Political Representation(s) in Rome

Abstract

According to the conventional account, the concept of political representation played no active role before the early Middle Ages. But this vision is misguided. In Rome—not only under the Republic, but also during the imperial period—the practice of power was premised on a variety of forms of political representation. This claim is not entirely without precedent. One classicist, Gary Remer, has suggested that Cicero articulated a robust concept of the orator as political representative in his philosophical works. But this article carries the argument further. Various forms of political representation underpinned politics, operating at many levels and taking many forms beyond the standard election-based account, including personal representation and symbolic and cultural representation. This historical account grounds an intervention in political and legal theory. It helps construct a flexible and multidimensional account of representation, which illuminates modern representative dynamics with more nuance.