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Irreversible Corruption

  • Irene Leonardis
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Corruption in the Graeco-Roman World
This chapter is in the book Corruption in the Graeco-Roman World

Abstract

The paper studies the political culture and discourse of the end of the Roman republic through metaphors that articulate the problem of the allegedly irreversible corruption of the Roman body politic. Besides focusing on the verb amputo as having been exploited and possibly reinvented by Cicero for his anti-tyrannical rhetoric, an analysis of various health-illness-cure narratives also reconstructs two competing scenarios developed to solve Roman (political and moral) corruption: amputation and decapitation. The main argument is that this historical moment can be fruitfully decoded through the failing of the body politic scenario framed by Menenius Agrippa’s fable of the belly and the narratives of Cicero’s beheading, which represents the symbolic death of the old res publica and its rebirth with a new head.

Abstract

The paper studies the political culture and discourse of the end of the Roman republic through metaphors that articulate the problem of the allegedly irreversible corruption of the Roman body politic. Besides focusing on the verb amputo as having been exploited and possibly reinvented by Cicero for his anti-tyrannical rhetoric, an analysis of various health-illness-cure narratives also reconstructs two competing scenarios developed to solve Roman (political and moral) corruption: amputation and decapitation. The main argument is that this historical moment can be fruitfully decoded through the failing of the body politic scenario framed by Menenius Agrippa’s fable of the belly and the narratives of Cicero’s beheading, which represents the symbolic death of the old res publica and its rebirth with a new head.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Preface VII
  4. Part 1: The Discourse(s) of and on Corruption
  5. Twisted Transfers as Corruption 1
  6. The Corrupted Speak 47
  7. Civil War and the Corruption of liberalitas in Tacitus’ Histories 65
  8. Irreversible Corruption 83
  9. Part 2: Corruption in Social Practice and Daily Life
  10. Creating Evidence for Corruption 111
  11. Corruption in Greco-Roman Egypt 129
  12. Ideas of Corruption in Roman Imperial Ports 145
  13. Suspect Inheritances 167
  14. Salvian and the Corrupted Church of Southern Gaul 199
  15. Part 3: The Politics and Diplomacy of Corruption
  16. Corruption and Anti-Corruption 223
  17. Beyond Crime 257
  18. Usurpation of (and Corruption Involving) the Right of Roman Citizenship in the Republic 287
  19. Balkan Promises 307
  20. Index 335
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111339962-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Preface VII
  4. Part 1: The Discourse(s) of and on Corruption
  5. Twisted Transfers as Corruption 1
  6. The Corrupted Speak 47
  7. Civil War and the Corruption of liberalitas in Tacitus’ Histories 65
  8. Irreversible Corruption 83
  9. Part 2: Corruption in Social Practice and Daily Life
  10. Creating Evidence for Corruption 111
  11. Corruption in Greco-Roman Egypt 129
  12. Ideas of Corruption in Roman Imperial Ports 145
  13. Suspect Inheritances 167
  14. Salvian and the Corrupted Church of Southern Gaul 199
  15. Part 3: The Politics and Diplomacy of Corruption
  16. Corruption and Anti-Corruption 223
  17. Beyond Crime 257
  18. Usurpation of (and Corruption Involving) the Right of Roman Citizenship in the Republic 287
  19. Balkan Promises 307
  20. Index 335
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