In 396 b.c., Rome captured Veii, and the rest is history as they say, with Rome gaining control not only over the nearby Etruscan territory, but gradually the whole Italian peninsula and finally the Mediterranean basin and its hinterland. How did Rome manage this feat? A simplistic view of Rome's increasing dominance in, first, the region, then, Italy, and, finally, across the Med, would give maximum credit to Rome's military capacity. More sophisticated approaches explore a plethora of other dimensions, too, to explain Roman success, including demographic changes and population dynamics, political attitudes and social practices, technological progress and economic development, to name but a few. In her most recent contribution to the study of early Rome, Francesca Fulminante focuses attention on yet another area, that is, pathways, between and across the various Roman and Etruscan settlements respectively, thus to elucidate Rome's preferential starting position by the middle of the first millennium b.c.: ‘(b)y explaining how the Etruscan and the Latin systems worked through the analysis of their transportation systems, this book will try to explain the reasons of these different outcomes and of the success of Rome’ (3).
F.'s contribution to the early history of Rome is not less a contribution to network science, drawing on the latest advances in this field and in turn elaborating these to model diverse scenarios for both the Etruscan and Roman terrestrial as well as fluvial transportation networks. The book is consequently not for the mathematically light-hearted: copious equations supplement the exposition, supported by numerous graphs, maps and models. The underlying data and calculations are available as PDFs via a dedicated website hosted by CUP, openly accessible for viewing and downloading, exemplifying best practice in data provisioning.
Following a chapter on modern scholarship on the ancient city, one on transportation infrastructures, and a third on the data and methodology used in the book, the core of the discussion is found in chs 4 and 5, presenting the results of the study of, first, network analysis centrality measures and, second, network analysis efficiency measures. The exposition is complemented by a sixth chapter concerned with least-cost-pathways, and completed by a seventh that presents diverse network models to assess the likely driver behind the Roman advantage.
Through calculations of betweenness centrality, closeness centrality and degree centrality, ch. 4 foregrounds the easy flow of information and goods between both Roman and Etruscan settlements. The analysis also highlights the changing importance of terrestrial and fluvial pathways: notably, for Latium vetus, F. concludes that ‘fluvial communication routes were probably more important in the Final Bronze Age rather than in the Early Iron Age, when terrestrial routes became more important’ (85). More significantly still, F.'s modelling suggests that Rome's advantage owed much to the boons brought by its regional network: ‘the advantage of Rome is not on an absolute individual optimisation of its performances but more on a systemic level. It is not the most favoured site in absolute terms, but it is the dominant centre in Latium vetus, which, as a system, has some advantages over Etruria’ (85). Ch. 5 adds to this view by clarifying the two regions’ global and local network efficiencies. The fluvial analysis suggests only a minor advantage for Latium vetus. However, the terrestrial route analysis underlines a difference. Thus, although the network designs appear similarly optimised in both regions, their route numbers differ, with Etruria showing fewer connections, including a lesser number of alternative paths if the best path is not available, making it less resilient to local crises. F. concludes that this ‘might contribute to explaining why a smaller but more compact and connected region such as Latium vetus in the end prevailed over a larger but less efficient Etruria’ (93). The key take-away from the concluding modelling lies in the suggestion that power attracts power — the ‘rich get richer’ (124): in brief, the widely assumed broad equality between the various Etruscan cities is here seen as preventing the growth of a single, powerful place that optimised the network and extracted maximum benefit from it; by contrast, Rome's ‘favourable location within the system of Latium vetus reinforced the concentration of power’, precisely to the benefit of Rome (124).
The Rise of Early Rome is a serious contribution to ancient Italian history that anyone interested in the region's development in the first millennium b.c. must take account of. This is not to say that the results are overall surprising: notwithstanding the enormous amount of work that the presented network analysis constitutes, F. repeatedly acknowledges overlaps in her conclusions with those reached in earlier studies, including by traditional methods (e.g. 7, 45, 62, 74, 121, 129). Likewise, F. is perfectly aware of the many other aspects that influenced Roman growth, noting especially immigration (e.g. 124): her network analysis does not seek to deny these other factors, even if it does bypass them entirely. I cannot comment on the book's contribution to network science, although to my unnetworked eyes it seems considerable. Conversely, I missed the perceptiveness and depth of traditional analysis that makes, for me, the study of ancient Italy so fascinating: although a notable contribution to the peninsula's history, by its very design, the book is method-oriented, leaving the historical content by the wayside. This is no fault of the author, but a warning for readers with a soft spot for the fabric of the terrain, Land und Leute and all that.
