BMCR 2008.12.07, Federico Santangelo, Sulla, the Elites and the Empire

Federico Santangelo, Sulla, the Elites and the Empire: A Study of Roman
Policies in Italy and the Greek East. Impact of Empire 8.
Leiden/Boston:  Brill, 2007.  Pp. xiv, 300.  ISBN 9789004163867.
$139.00.

Reviewed by Gareth C. Sampson, [email protected]
Word count:  2255 words
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Despite the rush of works on Sulla that have recently been published,
or republished, this work stands out. The book is the eighth volume in
the Brill series 'Impact of Empire', and the first monograph (the other
seven being conference proceedings). The series editors' preface sums
up the features of this book that makes it immediately stand out from
the usual biographical treatments of Sulla by pointing out that this
work attempts to tackle the impact of Sulla's actions and policies on
Italy and the East, with particular focus on the elites of these
regions. The work is split into three sections ordered by their
different themes: Sulla and the Civil War, the Sullan Settlement and
Sulla and religion. Across the three sections, there are some seventeen
chapters not including the introduction, conclusion and appendix.

The introduction sets the tone of the work well, combining a brief
overview of Sulla's career with the author's intentions and aims.
Central to these aims are the author's contention that Sulla viewed the
Social and Mithridatic Wars as resulting from a break between the Roman
elite and those of the Italy and Greece and he engaged in a
reorganisation of both regions in an attempt to cure the causes of
these conflicts.

Section One 'Punishment and Rewards. Sulla and the Elites', covers the
period of the Social, Mithridatic and First Civil Wars. This section is
composed of a short introduction and seven sub-chapters. The
introduction to this section expresses the author's intention to deal
with this period in thematic fashion based on the regions involved
(Greece, Asia and Italy) and defends the order in which he discusses
them, placing Greece before Italy.

Despite the introduction's stated intent of avoiding a biographical
treatise, Chapter One, 'A Silent Crisis, A Noisy Collapse', takes the
reader back to Sulla's early career, from the Jugurthan War through to
his pro-praetorship in the east, and again acts as an introduction to
the Mithridatic War. Given the previous introductions to both the book
and the first section, this first chapter appears ill at ease with the
author's stated intentions. Chapter Two, 'A Complex Strategy: Sulla
Between Attica and Boeotia', focuses on the situation in Greece during
the Mithridatic War and its aftermath. This chapter provides an
excellent analysis of the relationship between Greece and Rome in this
war, analysing both the potential motivations and strategies of the
three main parties, Sulla, the Greeks and Mithridates.

Chapter Three, 'Facing the Consequences: The Elites of Asia Minor',
shifts the focus to Asia Minor and analyses this three-way relationship
between Sulla, the locals and Mithridates in some detail. Taken
together with the preceding chapter on Greece, these two chapters
constitute an important analysis of the causes and effects of the
Mithridatic War on the Roman East. Despite the wealth of detail, amply
supported by excellent footnotes of the ancient and modern sources, the
Roman east is dealt with in just thirty-four pages before the following
chapters revert to an analysis of Rome and Italy, which gives the
impression of being at odds with the author's stated intentions.

Chapter Four shifts the focus back to Italy and analyses the situation
between the Roman and Italian elites during the Social and Civil Wars.
Although the author had stated and defended his decision to combine
Sulla's activities during the Social and Civil Wars into one chapter,
covering them in just eleven pages does give the impression of a brief
overview rather than a fuller analysis. Chapter Five, 'Retaliation and
Politics: The Proscriptions', and Chapter Six, 'Sulla's Infamous
Associates', turn the focus to the proscriptions. The first question
raised in the reader's mind is why the need for two separate chapters
rather than one and why the same space is devoted to a discussion of
the proscriptions in general as was devoted to Sulla in Greece and
Asia. These two chapters form a good general discussion of the Sullan
proscriptions but fit awkwardly with the rest of the section and
diverge somewhat from the stated intention of focussing on the
relationship between Sulla and the elites. Certainly the proscriptions
would have had a serious effect on them, but the two chapters focus
almost entirely on matters at Rome, as we have little evidence for the
effects in Italy.

