Problems and challenges of historical research on corruption. The Roman Republic
Abstract
The article analyses corruption as a complex, often ambiguous, phenomenon linked to individual and collective behaviors and mentalities that are perceived as illegitimate or immoral, and thus as deviated from established norms. Beyond reductionist and objectivist approaches to common places of political corruption, or to typified criminal acts, this contribution seeks to highlight the importance of historical discourse analysis for the study of the topic. This approach permits to reconstruct contexts in which corruption is identified, as well as analyse multisided discourses about such practices. This piece proposes an insight into a remote period, yet in some respects also close to us, the last century of the Roman Republic. The available evidence allows to critically evaluate fundamental aspects of the rhetoric construction of corruption and its grey-zones, such as the sometimes-blurred distinction between gift and bribery.
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