Rome after Sulla

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Rome after Sulla offers a new perspective on the damaged, volatile, and conflictual political culture of the late Roman republic. The book begins with a narrative of the years immediately following the dictatorship of Sulla (80-77 BC), providing both a new reconstruction of events and original analysis of key sources including Ciceros pro Roscio, Appian, the Livian tradition, and Sallusts Historiae. Arguing that Sullas settlement was never stable, Rome after Sulla emphasises the uncertainty and fear felt by contemporaries and the problems caused in Rome by consciousness of the injustices of the Sullan settlement and its lack of moral legitimacy. The book argues that the events and the unresolved traumas of the first civil war of the Roman republic triggered profound changes in Roman political culture, to which Sallusts magnum opus, his now-fragmentary Historiae, is our best guide. An in-depth exploration of a new, more Sallust-centred vision of the late republic contributes to the historical picture not only of the legacy of Sulla, but also of Caesar and of Romes move from republic to autocratic rule. The book studies a society grappling with a question broader than its own times: what is the price of stability

Reviews

The book is well written and argued, and will surely be of interest to anyone interested in the late Republic. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
This volume makes an important contribution to the study of several pivotal late republican texts, and Rosenblitts success in re-centring Sallust and the years 8077 in reconstructions of Sullas legacy is welcome. * Journal of Roman Studies *
A thought-provoking voice in the discussion over the period of the 80s and the 70s of the first century BCE, and an interesting interpretation of Sallustius Historiae, which is of major importance to the historical times discussed. * Electrum: Journal of Ancient History *
Rosenblitt's book is a useful contribution to reflection and debate on the conditions of political life at the end of the Roman Republic. * Revue des Etudes Anciennes (Bloomsbury Translation) *
[Rosenblitt] is surely right to emphasize importance of the Sullan watershed (122) in Republican history, and has presented a strong and well-argued case for this view ... [A] fine, instructive and important study. * Scripta Classica Israelica *
[The book's] considerations provide important [thought] for current research debates on the periodization of the Roman Republic or the social impact of the republican civil wars. * Gnonom (Bloomsbury Translation) *

Author Bio

J. Alison Rosenblitt is Senior College Lecturer in Ancient History at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford, UK. Rome after Sulla is her second book. Her first book, E.E. Cummings Modernism and the Classics: Each Imperishable Stanza (2016) won a 2018 CAMWS First Book Award.