Unwritten Rome by T.P. Wiseman

Abstract

366 BOOK REVIEWS F. examines how the introduction of anonymous (lector) and indistinct (matronae) readers creates a subtle dynamic of social stratification . He expands on, e.g., A.L. Spisak’s12 work on Martial and his reader in a compelling way, by highlighting a web of intersecting relationships apparent in the epigrams that goes beyond a more linear author-to-patron/reader dynamic. In that sense this Chapter echoes Chapter 2 in its attempt to recreate the nuances of the degrading social and literary boundaries under the early Empire. The relationship between Chapter 6, an engaging romp through reception history from Catullus and Ovid to Martial, and Martial to Burmeister, and the rest of the book is a bit of a puzzle. Still, F. presents a fascinating study of poets reading and misreading poets, and allows us a glimpse into the ways in which Catullus, Ovid, Martial and Burmeister all create a private society of the book and display a clever spectacle of their own. PETER J. ANDERSON Grand Valley State University, Michigan * * * Unwritten Rome. By T.P. WISEMAN. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2008. Pp. x + 366. Paper, $37.95. ISBN 978–0–85989–823–2. In his prolific career, T.P. Wiseman (W.) has produced erudite and original studies on an impressive variety of topics literary, historical and archaeological. Now comes this work, composed in the belief that with enough ingenuity, the right argumentation and a creative combination of evidence, one can recover reliable information about unwritten Rome. The title admits of two interpretations. It may refer either to the Rome that existed before written records (particularly a written history, ca. 200 BCE at Rome) or to those events and beliefs of Roman society for which we lack contemporaneous written accounts. W. claims (p. 23) to deal with the former, but in fact gives the latter abundant attention. The book thus shares much ideologically with his recent investigations into the less wellevidenced beliefs (The Myths of Rome (Exeter, 2004)) and culture (Remembering the Roman People (Oxford, 2009)) of the Roman people. Of the volume’s 18 papers, four and part of a fifth are new; the rest have appeared (mostly) in edited volumes since 2002 and are given only a very few addenda. Why these articles? The principle of selection is not stated, and one wonders why some relevant works have been omitted (e.g., the review of Cornell’s The Beginnings of Rome in JRA 9 (1996) 310–15). Moreover, the advantage of having these works inside one cover is, given the inadequate index locorum, only partially realized. None of the coins and only three of the 12 “Martial’s Special Relation with his Reader,” in C. Deroux, ed., Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History (Brussels, 1997). F.’s approach is also informed in part by Larash (n. 7, above). BOOK REVIEWS 367 numerous inscriptions discussed are recorded in the index (ILLRP 309 and 310, and the Fasti Praenestini, under the unusual entries “the epitaphs of the Scipios” and “Verrius Flaccus,” respectively), and many important passages go unlisted. This is unfortunate, for a proper and complete index would have facilitated scholarly use of the volume. The first essay (pp. 1–23, a new work) establishes the book’s methodology and sounds several discouraging notes: the Romans themselves knew little about early Rome; no oral tradition transmitted reliable information about that world; and because rituals change over time, the belief that archaic ones preserve evidence about earliest Rome is mistaken. How to recover unwritten Rome then? Not through comparative anthropology (which receives a strong rebuke), but by traditional “close reading of the sources” and “careful consideration of what they may or may not presuppose” (p. 22). The remaining 17 chapters employ this approach, ambitiously and often adventurously, to Roman cult, ludi, theater, historiography and regal Rome. If the topics of the contributions vary, so do their aims, with several attempting to solve clearly defined problems and correct recently advanced misconceptions, while others provide somewhat impressionistic accounts of their subject. But all are worth reading and pondering. Considerations of space preclude discussion of every paper; what follows are selective comments. W. treats cultus and religio with a keen...