Cassius Dion et les magistratures de la Républiqueromaine : le discours de Catulus contre la Rogatio Gabinia (36, 31-36)

Abstract

In book 36 of his Roman History, the Severan historian Cassius Dio devotes a large place to the lex Gabinia, which, in 67 BC, provided Pompey with an extraordinary imperium, in order to crush the overwhelming spreading of piracy in the Mediterranean sea. While dealing with the last contio before the vote, Dio inserts three speeches, the longest being Catulus’one, a vigorous and elaborate defence of the system of republican magistracies. This often neglected text, which reflects adequately the ideas of the optimates aroused against the dangers of such an imperium, is also an interesting piece of Dio’s own political reflection about the history of Rome’s successive regimes : in his opinion, the lex Gabinia was a turning point on the way to monarchy, and so had it to be presented to his readers.