As part of a major research project headed by the editors at the University of Leiden, this substantial volume provides an extensive analysis of the impact of demography in the political, social and economic developments affecting Roman Italy in the mid- and late Republic. The twenty essays are divided into six parts: I. Demography; II. Census figures and population; III. Survey archaeology and demography, IV; Allied manpower and migration; V. Ager publicus and demography; and VI. Demography and the end of the Republic. An accurate general index completes the volume.

An introduction by the editors discusses the main historiographic precedents to this book, notably Peter A. Brunt and Elio Lo Cascio's low- and high-count models, based on the inter-pretation of the Augustan census figures. Section I begins with Walter Scheidel's (17–70) ex-tensive review of debates and models applied to demographic movements during the Republic. He defends the positive contribution of comparative studies and archaeological surveys despite their risks; ultimately Scheidel opts for a middle-ground between low- and high-count population. Against classical views, J. Geoffrey Kron (71–119) emphasizes the important contribution of small farmers and their intensive mixed agriculture techniques in economic productivity. His view is reinforced by the use of literary sources and archaeological, archaeozoological and botanical data. The author also questions the traditional exclusive association between large-scale production and latifundia which tends to minimize the contribution of smallholders. Unlike Scheidel, he embraces Lo Cascio's high-count of four million adult males under Augustus. The validity of this model is on the other hand critically discussed by Luuk De Ligt (139–83), taking as a study case the supposed size and population density of towns in Cisalpine Gaul. His conclusions, based on the hectares occupied by urban centres, make him reject the high-count hypothesis of around six million people living in this region in 28 B.C. Neville Morley (121–37) analyses the effects of urbanization in Italy after the Gracchi. He identifies different co-existing processes which contributed to the growth of Republican cities beyond the classical vision of external wealth and migration inputs, such as their integrative character, and their increasing capacity for economic and political control and for social differentiation. Particularly appealing is Morley's identification of necessary conflicts among these processes — such as shown by the Gracchan crisis — as symptoms of long-term structural changes.

Three contributions discuss the use of Roman census figures as indicators of demographic developments. Saskia Hin (187–238) pleads for the utility of census interpretations based on the lower-count model, yet admits the convenience of high-count hypothesis in particular cases. Accordingly, she suggests that the Augustan census might have concerned all citizens sui iuris, thus including also widows and wards, giving a total number of free Romans in Italy at around ten million. Complementary to this paper is Simon Northwood's (257–70) interrogation of the relationship between the census and the payment of the tributum, suggesting that only proletarii, who were exempted of tax payments, might have been excluded from the register. Lo Cascio (239–56) doubts the reliability of the available data for the second-century census. The traditional view proposing a severe decline of manpower in this period should be, in his opinion, seriously reconsidered. This decline is also critically explored by Robert Witcher (273–303) (Section III) in light of the archaeological data provided by the South Etruria Survey. Regional variability appears here as an increasingly key factor to be taken into account in current and future studies and in the application of models based on high- and low-count. Dominic Rathbone (305–32) draws upon a common problem faced by archaeological survey: the faint traces left by small and subsistent farmholding. Their significant presence in Republican Italy is defended by the author and underlined by the distribution of pottery and other material evidence, as shown also by Kron. A revised image of Latin colonies before the Punic Wars comes from Jeremia Pelgrom (333–72), based on new survey data, unveiling for instance the difficulties of establishing clear divisions between urban space and hinterland. The reliability of ancient sources is discussed by Douwe Yntema (373–85), centred on Polybius’ account of troops supplied by the socii in the Second Punic War. The population figures concerning the Messapians conveyed by Polybius seem in this case to fit closer to the survey and excavation evidence. More problematic, however, is extrapolating from these data for other Italic regions. Next, Maurizio Gualtieri (387–413) scrutinizes the impact of the Roman presence in the third to first century b.c. in two particular areas of Western Lucania subjected to systematic field survey. Beyond the logical transformations following the Roman settlement organization, the archaeological data reveal phases of growth in pre-Roman oppida, such as in the Mingardo-Bussento region. Once again, we find a reasoned appeal to a revision of traditional theories suggesting a severe demo-graphic decline in these areas.

Section IV explores the topic of migration. Paul Erdkamp (417–49) considers the high population mobility affecting Italic cities in the second century b.c. and the different factors influencing mortality and fertility. Population distribution rather than size appears in Will Broadhead's paper (451–70) as key to understanding the crisis affecting the recruitment of Latin and allied manpower and the consequent administrative reforms. Henrik Mouritsen (471–83) revisits here a well-known scholarly controversy: the role of Latins and Italian allies in the Gracchan reforms. He concludes, despite the apparent contradictions in our main sources, particularly Appian and Plutarch, that the Latins might have substantially benefited from the measures. Section V opens with a revision of Appian's account of the Gracchan reform. Very convincingly, Daniel J. Gargola (487–518) deconstructs Appian's description and his intentional search for an historical justification of the laws by effectively resorting to tradition and simplistic narratives. The authority of Appian, reflected in Niebuhr's influential hypothesis that both pre-Gracchan and Gracchan limitation of landholding concerned exclusively the ager publicus, is discussed by John Rich (519–72), who proposes, following Hüllmann and Huschke, that the law affected both public and private landholding. Saskia Roselaar (573–602) suggests that regionality played an important part in the different use of the ager publicus before the Gracchan reform. Thus, while in central Italy the rich progressively accumulated land previously owned by the poor, in other areas public land used to be regularly occupied by local inhabitants and by wealthy land producers.

The volume concludes with two contributions devoted to the significant changes affecting the end of the Republic. Nathan Rosenstein (605–29) applies the demographic model of social revolution developed by Jack Goldstone. According to this theory, demographic pressure would have affected politics and economics, increasing prices of basic products and provoking fiscal crisis and élite competition. Roman imperialism would have remained as an external factor not included in the model. Taking as starting point Brunt's revision of Syme's controversial Roman Revolution, Michael Crawford (631–43) defends the relevance of non-Italian population groups and the increasing peripheral distribution of forces as a factor to be seriously considered in the interpretation of the crash of the Republic.

On the whole, the volume has a remarkable thematic coherence, integrating different and even opposed points of view and methodological approaches. It refreshes traditional debates and stimulates new discussions, such as the intense controversy on the low- or high-count models. Since views are logically not unanimously cohesive in the volume, a final discussion in the form of a conclusion would have helped in improving the debate. In this regard, some contributions (e.g. Scheidel, Rosenstein) defend the validity of comparative models to clarify phenomena often ignored by our scarce sources. The contentious use of such comparative studies remains a focus of lively and polarized discussions (e.g. D. Vera (ed.), Demografia, sistemi agrari, regimi alimentari nel mondo antico (1999)). Particularly welcome are those papers integrating archaeological evidence, which often tackle traditional views conveyed by literary sources, such as the importance of small landholding and regionality. Finally, this impressive collection supplies the scholar with rigorous insights into fundamental issues concerning demography in Republican Italy; it will long serve as a significant resource.