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This account of viticulture in Italy during the period from the Punic Wars to the crisis of the third century AD is written in the conviction that the 'economic' history of the ancient world will remain unacceptably impoverished if it is written in isolation from the social and cultural history of the same period. The orthodoxy which sees a revolution in Italian agriculture in the age of Cato the Censor and a crisis in the time of the emperor Trajan seems to me to be an example of this. It is based on a traditional and limited selection of evidence, and is unable to answer many questions which are increasingly being asked about production and exchange in the ancient world, questions about the social background and cultural preferences which underlie production strategies and the evolution of demand. I hope that this study may show some other possibilities, which have still been only partly explored by researchers, of illuminating the changing patterns of Roman agriculture and trade, through the use of comparative evidence and the re-examination of the relevant literary texts for data that are more than simply 'economic' in the most restricted sense.

Abstract: What happens when states or empires face multiple and geographically dispersed assaults along their frontiers from non-state, tribal actors? It is plausible to argue that the result may be state decentralization, both military and administrative. In some cases, this may be a conscious strategy pursued by the central authorities, but in others, it may be the result of centrifugal tendencies pursued by disaffected local leaders. This article illustrates this argument by describing the end of the Roman empire, caused by multiple assaults of barbarian groups. The lesson is that in such an environment a centralized state that arrogates to itself all the functions of security provision may undermine its own safety.

Roman Acculturation of Indigenous Customs in Western Europe

This thesis finds that both the Spartans and the Romans consciously adopted Heracles as a model for their societies. This adoption is seen both through their historical actions and, especially, in their founding myths, which identify the city's founders with Heracles. Although the argument relies on previous scholarly work interpreting the character of Heracles, several connections, especially those in the Sparta chapter, are original arguments for Heracles' relevance in founding mythology. A close analysis of the Twelve Labors of Heracles is the foundation for my arguments. The analysis of Sparta relies on the works of Tyrtaeus, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch. The analysis of Rome relies on the works of Fabius Pictor, Virgil, Livy, and Plutarch. Secondary sources were also important, especially the writings of G. Karl Galinsky, whose work is influential throughout the thesis.

Scholarship on Sulpicius Rufus has long been guided by an old paradigm of prosopography, which dictated that political events in the Roman Republic were based on long term alliances built through kinship ties and mutual ideology. While modern scholarship has changed to view Roman political alliances more fluidly, views of Sulpicius have not changed. Most scholars accept the view that Sulpicius was little more than a lackey of Marius, who switched to Marius' side after a bitter split with his former comrades, the optimates. Sulpicius' tribunate was a time of great change in Rome, at the eve of the Social War and the dawn of a new era of civil wars. Thus it is key to re-evaluate his actions and motives in light of more recent studies that give evidence of independent agency among Roman politicians, and especially among tribunes. Thus, this paper discusses the nature of power politics and the institution of the tribunate in the late Republic as well as argues that Sulpicius Rufus acted as an independent agent who made his own decisions rather than be the tool of another.