Contio

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Contio (Latin; original form conventio , from convenire , "to come together") was an informal gathering of the people in the Roman Republic . It was convened by a magistrate who wanted to convey certain news or make announcements to the people, e.g. B. on draft laws. A contio usually preceded the comitia . In contrast to the Comitia, however, it was not named after Curiae , Centuries or Tribesdifferentiated, neither voted nor elected; this could be discussed here, while in the actual meetings it was only possible to approve or reject. In the late republic, a contio was also used for political agitation , in particular by means of tribunes .

The character and function of the contiones are controversial in current research. While ancient historians such as Egon Flaig take the traditional view that political will-formation took place in these assemblies (in contrast to the actual popular assemblies), others, such as Henrik Mouritsen, are of the opinion that the Contiones were more like rallies at which politicians joined their supporters would have spoken.

In the Roman army , the Contio was a kind of council of war or army assembly.

literature

  • Egon Flaig : Ritualized Politics. Signs, gestures and rule in ancient Rome (= historical semantics. Vol. 1). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-525-36700-7 .
  • Dominique Hiebel : Rôles institutionnel et politique de la contio sous la République romaine (287–49 av. J.-C.) . de Boccard, Paris 2009, ISBN 978-2-7018-0260-2 (Paris, University of Paris II, dissertation, 2005).
  • Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp : Concordia Contionalis. The rhetorical construction of consensus in the Roman Republic . In: Egon Flaig (ed.): Genesis and dynamics of majority decision-making . Oldenbourg, Munich 2013, pp. 101–128.
  • Henrik Mouritsen: Plebs and Politics in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2001, ISBN 0-521-79100-6 .
  • Francisco Pina Polo : Las contiones civiles y militares en Roma. Universidad de Zaragoza - Departamento de Ciencias de la Antigüedad, Zaragoza 1989, ISBN 84-600-7119-7 (also: Zaragoza, University, dissertation, 1989).
  • Claudia Tiersch : Political public instead of participation? On the role of the contiones in the middle and late Roman republic. In: Klio . Vol. 91, No. 1, 2009, 40-68, doi : 10.1524 / klio.2009.0003 .
  • Manuel Tröster : Roman Politics and the Whims of the Crowd. The Plebs Contionalis Revisited. In: Latomus . Vol. 72, No. 1, 2013, pp. 128-134.