INTRODUCTION

This chapter studies the concept of res publica. Its goal is not to offer a linear hisВtory of the notion, but to analyze its usages at certain significant moments and thus to reveal the multiplicity of experiences and references on which this concept was constructed.

Respublica must indeed be studied as an вЂњhistorical category,вЂќ an utterance whose complexities cannot be exhausted simply by evoking its polysemy, because its meaning is not, contrary to what we read everywhere, common to all; it is not вЂњintrinsic to the utterance.вЂќ^[127] Indeed, it can also be the object of a conflict of meanВing or of misunderstandings, in the same way that it can become clear that we no longer question it. We will thus not seek to restore the вЂњtrue senseвЂќ of res publica, the one that we could find in a dictionary, but rather to establish the differences in meaning and especially the issues that reveal the uses of the term by different actors of the same period. It is thus a question of working on its historicity, of reintroducВing politics and even ideology, in our approach to the notion.

Taking the different actors into account also means studying the references in previous eras, for the actors themselves have a memory; they refer explicitly or by allusion to the experiences of the past, either to protest against the events of their own time or to justify their present action. The study will thus associate two tempoВralities: one, the co-presence of meaning in tension, and the other, reference, which does not however imply a continuity of meaning between the present and the past. Each age constructs its references starting from the necessities of the present, withВout worrying about the reality of the past.

We must clearly distinguish these two temporalities (co-presence and reference) from the impressive lexical continuity that characterizes the history of the notion (as indeed all Roman political vocabulary) or from its translations into Greek.

Thus we find stereotyped expressions in abundance in the texts, with adjectives to qualify res publica (restituta, vindicata, turbata, fessa, contempta respublica^[128]), verbs to de- scribe the actions of which it is the object (constituere or augere rem publicam^[129]), situations that relate to it (rei publicae causa,^[130] ^{^[131] utilitas rei publicae³), metaphors to represent the extension of it (corpus, for example^[132]), etc. There exists undeniably a mode of thinking in slogans and pre-conceived ideas, in ready-made metaphors and allegories. But this lexical continuity hides a semantic and symbolic discontinuity of which authors in antiquity were very much aware.^[133] Thus, we cannot work only to explore the literal meaning in order to advance in our understanding of these two words, res publica, joined together over the centuries, but also separable, nor can we invoke the вЂњcontextвЂќ to apply anachronistic categories to it (State, Republic, comВmonwealth, etc.), as if the context were somehow incidentally outside of it. Some principles must guide our inquiry.
It is important, first of all, to distinguish several sources of the production of meaning: the normative level, legal relationships, and the symbolic dimension. DeВpending on the weight of one or the other at certain times, res publica can be conВsidered in its materiality alone (the public goods), or as a transcendent norm, or else as a signifier without content or even as a signified without an exact signifier. At the end of the Republic for example, the symbolic dimension occupied almost all of the discursive space, whether it was denied (by Caesar, who considered the res publica as a simple word without a body or even an appearance) or over-interpreted (by the optimates, who thus made of it the supreme norm of political and moral action).
By the same token, we cannot isolate the notion and attempt absolutely to deВfine it.
In a general way, antique words instead have a вЂњrelativeвЂќ meaning, and the notions answer one another. It is necessary therefore to analyze the lexical constelВlation of which res publica is a part, in political, legal, rhetorical, and literary texts. To which other notions is it connected or opposed? Within which semantic fields does it fall? Finally, we must consider the tensions that are apparent between the different sources: for example between the jurisprudential literature and imperial propaВganda, between legal and rhetorical texts, or else within the same text between the narration and the discourse. These tensions reflect the plurality of the actors in hisВtory, and the historian who would study them must find their voices, which exist like a palimpsest or photographic negative in the sources.
Thus it is with these principles in mind that I propose to analyze the notion of res publica in the age of Caracalla: did the extension of citizenship have as a corolВlary a transformation of the meanings and usages of res publica? Which expectaВtions does the notion serve to express and for which actors? The question invites us to multiply our points of view (those of the princeps, the citizens, and the local res publicae), which requires us to deal with topics as diverse as majesty, fiscality, the repartition of public property, and Roman universalism. This chapter studies the extension of the res publica under two guises, spatial and temporal - in analyzing the constellation to which res publica belongs in this era and the developments that affect the definition of crimes against the State. As for the definition of this age of Caracalla, we will consider it in a rather loose manner, for several reasons: first of all, CaracallaвЂ™s constitution was, so to speak, anticipated by the intellectuals of the second century or by the habit ofjurists and of leaders to extend to non-citizens the rights and procedures legally reserved for citizens^[134]; then, the effects of the Antonine Constitution took time to enter into law,^[135] while the fulfillment of a universal citizenВship was not truly achieved before Justinian.^[136]
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Source: Ando Clifford (ed.). Citizenship and Empire in Europe, 200-1900: Antonine Constitution after 1800 Years. Franz Steiner Verlag,2016. вЂ” 261 p.. 2016

INTRODUCTION

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