Momigliano_JRomSt1941

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Review Author(s): Arnaldo Momigliano Review by: Arnaldo Momigliano Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 31 (1941), pp. 158-165Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/297111Accessed: 14-10-2015 12:08 UTC

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I58 REVIEWS AND DISCUSSIONS

A. N. SHERWIN-WHITE, THE ROMAN CITIZENSHIP. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, I939. Pp. 3I5. 15S.

If there is any royal road to the essential values of Roman history it is the study of Roman citizenship. The system of civil rights shows the distance between Rome and the Oriental empires, the Hellenistic monarchies and the Greek city-states, and it indicates the points of contact between the ways of Rome and those of the Church: St. Paul's citizenship remains a landmark. The arduous theme has been successfully dealt with from top to bottom-eight centuries at least-by a young scholar, who has still time to write many more volumes, besides minor contributions. This is no mean achievement even within the exceptional Oxford output in ancient history of recent years. A gift for orderly writing on vast subjects is coupled with a subtle spirit of analysis. The work is a pure joy to read for the instructed. My only doubt in this connection is whether the student in statu pupillari will equally appreciate the allusive style, which presupposes knowledge of ancient and modern authorities. S.-W. more than once (p. i8o, n. 4; I89; 225) hints at the status of the Aegyptii, who were incapable of receiving Roman citizenship; but I have been unable to discover where he quotes the relevant texts. Undergraduates who have Pliny's letters in their syllabus may not feel the difficulty unduly, but even to them the other ' locus classicus' (Josephus, c. Apion. ii, 4, 4) is not necessarily familiar.

Since Savigny, Roman citizenship has been a subject for static description in works on juridical institutions. Mommsen's Staatsrecht iii, i-perhaps his masterpiece-has the timeless beauty of the Pyramids. From Mommsen's school came outstanding studies of the diffusion of the ' civitas', which regularly pre- supposed the existence of a sort of metaphysical being, the ' civis Romanus': W. Kubitschek, De Romanorum tribuum origine ac propagatione, Vienna, I882;

E. Kornemann, De civibus Romanis in provinciis imperii consistentibus, Berlin, I892;

A. Schulten, De conventibus civium Romanortum, Berlin, I892, and the articles 'Colonia' and 'Municipium' by Kornemann in P-W., to which E. Dorsch, De civitatis romanae apud Graecos propagatione, Breslau, i886, may be added. The article on' Peregrini' by B. Kubler in P-W. is more recent, but shows much the same kind of outlook. Evolution was admitted only in secondary aspects: hence Hirschfeld's Zur Geschichte des latinischen Rechtes, I879 (Kleine Schriften, 294;

cf. Mommsen, Ges. Schriften iii, 33). The ' civis Romanus' had no history, but only a prehistory, which for Mommsen was the pre-existence of a patrician community before the patrician-plebeian State and for Bonfante (and others before him) the pre-existence of the ' gens ' before the ' civitas '. The two myths (patrician State, ' mono-gentilicial ' State) were not easily destroyed by E. Meyer and G. De Sanctis and their followers (A. Rosenberg, Der Staat der alten Italiker 19I3 and' Studien zur Entstehung der Plebs', Hermes 48, I9I3, 359; V. Arangio- Ruiz, Le genti e la citta, I914). They have failed to convince many, as may be seen, for instance, in the hesitations of P. De Francisci's Storia del Diritto Romano i, I926; but certainly their criticism first made possible a history of Roman citizenship. Unfortunately, neither Meyer, nor, until now, De Sanctis has reaped the fruits thus sown, and an uncompromising scholar, P. Fraccaro, has only produced short articles to show what he could do in the same direction, among which the most relevant are ' Tribules ed aerarii', Athenaeum ii (1933), I42,

and ' L'organizzazione dell' Italia romana', Atti I Congresso Diritto Romano i, I933,

193. The very acute observations of L. Zancan, ' La teoria gentilizia e il concetto della cittadinanza romana,' Atti Istit. Veneto 95, I936, 32I, are a criticism of Mommsen and Bonfante aimed at a more comprehensive definition, not a history, of Roman citizenship. How potent Mommsen's influence still is may be seen with mixed satisfaction and dismay in the recent Bryn Mawr dissertation by C. E. Goodfellow, Roman Citizenship, I935, which is still conceived in terms of the



