The Last Generation Of The Roman Republic By E. S. Gruen

[Viggen]

Another review has been completed for our Roman Books section, thanks to community member Germanicus.

 

The Last generation of the Roman republic is a great resource for anyone interested in this era of Roman history

[M. Porcius Cato]

Thanks Germanicus for that review. I also heartily recommend "The Last Generation of the Roman Republic."

 

If the book had a theme, I guess it would be: The republic wasn't doomed. That's already an important corrective to make.

 

Additionally, Gruen provides a wonderful compendium of magistrates, broken down by whether their families had attained the consulship, praetorship, etc. Two points jump out from that list. First, that the magistrates of the late republic were not all part of the nobility. Quite the opposite, the number of new men is really rather astounding. Second, the lower offices were absolutely dominated by new men, who also attained higher offices in large numbers. For example, of the 178 known praetors, 68 were new men or from families that had never had praetors; of the 113 known tribunes and 200 known pedarii, 137 were novi homines and 67 were from families that had never had praetors.

 

These two facts are important because they show that the senate was NOT closed to newcomers, and that over time, the majority of the senate would likely have been filled with new men.

[Germanicus]

No worries - It was a good read, and I must say certain things I once thought I knew prior to reading it have altered somewhat. You probably began that process actually, so thankyou. I do need to read Cicero though.

[Virgil61]

No worries - It was a good read, and I must say certain things I once thought I knew prior to reading it have altered somewhat. You probably began that process actually, so thankyou. I do need to read Cicero though.

 

I enjoyed it, thanks for that review. It's an important work, up there with Syme, the review spurred me to want to buy it--again, I had a copy once and it's disappeared after several moves. I hate that.