A Community in Transition: Rome between Hannibal and the Gracchi

This volume gathers twelve studies on key aspects of the history of Rome and its empire between the end of the Hannibalic War (200 BCE) and the election of Tiberius Gracchus to the tribunate (134 BCE). Through this periodization, which places the focus on what intervened between two major and well-studied historical turning points in Republican history, the book aims to bring new light to the interplay between imperial expansion, political volatility, and intellectual developments, and on the various levels on which historical change unfolded. The lack of a continuous ancient narrative for this period, even late or derivative, has shaped much of the historiographical discourse about it. This volume seeks to convey a new sense of the depth of the period and establishes new connections among aspects of human agency and action that are usually considered in isolation from one another. It puts in fruitful dialogue contribution on a range of topics as diverse as climate change, oratory, agrarian laws, urban architecture, and the civilian military, among others. The result is a diverse, multifocal, non-hierarchical assessment of a critical but often understudied period in Roman history. With a well-balanced list of established and up-and-coming scholars, A Community in Transition fills a substantial historiographical gap in the study of the Roman Republic.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Whence and Whither? Mattia Balbo and Federico Santangelo Chapter 1: Climate Change and Rome's Changing Republic James Tan Chapter 2: The Agrarian Policy of the Senate between Hannibal and the Gracchi Mattia Balbo Chapter 3: The Political Culture of Coinage: The Introduction and Development of the Denarius System Marleen Termeer Chapter 4: Public Buildings and Urban Landscape. A View from the Riverfront Francesca de Caprariis Chapter 5: Goodbye to All That: The Roman Citizen Militia after the Great Wars Michael J. Taylor Chapter 6: The Administration of the Imperium Romanum in the Second Century BCE Michele Bellomo Chapter 7: Legislation, Politics and Social Change in the Early Second Century BCE Thibaud Lanfranchi Chapter 8: Interactions between Tribunes and Senate Annarosa Gallo Chapter 9: The gentes maiores and Aristocratic Competition in Rome (200-134 BCE) Cyrielle Landrea Chapter 10: The Arrival of Eloquence? The Changing Parameters of Public Speech in the Second Century Catherine Steel Chapter 11: Beyond Conservatism: Charting Roman Religion between Hannibal and Scipio Nasica Federico Santangelo Epilogue: Periodization in Perspective. Further Thoughts about the Second Century BCE Harriet I. Flower

About the Author :
Mattia Balbo is Assistant Professor of Roman History at the University of Turin, Italy. His work focuses on the economic and political history of ancient Rome, especially in the Republican period. Federico Santangelo is Professor of Ancient History at Newcastle University, UK. His previous books include Divination, Prediction and the End of the Roman Republic and, as co-editor with James Richardson, The Roman Historical Tradition.

Review :
The volume ultimately feels like a confident first step towards a greater whole; it is to be hoped that its perspective will be adopted by works addressing other sections of this sequence and ultimately lead to a better appreciation of the many complexities ofthe earlier periods within the Roman Republic.