Saskia Roselaar

This chapter will discuss asymmetric information in the land market of the Roman Republican period, especially the second century BC. It first investigates whether a free land market existed in this period. If this was indeed the case, the paper will discuss whether the free land market was subject to problems of asymmetric information, and if so,...

The Roman Republic was a period of great change. From a small city‐state in central Italy, within five centuries Rome transformed into a Mediterranean empire. In the 1980s, ethnoarchaeological studies were carried out in parts of Italy which still used traditional techniques of agriculture, but it should be remembered that these cannot directly be...

This chapter summarizes the main findings of this book. It reviews how economic activities carried out by Italians contributed to the integration of the Italian peoples into the Roman framework. Throughout the Republican period, Italians had been able to profit from the expansion of the Roman dominion in the Mediterranean; through overseas trade an...

Chapter 5 investigates the reasons for growing Italian discontent in the second century. This chapter traces the disadvantages that the Italians experienced because they did not have Roman citizenship, both with regard to prejudice from Romans, as well as negative effects on the economic position of the Italians. Rome was reluctant to share the Rom...

Chapter 3 discusses economic change in Italy. It investigates economic activities carried out by the Italians independently from Roman interference. Many Italians were quick to take advantage of the possibilities offered by their association with Rome, such as the opening up of new markets for Italian products and safer sailing because of Roman con...

This chapter sets out the main issues discussed in this book regarding the position of the Italians in the Republican period. It summarizes earlier scholarly views on integration and identity and presents the most recent theories regarding these concepts. In doing so, it reviews earlier literature on the much-debated issue of Romanization. It also...

Chapter 4 investigates the long-term consequences of the association between Rome and the Italians. This chapter looks at changes in institutions and laws that occurred in the Republican period, as well as systems of weights, measures, and coinage, which varied widely throughout Italy. Secondly, this chapter discusses how wealth was invested in pub...

This book explores the connection between economic activities and integration—how did economic activities contribute to the unification of Italy in the Republican period in the civic, legal, social, and cultural senses? On the one hand, this book will investigate whether Italy became more integrated in an economic sense after the Roman conquest, an...

This chapter discusses where and how interaction between Romans and Italians occurred. An important location for interaction may have been the colonies settled by the Romans throughout Italy. Many Italians also lived in these towns, which thus served as meeting places between Romans and Italians. Seasonal migration for work and transhumant pasturin...

E. ISAYEV, MIGRATION, MOBILITY AND PLACE IN ANCIENT ITALY. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Pp. xviii + 521, illus. isbn9781107130616. £105.00. - Volume 109 - Saskia Roselaar

The Handbook surveys contemporary research into Roman law and society. More than a guide to Roman law as a doctrinal system, it employs the full resources of contemporary legal history, from comparison to popular constitutionalism, from international private law to law and society. The volume brings the study of Roman law into closer alignment with...

This paper argues that the works of the Agrimensores are of value in studying the practicalities of land measurement in the Roman world. It discusses ways in which the Agrimensores might be used, not only based on a strict literal reading of the texts, but on the practical circumstances in which these works could be used. The paper combines the sta...

After 70 BC, Italians were legally equal to old Roman citizens, in that they could avail themselves of the ius civile . Nevertheless, there are indications in Cicero’s work that not all Italians were considered equal by the Romans who sat in judgement on cases involving an Italian. Cicero often had to fight against Roman prejudice against Italians...

T. D. STEK and G.-J. BURGERS (EDS), THE IMPACT OF ROME ON CULT PLACES AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES IN ANCIENT ITALY (BICS Supplement 132). London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2015. Pp. viii + 331, illus. isbn 9781905670581. £48.00. - Volume 106 - Saskia T. Roselaar

This paper argues that Italians could gain access to ager publicus in various ways, for example by working land which was not used by the Roman state. Italians are widely attested as being active in the commercial exploitation of land, including possible ager publicus. Therefore, events during the Gracchan period damaged their interests, which, tog...

This article investigates references to Mithraism in early Christian works, dating from the second to fifth centuries AD. It argues that the way the Mithras cult was described and/or addressed transformed as the relative positions in society of Christianity and pagan cults changed. In the earliest period Christianity was only one religious group am...

L.de Ligt, PEASANTS, CITIZENS AND SOLDIERS. STUDIES IN THE DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF ROMAN ITALY, 225 bc–ad 100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. xvi + 391, maps. isbn9781107013186. £65.00/US$110.00. - Volume 103 - Saskia T. Roselaar

P. L.DALL'AGLIO and G.ROSADA (EDS), SISTEMI CENTURIALI E OPERE DI ASSETTO AGRARIO TRA ETÀ ROMANA E PRIMO MEDIOEVO. ATTI DEL CONVEGNO, BORGORICCO (PADOVA) – LUGO (RAVENNA), 10–12 SETTEMBRE 2009 (Agri Centuriati. An International Journal of Landscape Archaeology 6–7). Pisa: Fabrizio Serra editore, 2010. 2 vols: pp. 345 + 341, illus. isbn9788862274067...

There exists a dogmatic view of commercium in the republic, namely that trade between Romans and peregrini was limited or impossible without the peregrini having the right of commercium. This article argues that the only limitation on trade was that peregrini could not acquire res mancipi with the full protection of Roman law; trade in res nec manc...

Many Italians, i.e. people from Italy who did not possess Roman citizenship - had access to land which they exploited commercially, both for growing agricultural products and for manufacture. They also played an important role in overseas commercial activities, in which they were protected by the Roman state against third parties. Their profits fro...

Kelly(G.P.)A History of Exile in the Roman Republic. Pp. x + 260. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Cased, £47, US$88.99. ISBN: 978-0-521-84860-2. - Volume 61 Issue 1 - Saskia T. Roselaar

The Mvnicipia - Bispham(E.)From Asculum to Actium. The Municipalization of Italy from the Social War to Augustus. Pp. xviii + 566, ills. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Cased, £110, US$215. ISBN: 978-0-19-923184-3. - Volume 61 Issue 1 - Saskia T. Roselaar

This article aims to examine the evidence for the various roles that Latin and Roman colonies played in the integration of Italian allies into the Roman state. It discusses the evidence for the legal status of Italian settlers in colonies and argues that Italian allies were not normally admitted as official settlers, but often lived in nearby colon...

This book discusses the history of Roman state-owned land from the early expansion of Rome into Italy to the Social War. Rome usually took land from its defeated enemies, which it then declared to be 'Roman public land' or ager publicus. Such land could be distributed to Roman citizens in private ownership or remain in the hands of the state. The b...

The Disciplina Militaris - Phang(S.E.)Roman Military Service. Ideologies of Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate. Pp. xvi + 336. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Cased, £50, US$90. ISBN: 978-0-521-88269-9. - Volume 60 Issue 1 - Saskia Roselaar

This article argues that colonists in fourth- and third-century BC colonies with Roman citizen status remained proletarii, because allotments of two iugera of land were not sufficient to raise them to the fifth census class. The vacatio militiae recorded by Livy as a privilege enjoyed by these colonies does not mean that the colonists had become as...

This thesis discusses ager publicus, a kind of public land specific to the Roman Republic. Although many works have been devoted to this kind of land, there is as yet no book which investigates in depth its role in the society, economy, and politics of the Roman Republic. Many aspects of the history of this type of land are still hotly debated, fro...

Laffi(U.)Colonie e municipi nello stato romano. (Storia e Letteratura 239.) Pp. 278, b/w & colour ills, maps. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2007. Paper, €38. ISBN: 978-88-8498-350-3. - Volume 58 Issue 1 - SASKIA T. ROSELAAR