Chapter Seven, 'The Necessity of the Elites: Interim Conclusions'
initially focuses on the role that the Sullan reforms of the Senate
played in this process, or rather it would have were the chapter not
missing. The author starts by stating that the bulk of what would have
formed this chapter will only be available in a forthcoming and
unreferenced article and that this chapter will merely summarise the
main conclusions, which form just three paragraphs of this two and a
half page chapter. The reader is left feeling that if it is such an
important topic, which it must be, then it needs to be here in the
book, rather than three paragraphs of summary, especially given the
author's bold and interesting assertion that the Sullan senate was not
increased to six hundred members as most commentators have claimed.
This chapter also alleges that "the identities of most of the new
senators are equally obscure". Here the usually excellent footnoting
ignores the work of Gabba,[[1]] who tentatively identified some one
hundred and two of the new Sullan senators. The rest of this short
chapter summarises the author's views of Sulla's attitudes to the
central role of the elites in aiding the recovery of the Roman Empire.

This chapter concludes the first section, which comprises the first
half of the book. The chapter strikes the reader as being awkwardly
constructed. Chapter One acts as background to the section, which is
perhaps unnecessary given the excellent introduction to the book.
Chapters Two to Four are an excellent analysis of the relationship
between the elites of the regions of Greece, Asia and Italy to Sulla
and Mithridates and are invaluable to any student of these wars. With
Chapter Five, the whole tone of the section changes and the focus
shifts more to Sulla's actions, in terms of the prescriptions and
Senatorial reform. Again, despite the author's stated intentions, these
last three chapters sit awkwardly with the first half of the section
and appear to lose the focus.

Section Two, 'Between War and Peace. Sulla and the Administration of
the Empire', comprises a further eight chapters. Chapter One,
'Resettling the Province of Asia', is one of the strongest and provides
an excellent analysis of the Sullan settlement of Asia, in what will
soon become the definitive treatment of this topic to date. The reader
is left with a far deeper understanding of Sulla's actions and the long
term implication of his imperial re-organisation.

Chapter Two, 'Statesmanship and Retaliation: Between Capua and
Praeneste', shifts the focus back to Italy (the focus of the rest of
the section), which leaves the reader wondering about the question of
Greece after Sulla. Nevertheless, this is an interesting short chapter
that focuses on the city of Praeneste as a case study for Sulla's
veteran settlement policies. This combines well with Chapter Three,
'Sullan Colonisation in Italy: Back to the Basics', which widens the
focus to an overview of the whole Sullan veteran colonisation
programme. This chapter takes the form of a list of the known and
speculative Sullan colonies, with a brief analysis of each one.

Chapter Four, 'Pompeii and Campania Felix', reverses this process and,
like Chapter Two, focuses on a case study, the resettlement of Pompeii,
which featured significantly in Section One, Chapter Four. Towards the
end of the chapter the focus widens to cover Campania as a whole. This
contrasts well with the region of Etruria, covered in Chapter Five,
'Etruria: A Contrasting Picture', which focuses on Sulla's policies
towards a region that had been a hotbed of opposition to him. Thus we
have four excellent chapters on Sulla's settlement of Italy, which
constitute an important analysis of the topic.

Chapter Six, 'The Sullan Veterans and Catiline's Conspiracy', takes
this analysis a stage further and looks at the long-term results of
Sulla's policies. The role of Sulla's veterans in Catiline's army is
well known and although the author gives a short restatement of the
problems involved, he shies away from coming to any fresh conclusions.
Chapter Seven, 'The Importance of Etruria', is just three pages long
and acts as a summary of the views expressed in the preceding five
chapters. This is followed by another two-page summary in the form of
Chapter Eight, 'Beyond the Emergency: Interim Conclusions'. These two
pages constitute a summary of the entire section, and draw some
comparisons between Sulla's reorganisation of Asia and Italy (again
there is no mention of Greece). On the one hand, the author makes his
point about Sulla's policies showing him to be more than the
stereotypical tyrant who did little beyond securing his own position.
But on the other, as to whether these actions constituted a vision for
a newly ordered Roman Empire, the case is unproven.

