''Amicitia'' is the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for friendship, either between individuals, between the state and an individual or between states. It was "a technical term of Roman political life" from the 2nd century BC, when, according to

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

, it was introduced by the '' Populares''

Gaius Gracchus Gaius Sempronius Gracchus ( – 121 BC) was a reformist Roman politician in the 2nd century BC. He is most famous for his tribunate for the years 123 and 122 BC, in which he proposed a wide set of laws, including laws to establish ...

and Marcus Livius Drusus, who thereby ranked their '' clientes''. The clients and allies of the

Roman state In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–50 ...

were called ''amici populi Romani'' (friends of the Roman people) and listed on the ''tabula amicorum'' (table of friends). Such ''amicitia'' did not involve treaties or reciprocal obligations. Although ''amicitia'' between individuals was ideally genuine friendship marked by mutual fondness, in practice it was often mere political alliance. Forming and breaking bonds of ''amicitia'' was thus highly formal. The ''amici Augusti'' (friends of Augustus) formed the court in imperial times.Howard Hayes Scullard and Andrew William Lintott, "Amicitia", in ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 4th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2012).

References

{{reflist Society of ancient Rome Foreign relations of ancient Rome

See also

References