Brill (2023) 260 pp. h/b £113.00 (ISBN 9789004534490)
The early history of Rome is so bound up in legend that it is notoriously difficult to tell the two apart. Already, writers of the late Republic and early Empire tried to explain in rational terms the mythology in episodes such as Hercules’ fight with Cacus or Romulus and Remus being nursed by the wolf, while others sought to organize the city’s several foundation myths into a credible chronology. However, their approach to history was different to our own, and many of them used stories from the past as a basis for discussing ethical or philosophical arguments, or (not infrequently) propagating a political world view. This thought-provoking volume builds on recent advances in viewing the relationship between Roman myth and historiography, forensically examining familiar tales to uncover the motivations of those who wrote them or discover possible nuggets of truth.
Methodology is key, as—perhaps surprisingly—the first-century BC historian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, was at pains to stress in the first book of his Roman Antiquities, though the uniqueness of his discussion of sources (argues Tim Cornell in his in-depth chapter on the subject) is merely an accident of survival. Indeed, the sources used by Roman era historians and how they were prioritized are in themselves useful subjects for research. As Nicholas Meunier points out, contemporary events couched as fabula could be presented in the theatre from where they might take on a life of their own, becoming sources for later historians, while for antiquarians an even more generous quarry were the monuments and rituals of Rome itself—many episodes from early history appear to be aetiological explanations retrojected into a distant past, a subject explored by several contributors, especially Marine Miquel. This is not to say that some tales do not contain kernels of truth: Meunier’s closely argued chapter on the Decemvirate and the Second Secession of the Plebs ingeniously identifies probable nuggets of fact hidden in what might otherwise appear to be stories impossibly contaminated by folktale motifs and discusses how history might become legend.
Equally intriguing are the uses to which late Republican and Imperial Romans put the early history of their city and wider Latium. As Eduardo Bianchi (among others) stresses, the Greek Dionysius, for example, was keen to show that Rome was originally a Greek foundation; for Italians such as Livy the aboriginality of its first inhabitants was vitally important; while Virgil, seeking to unite east and west in the aftermath of civil war, carefully wove together both traditions in a way that prioritized neither. At the same time, other prehistoric stories were manipulated to suit political ends, as Roman Frolov discusses in his chapter exploring the status of the legendary Brutus, founder of the first Republic (was he a tribune or, like Augustus, a private citizen, when he made his move?), and Jaclyn Neil explores in her eminently readable and thoughtful paper on Tarpeia’s appearance in sculptures on the Basilica Aemelia. In the words of another contributor, Chantal Gabrielli, ‘Myth is used to validate specific political behaviour through the use of certain exempla maiorum.’
This collection of eleven papers is a weighty one, containing much that will be stimulating to readers with a special interest in the early history of Rome and how it was shaped by later writers (our earliest account dates from the first century BC, more than 700 years after the events which it purports to describe). Each chapter contains copious footnotes, and there is a good bibliography and index.
David Stuttard