Posted by Peter Kirby at 8:18 PM | Permalink

In a history class on the Roman empire, a 20-page paper is due at the end of the semester. I have finished writing a possible abstract and a bibliography. I would like to hear about (a) what you would like to know about the topics discussed and (b) any comments you have on how I should go about writing my paper. Or (c) whatever.

thanks,
Peter Kirby

Imperial Correspondence
Who Wrote It, and How Did It Work?

The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of communication between the Roman emperor and the provinces. First, the reasons for writing and the nature of the contents of correspondence with the emperor are explored. Second, the nature of the cursus publicum is considered. This includes an evaluation of whether and where the government had way stations, like the Pony Express, and the important question of how long a letter would take to go between Rome and the outskirts of the empire. Third, the different types of correspondence, the libelli and epistulae, are distinguished, along with the corresponding bureaucrats who aided the emperor in receiving them and acting upon them, in many cases by writing the responses, particularly with the genre of rescriptus. Finally, the paper concludes with a statement of the importance of this correspondence to the functioning of the empire, as well their legal ramifications across the centuries.

Primary Sources

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Secondary Sources

Abbott, F.F. 1900. “Roman Indifference to Provincial Affairs.” The Classical Review, Vol. 14, No. 7, 355-356.
Bourne, Ella. 1918. “Augustus as a Letter-Writer.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 49, 53-66.
Cary, M. 1936. “Direction-Posts on Roman Roads?” The Classical Review, Vol. 50, No. 5, 166-167.
Eliot, C.W.J. 1955. “New Evidence for the Speed of the Roman Imperial Post.” Phoenix, Vol. 9, No. 2, 76-80.
Hooper, Finley and Matthew Schwartz, ed. 1991. Roman letters: history from a personal point of view. Detriot: Wayne State University Press.
Honoré, Tony. 1981. Emperors and Lawyers. London: Duckworth.
Jones, A.H.M. 1968. Studies in Roman Government and Law. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Lintott, Andrew. 1993. Imperium Romanum: Politics and Administration. New York; London: Routledge.
McFayden, Donald. 1921. “The Princeps and the Senatorial Provinces.” Classical Philology, Vol. 16, No. 1, 34-50.
Millar, Fergus. 1977. The Emperor in the Roman World (31 BC-AD 337). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Millar, Fergus. 2004. Rome, the Greek World, and the East, vol. 2. Chapel Hill; London: University of North Carolina Press.
Ramsay, A. M. 1920. “A Roman Postal Service under the Republic.” The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 10, 79-86.
Ramsay, A. M. 1925. “The Speed of the Roman Imperial Post.” The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 15, 60-74.
Sherwin-White, A.N. 1966. The Letters of Pliny: A Historical and Social Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.