ABSTRACT
The oldest notices, from the Republic, tend also to be the simplest, recommending someone as a ‘good man’ (F4). This was so common as to be usually abbreviated to ‘VB’ (virum bonum). The following expressions were also used to recommend candidates: ‘excellent young man’, ‘honest young man’ (F5), ‘young man of integrity’, ‘outstanding youth’, ‘extremely honourable’, ‘worthy of public office’, ‘young man deserving every good’, ‘young man of blameless age’, ‘very deserving young man’. The Latin word iuvenis translated here as ‘young man’ actually meant anyone up to 45 years old, so we should not necessarily imagine a town council dominated by twenty-somethings. Occasionally, a more unusual and elaborate recommendation is made, with some even being composed in verse (F6-7). Only rarely do the notices actually allude to what we might call the candidate’s manifesto (F8-10). The reference to good bread perhaps refers to bread distribution already made by Polybius or to one promised after his election. A wall painting, often misleadingly given the caption ‘baker’s shop’, apparently depicts a figure in a toga – possibly a candidate or magistrate – handing out loaves of bread from a platform. In addition to notices relating to votes for an individual, some notices are simply expressions of goodwill towards a candidate. For the recommendations made for one particular candidate, see further F29-72.
