing the streets. Often it was scribbled by enthusiastic supporters but some were in the fine script of professionals. Some were short and abrupt like our bumper stickers - M. Holconius for duumvir (consul) Carpinius - a good man. I appeal to you to make him aedilis (commissioner). Some beat the drum a little louder. Genialis appeals to you to elect Bruttius duumvir. He will be the watch-dog of the treasury. There were organisational endorsements. The goldsmiths to a man appeal to you - Cuspius for aedilis. Priscus for duumvir - the fruitsellers to man. Trebius for aedilis the barbers. And so right down to the garlic dealers! Some of the notices sounded like the work a man's opponents, dirty tricks Roman Style! Thus one got endorsements from all the sleepy-heads, the drunkards and the thieves. There were more effective and dramatic ways for a Roman politician to enhance his public image. He had to pick up the cost of expensive public entertainment. He would announce he was paying for the gladiatorial games at a given festival. Or he would take over the cost of theatrical events. A surefire gesture was to throw a banquet for the voting public. The great satirist Juvenal observed in his sardonic style that all Romans lived for bread and circuses. These free shows were the circuses. Not uncommon even in this day and age. Before Cicero's time campaigning had been clean and gentlemanly. But the situation soon changed. There were new styles in speech-making. Politicians gave up the dignified style of the Establishment for fire-eating oratory. The rostra, the speaker's dais in the forum, was their soapbox. It was a time when Rome's political ways really hit bottom, when the practices of Tammany Hall would have looked good by comparison. An important politician active in this age of rough politics was Julius Caeser, the great General who had conquered Gaul and bestrode the narrow world like a Colossus.' All that came later. For years he had been Rome's worst rabble-rouser. He had a talent for managing mobs and leading gangs of bully boys to places where elections were held. And he was a genius when it came to getting people to lend him money. This enabled him to spend lavishly on political gestures. He once gave a gladiatorial show that offered no less than 320 contests. The one man who was a thorn in his side was Cato. He was of stern old Roman stuff. He was unfazed by Caeser's roughnecks and often attempted to block preparations to ram through some legislation. But he was not always lucky. Once when to tried to obstruct a meeting, Caeser's men hauled him down from the dais from which he was speaking and packed him off to prison. The years later Caeser crossed the Rubicon to make himself dictator, Five years later he was assassinated and when the smoke of civil war disappeared Rome was no longer a Republic. |
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