Author’s Prologue showed,everythingisuncertainabouttheoriginallocation,theconception,
thedate,andthefunctionofbothsetsofFasti.^31
There is thus an organic connection between theFasti, as a product of
Augustan—or rather, in origin, pre-Augustan—culture, politics, and anti-
quarianism,andagreatmodernworklikeT.R.S.Broughton’sThe Magis-
trates of the Roman Republic.The one leads to the other, and both represent
choicesintheconstructionofthepast.AsfortheearlyRepublic,thealleged
sequencesofnamedholdersofmajorofficesareanunreliablebasisforhis-
toricalreconstruction.ForthelaterRepublicwecanacceptthatthedataare
essentiallyreliable.Buttheyrepresentonlyoneaspectofthepoliticalhistory
ofthewidercommunityofRomans.
Thereisalsoanotherimportantaspectofprosopographywhichhasplayed
a large part in twentieth-century writing on Rome, and which is also di-
rectlyrootedintheRomans’perceptionsoftheirownhistory.Imeanbythis
thestudyoftheverydistinctiveandimportantthemeinRomanhistoryand
historiography,bywhichthecategoryof‘‘Romans’’wasnotclosed,butwas
repeatedlyexpandedtoincludeeverwidergroups,notforgettingallslaves
legallyfreedbyRomancitizens.Thisthemeisexpressedmostprominently
inthefamousinscriptionfromLyonrecordingthespeechinwhichtheem-
perorClaudiusurgedtheSenatetotakeapositiveattitudetotheadmissionof
leadingmenfromGaul(whowerethemselves,bydefinition,alreadyRoman
citizens) into the Senate. Such a policy had been an aspect of the history
ofRomefromtheverybeginning,Claudiusexplained;and,morerecently,
Augustus and Tiberius had wished to see ‘‘thewhole flowerof thecoloniae
andmunicipiaeverywhere,providedthattheywererespectablemenandrich,
inthiscuria.’’^32 Thisthemecameveryquicklytoappealtotheyoung‘‘pro-
vincial’’ from New Zealand, Ronald Syme, decades before it bore fruit in
his two-volumework onTacitus, published in .The proof of this was
providedinintheformofthepublicationoftheoriginaltextofthe
studyentitledThe Provincial at Rome,whichSymehadreferredto,asbegun
butnevercompleted,inthePrefacetoTacitus.Itbearsthedate.^33
. E. M. Steinby, ‘‘Il lato orientale del Foro Romano. Proposte di lettura,’’Arctos
():;seepp.–ontheFornixFabianus.Thisarticleisnotdiscussedintheother-
wiseexcellentarticleofC.J.Simpson,‘‘TheOriginalSiteoftheFasti Capitolini,’’Historia
():.Betweenthem,thetwoessaysshowveryclearlyhowthestudyof bothin-
scriptionsneedstobeundertakende novo.
.ILS,no..
. RonaldSyme,The Provincial at Rome and Rome and the Balkans, B.C. to A.D. ,ed.
AnthonyBirley().