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ROMAN HISTORY

Prehistoric period.-The important investigations into the beginnings of Italian history, which have been carried on in Italy by Italian scholars and discussed almost exclusively in Italian periodicals, have lately become more accessible. Basile Modestov, in his Introduction à l'histoire romaine,1 has collected, criticised, and arranged into a reasonable whole, the multitudinous facts and theories with regard to the inhabitants of Italy from palaeolithic times to the coming of the Etrurians, and has done an invaluable service, both to the specialist in ethnology and to the ordinary student of classics. Sergi's theory that there was an early influx of inhabitants from the north of Africa, spreading through Spain to Italy, etc., is in the main adopted; the later civilisations known as "Terramare" and "Villanova" are both attributed to peoples of Indo-European stock; in the Etrurian question, which is discussed through four chapters, Modestov rejects the theory of the northern Rhaetian home beyond the Alps, and brings them from the East by sea, according to old tradition. This view of the Etruscans is also adopted by Körte in the first part of the article "Etrusker," in the new half-volume of Pauly-Wissowa. The

The original, in Russian, was published in 1902-4. The French translation by Michel Delines (Paris, Alcan, pp. 470, with many illustrations and an interesting preface by Salomon Reinach; 12s. net), was published in 1906, and should have been noticed last year.

2 The second part of the article is a discussion of the Etruscan language by Skutsch; see section on Philology.

3 Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopädie, Elfter Halbband, EphorosEutychos, 8.v. "Etrusker," pp. 730-70 and 770-806.

heads of this first-rate article are: Ethnology, History, Political and Social Life, Commerce, Coinage, and Art. The Etruscan domination over Latium and Rome is not doubted.

An argument for early Etruscan influences at Rome is drawn from the names of the seven kings in a note by Soltau; among the earliest assets of Roman history are simply the names Remus, Romulus, Numa, Tullus, Ancus: these are Etruscan, the four gentile names Pompilius, Tullius, Hostilius, Marcius, being later and connected with plebeian gentes.

Ridgeway has developed a hint given in his Early Age of Greece (p. 257), as to the origin of the Latin plebs and the mixture of races in primitive Rome. Discarding the old tales of Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres, he places the racecleavage between patrician and plebeian, thus making the central factor of early Roman history a race-factor. The plebs (Latins) are identified as a branch of the "Ligurian race," spread over north and central Italy, the patricians (Romani) are a conquering and superimposed layer of Umbro-Sabellians. Throughout Italy the "Terramare" civilisation belongs to Ligurian Latins, the "Villanova" to Umbro-Sabellian Romani, but both are Indo-Europeans. Latin was the language of the Ligurian plebs, acquired by their conquerors. The pamphlet is theoretical in

character.

Earliest historical period. -The early constitutional history of the plebs is almost as obscure as their origin. Mommsen held that at first none except patricians were citizens, the plebeians were outside the citizen-body. Lately, investigators have held the view that the plebeians found their way into the comitia curiata at an early date.

3

1 Wochenschrift f. klassische Philologie, 1908, Heft viii. p. 220.

2 Who were the Romans? reprinted from Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. iii. January 1908. Oxford University Press; 2s 6d. net.

3 See Kübler in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyl. s.v. "curia," who gives a list of modern authors for and against the theory.

Botsford1 insists that the plebeians were full citizens with the right of voting from the very beginning of corporate life at Rome.

Republican times. Some of Pais's 2 essays on the history of Sicily and south Italy are of real value, though there is much which must be discarded. The net result of the volume is to point out the part which Magna Graecia and Greek Sicily played in the early history and development of Rome. In a separate paper Pais explains the legend of Amunclae in characteristically fanciful fashion.3 Klotz has a short note on the meanings of the various clauses in the treaty with Carthage, given in Pol. iii. 25, 1-5. The political meaning of the meeting in Asia between Antiochus and Hannibal is discussed by Kromayer, the date by Holleaux. Regling develops some previous researches into a history of Crassus' Parthian war, a typically German treatise, where every fragment of evidence is discussed.

Imperial times.-Rice Holmes' Ancient Britain and the Invasions of Julius Caesars is a companion to his book on Caesar and Gaul. It is pre-eminently a book for the student; in the discussion of any question there is passed in review every shred of ancient evidence, and every theory of importance which modern research has grafted thereon. The result is a positive encyclopaedia for all that concerns Britain from neolithic times to 43 A.D. By an arrangement into Part I. (text) and Part II. (notes and appendices), Mr

1 The Social Composition of the Primitive Roman Populus, reprinted from the Political Science Quarterly, xxi. No. 3, 1906. Boston, Gunn & Co. pp. 29.

