Populism, Ancient and Modern Rethinking the Political Culture of the Late Roman Republic

The paper explores the link between populism and political instability in the late Roman republic using key insights gained from studies of contemporary politics to enhance our understanding of its political culture. The aim is to refine our approach by adding a new theoretically informed dimension, inspired by the works of modern political scientists, above all those of Jan-Werner Muller, who has emphasised anti-pluralism as a key characteristic of populism. Applying this approach, republican Rome emerges as a profoundly populist and antagonistic political culture, with a public discourse dominated by populist tropes and exclusionary claims to represent the 'people'. The populist mode of engagement was closely linked to the absence of parties and the personalisation of the political field which that entailed. In practice, the 'universal populism' of republican Rome expressed itself in an all-pervasive concern with popularity, claims to which provided a vital means of asserting political legitimacy.