Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 1 - The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution

The Last Century of the Republic 

pageswhichisessentiallypolitical-militarynarrative,withthethreeeastern
sectionsinterspersed.Thefinalsection,ofnearlypages,takesanumber
ofseparatethemes:theconstitutionandpubliccriminallaw(largelyonthe
permanent courts); Roman private law; the administration of the Empire;
economy and society (an extremely stimulating section by Claude Nico-
let,explicitlydesignedtoraisewiderquestions);thecityof Romeandthe
urbanplebs,byNicholasPurcell,ofwhichmorelater;intellectualdevelop-
ments(thefirst-classchapterbyMiriamGriffin);religion,byMaryBeard;
andfinallyanepilogue,bythethreeeditors.
Itwillquicklybeseenthatnoonecouldreasonablycomplainoftherich-
nessorqualityofthematerialoffered.Thereisaninfiniterangeofthemes
whichcouldbediscussed,soIwillselectjustthree:‘‘theSenate’’;themass
of Roman citizens, in Rome itself, in Italy, and (increasingly) in the prov-
inces;andtheroleoftheprovincialpopulationsinthemilitarystructureof
theEmpire.

BeingaSenatorintheLateRepublic

RichardSaller,reviewingvolumeVIIIinJRS(),rightlycommended
the serious attempt by the late Alan Astin to discuss the basic features of
Romanpoliticallife(VIII,–).AndrewLintott,inahelpfulandclear,if
fairlybrief,initialsectionofthisvolume(–),doeslikewise.Yet,itseems
to me,we need to start further back, and to look much more carefullyat
thesocialcontextofthefunctionsofasenator.Surprisingasitmayseem,
giventhecentralityofthetopic,thereisactuallymuchabout‘‘theSenate’’
oftheRepublicwhichstillcallsoutforexaminationandclarification.Poly-
bius,asweallknow,definedtheSenateasthe‘‘aristocraticelement’’ofthe
Romanmixedconstitution.Butdoesthatmeanessentiallyaroledefinedby
achievement, personal prominence, and office-holding,or bydescent? (To
say, as some have, that all office-holders were bydefinition ‘‘aristocrats’’ is
circular.)Manyproblemsarise.Whatwasagens,orafamilia?Howmanypatri-
cianfamiliae(gentes?)weretherein–..,andwhatwasthesignificance
ofbelongingtoone?Whatproportionoftheandthen(afterSulla)
membersoftheSenatereallydiddescendfrompreviousholdersofcurule
office,with or without a break of one or more generations? The question
partly,butonlypartly,dependsonthelaterepublicaninformalusageofthe
termsnobilesandnovi(literally‘‘newmen’’),re-openedbyP.A.BruntinJRS
():.Equallyimportant,andnotyetabsorbedbyrepublicanhistori-
ans,isthenuancedtreatmentbyK.HopkinsandG.P.Burtoninchapterof
Death and Renewal(),looking(foronce)atallgradesofsenatorialoffice