The Roman Clan
The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology

Compares the ancient sources and modern interpretative models to present a new interpretation of the Roman gens.

C. J. Smith (Author)

9780521102254, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 November 2008

408 pages, 3 tables
23 x 15.4 x 2.8 cm, 0.6 kg

"...discourse about the origins of Roman sociopolitical organizations will for the future be shaped by Smith's ponderous work, making an exemplary historical problem more accessible to nonclassical scholars broadly interested in the role of clans in emerging states." --Nicola Terrenato, University of Michigan

The gens, a key social formation in archaic Rome, has given rise to considerable interpretative problems for modern scholarship. In this comprehensive exploration of the subject, Professor Smith examines the mismatch between the ancient evidence and modern interpretative models influenced by social anthropology and political theory. He offers a detailed comparison of the gens with the Attic genos and illustrates, for the first time, how recent changes in the way we understand the genos may impact upon our understanding of Roman history. He develops a concept of the gens within the interlocking communal institutions of early Rome, which touches on questions of land ownership, warfare and the patriciate, before offering an explanation of the role of the gens and the part it might play in modern political theory. This significant work makes an important contribution not only to the study of archaic Rome, but also to the history of ideas.

General introduction
Part I: Introduction
1. The ancient evidence
2. Modern interpretations
3. The gens in the mirror: Roman gens and Attic genos
4. Archaeology and the gens
Part I conclusion
Part II: 5. The Roman community
6. The Roman curiae
7. The patricians and the land
8. The patriciate
9. Warfare in the regal and early republican periods
10. Explaining the gens
11. Roman history and the modern world
Appendix 1. Dionysius of Halicarnassus on the Roman curiae and religion
Appendix 2. The missing curiae.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], History of ideas [JFCX]