Polybius

This book is textbook for students of roman classical civilisation.

FONTES – Izvori za historiju rimskog svijeta“ je knjiga takvoga karaktera i formata
da omogućava okvirno upoznavanje sa izvornom građom, na osnovu koje se danas
rekonstruira historija rimskog svijeta. Samim tim, ona nije strogo gledano usko
specijalističko djelo za uski krug znanstvenog ili stručnog miljea, nego je namijenjena
široj javnosti, a posebno svim onima koji se smatraju entuzijastima i zaljubljenicima
u studije o klasičnoj grčko – rimskoj civilizaciji, te svim onim interesentima koji se
zanimaju za povijesno postojanje rimskog svijeta, bilo u njegovoj cjelosti ili samo u
nekim njegovim aspektima. Iz tog razloga, „FONTES – Izvori za historiju rimskog svijeta“
može se smatrati i preglednim i razumljivim udžbenikom.

Civil war is the most radical form of political conflict. This volume analyses the impact of civil war on society and culture in Greco-Roman antiquity. The collected papers examine phenomena such as tyrannicide, staseis and usurpations from the classical age to late antiquity. The focus lies on the lasting impact violence and disorder had on political discourse and memory culture. In particular, the contributions explore how internal conflicts were staged and performed. Beyond spectacular triumphal celebrations there existed a broad range of symbolic forms of communication pertaining to civil war: rituals of reconciliation, reintegration and restoration as well as acts of commemoration and condemnation. The multidisciplinary volume aims at contributing to a better understanding of the performative and communicative logic of civil conflict within the ancient societies of Greece and Rome.

AIM AND SCOPE: Brill’s Historiography of Rome and Its Empire Series aims to gather innovative and outstanding contributions in order to identify debates and trends, and in order to help provide a better understanding of ancient historiography, as well as how to approach Roman history and historiography. We would particularly welcome proposals that look at both Roman and Greek writers, but are also happy to look at ones which focus on individual writers, or individuals in the same tradition. It is timely and valuable to bring these trends and historical sources together by founding the Series, focusing mainly on the Republican period and the principate, as well as the Later Roman Empire.

Historical writing about Rome in both Latin and Greek forms an integrated topic. There are two strands in ancient writing about the Romans and their empire: (a) the Romans’ own tradition of histories of the deeds of the Roman people at home and at war, and (b) Greek historical responses, some developing their own models (Polybius, Josephus) and the others building on what both the Roman historians and earlier Greeks had written (Dionysius, Appian, Cassius Dio). Whereas older scholarship tended to privilege a small group of ‘great historians’ (the likes of Sallust, Livy, Tacitus), recent work has rightly brought out the diversity of the traditions and recognized that even ‘minor’ writers are worth exploring not just as sources, but for their own concerns and reinterpretation of their material (such as The Fragments of the Roman Historians (2013), and the collected volumes on Velleius Paterculus (Cowan 2011) and Appian (Welch 2015)). The study of these historiographical traditions is essential as a counterbalance to the traditional use of ancient authors as a handy resource, with scholars looking at isolated sections of their structure. This fragmentary use of the ancient evidence makes us forget to reflect on their work in its textual and contextual entirety.