Review: [untitled]

Author(s): A. R. Birley
Reviewed work(s):
Bevolkerung und Gesellschaft der Romischen Provinz Dalmatiens by G. Alfoldy;Andras
Mocsy
Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 57, No. 1/2 (1967), pp. 258-259
Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/299374
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258 REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF PUBLICATIONS
settlers normally tended to act within the clientelaof the great leaders. The scale of wealth is also
relevant. If native provincialsin east and west eventuallysurpassthe settlersin their politicalachieve-
ments, this may be because the great estates and fortunes either remainedwith their originalposses-
sors or passed into the hands of the centralRoman aristocracy.Dr. Wilson'smaterialtends to suggest
that in the main the settlers were and remainedmen of modest fortune, who did not often exceed a
municipal and equestriansplendor,while the persons of great fortunes returnedto the capital.
The second part of the book startsfrom the studies of Hatzfeld, whose chronologyand prosopo-
graphy Dr. Wilson usefully correctsor sharpens. Delos is in the centre of the stage. He stresses the
high proportionof Roman-Latinnames in the community, and diminishes the role of Italiotae and
Italici, on the strengthof recent studies of the Romanizationof Italy. The key to the rise of the Italo-
Roman community on Delos is found, not in the privileged commercialstatus of the island which
benefitedall alike, but in its conveniencefor the growingslave trade between the east and Italy. The
failure to recover fully from the sack of 88 B.C. is attributedto the withering away of the sources
of servile supplies though the operationsof Pompeius againstthe pirates. He might have added the
swampingof the Romanmarketwith new barbarianmaterialby the greatwarsin new areas. Dr. Wilson
argues for the permanencyof the family settlementson Delos and elsewherein the east, and for the
unofficialcharacterof the colony, and its lack of permanentconventualarrangements. He notes the
reappearanceof the family names from Delos in cities of Achaea and Asia, but leaves this topic
where he found it. The hungry readermight well have been fed on amplerillustrations,even if Dr.
Wilson did not wish to toy with the frivolities of prosopographicalspeculation. It is teasing to be
told only that ' ArcadianCleitorhad RomanPaconii in the late Republic, perhapsconnectedwith the
Paconii of Delos '. There are many valuable contributionson points of detail, sometimes buried in
excellent footnotes. There is a useful demonstrationthat the famousfiguresfor the massacreof Mith-
ridates-which Dr. Wilson is inclined to accept-were unknownto Cicero. He passes from a discus-
sion of the relationsbetween the settlers and the local inhabitants-which anecdotesand inscriptions
reveal as much better when moneylending and taxation were not their common ground-to a con-
siderationof proconsulargovernmentin the easternprovinces. He suggeststhat the more enlightened
attitudes of Lucullus, the two Ciceros, Lentulus Spinther, Bibulus and Gabinius, represent a
deliberatemovement away from the bad standardsof the Sullan age, inspired by genuine alarm at
the disastrouseffect of Roman misgovernmenton the tenure of the eastern empire. Salus publica
was seen to be involved, and the situationwas saved in principleby Caesar'sreformof the collection
of direct taxationat the expense of the Romansocietatespublicanorum.These few pages, if somewhat
outside the theme of the book, are a valuablecontributionto the centralhistory of the late Republic.
But the whole book is valuable, and if it is not always satisfying, that is due partly to the nature of
the evidence, and partly to the modest limitationsthat the author imposes on his sound scholarship.
One could wish that he had chanced his hand, and in a moderatespeculationcombined the evidence
from differentareas, if not from differentperiods, to form a synthetic picture of the probablescale
and intensity, and of the particularactivities of a hypothetical conventuscivium Romanorumin its
hey-day in an eastern or a western setting.
A. N. SHERWIN-WHITE

