The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome [Paperback]

Claude Nicolet (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 435 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (January 18, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520063422
• ISBN-13: 978-0520063426
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,536,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars We are all Roman citizens......, March 17, 2003

By 

Graham Henderson - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome (Hardcover)

For the serious student of Rome, "The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome" belongs in a position of pride and prominence on the bookshelf. Eric Gruen has written of The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome: "it is far and away the best examination of the fabric of social and political life in the Roman Republic".

Need to know more? Maybe not, if you are like me, what Gruen thinks is close to gospel. But if you do? Okay. Here we go.

So much of what we read of Rome is a history of the rich, the famous, the powerful. Yet Nicolet notes that this "political class" never numbered above FIFTEEN HUNDRED individuals at any given time. It was Nicolet's objective, however, to "analyse Roman political life at the level of...civic grass-roots". And Nicolet's understanding of this sphere is encyclopaedic. The only time I have encountered erudition on this scale was in Gruens "Last Generation of the Roman Republic" and in Ronald Syme's "The Roman Revolution". In fact, this book should be read alongside, but after I think, both of these books

The book is, however, long. And it is NOT exactly a stroll in the park. It can be difficult but highly rewarding reading. However, it is not only for the academic reader either. It is filled with fascinating and at times surprising revelations. For example, I never, EVER, thought I would willingly, and not under duress, read a chapter on anything to do with taxation. Here I learned that Roman citizens were, for long periods of their history, free from direct taxation. They considered it a badge of servitude. What taxes they paid were intermittent and for the most part both proportionate AND progressive. Roman taxation was "civic", to use Nicolet's term, and not permanent. It was not until the burdens of the civil wars and the apparatus of Augustus' military state created such extraordinary demands on the public purse that Roman finances evolved from a civic to a monarchic system. Until then, they were a painful, intermittent necessity, regarded as a counterpart to the citizen's privileges.

The Romans also developed a hitherto unheard of and entirely original conception of citizenship. It was not a dual citizenship per se, but rather a "citizenship on two levels...that bore within it the notion of cosmopolis. It was a potent rival of Augustines Civitas Dei, and the ecumenism at its core was co-opted by the catholic tradition". Nicolet explains how it gave to Rome the moral structure and the political robustness to survive for centuries in a roiling and troubled world. Conquered peoples prized Roman citizenship above almost anything else; and the Romans shared citizenship in their nation freely, often enfranchising entire races or nations in one feel swoop. This was a stunning feature of the culture and in this, they were unique in history.

Then there is the census. Again, who would have thought THIS could be interesting. But it is. I had literally no idea that the census was, with little exaggeration, the backbone of Roman society -- its ideological underpinnings skilfully balancing timocratic and aristocratic interests. It was called "proportional", meaning that "each individual's rights and duties conformed, so to speak to a constant ratio.Rights and duties were relegated to the classification of citizens according to their wealth and acknowledged valour and practically nothing else."

In fact, however, there WAS something else -- morality. The censors operated on the principal that a bad man can not be a good citizen. Thus, "the census was also a moral and political operation, the fountain of honour". This proportional equality, created by the institution of the census, was regarded as a "factor of social cohesion", helping to bring about consensus within the polity.

As much as anything else, this book will teach you what we OWE to the Romans. In this regard, the conclusion is worth reading by itself.

It is important for us to recall that the Roman juridical regime guaranteed ALL citizens equality before the law. Nicolet writes, "the other great collective interest [of Roman society] was freedom[and] equality before the law. Provided this was assured, social and political inequalities were held of no account. The status of a citizen continued to be the indispensable and sufficient guarantee of this form of freedom. This was symbolised and guaranteed by the appeal to Caesar, which descended directly from the appeal to the people, and above all by the codification of laws. Until the middle of the second century AD, Roman citizens, who were steadily increasing in numbers, felt equal before the law even if they shared a condition of political servitude, which on the whole they did not much mind. This essential acquisition was eclipsed during the long centuries of the Germanic Middle Ages; but it was never lost, and has re-emerged triumphantly in the modern world. We are all Roman citizens".

The one regret? That this appears to be the only one of Nciolets many books to have been translated into English.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Scholarly Overview of Life in Republican Rome, March 8, 2005

By 

Octavius (United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome (Hardcover)

Claude Nicolet's "The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome" is a work of fine scholarship demonstrating the author's thourough understanding of the subject and his consideration for his audience. It is a work of which its depth of information, organization, and fluid writing will appeal to scholars and casual readers alike.

The magnificant aspect of Nicolet's works is that he strikes the right balance with erudition and comprehension. His book's narrative prose covers very precise details as to Roman culture and its institutions with a socio-political emphasis more than anything else. The book explains how Romans perceived civitas as a public duty either as commoners or aristocrats: his narrative focuses more on the aristocratic elite than the proletariat. Nicolet explains the progression of public and private institutions as well as religious ones: how people's participation in them affected Roman individual citizens. His work is so elaborate and substantiated that even Erich Gruen, one of the leading scholars on the Roman Republic, found this expansive work to be excellently detailed and authoritative.

Overall, this is book is more a shcolarly work but its prose makes it not too weighed in erudition to not appeal to the general reader. It's quite exhaustive as to the subjects it covers as well as thourough in their analysis. I strongly recommend this work.