Preface

When Al Bertrand first approached us about undertaking this volume in the Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World series, in the spring of 2000, the need for it seemed self-evident. Older works like the venerable surveys of H. H. Scullard were very dated both in their overall approach to the subject and their presentation of major controversies. Meanwhile, the continuing archaeological exploration of Italy had vastly enriched our picture of early Rome as well as the Republic. Increasingly sophisticated analysis of the literary aims and research methods of the Latin historiographical tradition had heightened the challenge of confronting the great evidentiary problems of republican history. A sociological approach and a reorientation of perspective from Rome to the imperial periphery had combined to revitalize our understanding of Roman imperialism. Even the study of politics had moved well beyond prosopography and the play of factions; ‘‘political culture’’ had moved to the front and center, and types of evidence formerly neglected were being scrutinized with methods relatively new to the Roman historian. We felt that the time was ripe for a book that could provide students, scholars, and general readers with an up-to-date, one-volume companion to the history of republican Rome, comprising a series of essays on central themes and debates by a number of leading scholars in the field. Although we expected its primary readership to be undergraduate and graduate students, we also hoped that the volume would highlight some of the best recent work in various areas of specialization and thus be of interest to scholars both inside and outside this particular area of study. In the meantime the Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic edited by Harriet Flower has appeared, boasting excellent contributions by a number of distinguished scholars, a few of whom have also contributed to our volume. That admirable work went far to meet the need just described, yet we hope readers will agree that there is still room for another book of this nature. In keeping with the generous parameters laid down for the series, the Blackwell Companion to the Roman Republic is considerably larger, which should allow for more exposition, analysis, and narrative over a wider variety of topics in greater depth and detail.

Our broad goal has been to present a variety of important themes in republican history as it is currently practiced while still retaining the narrative force and drama of the Republic’s rise and fall. Our introductory section emphasizes the raw material of ancient history - not simply the evidence of texts and physical remains, but broader questions of the models and assumptions that scholars have brought to these artifacts, whether consciously or not, and that continue to shape their interpretations of them. The section opens with a broad historiographical survey of scholarship on the Republic from the early twentieth century up to the present. Chapters 2 and 3 on literary sources, and epigraphy and numismatics introduce readers to crucial types of evidence for the Roman Republican historian, while Chapter 4 surveys the development of the archaeological ‘‘face’’ of the Roman city from the beginning of the Republic to its end. Scholars are also now more than ever aware of the role that the physical environment and landscape have played in shaping the human actions that have taken place within them: hence Chapter 5, ‘‘The Physical Geography and Environment of Italy.’’ Part II consists of four chapters of compact but relatively detailed narrative of military and political developments from the city’s origins to the death of Julius Caesar. The central goal of this part of the book is to delineate clearly the diachronic framework for the distinct thematic chapters to follow, where analysis and problems of interpretation can be more fully treated. The remainder of the volume is organized under several broad rubrics intended to highlight recent research and current debates in the field. Part III, ‘‘Civic Structures,’’ examines the fundamental underpinnings of the Republic (religion, law, the constitution, and the army) while Part IV (social structure, demography, and Roman women) surveys the wealth of studies that have enriched these topics in recent years. Part V, ‘‘Political Culture,’’ examines the city of Rome, aristocratic values, popular power, patronage, rhetoric and public life, and reflects the important, new research on these subjects that has energized and enlarged the study of the Republic’s political history. Included here is Chapter 21, ‘‘The Republican Body,’’ which exemplifies how contemporary studies of republican cultural history are opening important new perspectives on the ways in which power and authority were constructed and wielded in the political arena at Rome. The contemporary focus on the process by which a collective sense of ‘‘Romanness’’ was forged out of the rich diversity of Italy (Romans and ‘‘others,’’ history and collective memory, art, literature) is examined in ‘‘The Creation of a Roman Identity’’ (Part VI). The final, seventh part treats a selection of perennial ‘‘controversies’’ (imperialism, agrarian change, Rome’s relations with Italy, and the Republic’s ‘‘fall’’).

While the seven parts of the book group obviously related themes or types of study, readers should not allow this structure to obscure the many connections that exist between chapters that appear in different sections. We have attempted to mark the more direct interconnections by cross-referencing, but it may also be helpful to highlight in advance a few such points of contact that may not be immediately obvious from a mere perusal of the list of contents. The physical remains, topography, and monuments of the city of Rome during the Republic are discussed in some detail in various parts of the volume: not only Chapters 4 and 16, those most explicitly focused on the urban environment, but 23 (on Roman ‘‘collective memory’’) and 24 (art and architecture) as well. A reader exploring ‘‘political culture’’ or the current debate about Roman ‘‘democracy’’ would do well to start with Chapter 1, which contains an extensive critical review of recent work in this area, before moving on to Part V; and Chapter 23 relates just as closely with this group as it does with those in its immediate proximity. Similarly, readers particularly interested in Part IV’s exploration of society should look also to Chapters 13 (on the army), 16 (city of Rome), 19 (patronage) and 27 (economy). Chapters 4 (archaeology) and 20 (rhetoric and public life) contribute notably in their own right to the topic of Part VI, ‘‘The Creation of a Roman Identity.’’ Finally, the special problems posed by the literary sources for the early Republic are discussed extensively in the relevant narrative chapter (6) as well as, rather more briefly, the introduction to literary sources in Chapter 2.

Inevitably, some topics and issues are more fully explored than others. Certain omissions proved impossible to remedy within the limitations of time and space under which we were working: so, for example, we regret the lack of an introduction to archaeological methods and approaches to Republican history, and also of a study of the provinces as such. Yet we hope that in sum these chapters will convey the wide interest of much of the work currently being done in Roman Republican history, broadly defined. We are particularly pleased to present here the work of a number of leading international scholars who normally write in languages other than English, and we hope that one of the chief merits of this volume will be to introduce Anglophone students (and perhaps some scholars) to this important body of work.

We warmly thank all of our contributors for their good humor, mostly good timing, and tolerant submission to our occasional editorial hectoring. Those who submitted contributions in foreign languages were very generous with their time in responding to our many queries. We also wish to thank the many others who lightened the burden of bringing this project to fruition. The series editor, Al Bertrand, was responsible for the inception of this book and has remained a constant source of help and encouragement throughout its long and at times difficult gestation. We also thank Angela Cohen and the production staff at Blackwell for their responsiveness and patience. Translations of Chapter 1 by Benjamin Wolkow and of Chapters 19 and 29 by Robert Martz served as the basis for the final versions, and Denice Fett ably shouldered much of the enormous burden of compiling the bibliography. Mark Pobjoy assisted us enormously by correcting a number of potentially confusing slips in the bibliography. Finally, and most importantly, we would like to thank our families, Sara, Eric, and Matthew, Anne and Zoe, for their understanding and support through this project which consumed so much of our time and attention.

Robert Morstein-Marx Santa Barbara, California Nathan Rosenstein Columbus, Ohio

A Companion to the Roman Republic Edited by Nathan Rosenstein, Robert Morstein-Marx Copyright © 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd