The Roman Republic
donia(–,–,–),andforoneperiodofthreeyearsinAsia
Minor(–).Romancolonialismwasstillconfined,withoneverymar-
ginalexception,totheItalianpeninsula.
AnydiscussionofwhatwemeanbyRoman‘‘imperialism’’inthisperiod
wouldhavetomaintainsomesuchdistinctions—anditsmainfocusoughtto
beSpain,and,moreimportantstill,northernItaly.^1 ItwasinLiguria,inthe
CelticlandsofthePoValley,andinVenetiaandHistriathattheRomansof
thisperiodexhibitedaconsistentandunremittingcombinationofimperi-
alism, militarism, expansionism, and colonialism.T. Quinctius Flamininus
gainedhischancetowinthegreatvictoryofCynoscephalaeonlybecausein
March,whenthenewconsulshadenteredoffice,theSenatedecidedto
keepbothoftheminItalytoconfronttheCelts(Pol.,–).
That illustrates the point that if we talk about Roman imperialism we
must,atleastatonelevel,trytomakeclearwhoseimperialismwearedis-
cussing.Who,intheRomanpoliticalsystem,actuallydecidedthedeclaration
ofwarorthemakingofpeace,thescaleofthemilitarycall-outforeachyear
and its allotment to different areas, the answers to be given to Italian and
foreignembassies,thedespatchofcolonies:theconsulorproconsulinthe
field,theSenate,ortheRomanpeopleintheirassemblies?
ThustounderstandRomanimperialism,butnotthatalone,wemustun-
derstandtheRomanpoliticalsystemitself.Thatisofcoursehardlyanovel
observation,sincepreciselythatwasthepurposeofPolybius’analysisofthe
Romanconstitutioninbook.Bythepurestofaccidents,Polybius’seven-
teenyearsasahostageinRome(–)beganatexactlythatpointintime
where our text of Livy now breaks off. I do not, however,wish to imply
thatPolybius’evidencecomplementsthatof Livyinilluminatingthishalf
century.Onthecontrary,Livy’snarrativeisatleastequalledinsignificance
by Polybius’ account, combined with contemporarydocuments, thevivid
imagesoftheRomanpoliticalcommunityinPlautus,Ennius,andCaecilius,
andthefragmentaryremainsofthepoliticalspeechesofthetime.
This half century can also be seen by us, as it was later in antiquity, as
presentingtheclassicphaseoftheworkingoftheRomanconstitution.The
‘‘struggleoftheorders’’hadendedin.Thenumberoftribeshadreached
itspermanentlimitofthirty-fivein;soonafter,asitseems,cametheob-
scurereformwhichrelatedthecenturiesinthecenturiateassembly(comitia
centuriata) to the tribal system.The temporary strains which had produced
. Forthispoint(andmuchelse),seeA.N.Sherwin-White,Roman Foreign Policy in the
East, B.C.-A.D. (),esp.and–.