Trybunat M. Lolliusza Palikanusa (71 r. p.n.e.)

Abstract

Described here are the activities of M. Lollius Palicanus, tribune of the plebs in 71 B.C. and one of the most outstanding, populares leaders in the seventies B.C. Palicanus political orientation, his programme and agitation to forward its concepts are presented. The tribune’s links with other politicians and the populares’ alliances with the social groups supporting them are also described. Special attention has been paid to the results of Palicanus’s speeches, his contribution to the subversion of Sulla’s reforms which were introduced by the consuls Gn. Pompeius and M. Crassus in 70 B.C. The investigations carried out show that the contribution of Palicanus and the populares to these changes was greater than has hitherto been acknowledged by historians. The reforms were not only promoted by Pompeius and Crassus, but they were also one of the results of the political struggle carried on by the populares against the optimales in the seventies B.C.