Читать книгу A Social and Cultural History of Republican Rome - Группа авторов - Страница 33

It has been common among historians, both ancient Roman historians and modern ones, to use the narrative of decline to paint a picture of the Late Republic in terms of a descent from an ordered government to chaos, as we saw Livy did (see Chapter 1). This perspective is especially popular when people want to compare modern governments to the Roman Republic.

Using that narrative assumes the perspectives of the elite; the transition from a republican form of government to one-man rule resulted in a loss of power for these members of society, who naturally saw it as a worse form of government. Adopting different perspectives allows for different narratives to emerge. For example, non-elites living in Italy gained opportunities for advancement that were closed to them under the Republic, such that they might have seen the rise of one-man rule as a mark of progress. To name one such person, an Italian writer named Velleius Paterculus wrote that he found himself unable to count the blessings that the battle of Actium conferred upon the world. The provinces, territories outside Italy ruled by Rome, also saw an improvement in their status under imperial rule; these areas had been subject to governmental abuse and corruption during the Republic, which the new system of government was able to minimize or eliminate.

It is part of our job as historians to make judgments based on the evidence that we find. As we proceed to explore the social and cultural history of the Republic, we need to observe whose perspective we are adopting, what other perspectives might exist, and what conclusions we might draw if we consider the view from other perspectives.