Complot au Carcer: un nouveau regard sur l’affaire Pleminius (204-194 av. J.-C.)

Abstract

EnglishThis paper reconsiders a well-known episode of the second Punic war, the Pleminius case. It deals more particularly with one of Livy’s versions, according to which the legate died ten years after being imprisoned for trying to foment a project of arson, in order to escape his prison. This case has often been discussed since Mommsen, and the hypothesis of a conspiracy has been dismissed many times. However, it seems that several methodological approaches have been neglected or, on the contrary, too quickly adopted in the study of the case: to reconsider the event by integrating some recent works on Roman imprisonment and to replace it in the longue duree of the republican period leads to new interpretations of both Pleminius’s plot and death francaisIl s’agit de revenir ici sur un episode connu de la seconde guerre punique, l’affaire Pleminius (204-194 av. J.-C.), et plus particulierement sur l’une des versions liviennes du recit, qui fait mourir le legat criminel dix ans apres le debut de son incarceration pour avoir, depuis sa prison, ourdi le projet d’incendier la cite afin de faciliter son evasion. Cette affaire a fait l’objet, depuis Mommsen, de vives discussions et l’hypothese d’un complot de Pleminius a souvent ete remise en question. Toutefois, il apparait que plusieurs approches methodologiques ont ete negligees ou, au contraire, trop rapidement adoptees dans l’etude de ce recit. En reconsiderant l’evenement a la lumiere de travaux recents sur l’incarceration a Rome et en privilegiant le temps long de la periode republicaine, nous tenterons de proposer un nouveau regard sur le complot et la mort de Pleminius