REVIEWS AND DISCUSSIONS I59

diffusion of the metaphysical being, the civis Romanus (but Miss Goodfellow's book contains a great deal of excellent material and judicious observations, and it is right to complain that S-W. never quotes it).1

At long last we have what we needed. Here is a history of Roman citizenship which deals with the subject from three points of view-the formation of the institutions which are the Roman citizenship, their diffusion, and the sentiments of allegiance which the grant of Roman citizenship was able to foster among provincials. The last section, which rests on a wide reading of literary texts, brings out the all-important point that the Roman citizenship was a spiritual achievement, which gave hope and dignity to people, a bond of culture and peace. The only book with which it may be compared is The Stranger at the Gate, I938, by T. J. Haarhoff. But Haarhoff is concerned more with theories and sentiments than with juridical institutions and therefore his book is more in the nature of a comple- ment to S.-W.'s work. With the main line of S.-W.'s argument throughout the book I agree. The chapters on the origins of the ' municeps ' and on the Claudian period seem to me the finest. V. Scramuzza in his important Claudius now confirms S.-W.'s results for the second problem. What I should like to discuss with Sherwin- White is whether the ghost of the metaphysical' civis Romanus 'has been thoroughly exorcised from his book or, as I incline to suspect, still lingers in some remote corners. For brevity's sake I shall express my doubts in a schematic, and consequently, dogmatic form.

(i) First of all, S.-W. starts by presupposing the internal organisation of a Roman ' civitas' already formed. The origin and development of Roman tribes, the distinction between patricians and plebeians, the part played by the Etruscans in the shaping of the Roman State, the development of clientship and other fundamental questions are not considered. S.-W. knows, of course, E. Taubler's 'Die umbrisch-sabellischen und die romischen Tribus' (S.B. Heid. Ak. I930),

but the problem, which Taubler stated, if not solved-the Etruscan Mantua offering much closer analogy to the Roman tribes (Bull. Comm. Arch. Com. 6o, I932, 228)-does not seem to have received due attention. The passage from the tribal to the civic organisation admits some analysis. We are justified in asking from a book on Roman citizenship a discussion of the name ' Quirites' (cf. for instance P. Kretschmer, Glotta Io, I919, I47; F. Reiche, Klio 2I, I927, 74), and whether the Laurentes Lavinates, Ardeates Rutuli, Volsci Antiates are a sound analogy. It is good to find that the religious bonds among Latins are properly stressed, but religious bonds are still more important for the internal structure of the Roman ' civitas'. Must Fustel de Coulanges be forgotten ? Many centuvies later Caracalla justified his grant in terms of religion (cf. also Tertull., Apol. 24;

Acta Cypriani i (CSEL iii, 3, p. cx), etc.). (2) Two connected questions follow-whether the original structure of the

Roman citizenship favoured the singular developments of the Roman State towards a super-civic unity and how it reacted to every new extension. A. Rosenberg made fairly clear the point that the reform of the Centuriate Comitia of the third century B.C. was dominated by the fear that the newcomers of the urban tribes and of the most recent rustic tribes might prevail at the polls (Untersuch. zur r6mischen Zenturienveifassung I9iI). It is also legitimate to inquire whether the conflicts between patricians and plebeians made it alternately attractive to both parties to receive new citizens and whether the solid timocratic system which resulted made the leading class willing or less unwilling to accept new members of the existing social order. The second possibility seems to demand particular attention. I shall presently show that I am no convert to Marxism, but, as the Roman citizenship is a timocratic system, it is remarkable that scholars speak so

I have not yet seen N. J. De Witt's treatise, Urbanization and the Franchise in Roman Gaul, Lancaster, 1940.



