Affari, complotti e pane in campagna elettorale: il Commentariolum Petitionis ([Q. Cic.] comm. pet. 49), il Satyricon (Petron. 44.3), la propaganda pompeiana,

The paper offers a new interpretation of the negotia ac pericula mentioned into the Commentariolum petitionis as something candidates had to assure their supporters when canvassing for offices. In particular, this passage from the Commentariolum ([Q. Cic.] comm. pet. 49) is analysed together with a passage of the Cena Trimalchionis where agreements of a fraudulent nature between pistores (‘bakers’) and aediles are referred to (Petron. 44.3) and together with what one knows of such possible agreements from the praxis of the electoral campaign known from the programmata in Pompeii. Although the Commentariolum is apparently written in occasion of Cicero’s candidacy to consulship in 64 BC, this brief handbook receives new lights from a crossed examination with what the walls of Pompeii and the speeches of Petronian freedmen reveal on the praxis of the electoral campaign.