Frolov Roman M., Burden-Strevens Christopher (eds.) Leadership and Initiative in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome

Brill, 2022. — 538 p. — Mnemosyne, Supplements 453; Mnemosyne, Supplements, History and Archaeology of Classical Antiquity 453).What does it mean to be a leader? This collection of seventeen studies breaks new ground in our understanding of leadership in ancient Rome by re-evaluating the difference between those who began a political action and those who followed or reacted. In a significant change of approach, this volume shifts the focus from archetypal “leaders” to explore the potential for individuals of different ranks, social statuses, ages, and genders to seize initiative. In so doing, the contributors provide new insight into the ways in which the ability to initiate communication, invent solutions, and prompt others to act resonated in critical moments of Roman history.Contributors are: Henriette van der Blom, Christopher Burden-Strevens, Vera V. Dementyeva, Roman M. Frolov, Oliver Grote, Wolfgang Havener, Karl-J. Hölkeskamp, Alexander V. Makhlaiuk, Hannah Mitchell, Kit Morrell, Katarina Nebelin, Josiah Osgood, Tassilo Schmitt, Catherine Steel, Claudia Tiersch, Lewis Webb, Alexander Yakobson.Roman M. Frolov (Ph.D. 2013, Lomonosov Moscow State University) is Lecturer in Ancient History at P.G. Demidov Yaroslavl State University, Russia. He has published extensively on contiones, magistrates-elect, the suspension from office, and promagistrates in the Roman Republic.Christopher Burden-Strevens (Ph.D. 2015, University of Glasgow) is Lecturer in Roman History at the University of Kent. He has published numerous studies on Roman historiography, most recently his monograph Cassius Dio’s Speeches and the Collapse of the Roman Republic (2020).