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Powerful Matrons
The mos maiorum stated that only men could hold magistracies and military office, operating in the spaces dedicated to the city’s politics — the senate, the popular assemblies, the courts, the Forum. Women, on the other hand, were obliged to conform to traditional behavioural models which excluded them from any form of political activity. Nevertheless, in the 1st century BCE, the emergency situation of the civil wars led some women to undertake political initiatives. This opportunity arose from the Roman matrons’ contingent need to represent and replace the men who until recently had managed the city’s politics, and to safeguard the ruling power among the families on which the oligar...
Connected Histories of the Roman Civil Wars (88–30 BCE)
This book offers a distinctive take on the civil wars that unfolded in the Late Roman Republic. It frames their discussion against the backdrop of the Mediterranean contexts in which they were fought, and sets out to bring to the centre of the debate the significance of provincial agency on a traumatic and complex process, which cannot be understood through an exclusive focus on Roman and Italian developments. The study of the late Republican civil wars can be productively read as an exercise of ‘connected history’, in which the fundamental interdependence of the Mediterranean world comes to the fore through a set of case studies that await to be understood through a properly integrative approach. Our project brings together an international and diverse lineup of scholars, who engage with a wide range of literary, documentary, and archaeological material, and make a collective contribution to the reframing of a problem that requires a collaborative and interdisciplinary outlook, and can yield invaluable insights to the understanding of the Roman imperial project.
The triumviral period: civil war, political crisis and socioeconomic transformations
Nothing from the subsequent Augustan age can be fully explained without understanding the previous Triumviral period (43-31 BC). In this book, twenty experts from nine different countries and nineteen universities examine the Triumviral age not merely as a phase of transition to the Principate but as a proper period with its own dynamics and issues, which were a consequence of the previous years. The volume aims to address a series of underlying structural problems that emerged in that time, such as the legal nature of power attributed to the Triumvirs; changes and continuity in Republican institutions, both in Rome and the provinces of the Empire; the development of the very concept of civil war; the strategies of political communication and propaganda in order to win over public opinion; economic consequences for Rome and Italy, whether caused by the damage from constant wars or, alternatively, resulting from the proscriptions and confiscations carried out by the Triumvirs; and the transformation of Roman-Italian society. All these studies provide a complete, fresh and innovative picture of a key period that signaled the end of the Roman Republic.
Voluntas Militum: Community, Collective Action, and Popular Power in the Armies of the Middle Republic (300–100 BCE)
Scholars, military men, and casual observers alike have devoted significant energy to understanding how the armies of the Roman Middle Republic (300 – 100 BCE) were able to function so effectively, examining their organization, hierarchy, recruitment, tactics, and ideology in close detail. But what about the concerns, interests, and goals of the soldiers who powered it? The present study argues that the military forces of the Middle Republic were not simply cogs in the Roman military machine, but rather dynamic and diverse social units that played a key role in shaping an ever-changing Mediterranean world. Indeed, the soldiers in the armies of this period not only developed connections wit...
Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman Worlds
This book employs new interdisciplinary approaches to understand multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman worlds, East and West, Classical and medieval.
Official Power and Local Elites in the Roman Provinces
Presenting a new and revealing overview of the ruling classes of the Roman Empire, this volume explores aspects of the relations between the official state structures of Rome and local provincial elites. The central objective of the volume is to present as complex a picture as possible of the provincial leaderships and their many and varied responses to the official state structures. The perspectives from which issues are approached by the contributors are as multiple as the realities of the Roman world: from historical and epigraphic studies to research of philological and linguistic interpretations, and from architectural analyses to direct interpretations of the material culture. While so...
Archaeology in the River Duero Valley
From Prehistory to the Middle Ages, from the Spanish mainland to the Portuguese Atlantic Coast, the Duero (or Douro as it is known in English because of its Portuguese translation) has served as a river of great historical importance. It is a river flowing from the past into the future with the legacy of the Homo Antecessor and the most ancient remains of European Prehistory, showcasing the first samples of inland farming during the Iberian Neolithic period and many examples of Schematic Rock Art. Before the total obliteration of archaeological sites in the Duero valley due to active agricultural labours and the course of time itself, the Archaeological and Protohistoric Society of Zamora, Z...
Understanding Integration in the Roman World
Integration is a buzzword in the 21st century. However, academics still do not agree on its meaning and, above all, on its consequences. This book offers numerous examples showing that the inhabitants of the Roman Mediterranean were “integrated”, i.e. were aware of the existence of a common framework of coexistence, without this necessarily resulting in a process of cultural convergence. For instance, the Spanish poet Martial explicitly refused to be considered the brother of the Greek Charmenion (10.65): paradoxically, while reaffirming their differences, his satirical epigram confirms the existence of a common frame of reference that encompassed them both. Understanding integration in the Roman world requires paying attention to the complex and varied responses to diversity in Roman times.
REFORM, REVOLUTION, REACTION. A SHORT HISTORY OF ROME FROM THE ORIGINS OF THE SOCIAL WAR TO THE DICTATORSHIP OF SULLA
In 133 and 123/122 BCE, the Gracchan reforms opened three cans of worms, pitting the Roman landowning elites against their poorer compatriots, Roman economic interests against those of the Italian allies, and senators against equestrians. As these cumulative divisions threatened to coalesce into a perfect storm, the noble and wealthy tribune of the plebs M. Livius Drusus in 91 boldly proposed a comprehensive if costly New Deal. The eventual annulment of Drusus’ visionary reform package set the stage for the armed rebellion of Rome’s key Italic allies. Even before the conclusion of this gargantuan struggle in 87, the deep divisions Drusus and his backers had sought to resolve, compounded ...
Lived Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World
The Lived Ancient Religion project has radically changed perspectives on ancient religions and their supposedly personal or public character. This volume applies and further develops these methodological tools, new perspectives and new questions. The religious transformations of the Roman Imperial period appear in new light and more nuances by comparative confrontation and the integration of many disciplines. The contributions are written by specialists from a variety of disciplinary contexts (Jewish Studies, Theology, Classics, Early Christian Studies) dealing with the history of religion of the Mediterranean, West-Asian, and European area from the (late) Hellenistic period to the (early) Middle Ages and shaped by their intensive exchange. From the point of view of their respective fields of research, the contributors engage with discourses on agency, embodiment, appropriation and experience. They present innovative research in four fields also of theoretical debate, which are “Experiencing the Religious”, “Switching the Code”, „A Thing Called Body“ and “Commemorating the Moment”.
