Introduction
For centuries, the Roman Republic stood as a shining example of representative government in the ancient world. Though not a full democracy by modern standards, the Romans developed a complex system of elections, assemblies and magistracies that distributed political power among the patrician aristocracy, equestrian businessmen, and common plebeians. Within this structure, ambitious politicians vied for the votes and support necessary to climb the cursus honorum, or ladder of offices, with the consulship as the crowning achievement.
But what did it take to win an election in the Roman Republic? How did candidates navigate the treacherous waters of tribal assemblies, soldier votes, backdoor bargains and public spectacles to come out on top? And what do the campaign strategies of figures like Cicero, Pompey and Caesar reveal about the realities of Roman politics and its ultimate downfall? Let‘s take a closer look at some key principles and case studies of Roman electioneering as seen through the eyes of a historian.
The Mechanics of a Roman Election
First, some basic context on how elections worked in republican Rome. Most officeholders, from the lowly quaestors to the mighty consuls, were chosen annually by various citizen assemblies. The Comitia Centuriata elected consuls, praetors and censors, with voters grouped into wealth-based classes and centuries that gave outsized influence to the rich. The Comitia Tributa, grouped by geographic tribes, elected the lower magistrates. And the Concilium Plebis, open only to plebeians, chose the powerful tribunes who could veto Senate proposals and initiate legislation.
To stand for office, candidates had to be male citizens meeting certain age and wealth requirements. Many posts also had sequential requirements, forcing candidates to slowly work their way up the ladder. An aspiring consul, for instance, typically had to first serve as quaestor (treasurer), then aedile (public works/games supervisor), then praetor (military commander/judge), before finally standing for the chief magistracy.
The campaign season usually kicked off well in advance of the actual voting day. During this time, candidates would register their official intention to run, line up key endorsements, and launch their public appeal to voters. On the night before the vote itself, contenders and their allies would often stage elaborate parades, rallies and feasts to whip up enthusiasm. Finally, voters would gather at dawn in the Campus Martius, get herded into tribe pens, file across wooden bridges to cast ballots, and await the results – unless a freak thunderstorm, unfavorable auspice (divine sign) or outbreak of violence forced a cancellation.
Tried and True Tactics: Cicero‘s Playbook
To see these mechanics in action, let‘s consider one of the most famous campaign stories from the late Roman Republic: Marcus Tullius Cicero‘s long-shot bid for the consulship in 64 BC. Though he had built a successful career as a lawyer and orator, Cicero lacked the aristocratic pedigree of most consular candidates. So how did this novus homo (new man) beat the odds?
According to his brother Quintus‘ campaign guide, the Commentariolum Petitionis, Cicero‘s winning formula involved a mix of tireless canvassing, clever coalition-building, and character attacks on his rivals. On the retail side, Cicero made sure he was constantly pressing the flesh in the Forum, asking about voters‘ families, and dropping the names of mutual acquaintances to build rapport. He also leveraged his equestrian business ties and oratory fame to organize support across different social classes.
Perhaps most importantly, Cicero wasn‘t afraid to go negative. When a patrician opponent named Catiline began bribing voters and plotting a possible coup, Cicero made sure all of Rome knew about the conspiracy, torpedoing Catiline‘s campaign and casting himself as the Republic‘s savior. It was a masterful bit of political jiujitsu that showcased Cicero‘s rhetorical and tactical brilliance.
Money, Muscle and Manipulation: The Dirtier Side of Roman Politics
Of course, not every Roman campaign was as high-minded as Cicero‘s anti-corruption crusade. In reality, bribery, coercion and other shady tactics were rampant, especially as the Republic entered its death throes in the 1st century BC. Candidates would routinely flout the ban on overt vote-buying known as ambitus by disguising bribes as gifts, loans or legal fees. Those with serious money to burn organized lavish banquets, games and victory parties in a loophole-filled attempt to skirt the rules.
Even more insidious was the use of organized violence to suppress or intimidate voters. As civil wars and street fights between rival factions became increasingly common in the late Republic, politicians took to recruiting gangs of thugs to attack opponents‘ supporters and voting sites. The patrician clan leader Publius Clodius Pulcher and his street-fighting rivals like Titus Annius Milo turned electioneering into a literal blood sport in the 50s BC.
Perhaps no one mastered the combination of mass popularity and elite patronage better than Julius Caesar. From his earliest campaigns for pontifex maximus (chief priest) and praetor, Caesar courted the plebeians through generous public spectacles and grants of citizenship, while also cultivating key allies in the Senate like the vastly wealthy Marcus Licinius Crassus. By the time of his first consulship in 59 BC, Caesar had become so dominant that the Senate essentially had to beg him to restrain the urban mob violence – violence his own partisans had helped stir up.
Soldiers, Slaves and Senators: Mobilizing Voting Blocs
Amidst all the bribes and brawls, one key to victory in Roman elections was identifying and mobilizing key voting blocs. Though Roman voting procedures were complex, a candidate could gain a significant edge by winning over groups like military veterans, freedmen (former slaves), and of course the senatorial class. In the late Republic especially, figures like Pompey the Great leveraged their popularity with the troops to score political points and pack the assemblies with supporters.
Freedmen, who gained citizenship and voting rights upon release from slavery, also became a crucial constituency. Many of these "new citizens" felt a strong sense of loyalty to their former masters and would reliably vote as a clientela bloc for their patron‘s preferred candidates. Clodius, for one, built his populist power base in part by registering thousands of freedmen and urban plebs to vote in his re-created "street tribes".
And of course, let‘s not forget the 800-pound gorilla in every Roman election: the Senate. While senators couldn‘t vote in the assemblies directly, they held enormous indirect sway through webs of patronage, favors and familial ties. Candidates needed at least some modicum of senatorial support to be seen as viable, and a nod from a respected senior statesman could make or break a campaign. That‘s why figures like Cicero put so much work into courting the conscript fathers with flowery speeches and closed-door dealmaking.
All Politics is Local: The Art of Roman Retail
At the end of the day, though, even the most powerful and well-connected Roman politicians still had to put in the hard work of retail campaigning. Candidates would spend months before an election traveling to the 35 voting tribes scattered across Italy, making stump speeches in town squares, and attending neighborhood assemblies to drum up support one handshake at a time.
Cicero, for his part, estimated that he spent at least 17 days glad-handing outside Rome during his consular campaign. Even heavyweights like Pompey would go on weeks-long barnstorming tours of Italy when they needed to shore up their popular support. In the late 60s BC, for instance, Pompey made a series of highly publicized stops around the countryside to dedicate new public buildings and dole out favors to local elites.
This kind of on-the-ground campaigning was especially critical for lesser-known "new men" candidates who lacked deep family ties in the provinces. To make up for this deficit, contenders like Cicero would send letters far and wide asking well-connected friends to arrange meet-and-greets, distribute campaign literature, and generally talk them up to the provincials. They would also make sure to hit every wedding, funeral and festival they could to build up their name recognition.
The Price of Winning: Campaign Costs and Consequences
All this electioneering didn‘t come cheap. Even in the mid-Republic, Cicero griped about the "ruinous" expenses of mounting a successful campaign, from the cost of games and feasts to the salaries of campaign staff. Many up-and-coming senators had to take out huge loans or sell off assets to finance their runs, creating a vicious cycle of debt that left them vulnerable to pressure from monied interests.
By Caesar‘s time, the financial arms race had spiraled out of control. In his 2019 book "Mortal Republic", historian Edward J. Watts estimates that Caesar may have dropped the equivalent of $25 million USD on his aedileship campaign alone, staging gladiator spectacles and building monuments on a never-before-seen scale. Once in office, many politicians resorted to outright extortion and embezzlement to recoup their campaign debts – one reason Caesar was so desperate for a fat provincial governorship after his consulship.
These skyrocketing costs, along with the spread of violence and dirty tricks, contributed to a corrosive cynicism in late republican politics. Repeated bribery and corruption scandals sapped public trust in the electoral process, while blatant power grabs by strongmen like Pompey and Caesar made elections seem like a sham. By the time the Republic finally collapsed into dictatorship and civil war in the 40s BC, the days of Cicero‘s earnest door-knocking campaigns must have seemed a distant memory.
Echoes of Rome in Modern Politics
So what lessons can today‘s politicians and observers draw from the Roman experience? On one level, the techniques of status signaling, slick messaging, and constituent pandering detailed in Quintus Cicero‘s campaign manual are immediately recognizable to any modern campaign hack. Even in a world of TV ads and Twitter memes, the basic tactics of pressing the flesh, brokering key endorsements, and mobilizing one‘s natural voting base remain as relevant as ever.
At the same time, the fate of the Roman Republic offers a cautionary tale about money, demagoguery and institutional decay in a polarizing republic. In a system where a few mega-donors can single-handedly bankroll a candidate, the line between campaign finance and bribery blurs just as it did in Rome. And when hyper-partisans prefer smearing enemies to debating issues, the Roman example shows how quickly political violence can spiral out of control.
Finally, Rome‘s demise underscores just how fragile republican institutions can be in the face of demagogues who put their own power above the common good. Whether it‘s Catiline plotting coups in "defense" of the poor or Caesar marching his troops past the Rubicon while "technically" still consul, would-be dictators have always tried to cloak their power grabs in the language of people‘s tribunes. As historian Mary Beard puts it in her 2015 book "SPQR", "the Republic was not destroyed by the greed or ambition of a few individuals, but by the failure of a whole political system".
Conclusion
So in the end, while some political advisors may still look to Quintus‘ Commentariolum as a timeless how-to guide, winning an election in republican Rome was never purely about clever slogans or slick handshakes. It was a full-contact blood sport shaped by money, violence, patronage and demagoguery as much as high-minded appeals to civic virtue. And though a gifted orator like Cicero could still sometimes come out on top, the slow-motion collapse of the Republic shows just how quickly a system based on back-room deals and personality cults can crumble.
As we reflect on our own troubled times, perhaps the real lesson of Rome‘s example is to look beyond the Ciceros and Caesars to the nameless Italians who braved bribery and bullying every election to cast their ballots. For in the end, it‘s the unglamorous work of showing up, organizing and keeping the system honest that makes a republic run. Food for thought the next time a self-styled populist promises to Make Rome Great Again.
References
Beard, M. (2015). SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. Profile Books.
Brunt, P.A. (1988). The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays. Clarendon Press.
Cicero, M.T. (1979). Commentariolum Petitionis. Harvard University Press.
Cicero, M.T. (1999). Letters to Atticus. Penguin Classics.
Lintott, A. (1999). The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Clarendon Press.
Millar, F. (2002). The Crowd in Rome in the Late Republic. University of Michigan Press.
Plutarch. (1958). Plutarch‘s Lives. Modern Library.
Suetonius. (2003). The Twelve Caesars. Penguin Classics.
Watts, E.J. (2019). Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny. Basic Books.
