The Roman Clan The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology [Paperback]

Compares the ancient sources and modern interpretative models to present a new interpretation of the Roman gens.The Roman gens operated somewhat like a 'clan' and, like clans, our interpretation of it has been blurred by the myths and stories which it attracted in both ancient and more recent times. Moreover, key theories in social anthropology and political theory are based on misinterpretations of the ancient sources. This book, therefore, reconsiders the evidence, comparing the ancient sources and modern interpretative models in order to present a new explanation of the Roman gens. In doing so it provides significant new insights into our understanding of archaic Rome.The Roman gens operated somewhat like a 'clan' and, like clans, our interpretation of it has been blurred by the myths and stories which it attracted in both ancient and more recent times. Moreover, key theories in social anthropology and political theory are based on misinterpretations of the ancient sources. This book, therefore, reconsiders the evidence, comparing the ancient sources and modern interpretative models in order to present a new explanation of the Roman gens. In doing so it provides significant new insights into our understanding of archaic Rome.The gens or 'clan', a key social formation in archaic Rome, has given rise to considerable interpretative problems for modern scholarship. In this comprehensive exploration of the subject, C.J. 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. 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. ModernlSD