Aemilius Paullus: Conqueror of Greece - Hardcover

William Reiter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0709942850 ISBN 13: 9780709942856

Publisher: Croom Helm, 1987

Synopsis

Lucius Aemilius Paullus, largely responsible for the inclusion of Greece in the growing empire of the Republic, was one of the crucial figures in Rome's conquest of the Mediterranean. Consul in 182 and 168 BC, he devoted much of the intervening period to securing Greece for Rome, and is said to have taken the opportunity also to visit Greece as a tourist to admire its artistic treasures. He is most often presented as a man of pristine virtue and philhellenic persuasion, but this image has clouded his personality and the events in which he was involved. The aim of this study is to build up an accurate picture of the soldier and politician by scrutiny of the main sources - Livy, Plutarch and Polybius (the last of whom worked under the direct patronage of Paullus). Every aspect of Polybius' complex portrayal of his patron is examined with special emphasis given to the Polybian concepts of the statesman and the conqueror, and how Paullus complements these notions. In the case of Livy, Paullus is seen as a man schooled in the mos maiorum. The entire last extant pentad is analyzed using Livy's dramatic construct of a patrician-plebian confrontation as a basis; Livy's Paullus is molded to this motif. Finally, Plutarch's 'Life of Paullus' is viewed as an effort to use the image of Paullus for didactic purposes. History has little meaning for Plutarch, and the moralist's Paullus is the epitome of right and proper virtue. Dr. Reiter shows how each writer moulds a Paullus according to his own preconceptions, and suggests that there may be little more than a competent general and politician to be found in this much admired character. - Contents: Introduction; Polybius and the Image (Background; Polybius and Paullus; Polybius, the House of Macedon, and Paullus); Livy and the Image (Livy, Paullus and the Third Macedonian War; Livy and Roman Foreign Policies); Plutarch and the Image; Another Look (Early Years; Policies of Imperium)

About this edition

• Publisher: Croom Helm
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0709942850
• ISBN 13: 9780709942856
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 171