The Commentariolum petitionis by Quintus Cicero and the adulescentes nobiles: the barbatuli iuvenes. On the "Intergenerational Conflict" in the Late Republic

Abstract

This paper, which begins with a review of the study of youth in the late Republic, analyzes the references to youth in general, and to young noblemen in particular, in that peculiar little work composed by Arpinate's brother and known as the Candidate's Manual, in order to ask ourselves, among other questions, who constitutes this group of youths mentioned therein. Our proposal is that the youths referred to by Quintus Cicero in his pamphlet can be identified with the barbatuli iuvenes mentioned by his brother in letters to Atticus dated the first half of 61. Furthermore, and closely related to this first question, we believe that, contrary to what some authors have suggested in recent years, the events that occurred in the Urbs of the 1960s should not be viewed at all as an intergenerational conflict, a situation that, in our opinion, did not occur, at least not at that time. The erroneous interpretation of these events as a conflict between generations stems from an incorrect definition of this fundamental term.