Remembering the Roman Republic
Culture, Politics and History under the Principate

This study examines the fault lines exposed in Roman culture by attempts to reconcile the monarchical Principate with Republican traditions.

Andrew B. Gallia (Author)

9781107012608, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 December 2011

334 pages, 16 b/w illus. 2 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.66 kg

'Andrew B. Gallia's Remembering the Roman Republic: Culture, Politics and History under the Principate is a rich and rewarding study of the dynamics of Roman public memory throughout the interconnected realms of, as promised in the subtitle, culture, politics and history … this book should be read and admired both for taking on such a complex question with circumspection and sagacity and also for doing so with the kind of critical spirit that prefers to multiply rather than subtract and is thus infinitely more valuable.' Bryn Mawr Classical Review

The Roman Principate was defined by its embrace of a central paradox - the ruling order strenuously advertised continuity with the past, even as the emperor's monarchical power represented a fundamental breach with the traditions of the 'free' Republic it had replaced. Drawing on the evidence of coins, public monuments and literary texts ranging from Tacitus and Pliny the Younger to Frontinus and Silius Italicus, this study traces a series of six crucial moments in which the memory of the Republic intruded upon Roman public discourse in the period from the fall of Nero to the height of Trajan's power. During these years, remembering the Republic was anything but a remote and antiquarian undertaking. It was instead a vital cultural process, through which emperors and their subjects attempted to navigate many of the fault lines that ran through Roman Imperial culture.

Introduction
1. Freedom
2. Rebuilding
3. Control
4. Persuasion
5. Inscription
6. Restoration
Conclusion
Appendix A. Pliny's letter to Minicianus
Appendix B. Republican denarii restored by Trajan.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]