Anger and Politics in Ancient Rome : From the Late Republic to the Early Empire

Anger and politics are clearly intertwined in modern Western societies, but when we look back at ancient Rome we see that anger may have permeated Roman politics to an even greater degree. Through careful analysis of a rich body of surviving literary evidence, this book offers insights into ancient attitudes about political anger from diverse perspectives, and provides an assessment of anger’s role in the performance and construction of elite Roman political identity during the transition from Republic to Principate. With a focus on the use of anger in public speaking and imperial leadership, Jayne Knight shows how this emotion was conceptualised as a pragmatic but inherently risky political tool. Highlighting the importance of emotional persuasion in ancient oratory, the centrality of rhetorical training in elite Roman education and the ways in which orators deployed anger in diverse political scenarios, this book reveals how the use of anger-based strategies was influenced by historical and socio-political contexts. Rome’s transition to an increasingly autocratic form of government was marked by a heightened focus on the anger of individual political actors, a process which has striking parallels with modern events. With the establishment of the Principate, the agency politicians had to express and direct anger in public was limited, and discourse on political anger accordingly shifted its focus to the figure of the emperor and the power of his anger. Identifying the prominence of anger in late Republican and early imperial politics, and showing how anger could be used in both politically constructive and destructive ways by elite society, this book illuminates the emotional landscape of some of the most famous figures and episodes in Roman history.

Jayne Knight is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Tasmania, Australia. Her research interests include Roman cultural history, Latin literature, and ancient emotions.

Peter N. Stearns is Professor Emeritus in the Dept of History at George Mason University. His most recent publications include, as author, Cultural Change in Modern World History (Bloomsbury, 2018), Peacebuilding Through Dialogue (Virginia, 2018), Shame: A Brief History (Illinois, 2017), Sexuality in World History, Ed.II (Routledge, 2017), The Industrial Revolution in World History Ed.IV (Westview, 2016), Globalization in World History, Ed.II (Routledge, 2016), Childhood in World History, Ed.III (Routledge, 2016), The Industrial Turn in World History (Routledge, 2016), Gender in World History (Routledge, 2015), Debating the Industrial Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2015); and as editor, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World: 1750 to the Present (Oxford, 2008).

Peter N. Stearns is Provost of George Mason University, and teaches courses in world history and social history. Stearns is a past vice president of the American Historical Association, in charge of the Teaching Division. He currently serves as chair of the Advanced Placement World History committee, founded and continues to serve as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Social History. Stearns is the author or editor of over 85 books.

Susan J. Matt is Presidential Distinguished Professor of History at Weber State University, USA. She is author of Keeping Up with the Joneses: Envy in American Consumer Society, 1890-1930 and Homesickness: An American History, and co-author with Luke Fernandez of Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid: Changing Feelings about Technology from the Telegraph to Twitter. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Journal of American History.