i 6o REVIEWS AND DISCUSSIONS

little of class interests. At this stage the comparison with the conception of citizenship in the Greek polis appears pertinent, because a polis, especially if democratic, required from its citizens a much more delicate competence and detailed participation in public life than Rome did (see for Athens U. E. Paoli, Studi di diritto attico I930: 1I. Lo stato di cittadinanza in Atene; U. Kahrstedt, Staatsgebiet und Staatsangehbrig,e in Athen, I934, and in general E. Szanto, Griech. Biirgerrecht I892; G. Busolt, (;riech. Staatskunde i, I920, 220). The failure of Athens to build an empire certainly has some connection with the refinements of Athenian democracy (for the Hellenistic developments in Greece W. Kolbe,' Das griechische Bundesbilrgerrecht (ler hellenist. Zeit.' Z. Sav. Stift. 49, 1929, 129; cf. W. Schwahn, I-lermes 66, I93I, 97; A. Aymard, Les assembkMes de la confederation achaienne, I938, I09).

(3) After so much it becomes even more evident that the fact that the Romans reached the conception of a citizenship wider than any territorial or ancestral unity admits many motives, but still presupposes an original ethical inspiration- the intellegibile arcanum of every spiritual achievement. Whether or not the Romans were the result of a mixture of different peoples will remain, as the German academic jargon suggests, a Tumntelplatz for scholars, but it is certain that they were pleased to imagine themselves as having a complex origin, while the Greeks, who knew comparable fusions, took the opposite way (see now the important observations by E. Bikermann, Mdlans,,ges Dussaud i, 1939, 90). It is not an accident that our evidence on the mixed origin of the Roman tribes refers us to Ennius (ap. Varro, LL v, 55): Ennius was the man to appreciate it. But it is also obvious that the tradition is in any case very ancient, and must be considered a sentiment which permanently accom- panied the evolution of Roman citizenship.

(4) It is another aspect of the Roman sentiment towards citizenship that they came very near to identifying ' libertas ' and ' civitas ', as every student of the 'capitis deminutio' knows (Mommsen, Ges. Schriften iii, i; F. I)esserteaux, Meanges Gerardin 1907, I8I, and Etudes sur la formation historique de la capitis deminutio i, I909; cf. also Z. Zmigryder-Konopka, St. It. IJil. Cl. 14, 1937, 89). The Greeks never thought that iXEV6Epia might depend merely on the belonging to a polis, much less to a specified polis. It is not necessary here to examine the point-which had no practical importance-whether strangers and slaves were rigorously identified in early Roman Law, as HI. Ievy-Bruhl (Quelquesproblemes du tr's ancien Droit romain 1934, iS) has recently emphasised again, without recalling that Mommsen had expressed a similar opinion in a more persuasive way. But that sentiment has something to do with the fact that in Rome the freedman became a citizen, whereas in the Greek and Hellenistic world he was usually debarred from citizenship. S.-W., by excluding freedmen from his treatise, has missed one of the most important approaches to his problem. M. L. Gordon had made a good beginning with this subject, although only for imperial times (JRS 21, 193I, 65 ; cf. also some interesting remarks by F. A. Sullivan) Trans. Am. Phil. Ass. 70, 1939, 503).

(S) On the other hand Roman citizenship represents a series of rights and duties which had a historical evolution and can be illuminated by an intelligent sociological examination. The limits to enslavement, ' provocatio,' magisterial 'coercitio ', military service, ' postliminium,' marriage and property regulations, financial privileges, position of foreigners in the city, extension to them of Roman laws, etc., are all items which must be followed up lest the name ' civis Romanus ' loses its content. The same is to be said for those virtues, like fides, which were strictly connected with the very quality of a Roman-and recognised as such by foreigners (cf. R. Heinze, Vom Geist des Romertums 25; M. Gelzer, Hermes 68, 1933, 146). The Greek legend of a Roman cult of Fides on the Palatine (Festus 328 L.) is very probably of the early fourth century B.C. as G. Pasquali (Enciclopedia



REVIEWS AND DISCUSSIONS i6i

Italiana, s.v. 'Roma', p. 907) maintained against W. Hoffmann (Rom und die griechische Welt I934, I20 n.). Fides is on the famous coin of Locri Epizephyrii of about 274 B.C. and represents the chief theme of Rome's eulogy in I Maccabees 8 (for a different date of the Locri coin see Mattingly-Robinson, Brit. Acad. Proc. Xviii, I932, 246). These quotations (and a word about Polybius) are pertinent because S.-W., who has given such careful attention to the prestige of the Roman name in Imperial times, has not extended his research to the Republican age, when the point seems to me to have been even more important. The early prestige of the Roman name is an essential quality of the Roman citizenship ; cf. Lycophron's Alexandra, the letter of Philip V. to Larissa (Ditt. Syll.3 543), the recently discovered AltryiaEis of Callimachus and the numerous epigraphical texts collected by L. Robert, Etudes anatoliennes, I937, 449, n. 3. Episodes like that of Mancinus do matter, not only as a juridical curiosum. On the whole, it seems to me that any early evidence which tends to show that the Roman citizenship was a privilege must be emphasised, although it may be burdensome to repeat such well-known facts as the grant of citizenship to the physician Archagathus (Pliny NH 29, 12, 6) and to Muttines (Livy 27, 5) or the rule of the ' Lex Acilia' on the successful delator, which S.-W. p. io6 quotes for a different reason. It is equally important that in Republican times there were attempts to give some privileges of the Roman citizenship without the citizenship itself, as to the Macedonian Onesimus of Livy 44, I6, 7, the Hermodorus of the SC ' de Oropiis ' and the ' Asclepiades sociique' of the SC which bears their name. The discovery of the inscription of Rhosos has shown more clearly the historical significance of the SC 'de Asclepiade' (cf. the important essay by L. Gallet, Rev. hist. de Droit franfais et etranger 4, i6, I937, p. 242 ; 387).

(6) Both Roman prestige and the later juridical question of the legitimacy of two citizenships are connected with the situation of the Roman abroad. Much of the subject may be left to the special works (like A. Schulten De conventibus civium Romanorum or J. Hatzfeld Les trafiquants italiens dans l'Orient hellenique); but the position of the Roman citizen within or without the normal organisation of the polis is relevant. Quoting at random, it will be enough to mention among the pre-imperial texts,. besides the proconsular letter to the free city of Chios (Syll.3 785), the two categories of the Romans of Messene (IG v, I, I433, and A. Wilhelm, Jahresh. I7, I9I4, 48), the extra-tribal position of the Romans in Pergamum (Ath. Mitt. 27, I902, I07; 32, I907, 4I5; 33, I908, 384) and the interesting phraseology of the inscription from Pagai republished by A. Wilhelm (7ahresh. I0, I907, I7).

Cf. also E. Pais, ' Cittadinanza romana e cittadinanza attica,' Dalle guerre puniche a Cesare Augusto, i, I9I8, 349.

(7) The Romans, like the English, are often accused of making prose of history without knowing it. But in the case of the citizenship, two instances of extraordinary consciousness remain to disprove the suspicion-Ennius and Cicero. Cicero knew what he was doing when he reported the lines in which Ennius attributed a Roman soul (or his soul ?) to Hannibal:

hostem qui feriet, erit (inquit) mihi Carthaginiensis, quisquis erit

(Pro Balbo 22, 5I - 285 V.) 2

The man of the three hearts (Gellius I7, I7, I) was not only the most eminent product of the policy of assimilation, which made Roman literature possible, but obviously contributed to shape the sentiments of the following generations. Here, too, the analogy with the Cisalpine Vergil is no matter of chance (cf. the fine

2 Cf. Servius ad Aen. ii, 148 ' Verba sunt, transfugam recipientis in fidem: Quisquis ut habemus in Livio [fr. 6i W.], imperatoris es noster eris'.



i 62 REVIEWS AND DISCUSSIONS

observations by G. E. F. Chilver, Cisalpine Gaul 208 and some pages by J. G6hler, Rom und Italien 1939, 26). Cicero has a deserved place in S.-W. Yet it may be doubted not only whether all the relevant passages (for instance De officiis i, 35; Orat. fr. VII ' pro C. Cornelio') are adduced, but whether the importance of Ciceronian thought, by which in some way the Hellenistic cosmopolis is reconciled with the Greek idea of a definite polis, has been fully realised. One should compare this reconciliation with the efforts of Zeno, as illustrated by W. W. Tarn in AJP 6o, 1939, 62. Apart from the inherent importance of the theme I have two further reasons for emphasising the question. The first is that the two most recent and remarkable studies on Cicero's political thought, J. Vogt's Ciceros Glaube an Rom I935 and V. P6schl's Romischer Staat und Griechisches Staatsdenken bei Cicero I936, miss the point. The second concerns S.-W.'s book directly. S.-W. tends to follow the new (and old !) tendency to present Caesar as the predecessor of Augustus and, in so far as he limits the differences between them, he is right. But the man who first gave Roman citizenship to the whole of a province, who first made Roman an entire legion of provincials and had a Spanish adjutant who became the first provincial consul, was a revolutionary in the matter of citizenship. In comparison with Caesar, Augustus was no revolutionary on the subject, and therefore the ancient historians were justified in emphasising his conservatism (Suet. Aug. 40; Dio lvi, 33, 3). The atmosphere of Caesar's time is here obviously represented by Cicero just as Vergil sublimates the ideas of Augustus. It is by attention to the spiritual background that Caesar may be differentiated from Augustus and the feelings of the historical tradition be understood.

(8) Roman citizenship involved general privileges and duties, but it is important of course to assemble those cases in which the privilege or duty was of a special nature. The first instances which occur to my mind in the spiritual field tend to confirm the impression that a systematic research would be repaid. The schol- archate of the Epicurean school in Athens was reserved to a Roman citizen until the age of Hadrian (ILS 7784; cf. Mommsen, Ges. Schriften iii, 50); the archigallus had apparently to be a Roman citizen (on the complex question see now V. Scramuzza, The Emperor Claudius I54); Augustus prohibited the Druidic cult to Roman citizens-and one knows that the old Republic gave citizenship to the priestesses of Ceres, who used to come from Greek cities (Cic. pro Balbo 24, 55). One may also wonder whether the grant of the citizenship to teachers and doctors by Caesar (Suet. 42) was simply an honour or was meant partly as a measure of control. The importance of citizenship in the repression of Jewish and Christian cults has been a commonplace since Mommsen (Ges. Schriften iii, 389).

- (9) The overwhelming chorus of texts of imperial age which exalt Roman citizenship only increases interest in the whispers of protest, which S.-W. does not adduce. Mitteis called attention to the striking passage of Philostratus, Vita Apollonii iv, 5, and Lucian, Demonax 40 is a ' locus classicus ': the whole of the Nigrinus is, of course, relevant (on which C. Gallavotti's study, Atene e Roma N.S. II, 1930, 252, asks for reconsideration). Among the witnesses favourable to the Roman a place should be given to the local and private ones, which were more sincere (cf. for instance Syll.3 796 B iii in honour of young T. Statilius Lamprias TETE1PflP'VOV Tu PEy1rT1j KcTrapat 1T&Ociv a'IV cpTols 8CvpOaOapcEYv11 PCOpaiCwv 1TroXTiCr,

and ILS I976-I985; 7789). The autobiography of Josephus, 422 ff., and the contra Apionem are, too, of some interest; and Pausanias viii, 43, 5, ought not to be forgotten. In the matter of allegiance, the mood satirised by Lucian in De conscribenda historia is characteristic, and the participation of Sparta in the Parthian wars of M. Aurelius and Caracalla (IG v, i, i i6; 8i6, and Herodian iv, 8, 3; 9, 4) besides giving some glimpses into the diffusion of the ' civitas' (cf. A .v. Premer- stein, Klio II, I 9 II, 358), contributes a picturesque touch to that question of the Hellenic civilisation within the Roman Empire on which one would like to hear




more. Marcus the philosopher and Ammianus Marcellinus claim a place. Con- sequently, the linguistic aspects of the Roman citizenship might deserve attention. as it is well known that L. Hahn's meritorious studies are no longer sufficient, Statius, Silvae iv, 5, 45-6 declaims: ' non sermo Poenus, non habitus tibi, externa non mens: Italus, Italus.' But the ever-recurring patavinitas of Livy has recently been exploded by K. Latte, Class. Phil. 35, I940, 56 (for a different view see J. Whatmough, Harv. Stud. Class. Phil., 44, I933, 95 ; AJP, 62, I94I, 378). I found somewhat significant for the consciousness of the Italian ' Romanitai' of the second century A.D. CIL iii, 52I2, ' cives Romani ex Italia et aliis provinciis in Raetia consistentes'. The really important point is, of course, the formation of a ' lus italicum' with its solid privileges (S.-W. p. 2i6, cf. now J. Paoli, Md1. JEc. Rome 55, I938, 96).

(iO) The increasing amount of evidence now calls for a special paragraph on' Roman citizenship and the army'. The presence of non-citizens in legions has been supported with remarkable reasons by A. Segre, Aegyptus 9, I928, 303, and contested by A. Degrassi, ib. IO, I929, 242. Romans among auxiliary troops are a well-known fact. That Ius Latii was given to marines and ' equites singulares' by Hadrian, as Mommsen suggested (' Schweizer Nachstudien', Ges. Schriften v, 402), has not been confirmed (J. Lesquier, L'armede romaine d'Egypte I9I8, 222), but also in this case the Gnomon of the Idios Logos offers new material for discussion (? 55; cf. W. Uxkull-Gyllenband's comment p. 44). Why the grant of Roman citizenship was no longer extended liberis posterisque of the auxiliary soldiers after about A.D. I40 remains still a matter of speculation (S.-W. 2I5). I incline to prefer the more recent explanation by H. T. Rowell, Yale Class. Stud. vi, I939,

86, to that by E. Birley, JRS 28, I938, 227. Three facts attract the attention of the student of the ' Constitutio Antoniniana', but prove delusive on reflection (cf. A. H. M. Jones, JRS 25, I936, 228, 232, n. 37): (a) the Latin papyrus posterior to A.D. 235 published by L. Amundsen, Symb. Osl. IO, I932, i6, contains one non-citizen in an auxiliary corps. (b) The diplomata I52 and I54 of CIL xvi show that marines had no citizenship about A.D. 247 (' daraus ist wohl zu schliessen dass auch nach der Constitutio Antoniniana von 2I2 fur die Flotte in der Regel keine Burger genommen werden ', M. Gelzer, Klio 3I, I938, I20). (C) The inscription ILS 9I84 admirably expounded by H. T. Rowell, Yale Class. Studies vi, reveals a ' numerus' of ' Brittones dediticii' in A.D. 232 ; one would like to be sure that Rowell is right in supposing that they were sent out to the German 'limes' in the last years of Septimius Severus. Meanwhile, P. Yale Inv. I528, published in )IRS 28, I938, has been shown to be connected with a question of citizenship by W. L. Westermann, Class. Phil. 36, I941, 2I ; and one is glad to think that Seneca in his notorious sentence of the Apocolocyntosis 3 was, after all, not quite wide of the mark, if Claudius was really the first to establish the rule that citizenship should be given to the veterans of the auxilia. S.-W.'s assent (p. I92) to Nesselhauf's hypothesis, already supported by E. Birley (JRS 28, I938, cit.), is important.

(i i) S.-W.'s warning against the easy restoration and interpretation of P. Giessen 40 is timely. It is wise to repeat that we are not even certain that the text contains the ' Constitutio Antoniniana', although I believe that enough is known to make the positive alternative much more likely than the negative and that A. H. M. Jones (JRS 26, I936) has produced the best interpretation. Later studies clearly show that too many ideas cannot be based on a few uncertain words. E. Schoen- bauer, Z. d. Sav. Stift. 57, I937, 309, and Arch. f. Papyrusf. I3, I939, I77, does not add much to his admirable research in Z. d. Sav. Stift. 5I, I931, 286. W. Schubart, Aegyptus 20, I940, 3I, is right in suggesting that vE'V0VT05 must be followed by a positive clause, but far from convincing in his restoration pE'V0VT0 [OVTIVOaOVV yEVOVS OVOPu a]TcoV and even less in supposing that the crux o'aaKis



164 REVIEWS AND DISCUSSIONS

Eav v4rr]E1aX8coa1V EIS Tro1iS Epo'S 'v[]pCbroUs refers to the descendants of the new citizens. F. M. Heichelheim's article inJEA 26, I94I, IO, is not happy. The text of the papyrus should remind us-what indeed E. Schoenbauer vigorously reaffirms in the best part of his article of I937-that the real problem of the ' Constitutio' has been formulated by L. Mitteis in one of the most famous and least read contributions to the history of the Roman Empire, Reichsrecht und Volksrecht. Schoenbauer and F. De Visscher (C.R.Ac. Inscr. I938, 24) have been quick to understand that the inscription of Rhosos, which gives choice of juris- diction to the new citizen, confirms the widespread suspicion that Mitteis's theory on the revolution in juridical practice started by Caracalla is not entirely justified. But the chief question is still how far Roman citizenship and Roman private law went together, how much a juridical unity of the Mediterranean world was realised by the Romans, how far a juridical uniformity (or lack of uniformity) contributed to the social and spiritual unity (or disunion) of the Empire. These problems, to which E. Levy (Z. Sav. Stift. 49, I929, 230), R. Taubenschlag (Scritti Bonfante i, I929, 400; Atti I Congr. Dir. Romano i I934, 28I), L. Wenger (Atti IV Congr. Int. Papir. I935, I76; Actes V Congres Int. Papyr. I937, 522; Arch. d'hist. du Droit orient. i, I937, i8i), E. Albertario (Studia et Docum. hist. iuris I, I935, 9), F. Schulz (Principles of Roman Law I24), E. Volterra (Diritto romano e diritto orientali I937), among others, have contributed general surveys, deserve to be recognised by the historians as their own problems.

(I2) It is good to see that S.-W. has acutely perceived the importance of the position of the nationes within the Empire and has contributed to its clarification. The inquiry may be extended in many directions. The coins of the provinces or nations issued by Hadrian and Antoninus illustrate two more or less different approaches by the imperial government (see the discussion between P. L. Strack, Unters. zur romischen Reichsprdgung ii, I39; iii, 39, and J. M. C. Toynbee, The Hadrianic School), while the idea may be followed in Roman law (E. De Ruggiero, La patria nel diritto pubblico Romano I92I; F. Schulz, Principles of Roman Law IO9). The popular conscience is on record in the inscriptions, a recently found group of which is to be seen in H. Seyrig, ' Les cimitieres des marins a Seleucie de Pierie,' Mel. Dussaud I939, 45I (second century A.D.). But the Pagan-Christian polemic is more relevant. If Justin i Apol. I4 considered the Christian peace as a reconciling influence among the nations and Eusebius, De laud. Constant. 3 states that the existence of one God is the condition of peace on Earth-Celsus (ap. Origen, c. Celsum v, 25; viii, 35) and Julian (Ep. ad Themist. 258; in Galil. I76 N), developing a Platonic conception (Politicus 27I D; Laws iv, 7I3), explained the different nations by the multiplicity of gods. On the other hand, the Christian apologists tried to justify their religion by the variety of national customs within the Empire: Tl UVPETEpa, IEyaXol paaicEOwvA oVoiKQlJIEvi1 'aAo'S catAoi0S FEal XpC6vrTal Kcd

vO6ois, Kcd oVSEis aOrr5v vo'pc Kdl qopP 81'KIKS, KaV yEEOica T', arTEpyEIV Ta lTaTpla EIpyETat

(Athenagoras Leg. I ; cf. Tertull, Apol. 24; Justin i Apol. 24). These quotations are given only to recall a point, which meant something for ancient, as well as for medieval, history. Christianity, although making the Empire its own, never lost sight of the life of the nations. St. Augustine accepted the universal State but asserted the theoretical superiority of the peaceful co-existence of many States (Civ. Dei iv, I5). Orosius at the beginning of Book v gives reasons for and against the Empire with fairness, but even the unfair utterances of a Salvian must be taken into account. There is no doubt that Christianity gave life to national cultures and restored vitality and individuality to Greek civilisation. Yet Christianity brought Romanisation to those depths of the individual soul and to those strata of the body politic which could not effectively be reached by any ' Constitutio Antoniniana'. The complex reaction which Christianity displayed towards the idea of the Roman citizenship is perhaps the most important among the subjects




of meditation which Sherwin-White's exceedingly interesting book may suggest to its readers.

Appendix.-Although I intend to avoid disconnected points, I may perhaps observe that, for the history of the relations between Romans and Latins, some attention must now be given to the formula of the new Severan ' acta' of the 'ludi saeculares': 'te quaeso precorque uti tu imperium maiestatemque p. R.Q. duelli domique auxis utique semper Latinus optemperassit' (P. Romanelli, N. d. Scavi 1931, 3I3; Chr. Huelsen, Rh. Mus. 8i, 1932, 366; E. Diehl, Sitz. Preuss. Ak. I932, 762, and Rh. Mus. 83, I934, 269; 357; G. Funaioli, Riv. Fil. Class. 6i, I933, 2II ; P. Romanelli, ib. 393; J. GagI, Me. Ec. Rome 51, 1934, 32).

The sentence has already played a considerable part in the numerous recent discussions on the origin of the ' ludi saeculares' (P. Wuilleumier, Rev. Et. Lat. IO, I932, I27, and i6, I938, I39; J. Gag6, ib. ii, I933, I78; L. R. Taylor, Am. Journ. Phil. 55, 1934, IOI; A. Piganiol, Rev. rt. Anc. 38, I936, 2I9; L. Herrmann, Rev. Pit. Lat. I5, I937, 3I2. St. Weinstock, P-W s.v. 'Tarentum'; Glotta 2I, I933, 40, and C. Battisti, St. It. Fil. Class. I5, I938, i68; Rend. Ist. Lombardo 71, I938, fasc. 2, do not consider the text, but see Weinstock, Gnomon I2, I936, 658). Indeed, it has been asserted: ' Ist der Satz nicht eine blosse Phrase, so haben die Worte zur Voraussetzung, dass die Latiner ein demp.R.Q. gleichwertiger politischer Faktor waren, deren Abfall von Rom fuir Rom eine Katastrophe bedeutete. Das war zum letztenmal im Latinerkrieg 340-338 v. Chr. der Fall' (Diehl, Rh. Mus. 1934, 269; analogous formulation in L. R. Taylor, op. cit. p. I09).

It is mv purpose to call attention to a text rather than to give any definite judgment. Yet it is legitimate to wonder whether it is not wiser to suspect the phrase as an antiquarian forgery of the Augustan age. The saecular oracle preserved by Phlegon (Macrob. 4 FGH 257 F 38) and Zosimus (ii, 6)-in the words Kca aod 1Traaa Xe'ov 'TcaOi Kcadl -raa AaTiarvcov al1Ev VTrO aKmlTTpOlV EiaTVcXEVla V 3iyov E'El

-is now rightly considered an Augustan forgery (M. P. Nilsson, P-W s.v. C Saeculares ludi ', I7I2: on the question, H. Diels, Sibyllinische Bldtter I890, 14; Mommsen, Eph. Ep. Viii, 235 = Ges. Schriften viii, 578; K. Meister, Lateinisch- griechische Eigennamen i, I9I6, 53). The two texts seem to betray the same origin. If that is not admitted, the prayer of the ludi will be still better understood if we assume it to have been composed after 338 B.C.

ARNALDO MOMIGLIANO.

M. ROSTOVTZEFF, THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTOR Y OF THE HELLENISTIC WORLD. 3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, I94I. Pp. xXiv + I779, with II2 plates and iI figures in text. C5 5s.

This eagerly expected work, the most important which has appeared in our time on the Hellenistic world, will enormously increase the debt which students of that world already owe to Professor Rostovtzeff. It is indeed a very great book, alike in its vast learning, in the ease with which the author handles his huge and complex mass of often very refractory material, in the closeness of its reasoning, and in the sanity of its judgments. R. is equally at home with the archaeological and the written evidence, and nothing that matters seems to have been overlooked on the latter side (of archaeology I cannot speak) ; also he has been able to utilise a good deal of unpublished material. As originally planned the book was to have included Republican Rome, but this had to be given up. As it stands, the time limits are the usual ones, Alexander to Actium, while the space limits exclude both the West (Italy, Sicily, Carthage) and the Farther East (Parthia and all that lay bevond). R. expects criticism of these limits; but I think he was wise to keep to the centre of things. Logically, of course, there are no limits; Greek influence



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