[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
What is “integration”, as applied to contexts regarding the ancient Roman world? How should it be addressed, or, to begin with, be thought of? Moreover, how can we come to understand the processes that we decide to call integration? It is these and other closely related questions that the book to be reviewed here is about. It is, therefore, a welcome contribution to the great debates that have taken place on such issues in recent decades, to mention only those concerning ‘Romanisation’.[1]
The volume starts with an editorial preface by Elena Muňiz-Grijalvo and Rosario Moreno Soldevila, which sheds light on its origins in a workshop that was part of the research project “Formas de integración en el Mediterráneo romano: Vías informales de inclusion de la diversidad en el ámbito politico, religioso y cultural” (2020-2022)..
Given the controversial state of the issues treated in this book, the first two articles focus on terminological and epistemological aspects (“Part 1: Integration: A Conceptual Battlefield”). Frederick G. Naerebout highlights the complexity and evolution of the processes that we might call “integration”, as well as of the research on them, in what he himself has subtitled “an agony in three fits”. In his analysis of the purported general tendency towards aporia, he identifies the social sciences as a potential source of solutions, though not without reservations. Given his primary focus on the cultural dimensions of “integration,” he tentatively suggests revisiting the concept of “acculturation.”
His thoughtful remarks are complemented by Alberto Marina Castillo, who emphasises the limits of our own research perspectives in the circumstances of our socialisation, and reflects on the research programme of post-colonialism. Like Naerebout, however, he seems to see the current state of research on integration in the Roman world mainly as one of stagnation and perplexity, which, according to him, can only be overcome through more decolonisation and globalisation, with their respective effects on societies and scholarship.
The second section is devoted to “Non-elite and Local Processes of Integration”. Its first article by Rose MacLean focuses on inscriptions from Rome and Italy, pertaining to slaves as well as freed people, which contain information about their respective natio. In her eyes, at least some of them can be interpreted as means of a struggle against “natal alienation”, hence as a sign of resistance to Rome and her equalising tendencies. Cristina Rosillo-López then discusses the significance of the census for the (self-)integration of peregrini in the late Roman republic. As she points out, there were a certain number of those who successfully obtained citizenship by fraudulently registering as citizens in the course of this procedure. There, as elsewhere in Roman society, acting like a citizen (pro cive) could be very helpful in becoming one.
Her text is followed in a piece by Francisco Pina Polo, who reflects on the social role played by Italian and Roman immigrants in Hispania in the Republican period. As he points out, most of these people preferred to cling to their exclusive cultural distinctiveness and privileged status rather than integrate into local communities. For him, they could thus become an important factor in linguistic and cultural change towards Roman standards (along with others such as the spread of Roman citizenship to natives). Louise Revell likewise turns to the Iberian Peninsula, researching the integration of individuals and communities into Roman societal structures through local citizenship in the Imperial age. As she suggests, being a citizen of an urban centre like, e.g., Singilia Barba (which one is her main examples) could be an important factor for integration into the empire and the Roman cultural cosmos as a whole.
Like the articles by Pina Polo and Revell before, the text by Carmen Alarcón Hernández that opens the third section (“Integration of Diversity in the Social and Cultural Spheres”) betrays the rather implicit focus of the volume and its editors on the Iberian peninsula during the Roman period. Her study focuses on the institution of the epula (public feasts) as a way for elite women to integrate into the civic life of their communities in Roman Baetica, which she considers “an outstanding site in this regard” (p. 138). Rocío Gordillo Hervás then draws the reader’s attention to Greek-style agones as a means of integration in the empire, especially in Rome as its capital. The enfranchisement of successful athletes as new Roman citizens was not only beneficial to them, but also to the empire as a whole, as it helped to promote Roman interests and promises deep in the provinces.
Rosario Moreno Soldevila focuses on something completely different by studying “Literature and Integration in Martial and Pliny the Younger”, both of whose works are characterised by an intense display of social, cultural and ethnic diversity, but also of (at times, self-)integration. With Martial, then, the book once more returns to Hispania. Juan R. Ballesteros also offers a study of literary sources, but organised around a thematic issue: the relationships between the ideas of madness, marginality and barbarism in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. As his analysis of the examples of Aelius Aristides, Apuleius and Paul of Tarsus shows, there was no monolithic narrative in this respect, but rather a wide range of very different interpretations.
