Rewards for violence: praemia in Roman declamation

Declamation, a practice similar to modern mock trial or model UN speeches, was very popular in ancient Rome. Beginning sometime in the first century BCE and continuing for over half a millennium, these exercises formed the capstone of the Roman education system. There were also public declamation contests, where famous orators would compete with each other to give the best speech in a situation given to them by the audience. In this dissertation, I examine a collection of laws invented specifically to be used in declamation, the laws that award prizes to anyone who performs a great service to the state. The most common of these laws grants a reward of “whatever he wants” to anyone who killed a tyrant or fought with exceptional valor in battle. I focus on these laws because they result in some of the most fantastical and unrealistic situations in declamation. The absurd nature of the cases allowed orators more freedom to test the limits of social and legal norms than more realistic declamations. Should a war hero be allowed to marry another man’s wife for his prize? Who gets the prize if a rich man hires someone else to kill a tyrant? The points Romans made in debating these sorts of questions can give us insight into how they thought about their society, government, and legal system. After an overview of the texts I work with, I provide a history of the ways these laws evolved and solidified over the centuries. I then attempt to pin down how these laws functioned in the fictionalized world of declamation, and how each law relates to actual Roman law. I end by looking at cultural norms that these declamations reinforce. This dissertation also includes a sortable spreadsheet of every declamation used.