New Perspectives on the Roman Civil Wars of 49–30 BCE

Richard Westall, Hannah Cornwell, Richard Westall, Hannah Cornwell

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9781350272491
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Roman Ancient History
• Index: History

Offering new and original approaches to the Roman civil wars of 49-30 BCE, the eleven papers presented here for the first time shed light on this crucial moment in the forging of Roman identity. They engage with a variety of problems and topics in political discourse (diplomacy, the concept of libertas, divine paternity); socio-economic structures (allied rulers, military officials, civil war finances, Agrippa's family); material culture (the coinage of Julius Caesar, the physical remains of Corfinium); and literary commemoration (Sallust on trauma, the lost Histories of Asinius Pollio). The case studies presented here contribute to our understanding of a period that is just as fundamental for our view of the Romans as it was to the Romans themselves. Arguing for the unity of the period in question, the volume deploys a multiplicity of methodologies to analyse how the trauma of armed conflict and the breakdown of accepted socio-cultural models not only mediated the contemporary experience of Roman civil war, but also left a lasting impression upon how Romans viewed the world. Incisive and critical, these contributions by a diverse team of international researchers, both emerging scholars and leaders in their fields, offer a new window into the world of the late Republic and early Principate.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Negotiation as a Tool for Legitimacy in the Roman Civil War of 49–48 bce: ‘A New Policy for Achieving Victory’ (Cic. Att. 9.7C.1)
• 2 What Is Civil about Civil War? Political Communication and the Construction of ‘The People’ on the Eve of Civil War (49–48 BCE)
• 3 The Meaning of ⊥II on Caesar’s Civil War Coinage (RRC 452)
• 4 Creating Alternative Legitimacy: Octavian, Sextus Pompeius and Divine Filiation
• 5 Negotiating the Failure of Roman Hegemony: The Experience of Allied Rulers During the Civil Wars (49–30 BCE)
• 6 Brothers at the Crossroads: Agrippa and His Brother in Civil War
• 7 Ghost Walls and Vanishing Towns: The Case of Caesar’s Siege of Corfinium Between Historical Sources and Archaeological-Topographical Data
• 8 The Changing Face of the Command Structure During the Civil Wars (49–30 BCE)
• 9 The Civil War of 43–42 BCE and Army Finances
• 10 Sallust’s Mithridates and the Cultural Trauma of Civil War
• 11 Towards a New Archaeology of the Lost Histories of C. Asinius Pollio
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright