The Roman Clan: The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern AnthropologyThe gens, a key social formation in archaic Rome, has given rise to considerable interpretative problems for modern scholarship. In this comprehensive exploration of the subject, Professor Smith examines the mismatch between the ancient evidence and modern interpretative models influenced by social anthropology and political theory. He offers a detailed comparison of the gens with the Attic genos and illustrates, for the first time, how recent changes in the way we understand the genos may impact upon our understanding of Roman history. He develops a concept of the gens within the interlocking communal institutions of early Rome, which touches on questions of land ownership, warfare and the patriciate, before offering an explanation of the role of the gens and the part it might play in modern political theory. This significant work makes an important contribution not only to the study of archaic Rome, but also to the history of ideas. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Modern interpretations | 65 |
Archaeology and the gens | 145 |
page ix | 164 |
The Roman community | 169 |
The Roman curiae | 191 |
8 | 225 |
164 | 231 |
Warfare in the regal and early Republican periods | 281 |
Explaining the gens | 299 |
99 | 320 |
Roman history and the modern world | 336 |
101 | 351 |
Select bibliography | 363 |
104 | 365 |
108 | 384 |
Other editions - View all
The Roman Clan: The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology C. J. Smith Limited preview - 2006 |
The Roman Clan: The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology C. J. Smith No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
ager publicus ancient archaic argued argument aristocratic army auspicia burial centuriata chapter Cicero claim clan Claudii clientes comitia curiata concept connection consular tribunes consuls consulship context Cornell cult curiae curiate assembly debate Dionysius of Halicarnassus early Republic early Roman elected Etruria Etruscan evidence Fabii Fabius Fasti fifth century flamines fourth century Fustel de Coulanges gen¯e genos gentiles gentilicial Greek hoplite important individual inheritance instance institution issue kings kinship land later lex curiata Livy Livy’s magistracy magistrates maximus military Momigliano Mommsen Morgan names nature Niebuhr nobility nomen organisation patres patricians patricians and plebeians patriciate perhaps period phratry plebeian movement plebeians plebs political praetor problem reconstruction reference relationship religious Republican role Roman gens Roman history Roman society Rome Rome’s Romulean Romulus sacra senate Servius Tullius significant social sources suggests Töv tribal tribes Twelve Tables Varro Vico Vico’s whilst
Popular passages
Page 110 - Democracy in government, brotherhood in society, equality in rights and privileges, and universal education, foreshadow the next higher plane of society to which experience, intelligence and knowledge are steadily tending. It will be a revival, in a higher form, of the liberty, equality and fraternity of the ancient gentes.
Page 113 - Monogamy was a great historical advance, but at the same time it inaugurated, along with slavery and private wealth, that epoch, lasting until today, in which every advance is likewise a relative regression, in which the well-being and development of the one group are attained by the misery and repression of the other.
Page 28 - ... gentiles sunt inter se, qui eodem nomine sunt.' non est satis, 'qui ab ingenuis oriundi sunt.' ne id quidem satis est. 'quorum maiorum nemo servitutem servivit.' abest etiam nunc. 'qui capite non sunt deminuti.
Page 262 - Praeteriti senatores quondam in opprobrio non erant, quod. ut reges sibi legebant, sublegebantque, quos in consilio publico haberent, ita post exactos eos consules quoque et tribuni militum consulari potestate coniunctissimos sibi quosque patriciorum, et deinde plebeiorum legebant...
Page 93 - Lex was next a collection of vegetables, from which the latter were called legumina. Later on, at a time when vulgar letters had not yet been invented for writing down the laws, lex by a necessity of civil nature must have meant a collection of citizens, or the public parliament; so that the presence of the people was the lex, or "law," that solemnized the wills 56 57 that were made calatis comitiis, in the presence of the assembled comitia.
Page 119 - The notion was that, though the physical person of the deceased had perished, his legal personality survived and descended unimpaired on his Heir or Co-heirs, in whom his identity (so far as the law was concerned) was continued.
References to this book
In the Image of the Ancestors: Narratives of Kinship in Flavian Epic Neil W. Bernstein Limited preview - 2008 |
Ancient Italy: Regions Without Boundaries Guy Jolyon Bradley,Elena Isayev,Corinna Riva Snippet view - 2007 |