Title

On a Defense of Democracy: How Roman Delatores and Emperors Dismantled Libertas and Established the Principate in the Early Roman Empire

Authors

Justin R. Scott, Xavier University, Cincinnati, OHFollow

Document Type

Capstone/Thesis

Faculty Advisor

Thesis Director: Dr. Thomas E. Strunk; Thesis Reader: Dr. Alexandros Laftsidis; Thesis Reader: Dr. Karim Tiro; HAB Course Director: Dr. Shannon Byrne

Date

2020-5

Abstract

Precis

My thesis argues that the delatores’ legal and political actions restricted political freedom and cemented a shift in authority from the Roman Senate to the Roman Emperor. This thesis utilizes primary works from Cicero, Dio, Pliny the Younger, Quintilian, Suetonius, and works from Tacitus, that had lived under the times when the delatores held the most power and influence over Rome. I also include secondary scholarship about how historians have understood the impact of the delatores on the Roman political and legal systems, all of which explain who the delatores were and how they impacted Roman society after the establishment of the Principate. I divide the argument into the three sections: 1) Republican law, 2) the delatores and loss of freedom, and 3) Imperial law.

Recommended Citation

Scott, Justin R., "On a Defense of Democracy: How Roman Delatores and Emperors Dismantled Libertas and Established the Principate in the Early Roman Empire" (2020). Honors Bachelor of Arts. 43.
https://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/hab/43

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