rev. of Amanda Jo Coles, Roman Colonies in Republic and Empire, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2020, "Electrum" 29, 2022, 351-353. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Colonization in the Ancient World, ELECTRUM vol. XX, ed. E. Dąbrowa, Kraków 2013: 117-141, 2013
This article is an attempt presenting the role colonization in the Roman policy of expansion towards Italian neighbors in 3rd century BCE-2nd BCE and showing the effects of this phenomenon, as illustrated by settlements in the Ager Gallicus and Picenum. Information on the founded colonies in sources, appearing somewhat on the margins of accounts of military activities and diplomatic missions in Italy (foedera), but also connected with the internal policy conducted by Rome (grants of land), may indicate that colonisation complemented such activities. This complementary character of the process of colonisation in relation to other political, military, diplomatic, and internal activities seems to be an important feature of the Roman imperialism.
Roman colonies in the first century of their foundation
2007
This book offers a new perspective on, and approach to the study of Roman colonial foundations. The collection of papers comes from the 2007 conference, 100 Years of Solitude, Colonies in the first century of their foundation held in St Andrews. This volume brings together studies on Roman colonies of the Eastern and the Western Empire across a period of some 400 years. The contributors address key questions about the nature of the foundation and development of colonies using literary, epigraphic, numismatic, architectural and other archaeological evidence to challenge traditional ideas of what a Roman colony is. While the papers focus on diverse colonies, several critical themes remain common to many, such as issues of patronage, changing relationships with Rome, the time it takes for the effects of the colonial status to be visible in the archaeological record, and topics relating to different levels of identity and defining population groups. Altogether, the work provides an inclusive geographical and chronological approach which allows an examination of both local and Roman perspectives, and shows that the foundation and development of a colony are not homogenous processes.
Colonialism, Colonization: Roman Perspectives
. Forthcoming in Daniel L. Selden and Phiroze Vasunia, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Literatures of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2015/16
This chapter explores the practicalities of empire and colonialism as these affected the conditions of cultural production under Roman rule and adumbrates contours of inquiry within several such domains. It commences with general remarks on the fit between ancient empire as a political form and the regular features of early modern and modern experience that gave rise to contemporary postcolonial theory. Subsequent sections explore the metropolitan desire for knowledge pursuant to governance; the responses that this desire generated in colonial contexts, in both conduct and self-understanding; and the lingering power of imperial knowledge in ancient and modern scholarship. The essay closes by inquiring into nature of elite cultural production under Rome, asking how imperial were the empire's elites and how metropolitan were their tastes.
Of Archetypes and Special Cases: Colonization in Greek and Roman Antiquity
Comparativ. Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung 30 (2020) 3/4 (Special Issue: Comparing Colonialism: Beyond European Exceptionalism), 2020
Pre-modern forms of colonization readily come to mind when “comparing colonialism”. Among them, the colonization undertaken by the Greeks and the Romans stands out, because of a longstanding assumption about their special relationship to modern European colonization. Greek colonization and Roman colonization were not merely seen as distinct exemplars of colonization, but also as inherently “European” phenomena and therefore as forerunners of Europe’s more recent exploits overseas – a perception which imposes an anachronistic interpretative framework. Consequently, the paper calls into question these well-established modern perceptions and examines the peculiarities of Greek and Roman colonization, which consisted, above all, in the establishment of cities, which were, however, not necessarily adjacent to “Others” or aimed at political domination.