I am now Emeritus Professor of Roman History at the University of Nottingham, UK, having taught there throughout my career. I am also Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol.
My main research interests are in Roman Republican and early imperial history, especially in warfare and international relations, historiography, and the reign of Augustus.
L'historiographie romaine. Morphologie, thématiques et postérité d'un genre littéraire. Hommages à Martine Chassignet. Ed. A. Badou, M. Essaidi, Y Lehmann, 2020
This paper discusses the part played by speech in the fragmentary early Roman historians. It arg... more This paper discusses the part played by speech in the fragmentary early Roman historians. It argues that both brief utterances and extended speeches may have been a feature of Roman historical writing from Fabius Pictor on.
The Renaissance of Roman Colonization: Carlo Sigonio and the Making of Legal Colonial Discourse, ed. J. Pelgrom and A. Weststeijn , 2020
Carlo Sigonio's treatises on the rights and obligations of Roman citizens and of the inhabitants ... more Carlo Sigonio's treatises on the rights and obligations of Roman citizens and of the inhabitants of Italy and the provinces, brought together in 1574 as De iure antiquo populi Romani libri XI, were the greatest single contribution by a Renaissance humanist to the study of the institutions of the Roman Republic and its empire. This paper analyses the treatises' structure and aims, assesses their achievement in the light of modern scholarship, and discusses their continuing impact down to the nineteenth century. Special attention is paid to Sigonio's treatment of colonization and agrarian legislation.
M.C. Scappaticcio (ed.), Seneca the Elder and his Rediscovered 'Historiae ab initio bellorum civilium': New Perspectives on Early-Imperial Roman Historiography (De Gruyter), pp. 329-354, 2020
On Open Access at https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/572144. This paper examines the sources an... more On Open Access at https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/572144. This paper examines the sources and methods of Appian and Cassius Dio and the likelihood that they used the Histories of Seneca the Elder as a source. It also considers the character of Seneca’s Histories. The starting point of Seneca’s work was probably the war between Caesar and Pompey. It will have had the traditional character of a Roman history limited to the recent past, was probably organized by the consular year, and so had nothing in common with the innovative structures of Appian and Florus.
C. Burden-Strevens and M. Lindholmer (eds), Cassius Dio's Forgotten History of Early Rome: The Roman History Books 1-21 (Leiden/Boston) (corrected proofs), 2018
Kaj Sandberg and Christopher Smith (eds), Omnium Annalium Monumenta: Historical Writing and Historical Evidence in Republican Rome (Brill: Leiden and Boston) (corrected proofs), 2018
L'historiographie romaine. Morphologie, thématiques et postérité d'un genre littéraire. Hommages à Martine Chassignet. Ed. A. Badou, M. Essaidi, Y Lehmann, 2020
This paper discusses the part played by speech in the fragmentary early Roman historians. It arg... more This paper discusses the part played by speech in the fragmentary early Roman historians. It argues that both brief utterances and extended speeches may have been a feature of Roman historical writing from Fabius Pictor on.
The Renaissance of Roman Colonization: Carlo Sigonio and the Making of Legal Colonial Discourse, ed. J. Pelgrom and A. Weststeijn , 2020
Carlo Sigonio's treatises on the rights and obligations of Roman citizens and of the inhabitants ... more Carlo Sigonio's treatises on the rights and obligations of Roman citizens and of the inhabitants of Italy and the provinces, brought together in 1574 as De iure antiquo populi Romani libri XI, were the greatest single contribution by a Renaissance humanist to the study of the institutions of the Roman Republic and its empire. This paper analyses the treatises' structure and aims, assesses their achievement in the light of modern scholarship, and discusses their continuing impact down to the nineteenth century. Special attention is paid to Sigonio's treatment of colonization and agrarian legislation.
M.C. Scappaticcio (ed.), Seneca the Elder and his Rediscovered 'Historiae ab initio bellorum civilium': New Perspectives on Early-Imperial Roman Historiography (De Gruyter), pp. 329-354, 2020
On Open Access at https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/572144. This paper examines the sources an... more On Open Access at https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/572144. This paper examines the sources and methods of Appian and Cassius Dio and the likelihood that they used the Histories of Seneca the Elder as a source. It also considers the character of Seneca’s Histories. The starting point of Seneca’s work was probably the war between Caesar and Pompey. It will have had the traditional character of a Roman history limited to the recent past, was probably organized by the consular year, and so had nothing in common with the innovative structures of Appian and Florus.
