Recent years have seen a growing interest in ancient conceptualisations of the past, resulting in several very interesting collective volumes such as Historical Consciousness and the Use of the Past in the Ancient World (edd. J. Baines et al. [2019]); Omnium Annalium Monumenta: Historical Writing and Historical Evidence in Republican Rome (edd. K. Sandberg and C. Smith [2018]) and Augustus and the Destruction of History: the Politics of the Past in Early Imperial Rome (edd. I. Gildenhard et al. [2019]). These works have certainly expanded our knowledge of the historical awareness that ancient historians had when creating their histories. The present volume, which is based on a conference entitled ‘Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography’ held at Lund University, 11–12 January 2018, is an attempt to respond – though not directly – to some of the relevant questions within these ancient approaches to the past, with regard specifically to the topic of Roman historiography. The questions include how Roman historians used or manipulated the past or what they sought to accomplish by recreating it; which tools they had at their disposal to do so; what their approaches were to the conceptualisations of history, among others.

The book encompasses a helpful and substantial introduction written by Damtoft Poulsen, eleven papers and two indexes. The theoretical foundations of the volume, stated plainly in the introduction, are those laid down by T.P. Wiseman (1979) and A.J. Woodman (1988) in what has been called the ‘rhetorical turn in ancient historiography’ or, more colloquially, the ‘Wiseman and Woodman revolution’ (p. 2), even though none of the papers engages directly with specific claims of either Wiseman or Woodman. These foundations are more tacitly present in the understanding that Roman historical texts work in the same way as literary texts do. Most authors argue that there is a conscious (re)construction of the past by Roman historians and that they seek to endorse a particular interpretation that serves their aims and overall plan when writing history.

With the ‘inclusively ambiguous concept “usages of the past”’ (p. vii) the editors invited scholars to explore the multitude of ways in which the historical narratives of Roman past were not only ‘always constructed’, but also ‘always ideological’ (p. 2), offering explanation and meaning for the present. The editors identify three overarching themes in the articles. Part 1, ‘Coming to Terms with the Principate’, comprises three papers that deal mainly with the implications that the establishment of the new political regime had for how Roman historical writing made use of the past. Close readings of Velleius Paterculus (R. Cristofoli), Florus (R.L. Love) and Tacitus (K. Ruffing) aim to illustrate how these Roman authors lay down a particular political agenda through the manner by which they construct the historical record. The most engaging discussion of this section is in Ruffing's paper on Tacitus. The second part of the book, ‘Intertextuality and Intratextuality’, presents four sophisticated analyses on how a historical text can interact not only with another (C.B. Krebs on Labienus and Caesar; U. Roth on Polybius and Livy), but also with itself (C.S. Kraus on Livy and Damtoft Poulsen on Tacitus). This intertextual and intratextual interaction is shown as fertile ground for producing linguistic resonance to serve an ideological purpose. The original idea of ‘constructive wonder’ in Krebs's paper is especially alluring. The three pieces in Part 3, ‘The Frontiers of Historiography’, explore historiography and neighbouring topics such as drama and geography. On the one hand, Tacitus’ dramatic presentation is contrasted with other authors and genres to show how the diverse aims work in different literary categories (R. Ash and J. Vekselius). On the other hand, moving to the realm of geography, migration and border theory is used to explain how geographical digressions in historiography can serve to conceptualise historical origins and intercultural identity politics (K. Khellaf).

The only paper not easily slotted into these three themes is A.-M. Leander Touati's contribution, dealing with the remembrance of historical events in material evidence of Pompeii. There is an evident point in common with the other chapters of the book in that it examines the commemoration of the past, but certainly not from a historiographical point of view. The editors’ solution was to add this piece in an epilogue, and thus they managed to somehow detach Leander Touati's study of the pictorial sources from the analysis of historical texts, which form the main body of the volume.

Although not all the papers seem to have the same level of evident cohesion with the major aims of the volume (always difficult in this kind of work), they all are certainly connected. This is especially noticeable in the interrelated assumptions that help to interpret the unity and overall plot of the project, namely, firstly, that the significance and meaning of past events is dependent on the stories told about them; secondly, that the conditions and the production of historical truth – social, political or cultural – are intimately intertwined; thirdly, that since there are no ideologically neutral accounts of the past, recounting it can become a way to exercise power; and, lastly, that historical records always serve to show, in one way or another, the approaches to the present time and hopes for the future.

A couple of papers could have benefited from more energetic editorial advice, for example, pruning some of the excessively long footnotes in Cristofoli's paper, compressing the lengthy introduction of Love's chapter or asking Khellaf to make the transition from border theory to Roman historiography clearer. But the production of the book is neat, with only a couple of typos and helpful indexes at the end (nominum et rerum and locorum).

This volume certainly does justice to its title and achieves its main purpose of showing some of the many usages that the record of historical events fulfilled in Roman society. Through a variety of stimulating and thought-provoking papers, the editors offer a book from which scholars who work on historiography and related topics will not only learn, but by which they will also be entertained and inspired.