IUDICIUM: THE CREATION OF PUBLIC OPINION IN THE LATE ROMAN REPUBLIC

This paper analysis the use of iudicium and iudicium populi in the political literature of the Late Roman Republic, especially in relationship with the study of public opinion. This article argues that iudicium underwent a semantic change, from an individual opinion or a collective official decision, to a collective opinion (not always in a positive sense), especially of the people. The distortion of the meaning of iudicium reached a new height during the civil wars, when Cicero employed and widened such a concept to justify his stance against Antony, even speaking unprecedently of the iudicium of the legions, which brings out an interesting aspect of the different meanings of 'people'.