“Roman”: Creating Identity in an Expanding World by Claudia I. Arno
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How Romans Became “Roman”: Creating Identity in an Expanding World by Claudia I. Arno A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Greek and Roman History) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Professor David S. Potter, Co-Chair Professor Nicola Terrenato, Co-Chair Professor Bruce W. Frier Professor Raymond H. Van Dam © Claudia I. Arno 2012 To my family and friends, whose support is invaluable. ii Acknowledgements I owe a great many individuals and institutions thanks for their support and assistance during the years I have been researching and writing this dissertation. I would first like to thank the University of Michigan Interdepartment Program in Greek and Roman History, which promotes the interdisciplinary study of Classics and History, and with which I am very proud to be associated. I am also grateful to the University of Michigan History and Classics Departments, whose cooperation makes IPGRH possible. I would especially like to thank my graduate colleagues in IPGRH, Classics, and History, who have made my graduate experience so enjoyable and rewarding. The staffs at the Univeristy of Michigan and UCLA libraries, as well as the UCLA History Department, and in particular Professor David Phillips, were critical in helping me obtain access to research materials while I was living in Michigan, Los Angeles, and Boston. I would also like to express my deep admiration for Dr. Susan Lipshutz, who I unfortunately never had the opportunity to meet, but whose devotion to the success of women in academia inspired the creation of an award fund from which I received valuable support. The staff of the Michigan Classics Department, and especially Michelle Biggs, was incredibly helpful as I negotiated the logistics of completing my dissertation from California and Massachusetts. iii I wish to add some personal acknowledgments as well. My parents, Andrew Arno and Letitia Hickson, both of the Univeristy of Hawai’i, have consistently provided encouragement, support, and scholarly feedback, as have my in-laws, Charles and Elaine Brenner. Donna and Jim Wessel Walker, whose valued friendship we have enjoyed for many years, graciously opened their home during my final semester, while I was living in Boston and commuting each week to teach and work in Ann Arbor. Ruth Scodel kindly offered me the use of her car for that same semester. Together, their generosity made my life immeasurably easier. My husband, Samuel Brenner, who is also a historian and legal scholar, has provided a decade of support, encouragement, companionship, intellectual stimulation, and editing services. I am indebted to my committee members: David Potter, Nic Terrenato, Bruce Frier, and Ray Van Dam. I am especially grateful to David Potter, who has always provided invaluable guidance and encouragement, and whose scholarship sets an ongoing standard to which I aspire. I am also especially grateful to Bruce Frier, who is not only a valuble teacher and advisor, but who, though his fund, has provided ongoing and welcome financial support for the graduate students in IPGRH. Deborah Boedeker at Brown University, Maud Gleason at Stanford University, and Sara Forsdyke at Michigan have provided welcome advice and guidance. I would also like to thank the faculty members at the Univeristy of Michigan, including H.D. Cameron, Sara Forsdyke, Ruth Scodel, Mira Seo, and Ray Van Dam, whom I have been privileged to work for and learn from as an instructor. iv Table of Contents Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................1 2. Cicero’s Citizenship: sanguis coniunctus existimandus est ...................9 Ethnicity .........................................................................................12 Ethnicity in Modern Scholarship .......................................13 Cicero and the Ethnicity Debate ........................................16 Cicero and the Question of Romanness .............................18 Roman Behavior and Roman Values .............................................20 Roman Behavior: the Ancestors of the “Best” ..................20 Roman Behavior: the Modern Roman ...............................23 Un-Roman Behavior: Verres the Pirate .............................27 Interactions: Romanness outside Rome .........................................32 Geography: Italy beyond Rome .........................................39 Geography: Beyond Italy ...................................................43 Treatment of Allies and Becoming “Roman” ....................46 Conclusion .....................................................................................55 3. Necessary but Not Sufficient: Latin and Romanness under the Republic ...............................................................................................58 Quality of Speech ...........................................................................67 Performing Roman Identity by Using Latin ..................................78 Accommodation .............................................................................84 Case Studies ...................................................................................90 Julius Caesar ......................................................................90 v Cicero and Atticus..............................................................97 Archias and Balbus ..........................................................106 Conclusion ...................................................................................120 4. So You Want to Be a Roman: Rome’s Cultural, Political, and Territorial Expansion within Italy ......................................................122 Citizenship Status: Terminology and Concepts ...........................129 Problems in Studying Roman Colonization .................................135 The Remodeling of Italy: Case Studies .......................................138 Cosa..................................................................................142 Paestum ............................................................................145 Pompeii ............................................................................147 General Traits of the Three Civic Centers .......................152 The Extension of Roman Citizenship to Groups and Individuals157 Conclusion ...................................................................................169 5. Romanness Abroad: Roman Identities beyond Italy .........................172 The Significance of Urbanization ................................................175 Romans in Iberia ..........................................................................177 The Rhine Frontier .......................................................................191 Julius Caesar on the Frontier........................................................194 Conclusion ...................................................................................203 6. Conclusion .........................................................................................207 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................210 vi Abstract How Romans Became “Roman”: Creating Identity in an Expanding World by Claudia I. Arno Co-Chairs: David S. Potter and Nicola Terrenato In this dissertation, I examine the ways in which the concept of what it meant to be “Roman” changed over the fourth through first centuries BCE in the minds of both Romans and non-Romans. I use literary evidence from the second and first centuries, especially Cicero’s speeches and treatises, as a window into the perceptions of the Roman elite, and the material culture (especially architectural, before Augustus) of Italian cities from the fourth to the first century as evidence of the official adoption of Roman practices by Italians. While Rome granted citizenship or partial citizen rights to individuals and towns over several centuries on a case-by-case basis, which suggests that Romans harbored a certain amount of flexibility in their ideas about what constituted their group identity, Rome’s transformation from a regional power to an imperial one necessitated a redefinition of what it meant to be Roman by birth or to acquire Roman citizenship. My conclusion is that, with the extension of Roman citizenship to most of the Italian peninsula in 90/89 BCE, the Roman citizenship became a characteristic that could be held in addition to a local identity. Meanwhile, for the original Romans (who vii lived in Rome and whose ancestors had been Romans), being a Roman was no longer simply a matter of citizenship status. They had two options: they could either surrender their uniqueness and sense of Roman identity, or develop a sub-definition of Romanness based on birth and on behaving in a particular way. This placed “new men” like Cicero in the position of having to manufacture a Romanness as close as possible to that of the hereditary Romans and distinct from that of the newly-Roman Italians. Following the Social War,