THE STAGE AND ITS MAIN CHARACTERS

In the hectic years between 54 and 51, Cicero celebrated the perfect construction of the res publica, the result of generations of experience. In his imaginary political dialogue set in 129, Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, the destroyer of Carthage, observed: ‘the res publica is […] that which belongs to the people. But the people does not mean every multitude of men assembled together in any manner whatsoever, but rather an organized society whose foundation is the observance of justice and the sharing of interests.’¹ The ultimate aim, the eternal government of an extraordinary city. Far from the sea and from