The Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies is delighted to announce that Michael Nash has successfully defended his MA by Research in Classical & Archaeological Studies, under the supervision of Professor Ray Laurence, with a thesis entitled ‘Qua Re Qui Possum Non Esse Popularis: The Representation of ‘Populares’ in the Late Roman Republic’.
The thesis is an evaluation of trends exhibited by politicians in the Late Roman Republic. It traces the employment and development of approaches typically labelled as popularis or optimate to demonstrate that these terms were flexible and could be used to define a diverse range of politicians and their strategies. This is followed by an analysis of Cicero’s works to show how the discussed politicians were perceived a generation later and how this could be exploited within Late Republican oratory for a political advantage.
Our congratulations to Michael.
For more details of research programmes in Classical & Archaeological Studies see: www.kent.ac.uk/secl/classics/postgraduate/index.html