Did a ritual of pushing 60-year-olds off a bridge really exist in Archaic Rome?

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There is certainly a consensus that the proverb existed. It is mentioned by Catullus, and was used (to humorous effect) by Cicero in his first speech in a criminal case.

The existence and extent of the ritual is more problematic. It is clear that the origins of the proverb had already been forgotten by the time of the late Roman Republic. A number of suggestions were made by Pompeius Festus in the late 2nd century AD, but the manuscript is fragmentary and he was writing even further from the events in time than Catullus and Cicero.

As far as I am aware the lack of evidence means that modern historians are unlikely to ever come to a consensus about the origin of the ritual.

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If the translation (it is necessary to push 60-year-olds off the bridge) is at all accurate, then this seems much more likely to be a metaphor than a recommendation for actual physical assault. In any large bureaucracy (or other organization) there is a tendency for experienced individuals to sit on their positions; and a need to clear those same individuals in order to train younger talent. Some sort of forced retirement is necessary in order to overcome the first and achieve the second.

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This probably refers to the fact that men over sixty were no longer allowed to vote in certain elections. The 'bridge' was the gangway leading to the voting urns that had become normal in the later Republic, an arrangement that made it possible for someone to vote privately and without being threatened.

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