Samara historians are for the first time exploring informal connections between the elite, the military and the common people in imperial Ancient Rome

Ancient coins and inscriptions on walls and stones will help them with this.

Scientists from Samara University. Korolev and the Moscow City Pedagogical University, with the support of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), will conduct a study during which the history of Ancient Rome of the imperial era will be analyzed for the first time from the point of view of the significance of personal connections and informal contacts of three social groups of that time – the political elite (senators), the common people (plebs) and the military garrison of the capital (praetorians). The study will cover almost three centuries of ancient Roman history – from the last quarter of the 1st century. BC. to the first half of the 3rd century. AD Previously, this era, called the Principate by historians, had not been studied in such a context. This scientific project won the RSF competition “Conducting fundamental scientific research and exploratory scientific research by small individual scientific groups.”

“At the moment, in classical historiography, the relationships between the three significant social groups of Ancient Rome of the imperial period – senators, praetorians – soldiers of the capital garrison – and the plebs – the bulk of the population remain practically unstudied. We hope to fill this gap in historical science with the help of a microanalytical approach, the main feature which is an appeal to the specific historical interaction of small groups, especially in an informal way. As a result of the study, we will receive a more detailed understanding of the methods and nature of the interaction of these layers of ancient Roman society, as well as their mutual perception and the influence of their connections and contacts in terms of the prerequisites for the emergence of those. or other historical events,” said one of the authors of the project Andrei Markelov, associate professor of the department of general history, international relations and document science at Samara University. Queen.

By studying informal connections between different layers of society, scientists will try to find answers to a variety of questions. For example, did senators use the plebs to achieve their political goals and, if so, how? Have there been cases of coincidence of social and political interests of the elite and the common people? Did the emperor really completely usurp control over the capital’s plebs, or did the noble senatorial families secretly compete with the emperor, fighting for patronage* over the mass of ordinary citizens? Were there any connections and of what nature between the praetorians and the senators? How were these connections expressed not only during periods of crisis, but also during everyday peaceful life?

“Answers to these and other questions will make it possible to better understand the influence of the social groups in question on the political life of Ancient Rome during the imperial era. In turn, this will give a more detailed and real picture of the life of Roman society, the opportunity to better understand certain turning points in the history of this state, strategies behavior of the most important layers of Roman society during periods of both calm and military-political crises. The chronological framework of our study covers the period from the last quarter of the 1st century BC to the first half of the 3rd century AD. , if we approach the study of the events of that time. However, we are more interested in social history, not political. Moreover, unlike historians of modern and modern times, we do not have many surviving sources at our disposal,” noted. Andrey Markelov.

The heroes of the study could be approximately several hundred inhabitants of Ancient Rome – this is if we talk only about those who will be named. In fact, larger masses of the population will be in the field of view of scientists. The fact is that in many sources, the plebs, for example, are often mentioned only in a generalized form. By the way, about one million people lived in Rome at that time.

Scientists will look for data for research in various historical sources – including in the works of ancient authors, for example, in the famous “Annals” of P. Cornelius Tacitus, a historian and senator who lived at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries. AD Particular attention will be paid to the analysis of epigraphic monuments, that is, inscriptions on walls, funeral slabs, stones.

“Historical works give us a coherent picture of socio-political history, provide the necessary context. Due to the fact that most of their authors were interested primarily in the figure of the emperor and only significant events in history, they often do not contain much information on the topic that interests us. The most important , a numerous and labor-intensive category of sources consists of various types of Latin inscriptions of an official and private nature, left by the Senate as an institution of power, senators, praetorians and ordinary residents of Rome. They allow us to reconstruct the connections between representatives of these social groups. For example, honorary inscriptions left by clients to their patron. , allow us to find out the identity and social origin of their patron, to determine whether he is a senator or not. Analysis of the data from the tombstone inscriptions of the freedmen’s columbariums helps to determine the patron of the deceased, and to establish the approximate number of his clients,” said Andrei Markelov.

There are special scientific publications of inscriptions in the world. The most famous and largest is the “Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum”. It consists of 17 volumes of the inscriptions themselves and 13 additional volumes with indexes and illustrations. A new updated edition is now being published. Very recent findings are published in a special magazine “L’Année épigraphique”. The search and selection of the necessary inscriptions is facilitated by the availability of electronic databases on Latin epigraphy created by a number of universities and scientific organizations. All these databases are freely available online.

Another important source will be numismatic data, that is, data from coins – images and inscriptions. Coins are a good source for dating events, helping to determine the official perception and attitude of the emperor towards representatives of the senators, praetorians and plebs. There are special catalogs of Roman coins in both printed and electronic form.

The research project is designed until the end of 2025. As a result, scientists plan to publish articles in leading scientific journals on ancient history, create a historical map reflecting the regional connections of senators and praetorians, and also hold an event (and perhaps more than one) aimed at popularizing the public’s interest in the study of antiquity.