WOOLF, G.,
Becoming Roman. The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul.
Cambridge University Press, 1998. XV,(3),296p. ills.(B&W line drawings). Hard bound with dust wrps. Glue shining through paste-down endpapers near hinges. Still a nice copy. ‘W.’s book is rich and versatile. An introductory chapter explains why the predominant paradigm of ‘Romanisation’ is ‘fundamentally flawed as a heuristic tool’ - and he realises that, if the nineteenth-century term ‘Romanisation is suspect, then its twentieth-century antithesis ‘resistance’, must also be discarded. W. adopts cultural relativism as ‘the best working hypothesis available’ (…). Using a broad definition of Roman and Gallic culture which comprehends the whole range of objects, beliefs, and practices of those who were Roman and Gallic (…). Moreover, he is rightly more interested in describing and understanding cultural change than in trying to explain it. Seven main chapters describe successively the impact of Roman power on Gallic society, Gallic adoption of roman concepts of civilisation, cultural change reflected in epigraphy, the creation of Gallo-Roman cities in what had been a country of villages, the culture of the countryside outside the cities, changes in the scale and patterns of material consumption measured primarily through ceramic evidence, and the evolution of a distinctively Gallo-Roman religion. A briefer concluding chapter indicates how Gaul may serve as a model for understanding cultural change elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The book combines an enormous amount of detailed research with a decade of profound reflection.’ (T.D. BARNES in The Classical Review (New Series), 2000, pp.202-203).
€ 65.00
(Antiquarian)