Violence in Republican Rome

by Andrew Lintott

This book examines the roots of violence in Roman Republican law and society and the growth of violence in city war and the power of armies. It discusses political conflict, violence, military insurrection, and authoritarian government of the Republic.

Genres: Roman History, Ancient History

268 pages, Paperback

Published December 23, 1999

Reviews

[James Miller]

Thorough, technical and hugely informative. I think I could hope that he had translated more of the texts he cites especially the technical language of Roman Law and the long chunks of Cicero in the subjunctive.

[Jay Fisher]

Not an easy read for me and I have a PhD in Classics. The lack of contextual information for the untranslated quotations especially to speeches of Cicero that were unfamiliar to me made it hard to follow the argument at times. There were also gaps in the argument that I was forced to work very hard to bridge. Nevertheless, I did learn a great deal from this book about violence in Ancient Rome as a traditional means of settling disputes that got out of hand as the city and the empire grew.

[stig]

The points' delivery and context is clear enough that even without translating every Latin phrase one may get at least some of the ideas. However, without some familiarity with Roman culture and history, the book will serve more to inform the reader what else to read. If I were to rate my "experience" with the book, I might only give it two stars, but I recognize the gaps in my own knowledge.