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

Author’s Prologue 

cripplingdisadvantagethatIfinditimpossibletorememberdetailsoffamily
relationshipsandgenealogy.Ionlytrustthatmyturningawayfrominterpre-
tationsrestingonsuchrelationshipshasbeenmotivatedbysomethingmore
profoundthansimplynotbeingabletorememberwhowaswhosecousin,
ornephew,orbrother-in-law.
TherearehowevertwoveryimportantaspectsofThe Roman Revolutionin
respectofwhichIwouldliketothinkthatthereissomecontinuity,rather
thanasharpbreak.OneistheintentiontoseeAugustusandhisreignvery
specificallythroughtheliteratureoftheperiod,andthroughtheprecisevo-
cabularyinwhichviewsofit,byfollowersorbymoredetachedobservers,
were expressed.The other was—in spite of Ronald Syme’s reputation as a
passionateobserverofthe‘‘aristocracy’’—towidenenormouslythecastof
characterswhocouldbeperceivedashavingbeenparticipantsintheRoman
‘‘revolution,’’bybringingintheminorfigures,downtocenturionsorlocal
town councillors, mentioned in passing in literary sources or recorded on
inscriptions,whoplayedapartinthemarchofevents,andperhapsgained,
for themselves or their descendants, a place in the upper levels of Roman
society.HowmanyotherbooksonthepoliticalhistoryofthelateRepublic
havefoundaplace(Roman Revolution,)for‘‘T.FlaviusPetro,fromReate,
a Pompeian veteran’’? This was,of course, the grandfatherof the emperor
Vespasian.^25
Thissenseofawidersocialrange,andoftheinnumerabledifferentpetty
localitiesfromwhichmenmightcometoplayapartinthewiderRoman
system,isamajordevelopmentinRomanhistoryinthetwentiethcentury,
expressedforinstanceinClaudeNicolet’sfirstgreatwork,ontheequestrian
order under the Republic,^26 and later in Ségolène Demougin’s remarkable
studyofthesamestatusgroupundertheJulio-Claudians.^27 Whowouldhave
imaginedthatourevidencewouldrevealthenamesofnolessthanequites
ofthatperiod?
The stage on which what we think of as ‘‘Roman history’’ can be seen
beingplayedouthasthusbecomeincomparablymorepopulatedthancould
possibly have been the case before the composition of the great works of
prosopographywhichbeganinthelatenineteenthcentury.Thisisnotthe
placetolistthese,exceptperhapstonotetheinceptionandcompletionof
theProsopographyoftheLaterRomanEmpire,coveringtheperiodfrom..

. Suetonius,Div.Vesp..
. C.Nicolet,L’ordre équestre à l’époque républicaine, – av. J.-C.I–II(–).
. S.Demougin,L’ordre équestre sous les julio-claudiens();Prosopographie des chevaliers
romains julio-claudiens().