Between Rome and Carthage

Abstract

Hannibal invaded Italy with the hope of raising widespread rebellions among Rome's subordinate allies. Yet even after crushing the Roman army at Cannae, he was only partially successful. Why did some communities decide to side with Carthage and others to side with Rome? This is the fundamental question posed in this book, and consideration is given to the particular political, diplomatic, military and economic factors that influenced individual communities' decisions. Understanding their motivations reveals much, not just about the war itself, but also about Rome's relations with Italy during the prior two centuries of aggressive expansion. The book sheds new light on Roman imperialism in Italy, the nature of Roman hegemony, and the transformation of Roman Italy in the period leading up to the Social War. It is informed throughout by contemporary political science theory and archaeological evidence, and will be required reading for all historians of the Roman Republic.

Roman imperialism, globalization and Romanization in early Roman Italy. Research questions in archaeology and ancient history

“…Interestingly, this development cannot be described as a phenomenon that is restricted to one discipline or the other; that is, for instance, in terms of the emancipation of archaeology from history. In fact, the deconstruction of historical narratives has been of primary importance here, and this in turn has led to carefully contextualized historical studies, not only in a chronological but also in a geographical sense – one of the traditional points of critique from archaeologists (Fronda (2010) is a good recent example). But, at the same time, archaeology has played an extremely important role in providing much more contextual regional information on several trends in material culture that once were necessarily biased by a predominantly Roman perspective.…”