Reluctant Candidates and Spontaneous Elections in Republican Rome

This article examines public displays of reluctance during Roman electoral campaigns. It traces an uncommon but observable trend in which certain individuals claimed not to be canvassing for or desirous of the political office to which they were subsequently elected. Using the election of Scipio Aemilianus to the consulship of 147 BCE as a point of departure, the article argues that staged reluctance was employed as a canvassing strategy by several prominent Roman politicians. Reluctance could be feigned to circumvent electoral restrictions, to enhance the reputation of the candidate, or even as a route to victory through reverse psychology. Staged reluctance was therefore an unconventional but effective republican canvassing technique. The Roman people, for their part, were presented as the primary agents in the election. The people were capable of creating a magistrate, even if the latter had not registered as an official candidate, with apparently spontaneous manifestations of popular will. This article examines how the electorate could come to vote for a non-candidate (part I) and why a non-candidate might claim or feign reluctance (part II). It concludes with an afterword on Augustus’ employment of this republican phenomenon (part III).