The Roman Collegia and their Political Implication

Abstract

In this paper, I mainly focus on the political function which the voluntary or involuntary associations known as the collegia carried out. Most Roman citizens seemed to be organized into collegia concerning any kind of common interest whether it was regional, professional, or religious etc. This is why collegia can be a subject illustrating a certain degree of communication, not all of it one-way, between the masses and the political class. The beginning of the collegia can be dated back to early Rome, as the Roman law allowing private associations shows. They seemed to have flourished since at least the Twelve Tables. Moreover, in the middle Republic, it seems that they were able to organize themselves freely without permission from the authorities until after the beginning of the first century BC when some governmental restrictions began to appear. The functions of professional, religious, or territorial associations were overlapping rather than mutually exclusive. Most collegia, for example, took part in funerary and religious activities. They must have also served as social clubs, caring for members during their lifetime. However, it must be noted that the collegia were not just simple social clubs. The members of collegia developed mutual relationships with each other and the collegia itself offered a ‘quasi-political experience’. Therefore it is possible to predict that the collegia, in part, shared the characteristics of an interest group, not indifferent to political issues. It can be generally said that the success of the plebeian magistrates and measures was partly due to the proper exploitation of the existing colleges, and partly due to the creation of new ones. To understand this properly, it is necessary to reconsider not only the membership and internal structure of the voluntary associations, but also the relationships between members. This paper aims to serve as an introductory proposal necessary to explore both aspects in more detail.