The Roman Nation: Rethinking Ancient Nationalism
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University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Master's Theses 2014 THE ROMAN NATION: RETHINKING ANCIENT NATIONALISM Travis Roberts University of Rhode Island, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses Recommended Citation Roberts, Travis, "THE ROMAN NATION: RETHINKING ANCIENT NATIONALISM" (2014). Open Access Master's Theses. Paper 466. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses/466 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE ROMAN NATION: RETHINKING ANCIENT NATIONALISM BY TRAVIS ROBERTS A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2014 MASTER OF HISTORY OF TRAVIS ROBERTS APPROVED: Thesis Committee: Major Professor Bridget Buxton Michael Honhart Marc Hutchison Nasser H. Zawia DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2014 ABSTRACT The study of nations and nationalism is often restricted to the examination of modern nations that appeared after the French Revolution. This is because the dominant trend in academic discourse argues that nations only came into existence as a result of modern technologies, mass printing and high levels of literacy. These features are deemed necessary because it has previously been assumed there was no way for individuals within earlier societies to imagine they were part of a larger nation of people similar to themselves. However, Nations are human communities with common cultural features, languages, myths, ancestral homelands and the legal rights of a state; modern technology is not required for a nation to exist. If the study of nations is artificially restricted to this later modern period, then it also limits potential avenues of research into the behaviors of peoples and states in prior eras back to the ancient world. This study argues there were indeed ancient nations and that Rome represents one of the best examples. Roman citizens and allies exhibited their national affiliation in a variety of ways, most notably via a willingness to die for the Roman national collective in the face of extreme duress during the Second Punic War. The national loyalty of Roman citizens and allies then proved a critical advantage in Rome's global wars, granting them a consistent pool of recruitment and access to resources that could not be matched by competing ancient states. Rome fostered a common national identity via its more inclusive policies, which included a lighter touch in handling allies, distribution of citizenship regardless of ethnicity and a general willingness to welcome foreigners, displayed in their acceptance foreign cults. This caused a cultural hybridization within Italy, and by the first century BCE the entire peninsula's inhabitants had become culturally and linguistically similar. The end result was the existence of a smaller Roman nation, which then expanded into an Italian nation with Rome at its core. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Foremost, I would like to thank my major advisor, Dr. Bridget Buxton, who offered critical guidance, advice and suggestions about this thesis over a two year timespan. Her assistance stretched back to before I officially entered graduate school, so I am eternally grateful for all her help. I also owe thank significant thanks to my other thesis committee members, Dr. Michael Honhart and Dr. Marc Hutchison. Without their advice, assistance and questions, my thesis would not be where it is today. Dr. Honhart's assistance stretches back even further, to my undergraduate years, when he found my younger self wandering around the history department confused, in the midst of a complicated college transfer process. He then guided me through signing up for my very first classes at the University of Rhode Island. For this assistance I owe additional and belated thanks. My sincere thanks also go out to Dr. Evelyn Sterne, the professor who oversaw my undergraduate thesis but most recently handled my many administrative issues with care. I would be remiss not to also thank Mr. Ronald Matteson, my high school history teacher, whose enthusiasm for history came through in every class he taught and inspired my love of the topic and thus my academic career. There are innumerable other teachers and professors to whom I owe thanks for inspiring my love of history, pushing me to do better or assisting me in a multitude of ways, far too many to list here. So instead I shall simply add a thank you to every teacher that ever took the extra time to help me along the way. iv Last but not least, I owe thanks to my family, to my parents who encouraged me to attend college where I received the first bachelor's degree in our family; and to my wife who put up with my constant isolation while working on this thesis. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ vi LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. viii Chapter One - Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 Plan for thesis ......................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter Two - What is a nation? .............................................................................. 11 Nation: A definition .............................................................................................................. 13 States and nations ................................................................................................................ 18 States: Modern and historical examples .............................................................................. 24 Chapter Three - Nationalism: An academic debate ................................................ 30 Rome and Mediterranean anarchy ....................................................................................... 44 Chapter Four - Romanization - A problematic concept but necessary term ........ 52 Romanization in the construction of national identity ......................................................... 67 Chapter Five - The origins of Roman nationalism .................................................. 72 Roman perceptions of national membership ....................................................................... 79 Early signs of nationalism ..................................................................................................... 85 On the question of Roman unity .......................................................................................... 87 Cannae: The crossroads of Roman identity .......................................................................... 91 Citizenship and voting rights: Elements of an imagined community ................................. 100 Loyalty of the allies ............................................................................................................. 107 Rome’s unified response to external threat ....................................................................... 111 Carthaginian model versus the Roman model ................................................................... 116 Roman nationalism extant .................................................................................................. 120 Resilience of the system ..................................................................................................... 128 Chapter Six - Roman religion: The building blocks of Roman Italy ................... 130 vi A nation of immigrants and vagrants ................................................................................. 134 Acceptance of foreign Junos as Roman divinities ............................................................... 137 Alba Longa, Lavinium and Rome: Founding myths of a common people .......................... 146 The limits of "foreign" within Italy ...................................................................................... 151 Acceptance of foreign gods and Roman loyalty ................................................................. 156 Ludi and Fasti: Roman national identity amongst non-elites ............................................. 160 Construction of an imagined Roman community via Fasti ................................................. 162 Chapter Seven - The Social War and the Augustan revolution ........................... 169 Dual identities: Between Roman and Italic ........................................................................ 175 Augustus and the creation of Roman Italia ........................................................................ 182 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 186 APPENDICES - Major theories and key definitions ............................................ 194 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 197 vii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE