Rome in the face of defeat (753-264 BC).
Beautiful Letters| N° d'inventaire | 20962 |
| Format | 16 x 24 |
| Détails | 592 pages, bibliography, index, 3 maps, paperback with dust jacket. |
| Publication | Paris, 2017 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
The first five centuries of Roman history are presented by ancient authors as an inexorable movement of conquest of Italy, punctuated by multiple victories, to the point that Roman supremacy was conceived a posteriori in a deterministic way. This traditional vision of the Roman conquest must be contested because this process was not linear and it did not obey any preconceived plan. Indeed, numerous defeats underline phases of decline of the city, far removed from a pattern of growing and uncontested preponderance. Although they favor victory, ancient historians describe these defeats with precision, detailing the number of citizens killed or taken prisoner, retracing the public mourning, the abandonment of the city by the gods, and finally questioning the responsibility of the Roman leaders. The preserved ancient documentation, both literary and material, allows us to study how Rome perceived itself when it was defeated and how the enemies of the Romans celebrated their victories against the Latin city; in other words, the determining role of military failures in the institutional, religious and civic transformations of Rome between the 8th and the middle of the 3rd century BC. Work co-published with the Ministry of the Armed Forces, General Secretariat for Administration, Directorate of Heritage, Memory and Archives.
The first five centuries of Roman history are presented by ancient authors as an inexorable movement of conquest of Italy, punctuated by multiple victories, to the point that Roman supremacy was conceived a posteriori in a deterministic way. This traditional vision of the Roman conquest must be contested because this process was not linear and it did not obey any preconceived plan. Indeed, numerous defeats underline phases of decline of the city, far removed from a pattern of growing and uncontested preponderance. Although they favor victory, ancient historians describe these defeats with precision, detailing the number of citizens killed or taken prisoner, retracing the public mourning, the abandonment of the city by the gods, and finally questioning the responsibility of the Roman leaders. The preserved ancient documentation, both literary and material, allows us to study how Rome perceived itself when it was defeated and how the enemies of the Romans celebrated their victories against the Latin city; in other words, the determining role of military failures in the institutional, religious and civic transformations of Rome between the 8th and the middle of the 3rd century BC. Work co-published with the Ministry of the Armed Forces, General Secretariat for Administration, Directorate of Heritage, Memory and Archives.