- Politics in the Roman Republic by Henrik Mouritsen (2017; ISBN 9781107651333) Political: Cheap, concise (only 172 pages!), and by one of the most important current scholars in the field of late Republican political history. Mouritsen builds on his seminal 2001 Plebs and Politics in the Late Roman Republic in offering a reading of Republican politics that breaks from the long-dead “frozen waste” theory of aristocratic clans mustering clients in electoral coalitions but that still attempts to relegate popular participation in politics to a fairly insignificant role. An easy read, but very controversial.
- Mass Oratory and Political Power in the Late Republic by Robert Morstein-Marx (2008; ISBN 9780521823272) Political: Morstein-Marx, a leading member of the school of thought opposed to Mouritsen’s view of Republican politics as largely excluding popular participation, responds to Plebs and Politics. Morstein-Marx analyzes mainly the contio, a Roman institution of public speeches (a bit like a modern political rally) that for decades has been recognized as a cornerstone of Republican politics but which was previously poorly understood, for indications as to the place of public oratory and the way that the Republic was formed in public rhetoric. Morstein-Marx and Mouritsen are best read together, and weighed against each other, along with the narrative of the late Republic as presented in the Cambridge Ancient History.
- Reconstructing the Roman Republic: An Ancient Political Culture and Modern Research by Karl-Joakim Hölkeskamp (2010 [translation from a 2004 German original, revised and updated]; ISBN 978-1-4008-3490-7) Advanced Political: For all those who love nothing more than trips into the thickest theoretical forests and bitter academic disputes, with chapter titles like “From Structures to Concepts, Problems of (Self-) Conceptualization of an Alien Society” (aren’t you excited already!). Many of the Hölkeskampian main theses, and those of the previous scholars that he responds to here, are summarised in a more approachable form in the above books, so this is for those who want to go DEEP. Hölkeskamp is a long-standing titan of Roman Republican studies, and here he puts his long expertise and very original mind into answering questions like how did the Republic work, who had the power in the Republic, what did political authority mean in the Republic, with the help of sociological theories. The other important theme is his commentary (and largely, criticism) of previous scholarly work in the area. Hölkeskamp can be unnecessarily vicious towards his colleagues, especially towards the late Fergus Millar, whose 1996 monograph The Crowd in Rome in the Late Republic renewed the challenge to the consensus that Roman Republic was in practice an oligarchy, where the People had little power. Regardless, a thought-provoking and exciting book.
- Roman Voting Assemblies from the Hannibalic War to the Dictatorship of Caesar by Lily Ross Taylor (1966; ISBN 978-0472081257) Political: Best read alongside LRT’s 1949 Party Politics in the Age of Caesar. Lily Ross Taylor was one of the titans of twentieth century scholarship on the politics of the late Republic, and though the “frozen waste” model on which most of her work, like all of her contemporaries, is predicated is no longer accepted, LRT’s work on putting together the procedures of the voting assemblies is still foundational. For those more interested in a deeper look at Roman elections there is Alexander Yakobson’s Elections and Electioneering in Rome: A Study in the Political System of the Late Republic (2002). All of these are rather difficult reads, but with a little effort should be understandable by the non-specialist.
Political institutions (200 – 27 BC)
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