Caesar's Aims in Northeast Italy

Bibliographic Data

ID9329409
AuthorsFederico Santangelo (0000-0003-4222-5841, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume84
Pages101-129
Publication date2016-09-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePapers of the British School at Rome (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0068-2462 • E-ISSN: 2045-239X
PublisherOpen Book Publishers (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0068246216000039
OpenAlexW2460949488
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited39

This paper provides a new assessment of Caesar's activity in northeast Italy, both in the 50s bc and in the aftermath of the Civil War, and discusses it against the background of the earlier Roman presence in the region and of the developments that intervened in the following generation. Its main contention is that Caesar carried out a number of important political and administrative interventions, both in Histria (chiefly through the foundation of the colony of Pola) and in the Alpine and pre-Alpine regions, marking a fundamental shift in the quality of the Roman presence in the area. The discussion follows five lines of enquiry: the value of the evidence of Caesar's Commentarii for his activity in northeast Italy; an overview of the problems for which inadequate documentation survives (such as the early history and legal status of Tergeste); the date and background of the colonization of Pola; the changes in the administrative and agrarian set-up of Histria and northeast Italy in the late Republican period; and the resulting economic and social developments in the region. The conclusions summarize the main insights emerging from a very fragmentary body of evidence, and seek to explain the inclusion of Histria in the Augustan discriptio of Italy with the exceptional prosperity of the region, which Caesar's interest had made possible to chart and exploit more effectively

Agrarian society · Agriculture · Ancient history · Archaeology · Documentation · Exploit · Geography · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Prosperity · Spanish Civil War · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeological Research and Protection · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Law

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