The Last Century of the Republic understandingtheancientworld.Implicitly,however,itisrathercuriousto
observe,itseemsrathertorepresenttraditional‘‘ancienthistory,’’structured
roundancientnarrativesources,ofatypewhichseemstohavenorelation-
shipatalltothe‘‘Cambridge’’styleofself-consciouscriticalanalysisofwhat
we are about which was fostered by the late M. I. Finley.What has actu-
allybeenproduced,Iobservequitewithoutsatisfaction,isclosertobeing
an‘‘Oxford’’AncientHistorythana‘‘Cambridge’’one.
EvenifaCAHvolumehasnoexplicitmethodologicalorphilosophical
programme of its own, should its contents none the less be structured so
astoenterintoexplicitdialoguewithmoderninterpretations,namingthe
authorsconcerned,andovertlydiscussingthepropositionstheyhaveputfor-
ward?Thisisdoneheretoalimiteddegree,buttheoveralltendencyismerely
topresenteachindividualauthor’sversion,oftenessentiallyanarrative,and
torelegatereferencetoothermodernwriterstoafootnote,whichitselfem-
bodiesareferencetothebibliographyattheend(efficientlyorganisedinto
sections).Thisprocedureisconsistent,andcarriedoutinaneconomicalway.
Butithardlybringsthereader,especiallythestudentreader,intoanyreal
relationshipwithmodernviewsanddebates.
More serious, to my mind, is the very slight use made overall of ex-
plicit quotation and discussion of ancient texts,whether literaryordocu-
mentary.Ancienttextsappearpredominantlyasfootnotereferences,notas
itemsembodyingtherepresentationofpresentcircumstancesorpastevents,
which themselves require discussion and interpretation. Naturally, practi-
calitiespreventthisbeingdoneoneveryoccasion.Buttheeffectisbothto
suggestthatnarrated‘‘facts’’areunproblematic,andtolimitthestudent’sdi-
rectacquaintancewiththediversematerialsoutofwhichweconstruct‘‘our’’
ancientworld.
Evenleavingasidethesefundamentalproblemsoftheory,approach,and
method,theeditorsofeveryvolumeinsuchaseriesconfrontdifficultques-
tions of principle. Is the series to be conceived of as a whole, so that the
reader will need to read across,or forward and back, from onevolume to
another?Itisanequallyinsolublequestion,whenthematerialisdividedup
intoshortchronologicalsections,toknowwhichgeographicalareasshould
beconsideredonaregionalbasis,andhowthattreatmentshouldbedistrib-
uted.Thus,forinstance,earlyHellenisticSicilybenefitsfromachapteron
AgathoclesinvolumeVII.,ff.,butthenvanishesaltogetherfromVII.,
exceptforanarrativechapteronPyrrhus(ff.);itappearsonlyinpassing
inVIII,andgetstwoandahalfpages(–)toitselfinthevolumeunderre-
view,surfacinglaterinconnectionwithVerresandprovincialgovernment.