The Roman Republic
morelater,andtheabsencefromCAH^2 IXofpost–SocialWarItalyismore
than unfortunate. But theLatinizationof the culture of Italy, and with it
thefocusingofcreativeliteraryeffortonRomansocietyandRomantradi-
tion,isamoreimportant,anddifficult,question.Somehow,anymeaningful
account of ‘‘Rome’’ must pose the problems of why it was not only Latin,
butexpressly‘‘Roman’’literaturewhichwastobewrittenbyCatullusfrom
Verona,VirgilfromMantua,LivyfromPatavium,andHoracefromVenu-
sia,allbornintheperiodcoveredbythisvolume,aswellasbyOvidfrom
Sulmo,bornintheyearofitsterminalpoint,..The‘‘RepublicanRome’’
which we can know is very largely the Romewhich theyconstructed for
us.Their testimony rivals that of Cicero from Arpinum, who came from
withinthesomewhatlongerestablishedzoneof Romancitizens(Arpinum
hadgainedthefullRomancitizenshipeighty-twoyearsbeforeCicero’sbirth,
in..),andisfollowedlaterbythatofGreek-speakingRomancitizens
oftheimperialperiod,Plutarch,Appian,andCassiusDio.
Thismissingproblemsimplyservestoemphasisethewiderproblemwhich
makesrepublicanhistorysodeceptivelydifficult:who,orwhatcommunity,
or communities, ought to be the subject of the history of late republican
‘‘Rome’’?Itistimetoturn,alltoobelatedly,totheyears–..
ItfollowsfromallthatissaidthatIacceptthepracticalandlogicalimpos-
sibilityoffindingaperfectstructurewithinwhichtoincorporatethema-
terial.Whateverchoiceismade,somemeaningfulandsignificantviewpoints
willbelost.Itwas,therefore,whollydefensibletotake‘‘Roman’’historyas
thefocusofthisvolume,andtotreatcoherentlyonlysomeoftheareason
whichtheEmpireprogressivelyimpinged(notealsoafairshotatthevery
difficultandnotverywelldocumentedtopicoflatePtolemaicEgypt,chap-
ter c, covering howevera mere eighteen pages). As it happens, however,
allthenon-Romanzonesortopicstreatedareeastern(Mithridates,Egypt,
the Jews). Africa, Spain, and Europe thus playa role only in the survey in
chapteron‘‘TheRomanEmpireandItsProblemsintheLateSecondCen-
tury,’’ oras and when the narrative reaches them. Fora global viewof the
interactionbetweenRomeandavarietyofsocietiesandcultures,CAH^2 IX
cannotcomparewithC.Nicolet,ed.,Rome et la conquête du monde méditerra-
néen II. Genèse d’un empire(). If onewestern region (other than Sicily)
deserved to be picked out, it was surely GalliaTransalpina, the subject of
muchdebateanddetailedworkinrecentyears;seenowE.Hermon,Rome
et la Gaule Transalpine avant César, – B.C.().
Theshapewhichthevolumeactuallytakesisfirstachapteronthecrisis
oftheRepublicandonsources;thenthepreviouslymentionedchapteron
thesecond-centuryEmpireanditsproblems;thenalongsectionofover