Spheres of control : the origins of government in early Rome / Fred K. Drogula.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Drogula, Fred K., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rome--Politics and government.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations

illustration

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

In Spheres of Control, Fred K. Drogula argues that understanding Roman historiography makes it possible to identify and remove many of the most common errors, anachronisms, and fictions that appear in narrative traditions of Roman history. He also argues that--once any erroneous material is removed from traditional accounts--the remaining information not only maps easily onto the new historical framework, but doing so creates a more logical and cohesive reconstruction of Rome's early development and resolves many problems that scholars have identified with the existing narrative tradition. Drogula shows that a new reconstruction of the development of government in early Rome can be found by removing material from the traditional narratives that is likely to be erroneous and by recontextualizing the material that remains into a framework based on archaeological discoveries and new readings of ancient texts.

The origins and development of early Rome had already faded into legend by the time its people began writing down the history of their city. Rome's first historians relied heavily on cultural memory when reconstructing the past, but memory constantly reinterprets and reshapes the information it preserves to keep it relevant and meaningful to successive generations. The stories familiar to those first historians had already gone through many generations of reworking and adaption, a process that disguised change and caused the historians to present the government of early Rome as being anachronistically similar to the government of the later Republic. In 'Spheres of Control', Fred K. Drogula argues first that understanding Roman historiography makes it possible to identify and remove many of the most common errors, anachronisms, and fictions that appear in these narratives.

Contents:

Cover

Spheres of Control : The Origins of Government in Early Rome

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Contents

Introduction

1: Unframing the Past

Records and Documents of Early Rome

What Did Fabius Pictor and His Contemporaries Know about Early Rome?

Methodological Problems in the Writing of Rome's Early History

Conclusion

2: The Peoples of Earliest Rome

The Urban Communities

The Gentes

The Relationships Between the Gentes and the Urban Population

3: Rethinking the Reges and their Disappearance

The Rex

What Was the Regal Senate?

Reforms Attributed to Servius Tullius

The Expulsion of the Monarchy-a Non-Event?

4: The Early Republic

Public Affairs in the Sphere Militiae During the Early Republic

Struggles for Leadership in the Sphere Domi in the Early Republic

The Development of Urban Magistrates

Patricians and Plebeians

5: The Republican State Develops

The Twelve Tables

Negotiations Within the Sphere Domi

Connecting the Spheres Domi and Militiae

The Licinio-Sextian Laws

6: The Development of the Patricio-Plebeian Senate

An Incomplete Joining of the Spheres of Governance

Integrating Plebeian Leaders into the New Aristocracy

The Lex Ovinia and the Consolidation of the Senate as an Institution of State

Consolidation and Expanding Powers of the Senate

7: Polybius Comes to Rome

Bibliography

Index.

The Rex.

What Was the Regal Senate?

Conclusion.

6: The Development of the Patricio-Plebeian Senate

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (Oxford Academic, viewed on August 14, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version : Drogula, Fred K. Spheres of control.

ISBN:

9780197789841

0197789846

OCLC:

1581197900

Publisher Number:

CIPO000370883

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license