This semester, I’ve shifted from reading Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution on my own to reading it with students and colleagues. This has been wonderful in every way and helped me see arguments across the entire book that perhaps I missed. Chapter 28 deals with the succession. When I first read the book, the placement… Read More →

By Chapter XXVII, the message should by clear by now to any reader of Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution: Augustus paid lip service to the republican institutions while creating wholly new sources of power and authority. Syme puts it bluntly: “Yet once again, behind the nominal authority and government of the Roman Senate the real… Read More →

In Chapter XXVI of The Roman Revolution, Syme turns his attention to the government of the principate. Here, he threads the needle between conceding that the government of Augustus was at least competent, if not entirely superior to that of the republic in efficiency and the tendency to reward ability over membership in the aristocracy.… Read More →

In our contemporary political landscape, patronage appears to play an ever greater role in securing and expanding political power. Friends, family, and foreign benefactors gain favor through networks of patronage that their position firmly to those with political authority. As in Ancient Rome, so in modern society, prosopography, Syme’s preferred method, reveals connections and these… Read More →

In contemporary US politics it is often easy to think about political parties as institutional vessels for ambition. One’s goal was to win the party’s support both formally and informally. The former involves nominations and financial support; the latter involves influence and the willingness of a party to amplify one’s influence. For Augustus, the formal… Read More →

This twenty-third chapter of Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution picks up after the “settlement of 27 BC” which established a kind of vaguely constitutional definition of Augustus’s power. Augustus’s rule, however, was still not secure. The four years between 27 and 23 demonstrated that the state remained in crisis and even Augustus’s inner circle was… Read More →

If Chapter XXI of Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution was about minimizing Octavian’s military achievements, Chapter XXII was about deflating any claims to restoring the Roman Republic. Syme also had no patience for efforts to compare Augustus to Romulus, Caesar, Pompey the Great, or even Cicero despite admitting “the political doctrine of Cicero was couched… Read More →

Chapter 21: Dux has long been one of my favorite chapters of Ronald Syme’s classic monograph, The Roman Revolution (1939). In some ways, it could be the book’s conclusion (or in today’s hyperactive media market, the end of the first volume!). “Dux” leaves Octavian as the sole power in the Roman world and Antonius and… Read More →

In 2019, I started to re-read Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution and have just finished chapter 19 when I arrived on Cyprus. At the time I promised “Because I’m in the field these days and it’s a bit harder to find time for slow reading, I’m going to pause this project at the very cusp… Read More →

It’s coincidental that just as Ronald Syme turned his attention to Antonius’ time in the East, I arrived in Cyprus for the first part of my summer study season. In Chapter 19 of Syme’s The Roman Revolution, he unpacks Antonius’s work in the East while Octavian consolidated his power in Italy and at Rome. In the popular imagination, this is the… Read More →

Chapter 18 of Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution has palpable relevance. It focuses heavily on the culture of Rome under the Triumvirs and considered the kind of literature and critique that was possible under a despotic regime. Syme connects the state of Roman culture with the changing nature of the political regime. Gone with the oligarchs of the last generation of the Roman… Read More →

Chapter 17 of Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution describes the aftermath of the Pact of Brundisium. Antonius had asserted his predominance in the Triumvirate and humbled the young and vulnerable Octavianus whose tenuous hold on Italy required seemingly regularly reinforcement from his senior colleague. The elevation of Sex. Pompeius to senior standing within the Triumvirate was a blow to… Read More →

Chapter 15 of Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution focused on Octavianus’s struggles in Italy while Antonius was in the East. In chapter 16, Syme looks to the East and the affairs of Antonius which led to the Pact at Brundisium and the renewal of the Triumvirate. While Syme’s attention remains focused on Rome, he does acknowledge the larger situation in… Read More →

Chapter 15 of Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution is tense. Starting with the Battle of Philippi and concluding in the aftermath of the siege of Perusia, the fortunes of Octavianus wax and wane as the ultimate prize of Rome hangs in the balance. For those modern readers enthralled by the Game of Thrones, the days of the Second Triumvirate offer… Read More →

This chapter of The Roman Revolution is chilling. Syme describes emergence of the so-called second triumvirate and the proscriptions that they enacted on the Roman aristocracy. The chapter starts with Octavianus occupying Rome and negotiating an alliance with Antonius and Lepidus who were both the proximate threats to his position and shared his animosity toward the Liberators who had amassed… Read More →

There is more action in this chapter of The Roman Revolution, which traces the tense months from the Battle of Mutina to Octavian’s second march on the city of Rome. Syme follows Antonius into across the Apennines and through Liguria as he escapes into Gallia Narbonensis through the narrow Ligurian road. He also keeps an eye on… Read More →

In the 12th chapter of The Roman Revolution, Ronald Syme immerses the reader in the tense action of the year 43 BC in the immediate aftermath of Antonius’s consulship. Cicero takes center stage as the leader of a reluctant Senate. Syme has prepared us to understand Cicero’s position in the Late Republic with considerable cynicism. His opportunistic character, exaggerated view… Read More →

This chapter in Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution is brilliant. If you only ever read one chapter of this book, it should be chapter 10. Syme has already shown a kind of ambivalence toward Cicero. He supported the established order without a strong loyalty to any particular party. “No politician could compete with Cicero for versatility…” Syme paints… Read More →

Chapter 9 in Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution starts with one of the most stirring passages in the book so far. It’s worth quoting in full as it captures a sense of tensions and movement in events. “At the beginning of the month of August certain political intrigues went wrong, and hopes of concord or of dissension were frustrated. Brutus and Cassius did not return to Rome and the… Read More →

Chapter 7 in Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution left us with a cliff hanger. Antonius was out of Rome settling Caesar’s veterans when Caesar’s heir, C. Julius Caesar Octavianus, arrived in the city. He was the grandson of Caesar’s sister and from a wealthy, but undistinguished family from the town of Velitrae. At the time of Caesar’s death, Octavianus was… Read More →