The Roman Clan The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology

The gens, a key social formation in archaic Rome, has given rise to considerable interpretative problems for modern scholarship. In this comprehensive exploration of the subject, Professor Smith examines the mismatch between the ancient evidence and modern interpretative models influenced by social anthropology and political theory. He offers a detailed comparison of the gens with the Attic genos and illustrates, for the first time, how recent changes in the way we understand the genos may impact upon our understanding of Roman history. He develops a concept of the gens within the interlocking communal institutions of early Rome, which touches on questions of land ownership, warfare and the patriciate, before offering an explanation of the role of the gens and the part it might play in modern political theory. This significant work makes an important contribution not only to the study of archaic Rome, but also to the history of ideas.

General introduction; Part I: Introduction; 1. The ancient evidence; 2. Modern interpretations; 3. The gens in the mirror: Roman gens and Attic genos; 4. Archaeology and the gens; Part I conclusion; Part II: 5. The Roman community; 6. The Roman curiae; 7. The patricians and the land; 8. The patriciate; 9. Warfare in the regal and early republican periods; 10. Explaining the gens; 11. Roman history and the modern world; Appendix 1. Dionysius of Halicarnassus on the Roman curiae and religion; Appendix 2. The missing curiae.

The gens was a key social formation in archaic Rome, yet our understanding of it has been blurred by the myths which it has attracted. The book reconsiders the evidence and compares the ancient sources and modern interpretative models in order to present a new explanation of this important phenomenon.

C. J. Smith is Professor of Ancient History and Dean of Arts at the University of St. Andrews. His previous publications include Trading and Traders in the Ancient World (1998), Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome (2000) and Sicily from Aeneas to Augustus (2000). He is the editor of Fragmentary Roman Historians (forthcoming).