The Roman Republic
ThestudentreaderoftheVerrinescouldthusnotfindanywhereinCAH^2 a
coherentpresentationofthegeographical,historical,andsocialcontextin
whichVerreshadbeenfunctioning.
TopresumeonadiscussiontowhichIwillreturnlater,thisvolumecould
only have been given coherence by a focus on Rome, and not every re-
latedregioncouldhavebeengivenseparatetreatment.Butitdoesseema
majorlackthattheheartofthelateHellenisticworld,namelyGreece,the
Aegean,andwesternAsiaMinor,appearsonlyasthebattlegroundforRoman
or Mithridatic armies (there is a splendid chapter by J. G. F. Hind on the
latter,asalsoanexcellentonebythelateA.N.Sherwin-Whiteon‘‘Lucullus,
PompeyandtheEast’’).
Giventhepriorityallotted,asaquitereasonablechoice,toGraeco-Roman
culture within ‘‘ancient history’’ asCAHconceives it, the Aegean and its
peripherywereessentialbothineconomicandsocialterms,andastheim-
mediatesourceofHellenisminItalyandRome.Itsomissionasatopicthus
obscuresevenAthensitself(seenowChr.Habicht,AtheninhellenistischerZeit,
Gesammelte Aufsätze[]),nottospeakofDelos(seeF.Coarellietal.,Delo
el’Italia[])orRhodes,notmerelyaculturalcentre,butstillamajorinde-
pendentnavalpower,asitappearsintheRomanlawontheeasternprovinces
of/..;itshistoryisdiscussedbyR.M.Berthold,RhodesintheHellenistic
Age().
OneeffectofthisomissionisthatnowhereinCAH^2 IXisthereaviewof
theworldofthemainlateHellenisticcitiesassuch,noroftheilluminating
viewpointswhich,throughalargenumberofinscriptions,theyprovideon
theevolvingRomanEmpire.Weareleftwiththewonderful,andsofarun-
challenged,accountbyRostovtzeffinthelastpartofhisSocial and Economic
History of the Hellenistic World.FortheinlandpartofAsiaMinor,dominated
bytheGalatae,wenowhavealsothemajorworkofStephenMitchell,Ana-
toliaI(),whichisessentialforunderstandingtheRomanimpact,andthe
processofprovinceformation.
Importantformalquestionsalsoremainobscure,suchastheconditions,
meaning,andextentoffreedom(libertas)asenjoyedbyGreekcities.See,for
example, R. Bernhardt,Polis und römische Herrschaft(),or J.-L. Ferrary,
‘‘Lestatutdescitéslibresdansl’Empireromainàlalumièredesinscriptions
de Claros,’’CRAI(): . The reference is to the two extraordinarily
richhonorificinscriptionspublishedbyL.andJ.Robert,ClarosI:décrets hel-
lénistiques(),which illustrate the complex way in which local notables
managed the relations between theircities and Rome. It is one inevitable
penaltyofthehugetaskof bringingsuchamassivevolumeintoexistence
thatneitherthesetextsnorthevastGreekinscriptionfromEphesos,Epigra-