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T. Klär: Die Vasconen 2019-2-102 Klär, Timo: Die Vasconen und das Römische up the majority of the book. Obviously, this Reich. Der Romanisierungsprozess im Norden der is because the sources for these two periods Iberischen Halbinsel. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner are more plentiful, and as the book deals Verlag 2017. ISBN: 978-3-515-11739-5; 290 S. with the Romanisation of the Vascones, this process would have taken place in the ear- Rezensiert von: Pieter Houten, Department lier days rather than in the Late Antique pe- of Classics and Archaeology, University of riod. Although the last chapters provide a Nottingham needed view on the history of the Vascones in the Late Antique and medieval periods, they The publication is the result of doctoral re- seem more of an afterthought than an addi- search by Timo Klär at Saarland University. tion to the debate on the Romanisation of the With this book, he explores how the Roman Vascones. idea of the barbarian Vascones relates to the The book draws strongly on Classical lit- Romanisation of the Vascon region (p. 12). erature and the research focussing on it. As It treats the history of the Vascones in six a result, we see the bias of the Roman au- chronological chapters. thors, who focus on the „cities“ of the re- The first chapter introduces the major de- gion. The most in-depth analyses examine to bate: Romanisation. It starts out with a short the cities of Graccurris, Pompaelo, Calagurris introduction of the Roman conquest and in- Nassica, and to a lesser extent Osca. These corporation of the Iberian Peninsula into the cities are very different in origin and as such Roman sphere, leading up to the well ex- could show different ways of Vascon integra- plained Romanisation debate. The author tion into the Roman sphere. In the case of shows familiarity the different aspects and pe- Calagurris, there was a strong presence of riods of the debate, as well as the specific people originating from the Italic Peninsula discussions regarding the Iberian Peninsula. (p. 109); these were Roman citizens, leading However, the treatment of the methodology to the question whether this city is a good in- used within the book remains descriptive and dicator of the Romanisation of the Vascones. quickly leads to the „vaskonische Hypothese“ However, Graccurris (p. 131) and Pompaelo (p. 29), the idea that modern Basque is de- (pp. 73 and 142) were founded by Roman gen- scended from a pre-Indo-European language. erals and settled with local people. It is in- Timo Klär’s own ideas of the workings of teresting to see that Klär takes the foundation Romanisation does not become clear in the of cities to be an honour to the local people methodological introductory chapter. (pp. 94 and 142), whereas he earlier argued, The book continues with a chronological ac- following traditional views, that the founda- count of Vascon history from the Roman Re- tion of these cities including veterans was in- publican period up to medieval times. The in- tended to form a Roman base in newly con- troductory sections on the history of the Ro- quered areas (p. 58). Nonetheless, he is right man Empire feel too descriptive and out of that these cities would enhance contact be- place, but the chapters in themselves offer in- tween the Romans and the local population. sights into the effect on the Vascon territory of Each of the historical chapters treating the Roman policy toward nearby regions. Even Republic, High Empire and Late Antiquity within the chapters, however, the discussion close with a consideration of the contact be- sometimes tends to diverge too far from the tween the Vascones and the Romans. In these topic (e.g. the section on Gades and Cae- sections we can find the author’s opinion on sar pp. 83–85). These historical excursions the subject. For the Republican period, the do raise the question of whether the focus absence of the Vascones in the conflicts be- is too broad; nonetheless, they show Timo tween the neighbouring tribes and Rome is Klär‘s erudition regarding the available litera- taken to be evidence of Vascon support for the ture and ancient sources. Romans. Following from this assumed sup- The distribution of the chapters immedi- port, the author infers that the Vascones were ately shows the book‘s focus on the Repub- in contact with Rome, but this argumentum lic and early Empire: these two chapters take ex silentio can also be interpreted as it has © Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved. been before: the Vascon area was of no im- on an incredible number of classical sources portance for the Romans. Nonetheless, Klär and modern literature. Future research would argues convincingly that the Roman presence benefit from starting with this book’s exam- in the region indicates that it was a more im- inations of the Roman conquest and Roman portant than formerly believed. cities in the region, as it treats these topics One of the most compelling sections ad- very well. From here, researchers could ex- dresses the aspect of religion. Here, the author tent their investigation into the countryside, a goes further than only showing the contact region for which the book only peeks tantaliz- between Romans and Vascones, inferring Ro- ingly underneath the veil. manisation when both groups live in the same city. The example of the sanctuary of Ujué is HistLit 2019-2-102 / Pieter Houten über Klär, a very telling case of the so-called interpreta- Timo: Die Vasconen und das Römische Reich. tio vasconica (p. 161). Here, two seemingly Der Romanisierungsprozess im Norden der Iberi- similar altar stones were found with Latin in- schen Halbinsel. Stuttgart 2017, in: H-Soz-Kult scriptions and bulls‘ heads on the sides. The 13.05.2019. difference between the two altar stones is in the dedications: one to Jupiter and one to Lacubegis. These similar altar stones indicate that at the sanctuary both gods were vener- ated, most probably as one and the same, in- dicating religious exchange between Vascones and Romans. Here, Klär also includes the ev- idence for the connection with the neighbour- ing tribes, including those on the other side of the Pyrenees. This view is much needed as the Pyrenees are often wrongly taken to be an unsurmountable barrier. In the fourth chapter, Klär states that the Latin language seems only to have been spread in the cities, while the contact between the Romans and the Vascones in rural areas seems to have been less intense. He goes on to conclude that contact between the cities and the rural hinterland was less intense than is often thought, a line of reasoning that de- serves more research. Reading this book, we indeed must follow Klär and conclude that the Roman presence and the interaction of the Vascones with the Romans has been underestimated in antique and modern literature. The standard idea of the Vascones as an untouched tribe living high up in the mountains without any contact with the Romans is incorrect, but Klär’s de- scription of the interaction between the Vas- cones and the Romans is not enough to un- derstand the process which led to the incorpo- ration of this region into the Roman Empire. The book is, as its title indicates, a treatise on the Vascones within the Roman Empire. It provides a very thorough description of the Roman presence in Vascon territory based © Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved..

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