Lily Ross Taylor's Party Politics in the Age of Caesar
J. Andrew McLaughlin
© 1996 

    The book Party Politics in the Age of Caesar by Lily Ross Taylor is essentially, in most instances a work relating historical fact as far as we are able to judge from extant sources.  In any book of a historical nature we must take into account the choices of source material made by the author.  That said, it is important to realize that in modem times we are limited in the number of accounts of history passed to us directly from the ancients.  In this case, Ms. Taylor has utilized primarily the work of Cicero as the basis for historical fact in attempting to lay out her vision of late Republican- era politics in Rome.  Her approach concentrates mainly on breaking down the complex nature of the politics into its component parts in the first half of the work.  The second half uses this as a basis for her retelling and interpretation of specific historical events and trends of the era.   Only in the third chapter do we see what the author characterizes as historical interpretation differing from the commonly accepted view.

    The author has used many different sources to compose Party Politics including books, letters and published speeches, however there is a recurring theme of Cicero as primary material.  Ms. Taylor makes it clear that Cicero has certain biases in favor of the optimates, or conservative nobles of the Roman Senate, however his writings are utilized throughout the work as the primary basis of historical fact.  Thus we must consider whether in some instances there might exist a significant element of that bias.

    The third chapter attempts to present Ms. Taylor's views of the Roman balloting system, in which she feels the rural Italian community exercised greater influence than that for which it is generally given credit.  She feels that although it was much easier for urban Romans to physically attend voting procedures, the candidates for office would often rely on garnering the support of the wealthy men of the Italian towns and arrange for them to be present in Rome during the ballot.  She uses by way of example the fact that candidates would often spend the better part of a year canvassing these men and making the "right" contacts in the towns and quotes a letter by Cicero's brother advising him on the proper strategy.  The author holds that the urban masses were often used primarily as a tool for passing of legislation by the populates, whom Cicero says were using popular support as a weapon for personal political advancement against the optimates.

    During the first five of the eight chapters of Party Politics, Ms Taylor strives to present a number of major political events of the era in each chapter while concentrating primarily on their common aspects.  These chapters discuss "Personalities and Programs", "Nobles, Clients and Personal Armies", "Delivering the Vote", "Manipulating the State Religion" and "The Criminal Courts".  Thus these chapters have very little in the way of a comprehensible timeline or sequence of events; rather the book will often discuss a single event in two chapters but use them to demonstrate a different point in each instance;

    These examples of the same event serve as an illustration for the reason that the first quote is in the work intended to emphasize the importance of the praerogativa and the second as an example of manipulation of the state religion for political ends.   The last three chapters relate themes and incidents illustrative of the foundations set forth in these chapters.

    Although Party Politics refrains from expressing many new ideas about the politics of Rome, the work is useful as a perspective on different aspects of the subject.  In particular, it contains many examples of the importance of religion and even contains a bit of philosophy on the subject of the "shocking religious abuses of [the] day" (chapter 4, P. 96).  Ms. Taylor presents some thoughtful arguments about the importance of rural Italians in the voting process, and even takes a good natured swipe at the "rather sweeping statements" (chapter 3, p.50) of the differing viewpoint of one of her contemporaries.  It is a notable work of historical analysis.