From the Renaissance to today, the idea that the Roman Republic lasted more than 450 years - persisting unbroken from the late sixth century to the mid-first century BC - has profoundly shaped how Roman history is understood, how the ultimate failure of Roman republicanism is explained, and how republicanism itself is defined. In "Roman Republics", Harriet Flower argues for a completely new interpretation of republican chronology. Radically challenging the traditional picture of a single monolithic republic, she argues that there were multiple republics, each with its own clearly distinguishable strengths and weaknesses. While classicists have long recognized that the Roman Republic changed and evolved over time, Flower is the first to mount a serious argument against the idea of republican continuity that has been fundamental to modern historical study. By showing that the Romans created a series of republics, she reveals that there was much more change - and much less continuity - over the republican period than has previously been assumed. In clear and elegant prose, "Roman Republics" provides not only a reevaluation of one of the most important periods in western history but also a brief yet nuanced survey of Roman political life from archaic times to the end of the republican era.

Table of Contents:
Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations xv PART ONE: FRAMEWORK Chapter I: Introduction Periodization and the End of the Roman Republic 3 Chapter II: Toward a New Paradigm: "Roman Republics" 18 Chapter III: Early Republics (Fifth and Fourth Centuries) 35 PART TWO: CHANGE Chapter IV: Political Innovations: A Community in Transition (Second Century) 61 Chapter V: Violence and the Breakdown of the Political Process (133-81) 80 Chapter VI: External Pressures on Internal Politics (140-83) 97 PART THREE: AFTERMATH Chapter VII: An Alternative to a Crisis: Sulla's New Republic 117 Chapter VIII: After the Shipwreck (78-49) 135 Chapter IX: Implications 154 Appendix: An Assortment of Timelines, the Hellenistic Age and Republican Time, Temple Time 173 Bibliography 181 Index 201