2 Ancient Italy, pp. 441, plates and index. T. Fisher Unwin, 1908; 15s.

3 American Hist. Review, 1907, vol. xiii. No. 1, pp. 1-10.

Berliner philologische Wochensch. 1908, Heft xiv. pp. 443-7.

5 Neue Jahrbücher f. d. klass. Alterthum, vol. x. 1907 (Erste Abtheilung), pp. 681-99.

• Hermes, 1908, No. 2, pp. 296-9.

7 Klio, 1907, Heft iii. pp. 357-94.

Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907, pp. 764, maps, illustrations;

21s.net.

Holmes has contrived to leave it to his readers' choice whether they will be satisfied with his conclusions, or will investigate minutely for themselves on the basis of the evidence he abundantly puts at their disposal. Perhaps classical readers will be most interested in the prehistorical part, as hitherto it has been difficult for the classic to get an oversight of archaeological work referring to Britain; fortunately this book has been written by one who is both archaeologist and historian. The topographical sections are of especial importance: Mr Holmes claims to have identified several disputed sites.

Connected with Julius Caesar are also the following articles. Veith's1 discussion of the order of battle in the Caesarian legion, maintains the theory of tactical groups with intervals against that of the closed front; a useful summary of other views is given. Arguing from certain topographical descriptions in Caesar's Commentaries on the Civil War, which evidently could only have been written by an eye-witness, Warde Fowler 2 suggests fixing the date of their composition in the late summer of 46 B.C. Finally, the senatorial decrees creating the divinity of Julius are analysed by v. Domaszewski;3 the same writer gives a good argument for fixing the date of Livy XXVII. before 23 B.C.; he also discusses the war with the Marmaridae under Augustus, and the government of Judaea under Claudius and Nero.

4

Some papers on minor points in the early Empire may be noticed. Tenney Trank suggests that Claudius' name on the Pavian inscription (C.I.L.V. 6416) was added by Claudius himself on his journey north in 37 A.D. E. Harrison 5 protests against the hasty assumption which identifies Tac. Hist. iii. 44, 45, with Ann. xii. 40. Taking these passages as

1 Klio, 1907, Heft iii. pp. 303-34.

2 Classical Philology, vol. iii. 1908, No. 2.

3 "Kleine Beiträge zur Kaisergeschichte," Philologus, 1908, vol. lxvii. (=N. F. xxi.) pp. 1-11.

+ Classical Quarterly, vol. ii. 1908, pp. 89-92. 5 Classical Quarterly, vol. i. 1907, pp. 305-7.

they stand, they refer to two separate attempts of Venutius, the Brigant, to depose Cartimandua, the Roman client-queen. R. Knox M'Elderry1 discusses the position of the Legio VI. Ferrata in the East, and the date of its arrival there.

The problems of the second century A.D. continue to be attacked in Germany with unabated vigour. Two works have been published, which, though scarcely attractive in form, command attention by reason of their learning. Weber, by means of an extraordinarily diligent sifting of evidence, has placed the chronology of the journeys of Hadrian on an indisputable basis. While he makes great use of coins and inscriptions, and adopts a somewhat cold attitude to the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, O. Schulz has published investigations into the literary problem itself of these biographies. His main contention is that a thoroughly trustworthy historical work formed the original material; from this were drawn the excerpts, which in process of time have been battered into our Scriptores Historiae Augustae. The theory in the main agrees with that in Kornemann's Der letzte Historiker Roms, and is exaggerated in the spirit of that book. A. S. L. Farquharson 5 proves that the name Verus was quite wrongly attributed by ancient historians to Aelius Caesar, the adopted son of Hadrian.

Constitutional work has not been very abundant. There are two articles on equites in Pauly-Wissowa. Brassloff" gives excellent proof from epigraphical sources that the patricii were excluded from praetorian provincial governor

1 Classical Quarterly, vol. ii. 1908, pp. 110-13.

2 Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Kaisers Hadrianus, Leipzig, Teubner, 1907, pp. 289, illustrations; 8 m.

3 Das Kaiserhaus der Antonine und der letzte Historiker Roms, nebst einer Beigabe, Das Geschichtswerk des Anonymus, Leipzig, Teubner, 1907, pp. 274; 8 m.

4 See The Year's Work, 1906, p. 88.

Classical Quarterly, 1908, No. i. pp. 1-8.

6 Equites Romani, by Kübler, in the new half-volume No. xi. pp. 272-312, and Equites Singulares, by Liebenam, ibid. pp. 312-21. 7 Wiener Studien, 1907, Heft i. pp. 321-5.