Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 2 - Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire

xii Introduction

traps,torereadtheoldtextswithafresheyeandforceoutsomethingnew,
informative,andmeaningful.
Thenewreadingofthefamiliarancientsourceswasmasterfullydeployed
inthetwopartsofthefirstvolume(Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Vol-
ume 1, The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution)inordertovindicate
the application of the term ‘‘democracy’’ to the Republic, and ‘‘monarchy’’
totheprincipaterightfromitsinception.Thepresentvolumegoesonestep
furtherinrelyingheavilyonthedirectandfreshevidenceofdocumentary
texts,inscriptionsandpapyri,ratherthanlosingitselfinthebarrenstudyof
theRome-centeredancienttexts.Thechangeofemphasiswasdictatedby
thechangeofsubject,asalreadyobservedattheendofchapter11ofthefirst
volume,‘‘TheEmperor,theSenate,andtheProvinces’’—astudyofthepro-
vincialsystemthatforeshadowssomeoftheissuespresentedinthepresent
volume:

TheRepublic,itmaybe,canbeseenfromRomeoutwards.Totakethis

standpointfortheEmpireistolosecontactwithreality.Notonlythe

patternoftheliteraryevidence,ortheexistenceofanimmensemassof

localdocuments,buttheverynatureoftheEmpireitself,meansthat

itcanonlybeunderstoodbystartingfromtheprovincesandlooking

inward.(p.291)

Indeed,thecityofRome,theprotagonistoftherepublicanpartofthefirst
volumeandofMillar’srecentbookThe Crowd in Rome in the Late Republic,^1
gradually recedes from our horizon in this volume, to make room for the
provincesandtheprovincials.Thetwofocalpointsofthepresentvolumeare
theEmpireasasystemofgovernment(eveniftheword‘‘government’’suf-
fersfromanachronisticovertones),whichisthesubjectofthefirstpart,and
thecultureandsocietyoftheEmpire,towhichthesecondpartisdevoted.
The first part includes papers exploring (and expanding) some of the
themes of Millar’s monumentalThe Emperor in the Roman World (31b.c.–
a.d.337),^2 whose chronological scope corresponds roughly to that of the
presentvolume,thefirstthreecenturiesa.d.undertheEmpire,whenrela-
tivestabilityallowsonetospeakofasystemofgovernment.Otherpapersin
thefirstpartwerewrittenafterthepublicationofthatbook,coveringnew
ground,butusingthesamemodeloftheworkingofimperialgovernment.
Themainthemeofthefirstchapter,‘‘EmperorsatWork’’(1967),rightly

1. Jerome Lectures, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Autumn 1993, and American Academy in
   Rome,1994.MichiganUniversityPress,1998.


2. DuckworthandCornellUniversityPress,1977;2nded.withAfterword,1992.