240
pages, Thames & Hudson, ISBN-13: 978-0500287637
The
history of the Roman republic – an epic tale about how one city in Italy
overthrew a monarchy, conquered her neighbors, united Italy, defeated all her
rivals in the Mediterranean, and descended into civil war and ultimately
monarchy again – presents a formidable challenge to any beginner. The republic
itself was a political entity so complex it bewildered foreigners and Romans
alike. Its magistrates – a dazzling succession of consuls, suffect consuls,
dictators, praetors, aediles, tribunes and special commissioners stretching
over nearly 500 years – were too numerous for even the Romans (who were
otherwise quite happy to list these sorts of things) to bother recording them
all. Finally, the evidence of who these men were and what, when, where, and why
they did what they did lies scattered across coins, temple inscriptions, grave
markers, bronze tablets, pottery shards, and written histories that as often
seek to justify as to inform. To reconstruct this fragmentary and sometimes
unreliable evidence into an integrated narrative is far too daunting for even
the most intelligent and motivated student, which is why anyone interested in
beginning to take up the task should begin with The Chronicle of the Roman Republic by Philip Matyszak.
After
a brief introduction covering “Republican Virtues” and “The Rise of Rome”, the
Chronicle is organized into four parts: the regal period, the founding of the
republic, the wars of expansion, and the era of Caesar. The basic units of each
section are devoted to a single Roman leader, including the famous (Scipio,
Marius, Sulla, Cicero, Caesar, Brutus), the should-be-famous (Poplicola,
Camillus, Marcellus, Livius Drusus, Sertorius), the historically important
(Appius Claudius, Flamininus, the Gracchi), the notorious (Flaminius, Galba,
Saturninus, Clodius), the legendary (Romulus and Remus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus
Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Servius Tullius), and of course those figures of
Roman virtues (Horatius Cocles, Cincinnatus, Regulus, and someone the author
calls “Cato the Stoic”) who defined the Republic for many generations of
students. Helpfully, each of the 57 figures are placed on a proper timeline,
and they are listed with basic genealogical facts, offices held, principal
achievements, and manner of death. The sum of all this is like a highly
approachable and chronologically arranged version of Smith's Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (or, if you prefer, National Geographic
meets Broughton's Magistrates of the Roman Republic).
Although
the Chronicle is a very good introduction to the men, events, and society of
the Roman republic, its biographical approach needlessly omits much regarding
the moral and philosophical ideas that motivated these men. With the exception
of the influence of Stoicism on Cato the Younger, one seldom gets the
impression that the Romans thought very much or very deeply about where they
were going, why they were going there, and what fundamentally they were
fighting about. Then (as now) ideas mattered: at the root of many social
conflicts was a culture clash (e.g., between Hellenism and the agrarian mos maiorum), and for the Romans whose
civitas justified (at least in their own eyes) the annihilation of iron age
tribes, it would have been nice to have heard a bit from the men who
distinguished the Romans from such expansionist tribes as the Huns. The
polymath Varro, the philosopher Lucretius, the poet Catullus, and comedian
Plautus must have expressed what some of the leading Romans thought of
themselves, their world, and their colleagues and their voices must be
considered at least as important as the method for donning a toga. With only
these two criticisms, however, I couldn't recommend either a better
introduction to the Republic or a more enjoyable reference work for even the
well-read Romanophile.
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