Il lessico del potere e del prestigio nella Roma repubblicana: sinonimi e antonimi

This study starts from the analysis of the word auctoritas. It comes from the ancient sacral language and expresses the consideration of the prestigious man who manages to get approval and to influence the decisions of other people. Auctoritas is the abstract expression of the power of nobilitas. It is based not only in the genus but also in the virtues of balance and wisdom. These virtues describe an ethical-behavioral model – supported by the oligarchic group – which was the essential prerequisite for a politician to aspire to auctoritas and an active role in republican Rome. Consequently, to block someone’s path to power, he was accused of having diverged from that ethical paradigm, even going so far as to accuse him of subversion. This happens in Catilina, in the pretentious oratory construction of Cicero’s Catilinariae.