C. Burden-Strevens and M. Lindholmer (eds), Cassius Dio's Forgotten History of Early Rome: The Roman History Books 1-21 (Leiden/Boston) (corrected proofs), 2018
Kaj Sandberg and Christopher Smith (eds), Omnium Annalium Monumenta: Historical Writing and Historical Evidence in Republican Rome (Brill: Leiden and Boston) (corrected proofs), 2018
T. Ñaco del Hoyo and F. López Sánchez (eds), War, Warlords and Interstate Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2018), 266-294
K. Welch (ed.), Appian's Roman History. Empire and Civil War (Swansea, 2015), 65-123
This paper examines the way in which Appian used and remodelled the account of Rome's war with An... more This paper examines the way in which Appian used and remodelled the account of Rome's war with Antiochus given by his primary source, Polybius, as a case study in his sources and methods. It argues that Appian first compiled drafts from his various sources and then reworked them (sometimes with considerable freedom) to produce the final form of his history, and that for extended periods he often drew mainly on a single source: he thus worked chiefly from Dionysius on events down to 264 BC and from Polybius for events from 200 to 146 BC.
Il princeps romano: autocrate o magistrato? Fattori giuridic e fattori sociali del potere imperiale da Augusto a Commodo. Ed. J.-L. Ferrary and J. Scheid. Pp. 101-138, 2015
AIM AND SCOPE: Brill’s Historiography of Rome and Its Empire Series aims to gather innovative and... more AIM AND SCOPE: Brill’s Historiography of Rome and Its Empire Series aims to gather innovative and outstanding contributions in order to identify debates and trends, and in order to help provide a better understanding of ancient historiography, as well as how to approach Roman history and historiography. We would particularly welcome proposals that look at both Roman and Greek writers, but are also happy to look at ones which focus on individual writers, or individuals in the same tradition. It is timely and valuable to bring these trends and historical sources together by founding the Series, focusing mainly on the Republican period and the principate, as well as the Later Roman Empire.
Historical writing about Rome in both Latin and Greek forms an integrated topic. There are two strands in ancient writing about the Romans and their empire: (a) the Romans’ own tradition of histories of the deeds of the Roman people at home and at war, and (b) Greek historical responses, some developing their own models (Polybius, Josephus) and the others building on what both the Roman historians and earlier Greeks had written (Dionysius, Appian, Cassius Dio). Whereas older scholarship tended to privilege a small group of ‘great historians’ (the likes of Sallust, Livy, Tacitus), recent work has rightly brought out the diversity of the traditions and recognized that even ‘minor’ writers are worth exploring not just as sources, but for their own concerns and reinterpretation of their material (such as The Fragments of the Roman Historians (2013), and the collected volumes on Velleius Paterculus (Cowan 2011) and Appian (Welch 2015)). The study of these historiographical traditions is essential as a counterbalance to the traditional use of ancient authors as a handy resource, with scholars looking at isolated sections of their structure. This fragmentary use of the ancient evidence makes us forget to reflect on their work in its textual and contextual entirety.
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016.11.32
Kathryn Welch (ed.), Appian's Roman History: Empire and C... more Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016.11.32 Kathryn Welch (ed.), Appian's Roman History: Empire and Civil War. ISBN 9781910589007. Reviewed by Adam Kemezis, University of Alberta
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Books by John Rich
Papers by John Rich
Historical writing about Rome in both Latin and Greek forms an integrated topic. There are two strands in ancient writing about the Romans and their empire: (a) the Romans’ own tradition of histories of the deeds of the Roman people at home and at war, and (b) Greek historical responses, some developing their own models (Polybius, Josephus) and the others building on what both the Roman historians and earlier Greeks had written (Dionysius, Appian, Cassius Dio). Whereas older scholarship tended to privilege a small group of ‘great historians’ (the likes of Sallust, Livy, Tacitus), recent work has rightly brought out the diversity of the traditions and recognized that even ‘minor’ writers are worth exploring not just as sources, but for their own concerns and reinterpretation of their material (such as The Fragments of the Roman Historians (2013), and the collected volumes on Velleius Paterculus (Cowan 2011) and Appian (Welch 2015)). The study of these historiographical traditions is essential as a counterbalance to the traditional use of ancient authors as a handy resource, with scholars looking at isolated sections of their structure. This fragmentary use of the ancient evidence makes us forget to reflect on their work in its textual and contextual entirety.
Kathryn Welch (ed.), Appian's Roman History: Empire and Civil War. ISBN 9781910589007. Reviewed by Adam Kemezis, University of Alberta