F.V. makes her aim clear at the beginning. The book represents an ‘extensively revised and updated version’, originally published in Hebrew in 2008, ‘designed as a teaching aid’ for ‘both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as appealing to a wider readership’ (p. ix). Given this starting point, one should not demand a completely new approach to the topic or many highly original thoughts, but rather a well-balanced account with good references to further reading and an up-to-date survey of problems or questions. This is, of course, not an easy task and, unfortunately, not always the case. Also, as the full title implies, the aim is not only to write a book about elections in the age of Cicero, but also to treat the related, albeit different topics of society, government and voting. These are a great many aspects to deal with and while the four chapters – ‘Historical Survey’, ‘Roman Society’, ‘Principles and Structure of Republican Government’, ‘Elections’ and the epilogue on oligarchy and democracy – indeed ‘build knowledge gradually’ (p. x), they do not always succeed in providing a complex and coherent picture of what they are concerned with. While F.V. provides some stimulating thoughts on elections for scholars, parts of the book fall short of the goal to be used as a teaching aid.
The ‘Historical Survey’ – starting with Romulus but effectively confined to 133 to 49 – is at the same time too short and too long. It is unnecessarily broad in our ‘age of companions’, while simultaneously too brief because there are a number of points mentioned en passant, which I deem highly controversial. To maintain that all the actions of the Gracchi were legal, including Tiberius' disposal of Octavius (p. 4), is, to say the least, a matter of debate. F.V. herself later evaluates it as ‘revolutionary and subversive as it threatened the very foundation of the political system’ (p. 149). A little irritating is the indicated causal connection between the suppression of the Gracchi in Rome and the rise of military problems in Spain (p. 8); quoting Sallust here in order to support that the ‘Roman elite was no longer capable of dealing with serious crisis’ (Iug. 4.5) without a comment on his point of view on the moral decline is more than peculiar. In general, the introductory chapter would have benefited from some notes on sources and ancient authors. The same is true for remarks on scholarly discussions, which are generally sparse. Neither the debate on the Roman population nor the new interpretation of the Social War are mentioned. One therefore looks in vain for any references to W. Scheidel and various others concerning the former and to H. Mouritsen for the latter. Inversely, nothing is said about the problematic re-elections of the Gracchi (p. 5), something one might expect to be of interest in a book about elections.
The second chapter is concise and instructive. Through various little sections F.V. provides a clear survey of tribes, municipia, pagi and vici, explains census, classes and centuriae, discusses gentes as well as patronage, differentiates between patricians and plebeians, talks about nobiles and novi homines, explains the roles of equites and publicani, and covers the rural and urban plebs as well as freedmen and finally sodalitates and collegia. Sometimes it is a little surprising though, how much confidence F.V. has in what exactly happened in the fifth and sixth centuries b.c. in Rome or what precisely the legendary Servius Tullius did. Also, the starting point for the emphasis on personal relations and factiones was F. Münzer rather than M. Gelzer (p. 41). But the engagement with scholarly debates (esp. on nobilitas, pp. 45–8) and the succinct outline of otherwise neglected aspects like collegia or vici render this chapter indeed useful as a ‘manageable independent teaching assignment’ (p. x).
Chapter 3 treats in a comprehensive way the common elements of the Roman constitution: the magistracies, the senate and the assemblies, as well as the law courts and trials. Compared with her historical survey, there are fewer points to note. To maintain, however, that the Romans had much more respect for mos than ius (p. 61) seems a little difficult to prove or a little over-simplified, especially as F.V. herself refers more than once, and rightly so, to the binding force of the last decree of a Roman assembly (pp. 4, 91). Whether or not tribunes of the plebs could not question decisions taken by a dictator remains unclear (p. 81). Again, some references regarding matters such as the SCU or the provocatio (p. 68) would have been useful for students, given that the first one is nearly as highly debated today as it was in Rome. While it is not clear whether knowledge about quaestors or aediles is necessary here – since the following part focuses almost exclusively on the consular elections – it is a well-written chapter overall. As a general introduction, though, the chapter can neither rival Lintott's Constitution of the Roman Republic (1999) nor, for that matter, J. North's chapter in the Blackwell Companion (ed. by Rosenstein and Morstein-Marx [2006]) or T.C. Brennan's article in the Cambridge Companion (ed. by Flower [2004]).
In the last chapter F.V. finally tackles elections and presents a whole range of phenomena in depth and with great knowledge. F.V. aptly discusses technical details like professio and petitio as well as the counting of the votes and the declaring of the results. At the same time, she raises more general questions about possible alliances and political deals as well as the percentage of citizens who came to vote in Rome. There are some slips, since it is all but clear that votes for a non-approved candidate could just be disregarded by the presiding magistrate (p. 108). That being said, her treatments of law courts and trials (pp. 97–104), and the sections on electioneering (pp. 108–19), the written ballot (pp. 129–34) and ambitus (pp. 134–48) constitute the best parts of the book. Here F.V. discusses the sources beyond mere quotation, engages with the scholarship and has interesting thoughts to share. Even if one doubts her idea that voters never had more than two votes irrespective of the number of offices to be filled (p. 120) or disagrees on her view that the ballot laws enhanced administrative efficiency (p. 134), these passages merit further discussion.
However, one recurring criticism concerning the last chapter and in particular the epilogue remains: a somewhat economical use of recent scholarship. Whereas devoting just three pages to F. Millar and his (in my opinion ultimately wrong but highly fruitful) ideas about democracy is brief but defendable, the lack of serious engagement with the numerous works by E. Flaig, K.-J. Hölkeskamp, M. Jehne or R. Morstein-Marx is hard to justify. Not surprisingly, oratory and rhetoric, rituals and political culture are all left aside and contiones play only a very little part.
Other reviewers have indicated other points of disagreement and criticism (see, for instance, C. Steel in sehepunkte [2013], J. Tan in BMCR [2013] and J.W. Tatum in CJ Online [2012]). Some of them conclude, nevertheless, by stating how very well the book will work for students. I am afraid I cannot agree. While scholars may engage with F.V.'s fourth chapter, students will (and should) consult different books regarding technical details of voting in assemblies and the constitution as well as the history and political culture of the Roman Republic. As for the wider readership: given the price of £85, one wonders which one Routledge has in mind.
