Clans of Roman Italy

Abstract

Clans of Roman Italy Roman Roth Terrenato, N. 2019. The Early Roman Expansion into Italy: Elite Negotiation and Family Agendas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xx + 327, 43 black-and-white illustrations. ISBN 978–1–108–42267–3. £75.00. I In 381 bc the city-state of Tusculum became the first community to be incorporated into the Roman state as a municipium, probably by inclusion in the tribus Papiria to which it belonged in historically better documented times.1 Livy informs us that the incorporation came in the wake of an impending war between Tusculum and Rome, which was averted by the community's surrendering itself to the Roman troops that had menacingly entered the town's territory.2 Yet its allegiances remained uncertain, so that by the time Rome's Latin allies revolted from her forty years later, Tusculum appears to have been on the rebels' side. Livy represents this as the result of a factional struggle within the municipium when he describes the restitution of the town to its citizen status in 338 bc in the following terms: Tusculanis seruata ciuitas quam habebant crimenque rebellionis a publica fraude in paucos autores uersum ('The Tusculans retained the citizen status which they had and the charge of rebellion was laid against a few ringleaders while the community was absolved from that of collective betrayal', Livy 8.14.4). [End Page 268] This incident provides a prime example of the fact that Rome's successful expansion in Italy depended on loyal members of local elites being in control of her allied communities or, as in this case, of a recently incorporated municipium.3 By the same token, it was possible for those elites to lead their city-states to break away from Rome – or at least attempt to do so – which raises the question what motivated such individuals to be either loyal or opposed to the emerging imperial power. In the case of Tusculum, this issue again arose only fifteen years after the town had been allowed to retain its citizen status. In 323 bc, Livy writes of a recent rebellion in which the Tusculans were said to have sided with the people of Velitrae and Privernum.4 The tribal assembly rejected the proposed terms of punishment – execution of adult males, sale into slavery of women and children – almost unanimously, except for the tribus Pollia, which Livy (8.37.7–12) suggests was the reason why candidates from this tribe usually failed to gain the Papiria's vote ad patrum aetatem ('down to our fathers' time'). Again significant is the fact that the status of the town was preserved although at least some of the Tusculans – almost certainly members of the elite – had attempted to break their allegiance to Rome yet another time. There is yet another twist to the tale; one of the Roman consuls who were elected for the following year (322 bc) was L. Fulvius Curvus, member of a prominent Tusculan family and generally considered to have been the first immigrant homo nouus who attained the consulship.5 Although Livy does not comment on this, the Elder Pliny supplies additional information on both the man and his rise to power, which is as intriguing as it is confused.6 According to Pliny, Fulvius had in fact been consul of 'the rebellious Tusculans' only recently and obtained the same office as soon as he had changed sides and joined the Romans, to the point of celebrating a triumph over his town of origin. Since this anecdote is recorded neither by Livy nor, more importantly, in the fasti triumphales, we ought not to lend it too much credence. Rather, its roots might be traced to later Republican discourses of noble origins.7 In turn, these were quite possibly elaborated upon by the exemplary tradition [End Page 269] of the early Empire that also provides a context for this and many other chapters in the seventh book of Pliny's Naturalis Historia.8 Still, there is rarely smoke without fire. In this case, the fact that this anecdote could credibly be circulated during later times invites the suspicion that the historical rise of the Fulvii had something more to it...