The book then moves on to the two short chapters of Section Three,
'Sulla, Religion, and the Empire'. The theme of Section three is the
role religion played in Sulla's plan for the empire. Chapter One, 'Why
Sulla Epaphroditos', raises the much discussed question of Sulla's
religious attitudes. Again this is a fine, one-chapter discussion of
the key issues involved. The author argues that Sulla chose the name as
part of a process of promoting himself to the wider Greek world. Yet as
the author himself points out earlier in the chapter, for centuries to
come, the Greeks would remember Sulla's many infamous impieties and
temple desecrations which surely held a far stronger sway than any
additional name he might choose.

Chapter Two, 'A New Founder for Rome', is a brief section arguing that
Sulla may have tried to portray himself as a second founder of Rome (we
must overlook the uncertain roles of Camillus and Marius in this
listing). Again the argument covers such areas of the founding of games
in Athens and Rome, but was this part of a coherent strategy or simply
Sulla showing off his dominance in Rome and Rome's dominance over
Greece? Again the author falls on the side of the former but gives
enough evidence for the latter.

The conclusion is an excellent summary of the author's intent and draws
together the various strands of the proceedings chapters well. The
author's argument is that all of Sulla's measures discussed fitted into
a coherent plan to stabilise the various regions of the eastern Roman
Empire after the devastation of the Social, Civil and Mithridatic Wars.
Certainly the aspects that have been discussed do throw fresh light on
Sulla's actions but whether these formed a coherent policy or a series
of ad-hoc measures, each reader will have to decide for themselves. For
that reason alone, it is a book that must be read by anyone working on
this period of the Republic.

In addition, the conclusion is followed by a short appendix that brings
together all the inscriptions referring to Sulla and an exhaustive and
excellent bibliography which in itself is a key reference tool for
anyone working on or interested in the period. There is excellent
footnoting throughout, a clear sign of the author's fine grasp of the
material.

In terms of the overall structure, the two main sections; of Sulla's
actions during the wars and his actions after them make perfect sense
and work well. The third section, on Sulla's religious elements, does
seem to be fitted on at the end as an afterthought, especially given
its brevity, and does not fit well with the first two sections.

The other major point that needs to be remarked regards the excessive
number of chapters, seventeen in total, excluding the introductions,
conclusion and appendix. This large number of chapters occupies just
over two hundred pages and leads to chapters that average ten pages and
on occasion number just two and three pages. This disjointed approach
detracts from the overall argument with the author stopping and
starting rather than aiming for a more flowing argument. With this in
mind, it is perhaps not a coincidence that the chapter that features
the finest analysis, that on Sulla's reforms of Asia, is the longest
(twenty-six pages) of the book.

Furthermore, of these seventeen chapters, only three concern the
regions outside of Italy, two on Asia and one on Greece. The bulk of
the work is devoted to Sulla's reforms of Italy, hardly surprising
given the evidence, but this imbalance does detract from the author's
stated intention of creating a wider Sullan policy. An equal number are
given to the Sullan proscriptions and the brief appearance of the
conclusions to the issue of the Sullan Senate. With Chapter Seven we
are inexplicably teased with what should be an important part of
Sulla's relationship to the Italian elites, their enrolment in the
Roman Senate, yet have three paragraphs advertising an as yet unnamed
future article. The latter leaves the reader somewhat frustrated. It is
this chapter that really stands out, given the author's unwillingness
to present his arguments here, leaving the reader stranded.

Despite these structural flaws, the work is a bold attempt to construct
a fresh image of Sulla and his actions and the nature of the Roman
Empire during these crucial years. For these reasons, and given the
excellent quality of scholarship and its supporting materials, this
work is important and should be read by anyone with an interest in the
period.


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Notes:


1.   Emilio Gabba, 'Sullan Senators', reprinted in Republican Rome. The
Army and the Allies, P.J. Cuff, (trans.) (Oxford. 1976), pp. 59-67.