DHA Supplément 9 Dialogues d’histoire ancienne Supplément 9, 2013, 115-129
Making Sense of the Romans: Polybius and the Greek Perspective
Andrew Erskine
University of Edinburgh andrew. erskine@ ed. ac. uk
I. Introduction
One of the problems with the study of empires is that so often we know more about the viewpoint of the ruler than we do about what the subject people thought. The Roman empire is no exception. We can read at great length what Julius Caesar wrote about his conquest of Gaul, why he went, what he thought of the Gauls, how he put down rebellions, but we have little idea what the Gauls at the time thought of him or of Rome, apart from what he himself tells us. This is frequently the case with empires, the perspective of the conquered is overwhelmed by the ruling power. In the case of Gaul it is Rome that shapes how things are viewed, so much so that even on the famous 19th C. statue of Vercingetorix at Alesia the lines inscribed on the statue base are adapted from the writings of his conqueror Julius Caesar:
La Gaule unie Formant une seule nation Animée d’ un même esprit Peut défier l’ univers. 1
These are uplifting words but it is Caesar who speaks for Vercingetorix and for France.
1 Adapted from the speech of Vercingetorix at Caes. BG 7.29 : Nam quae ab reliquis Gallis civitates dissentirent, has sua diligentia adiuncturum atque unum consilium totius Galliae effecturum, cuius consensui ne orbis quidem terrarum possit obsistere ; see further A. Erskine, Ancient History and National Identity, in A. Erskine (ed.), A Companion to Ancient History, Chichester, 2009, p. 557, and M. Dietler, A Tale of Three Sites : The Monumentalization of Celtic Oppida and the Politics of Collective Memory and Identity, World Archaeology, 30, 1998, p. 72-6.