The last section of the book is devoted to questions of religion and cult (“Part 4: Integration in the Religious Sphere”). Fernando Lozano Gómez, in the first of the three texts collected here, discusses the integration of the Roman emperors into the local pantheon of the Greek East. Since he deals mainly with titles and epithets, it is a pity that he has not consulted the groundbreaking study of S. Bönisch-Meyer on these matters.[2] Next, Elena Muňiz-Grijalvo proposes to consider “The Alleged Egyptian Origin of Graeco-Roman Processions” as a cultural myth, based on phenomena of “Estrangement and Rapprochement” concerning Egypt among ancient writers from Herodotus to Claudius Claudianus. Mirella Romero Recio, in a rather associative and essayistic final article, undertakes a diachronic analysis of seafarers’ votive offerings and related narratives concerning certain deities and sanctuaries, which she rightly interprets as elements of risk management strategies. A general index concludes the volume.
Where has research on integration in the Roman world come, and what does the anthology under review contribute, ten years after the last book on the matter in the series “Impact of Empire”?[3] In response to both questions, one might posit the following: With regard to specific details, there is undoubtedly a notable degree of advancement to be acknowledged. However, this is less evident at the broader, conceptual level. Ultimately, however, it is always challenging to evaluate an edited volume in a fair and objective manner. Some contributions were found to be particularly convincing by this reviewer, with the work of Alarcón Hernández being an especially notable example. Conversely, other articles were less compelling. In a general sense, however, the book’s value must certainly be judged in light of the editors’ ambitions for it. These are clearly stated as the attempt “to analyse particular instances of integration (or the lack of it) in different spheres, in the hope that, by bringing together different approaches, reflections, sources and some fascinating examples, our work will contribute to a better understanding of integration in the Roman world, while encouraging further discussion” (p. 9). This is exactly what the book offers. Far from being the last word on the subjects it covers, it can therefore be highly recommended to any interested reader.
Authors and Titles
Foreword: Understanding Integration in the Roman World (Elena Muñiz-Grijalvo and Rosario Moreno Soldevila)
Part 1. Integration: A Conceptual Battlefield
- Integration Revisited: How to Address Culture Change in the Roman Empire. An Agony in Three Fits (Frederick G. Naerebout)
- Vox diversa: Theoretical Proposals about “Integration” (Alberto Marina Castillo)
Part 2. Non-elite and Local Processes of Integration
- Nationes of Enslaved and Freed Romans (Rose MacLean)
- Integration and Self-Integration of Foreigners in the Roman Census during the Roman Republic (Cristina Rosillo-López)
- The (Non)Integration of Romans and Italians in Hispania during the Republic: Some Reflections (Francisco Pina Polo)
- Local Citizenship and Non-elite Integration in Roman Iberia (Louise Revell)
Part 3. Integration of Diversity in the Social and Cultural Spheres
- Roman Women Who Feed: Epula and Integration in Hispania during the Principate (Carmen Alarcón Hernández)
- Gaining Citizenship: Agonistic Paths to Integration in the Roman Empire (Rocío Gordillo Hervás)
- Literature and Integration in Martial and Pliny the Younger (Rosario Moreno Soldevila)
- Madness as a Form of Marginality and Barbarism in the Imperial Roman Political Discourse (Juan R. Ballesteros)
Part 4. Integration of Diversity in the Religious Sphere
- Unlikely Imperial Gods: A Reflection on Some Unexpected Results of the Integration of Emperors into Local Greek Panthea (Fernando Lozano Gómez)
- Estrangement and Rapprochement: The Alleged Egyptian Origin of Graeco-Roman Processions (Elena Muñiz-Grijalvo)
- Sanctuary Narratives and Seafarers’ Votive Offerings: Integration, Continuity and Persistence of Maritime Risk Management Strategies (Mirella Romero Recio)
Notes
[1] A useful, if cursory, overview is provided in the volume by Naerebout, pp. 13f. Some more references may be found in Jonas Scherr, Die Zivilisierung der Barbaren. Eine Diskursgeschichte von Cicero bis Cassius Dio, Berlin – Boston 2023 (Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte 156), pp. 6 and 17f.
[2] Sophia Bönisch-Meyer, Dialogangebote. Die Anrede des Kaisers jenseits der offiziellen Titulatur, Leiden – Boston 2021 (Impact of Empire 39).
[3] Gerda de Kleijn – Stéphane Benoist (edd.), Integration in Rome and in the Roman World. Proceedings of the Tenth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Lille, June 23–25, 2011), Leiden 2014 (Impact of Empire 17).