Any burgeoning Latin student of a certain age raised on reading Caesar's Gallic War will recall that his conquest began with the defeat of the Helvetii (Caes. Bell. Gall. 1.2–29), what they may not recall is the reason for Caesar's attack and the desire of the Helvetii to relocate from an area bounded by the Rhine, the Jura Mountains, Lake Geneva and the River Rhône to the vicinity of Saintonge on the Bay of Biscay. The relocation of defeated peoples features prominently in the expansion of the Roman Republic, but without explaining the why and wherefore. This aspect of Roman imperialism has only recently received the attention it deserves especially with the work of F. Pina Polo. S.R. provides the first monograph to examine the subject in detail across provincial boundaries – the only preceding synthesis being Pina Polo's chapter in an edited volume on emigration and cultural interaction in the ancient world (‘Deportaciones como castigo e instrumento de colonización durante la República romana. El caso de Hispania’, in: Vivir en tierra extraña: emigración e integración cultural en el mundo antiguo [2004], pp. 211–46; cf. also Pina Polo, ‘¿Existió una política romana en el nordeste de la peninsula ibérica?’, Habis 24 [1993], 77–94).

S.R.'s book is derived from his Ph.D. completed at the Université de Genève in 2019. It is divided into two halves. Part 1 consists of a series of case studies from Italy and Hispania examining the displacement of populations. These are broken down into two categories: either relocations within their own territory (the deducti) – typically from pre-Roman hilltop to the neighbouring plain, for example, the Volsinii and Falerii, the Ligurians, the Termestini, the inhabitants of Mons Herminius, the Cantabrians and Astures; or the traducti who were displaced outside their territory to ager publicus elsewhere, such as the Picentini, Sallentini and Ligures Apuani in Italy, and the Celtiberians and Lusitani in Iberia. Only one of these, the relocation of the Ligures Apuani in Samnium in 180 bce (Livy 40.38, 40.41.3–4), has attracted significant scholarly attention.Footnote ¹ S.R. expands upon previous discussions by increasing the list of case studies, for example, the resettlement of the Ligures along the eastern face of the Apennines at Veleia, Forum Novum, Luceria, Regium Lepidi and Campi Macri (pp. 27–43), the foundation of Gracchuris in 178 bce (pp. 104–10), the settlement of the Lusitani in Caepiana and Brutobriga (pp. 132–46), Titus Didius’ relocation of Tiermes (pp. 43–55), the relocation of the Arevacian town of ś.e.ko.bi.ŕ.i.ke.s (perhaps El Alto de San Pedro) to Segobriga in the mid first century bce (pp. 118–25), and the foundations of Iuliobriga and Asturica Augusta during or shortly after the conclusion of the Cantabrian War (pp. 69–83). His analysis of each is exhaustive, complementing the often meagre information provided by literary sources with discussions of the numismatic and archaeological evidence for the impact of Rome upon the settlement of the respective regions.

On several occasions (Nuceria and Acerra in 210 bce, Salapia in the second half of the first century and Sabora in 77 ce) the relocation was triggered not by Rome but by local initiative. In Part 2 S.R. explores more abstract questions raised earlier. Some will perhaps be of more interest to those working on displacements specifically, such as the practical aspects of displacing such large bodies of populations (pp. 173–95). Others will be of interest more widely such as what is meant by a ‘community’ – either as cities (populi, civitates or πόλεις) or peoples (gentes, ἔθνη or populi) – and the hazards posed by the application of these terms (pp. 157–72), the use of displacements as a means to bring an end to internecine warfare (pp. 196–225) and as a means of integration into the Roman world while at the same time preserving elements of their pre-Roman identities (pp. 226–46). Relocation was not only a statement of Roman power creating a ‘topografía de la derrota’ (E. García Riaza, ‘Territorios indígenas y derecho de guerra romano en Hispania’, in: J. Santos Yanguas et al. [edd.], Romanización, fronteras y etnias en la Roma Antigua [2012], p. 213), but an opportunity to reassert one's ethnic identity with the inhabitants of Falerii Novi recreating elements of Falerii Veteres (M. Millett, ‘Urban Topography and Social Identity in the Tiber Valley’, in: R. Roth and J. Keller [edd.], Roman by Integration [2007], pp. 77–81; S. Keay, M. Millett, ‘Republican and Early Imperial Towns in the Tiber Valley’, in: A. Cooley [ed.], A Companion to Roman Italy [2016], pp. 364–5). The Romans would exploit internal divisions and reward those who displayed loyalty to Rome, for example, at Falerii, where several families attested before 241 bce (the Egnatii, Hirmii, Latrii, Neronii, Tirrii and Vecilii) monopolised control after the relocation to Falerii Novi (p. 202). Relocations could be initiated by the indigenous peoples, so the Ligures Apuani petitioned Rome in 182 bce for permission to settle in Gaul (Liv. 40.16.5) and again took the initiative in negotiating with the proconsuls P. Cornelius Cethegus and M. Baebius Tamphilus two years later (Liv. 40.38.3–5). The Apuani had been defeated by the consul C. Flaminius in 187 bce (Liv. 39.2.6) and may have been amongst the Ligures who sent ambassadors to Rome in 181 bce to seek a perpetual peace (Liv. 40.34.8). The proconsuls’ decision is caused by their desire to bring the war to an end (Liv. 40.38.2): nullium alium ante finem rati fore Ligustini belli. By showing that the Romans alternated military intervention with treaties and displacements S.R. gives us a more pragmatic Rome that was prepared to use whatever means necessary to achieve its goals.

Scholarship builds on what has gone before, and S.R.'s work does not hide its debt to the groundbreaking article of Pina Polo, but it goes far further in the breadth and depth of its analysis. The result is an authoritative and thought-provoking study that should be read by anyone interested in the mechanics of Roman Imperialism during the Middle and Late Republic.