Asinius Pollio, Gaius
Gaius Asinius Pollio (ca. 76 bce–4 ce) was a Roman literary and political figure of the Late Republican and early imperial periods. His brother was the Asinius Marrucinus accused by catullus of stealing napkins (Catullus 12). Pollio entered public life in the mid-50s and supported julius caesar (c. iulius caesar) in the civil war. He subsequently backed Mark Antony (see antonius marcus (mark antony)), serving as his legate in Transpadane Gaul. As consul, in 40 bce, Pollio brokered the Treaty of Brundisium between Antony and Octavian (see augustus). He celebrated a triumph in 39 for victories in Illyricum. He became a supporter of Octavian but declined to participate at Actium. Thereafter he retired from public life and devoted himself to his literary pursuits. 
 
 
Keywords: 
 
Augustan Age; 
literature; 
military history; 
Roman history
The Autopsy of C. Asinius Pollio*
The historical record of the Roman civil wars gives an unusual prominence to C. Asinius Pollio (76 b.c.–a.d. 4). There is more than one reason for the anomaly, not the least being that Pollio was himself largely responsible for creating that record in the form of his celebrated Historiae of the civil wars. It was this work which provided the authors we read — Appian, Dio, Plutarch, and Suetonius — with their major source for the period, and a characteristic feature of the work, as these later texts attest, was the emphasis which Pollio placed on his presence on the scene and immediate, eyewitness knowledge of much of the historical material he narrated. And yet Pollio had earned for himself at least a small place in history, independently of his historiographical activity. After the death of Caesar he played an important role in the manoeuvring which brought Mark Antony to power (three letters to Cicero survive from the period), and held the consulship in 40 B.C. (cf. Ecl. 4.1–17). Whilst consul he acted as co-sponsor of the pact of Brundisium between Antony and Octavian, and subsequently celebrated a triumph over the Parthini, a Balkan tribe.
Police and Political Violence in the 1960s and 1970s: Germany and Italy in a Comparative Perspective
Notwithstanding the significant differences between the German and Italian police models (federal and civil vs. centralised and militarised), in both countries the confrontation with the protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s had a profound impact on police conceptions and public order strategies. Police forces in some German federal states (West Berlin) followed a hard line until the late 1960s, while in others (Munich, Hamburg) reforms to the Weimar-centred police intervention tactics took place beginning in the early to mid-1960s. In Italy, traditional police conceptions and strategies remained largely unchanged and re-emerged in 1968. Here, a movement from within the police led to the demilitarisation and unionisation of the state police in 1981. In both countries, fighting left-wing terrorism in the 1970s stimulated technical modernisation and enhanced the centralisation of the police. In critical response to police tactics, in the late 1970s Germany police matters were increasingly perceived as a concern not only of the state but of civil society—even if policing remained a highly contested terrain. In Italy, such matters largely remained state concerns in which only politicians and internal security specialists were entitled to intervene.