G. ALFOLDY, BEVOLKERUNG UND GESELLSCHAFT DER ROMISCHEN PROVINZ

DALMATIENS (MIT EINEM BEITRAG VON ANDRAS MOCSY), Budapest: Akad6miai Kiado,
I965. Pp. 233, I map. 5.60 zlotys.
A. is the authorof more than a dozen articlesdealingwith variousaspects of Dalmatia, and now
presentsa full pictureof the social history of the province. He has chosen to present his materialon
lines followedby his colleagueA. Mocsy, whose similarworkon Pannonia(1959) was severelyhandled,
on methodologicalgrounds,by some reviewers(see especiallyE. Swoboda,Gnomon34, I962, 387 ff.).
A. takesfull cognizanceof the dangersinherentin statisticalanalysisbased on a relativelytiny sample,
drawn almost wholly from epigraphic sources, and takes care to defend his position in advance
(19 ff., esp. p. 24). It should be noted that the present volume representsthe author'sconclusions:
the materialon which it is based is to be publishedseparately,a catalogueof personalnames arranged
in chronologicaland geographicaldivisions-Die Personennamen im romischenDalmatien. It is to
be hoped that this will soon appear(it is referredto in the notes passim). A. had largely completed
his workbeforebeing able to see J. J. Wilkes'Durhamdissertation(not yet published)on the province
of Dalmatia,but is able to cite it frequentlyin the notes.
ChapterI definesthe method and the areacovered(17-32). In chapter2 A. attemptsto establish
the position and origin of the variousancientpeoples of the province (33-67). The main body of the
work comes in the next four chapters,which deal with Liburnia,Salonaand its region, S.E. Dalmatia,
and the hinterland (68-i65). In chapter 7 he analyses the population of the province as a whole
(I66-i95) and in chapter 8 he discusses town and country under the principate (I96-21i). The
last chapter forms Mocsy's contribution,' Zur Bevolkerungin der Spaitantike' (212-226). There is
a list of frequently cited ancient sources (227: abbreviationsof the main modern sources are given
 REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF PUBLICATIONS 259
on pp. II-15), and a rather brief index (228-233). Presumably the forthcoming Personennamen
will supply deficiencies here. The map at the end is useful; as well as an outline plan of Salona,
there are three maps, showing the main sites; the ancient civitates; and incidence of imperial
gentilicia. The latter illustrates graphically one of A.'s predictable conclusions: Julii concentrated
round the coast, Aurelii everywhere but especially prominent in the hinterland.
With some 3,870 inscriptions, supplying the names of some 7,000 people (p. 24), A. is consider-
ably better off than was M6csy in his Pannonien. Even so, as he confesses, he reaches a sample of
only o I% of the population from the period of the principate. Still, in Dalmatia one is better placed
for analysis of this kind than in military provinces. With virtually no garrison at all for most of the
period, it is fairly safe to assume that people mentioned on inscriptions are residents of the province
even if they do not say so. Besides this, Dalmatia was a province with a flourishing urban life, par-
ticularly along the coast, with an impressive array of coloniae and municipia.
This is not a book that can be read through easily from cover to cover. Rather it will be used for
points of detail. Each section deals methodically with the history and extent of the particular com-
munity: thus pp. 99-0o8 are devoted to ' Die Entstehung und das Territorium der Salonitanischen
Kolonie', as against some six pages (IO8- 13) on Bevivlkerungund Gesellschaft. In some instances
specialists may not accept A.'s arguments. Thus J. J. Wilkes, whose differing views on municzpiumS.
are noted by A., has returned to the charge (' Splonum--irAcavov again Acta Ant. Hung. xIIm, 1965,
II ff.). On the whole, Wilkes' identification of this community with Splonum, reading mun.
Aureli S[pjlo. in CIL iIl, 8308 rather than S[icu]lo. as does A., pp. 66-7, n. 134 and elsewhere,
seems more plausible. On a point of another kind, A. gives no very good reason why T. Aurelii
should owe their citizenship to Marcus or Commodus, rather than, as would seem natural, to Pius.
His conclusion that ' Das Pranomen Titus spricht eher fur Marcus; es handelt sich hier wahr-
scheinlich um das Pranomen seines Adoptivvaters ' (p. 153) reads a little oddly. Admittedly he goes
on to mention that the municipium S. received its municipal status from Marcus.
A. points out in his introductory section that archaeological research in his area is not yet suffi-
ciently advanced to be of much assistance, and that ' eine archiiologische Monographie der Provinz
wurde noch nicht geschrieben' (I8-19). In the circumstances he has made an excellent attempt
at producing a study of the 'innere Geschichte Dalmatiens ' (17). A. M6csy's contribution is very
brief, in accordance with the reduced quantity of the material (only 7 per cent of the total). He
produces some interesting examples of alteration in style of nomenclature. It is pleasant to see
quoted in the last note in the book the Dumnonian lady of senatorial rank at Salona (CIL III, 9515),
an inscription of A.D. 425. Unfortunately, as J. J. Wilkes informs me, the reading Dunnonia is some-
what doubtful. Perhaps the lady was-what would be less surprising-a Pannonian.

A. R. BIRLEY

J. VOGT, SKLAVEREI UND HUMANITT : STUDIEN ZUR ANTIKEN SKLAVEREI UND IHRER
FORSCHUNG (Historia, Einzelschriften, Heft 8). Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1965. Pp. vii + 129.
DM. 22.-

It is very pleasant to have these seven essays on slavery by Professor Vogt collected in one volume.
None is new, though there are minor revisions; indeed at least two are already well-known, but that
increases the attractiveness of the volume. The essays can be grouped into three parts. Firstly
there are two which deal with the slave rebellions of 140-70 B.C., ' Zur Struktur der antiken Sklaven-
kriege ', and what is really a short appendix to it, ' Pergamon und Aristonikos '. Here Vogt's purpose
is to destroy any illusions about the existence of a far-flung proletarian consciousness, which fostered
rebellion or revolution. Vogt is a victim here of his own good sense, for one has no difficulty in accept-
ing his arguments and his judicious analysis. But one is still left at the end with the question, why
slave wars then, but not again?
The stimulus to discuss this problem clearly comes from Vogt's concern with and awareness of
current historical trends in Russia and East Germany. It will probably not remove the scales from
Marxist eyes. This sense of obligation that we should make efforts to come to terms with Marxist
discussions is a fruitful product of Vogt's scholarship. The same catholicity stands at the root of the
second group of essays, 'Die antike Sklaverei als Forschungs-Problem-von Humboldt bis heute '
and ' Die Humanisten und die Sklaverei '. The former is a quick guide to the literature on ancient
slavery since I793. Its pace is too fast to be more than glancingly historiographical; too fast, that is,
to deal with the perceptions and distortions which arose from variations in intellectual climate. Not
surprisingly Vogt changes course when he reaches current Western writings. He calls for more
monographs, but with the strong rider that they should be written with a steady eye on the workings
of ancient society as a whole. I cannot help thinking that salvation does not lie in more volumes from
Bomer and Shtaerman, welcome as they are, but rather in a re-thinking of the concepts of slavery.
One way into this is to follow Vogt's investigation into the history of our ideological concern with
slavery.