ContestingClementia: the Rhetoric ofSeveritasin Tiberian Rome before and after the Trial of Clutorius Priscus

Abstract

This article examines a discussion about punishment which took place in Tiberian Rome. Should clementia or severitas inform the decisions of the judges and what was the proper relationship between the authority of the senate and the clementia of the princeps? My argument has five parts. I begin (I) by examining clementia and severitas in the work of Velleius Paterculus. I next (II) examine Velleius’ presentation of Tiberius as a figure who adjudicates punishment in his community. I then (III and IV) argue that Velleius’ ideas were the product of and sought to contribute to controversy about the ownership and use of clementia which can be tracked though Tiberius’ principate. Finally (V), I suggest that Tacitus made use of the rhetoric of clementia and severitas current in Tiberian Rome and that it influenced his reading of saevitia under the principate.

Evil bishop as a tyrant in Isidore of Seville’s Sententiae

“…Суть этого разрушительного воздействия тирании на политические механизмы емко выразил Цицерон: там, где властвует тиран, не может существовать народ 19 (отголоски этого утверждения мы найдем в «Сентенциях» Исидора). [Cowan 2016;Baraz 1998].…”